In our effort to find out what party candidates in different parts of the country will bring to the table, I took the reigns and contacted the candidates for Wolverhampton. So far only one has replied: Rob Marris for Labour. Not only has he been the only one to reply, but he was sent the questions at 9pm and replied by 8:05 the following morning. However, in his haste, he glossed over many questions as you can read below.
What’s your view of the UK as part of the outside world?
UK plays a key role in many international organisations; e.g. UN. We should continue to do so.
Do you think that we’re better off in the EU
Yes.
If so why?
EU was founded to bring people closer together, and to lessen the likelihood of war amongst its member states. It has succeeded admirably in this regard.
It was also founded to increase prosperity. Again it has succeeded in this regard. To quit would leave UK isolated.
Did you go to university?
Yes
If so, did you have to pay tuition fees?
Yes, in full.
Did you receive a grant?
No. Paid for it all myself. No money from parents.
How would you change the current tuition fee system?
Short-term: Cut fees.
Longer-term: Explore having a Graduate Tax instead.
A lot of younger voters often feel patronised or overlooked completely. Which of your party’s policies do you feel benefit young people?
• Cut tuition fees to £6,000 p.a..
• Guarantee a 6 month properly paid job for all under-25s out of work for over a year
• Establish 80,000 more high-quality apprenticeships a year.
• Increase the Minimum Wage faster than inflation.
• See remarks on housing, below.
Why?
Jobs, cost of education, cost of housing are key issues for many young people.
A lot of music venues are getting closed down across the UK to noise complaints from people who just moved to the area. Do you feel this is an issue?
Not that I’m aware of.
What solution would you pose?
When people move to an area which already has a music venue, they should expect some noise. Correspondingly, music venues should act sensitively towards their neighbours.
Prime Minister’s questions have made a mockery of the political system in recent years, like watching jeering school boys attempting to one up each other.
I agree. When I was an MP, whilst I attended, I never took part.
How would you change the current system to turn it into a useful debate, rather than an incessant insults throwing and question dodging?
The Speaker needs to take charge, but he/she can only do this if schoolboy MPs grow up and support him/her.
PM Tony Blair voluntarily created a system whereby the PM is grilled by the Liaison Committee of senior backbench MPs, for 3 hours every 6 months. That seldom gets reported upon, but is a good way to hold the PM to account.
A minimum turnout for strike ballots has been proposed recently. Do you think this is fair?
No
House prices are still rising yet salaries generally aren’t – young professionals can only dream about home ownership while giving money every month to landlords.
What do you think should be done about this? What would you propose?
• Increase the number of new homes built every year to 200,000 by 2020 which, by increasing supply, will start to bring down the ridiculous prices
• get the public sector back into building;
• tackle land banking through new “use it or lose it” powers;
• build a greater number of affordable homes by making housing a key priority for capital investment in the next Parliament
• legislate for 3-year tenancies giving tenants security and peace of mind.
• end excessive rent rises by putting a ceiling on rent increases during these new three-year tenancies.
• ban rip-off letting agent fees for tenants, by legislating to prevent letting agents charging fees to tenants, saving the typical tenant £625 over the course of the next parliament, and Generation Rent £2.5 billion.
• set a new target to upgrade the energy efficiency of privately rented residential properties, to end cold homes
The NHS appears to be struggling these days and is most likely underfunded.
How would you go about resolving the issues the NHS faces?
• 8,000 more GPs
• 20,000 more nurses
• 3,000 more midwives
• 5,000 more home-care workers
• Restore fair funding for councils because, without appropriate home-care (paid for by councils), people are more likely to end up in hospital, and are likely to have to stay there for longer because the government has forced councils to cut severely the care provision outside hospitals. This causes hundreds of thousands of unnecessary delayed discharges every year.
Do you believe we’d be better off moving to a system based around private medical insurance?
No.
What’s your opinion on tax money being used to fund arts?
Good idea, depending on amount.
What is your view on renewable energy?
UK woefully behind. Need to make much more use of tidal.
Should we push for more renewable sources?
Yes.
What is your view of nuclear energy?
Dangerous.
Some expansion would’ve been helpful here, Rob.
Did your parents buy you a car when you were in your teens or early twenties?
You’re joking.
Did you have a part time job during A-levels?
No.
If not, then how did he pay for University himself?
Did you have a part time job during Uni?
Yes.
Have you ever held a minimum wage job before going into politics?
Labour introduced the Minimum Wage after I left university.
Outside of politics, what do you do?
N/A
Rob here begins to show that he is unwilling to show himself as a ‘person’ to the people. Later you see how he really isn’t inclined to be relatable to by the public
For people who are reluctant to vote, for whatever reason, why should they take part in the General Election?
Civic duty.
It’s irresponsible not to vote just because politics doesn’t interest you, because politics is important to everyone because political decisions affect every person every day of their lives.
Before this years’ General Election I am emigrating from the UK for two years. I still intend to vote from abroad.
What would your party do for the country in the two years where I’d be gone? Would I arrive back to a transformed Britain, or one severely damaged?
Neither.
Under Labour, the country will be slowly improving: Rome was not built in a day.
Media Questions
It is in this section that Rob shows he does not want to answer anything about media – even though this was just a nice soft section allowing himself to show a less serious side. Take that as you will
If you could only listen to 5 albums for the rest of your life, which albums would they be?
Sorry if this disappoints your audience, but this is not relevant.
I am standing for Parliament on a platform of political policies – not as a contestant on Celebrity Big Brother!
The next seven questions were answered with Not relevant.
Local Questions
Walking around Wolverhampton it’s hard to believe that we were given city status. Both in the high street and shopping centres you have a multitude of empty shop faces and posters essentially saying ‘It’ll get better’.
What would the local government do to encourage business to come back to Wolverhampton?
That is a matter for locally elected city councillors.
I am standing for Parliament, not for the council.
Whilst this is true to a degree, the elections being held in May are both the general elections and local elections – inwhich Rob is standing for. You would expect him to have some opinion or input on a local issue if he wanted to represent the area in parliament
Combining that previous question with the recent reports that the Mander Centre intend to make themselves upmarket, by bringing in Debenhams and closing multiple discount stores.
How do you think this will affect the unemployment figures?
A thriving city centre will increase employment as well as well-being.
The local council are currently spending £50,000 on constructing 40 giant wolf sculptures in the centre of Wolverhampton. The aim is that these will bring in 100,000 tourists and £7million profit for local companies.
Is this actually a viable option for bringing much needed tourism into the area, or is it a vain plan by the council to get One Direction star Liam Payne to put his name to something in the city, which Dr Darke – director of Outside Centre – has already alluded to.
That is a matter for locally elected city councillors.
I am standing for Parliament, not for the council.
Once again, a local issue is brushed off, instead of any opinion formed.
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