Cllr Yukteshwar Kumar is a councillor for Tub and North East Somerset Council representing Bathwick Ward
There’s a maxim in Hindi: Akela Chana Bhand Nahi Todta. It means ‘one fan can’t dispel the fog’, or ‘a sole effort can’t change issues’. Sadly, the gorgeous metropolis of Tub, a UNESCO World Heritage website that sits on the banks of the River Avon, has for the previous three years been below the darkish fog of the Liberal Democrats. This fog must be dispelled on the earliest alternative.
Fortunately, such a possibility will arrive in Might when residents in Tub and North East Somerset (B&NES) will probably be requested to elect their native councillors for an additional four-year time period.
Final Christmas I resigned from the Liberal Democrats after being subjected to bullying, discrimination, and quite a few character assassinations. Since then I’ve continued to work laborious in my Bathwick ward, chatting with individuals on the doorstep, arranging litter picks with native college youngsters, and serving to residents clear up a variety of points.
The Lib Dems have big occasion equipment at their disposal. If I battle alone to defend my Bathwick seat I will probably be residing in idiot’s paradise, wool-gathering alongside the gorgeous banks of the Avon. I see the sheer quantity of leaflets the Lib Dems shove via peoples’ letterboxes and which, alone, I merely couldn’t match.
Honesty and integrity matter quite a bit to me and my residents. For that motive, I couldn’t have joined the Conservative Social gathering below the soon-to-be former Prime Minister. Fortunately, although, issues have modified.
Senior educational, Matthew Goodwin, not too long ago mentioned:
“The Conservative management election is already probably the most ethnically numerous management election within the historical past of British politics, after probably the most numerous cupboard in historical past, in probably the most numerous parliament in historical past.”
I want to add not solely is that this true of Britain’s historical past however of the political historical past of the entire world. No nation has ever witnessed such a various pool of expertise vying for the highest put up. It’s one thing of which we should always all be proud.
Not like the native Lib Dems, the B&NES Conservatives give quite a lot of help and encouragement to hard-working activists. My new Conservative colleagues have the abilities and the ambition, issues the Lib Dems lack fully, to make Tub a greater place to stay and work.
Simply earlier than I formally joined the Conservatives, I used to be delighted to fulfill with Matthew Heappey, the occasion’s new Parliamentary Spokesperson for Tub and the person hoping to unseat Lib Dem MP, Wera Hobhouse. Matthew will make a superb MP and I’m delighted to help him on the subsequent Normal Election as I do know he will probably be supporting me at subsequent yr’s locals. Certainly, I’ve already developed a powerful working relationship with the B&NES Conservatives and I’m massively excited to consider what we would obtain collectively.
They are saying that politics is such a severe enterprise that it shouldn’t be left to politicians alone. That’s why, as a senior educational at a college, I obtained concerned in politics – to do good work in the neighborhood. When you find yourself elected to public workplace, you’re given an even bigger platform to make severe adjustments in your native space for the good thing about the group.
The Liberal Democrats have ruined our stunning metropolis. After gaining an enormous majority within the 2019 elections, they’ve change into extraordinarily boastful and don’t hearken to the issues of residents or different councillors.
In February 2020, though I used to be then a member of the ruling Lib Dems, I raised the problem of the specter of the looming pandemic and demanded extra budgetary help to take care of it. I, together with the Conservative councillors who made the identical enchantment, have been ridiculed by the administration. And a month later, after I requested the administration to cancel or postpone the Tub Half Marathon due to the pandemic, as soon as once more I used to be reprimanded and ridiculed.
On account of their very own incompetence, the B&NES Liberal Democrats are actually deeply divided. Final yr, a faction dissatisfied with the established order introduced down the senior management and the chief of the council was purged. The brand new chief of the council was the Chair of the Kids and Younger Peoples’ Scrutiny Committee in Telford as a Labour councillor when, as we now know, hundreds of younger women have been abused. He signed a letter in 2016 to then Dwelling Secretary, Amber Rudd, stating that there was no want for a Authorities-led inquiry into the affair.
I’m someone who will battle towards injustice wherever I encounter it. William Faulkner mentioned:
“By no means be afraid to lift your voice for honesty and reality and compassion towards injustice and mendacity and greed. If individuals all around the world would do that, it will change the earth.”
I have no idea how a lot we are able to change the world, however I’m decided to win 40 seats subsequent yr and dethrone the Lib Dem administration. And by becoming a member of arms with the Conservatives, combating collectively for a greater Tub, I’ll work even more durable for my group till the Lib Dem fog is completely dispelled.
