Voting For The Alternative.

Have a look at the picture above. These people are not career politicians, public school boys looking for a way to augment their trust funds or local businessmen looking to get leverage in the local council. They are ordinary people who are fed up with their future being in the hands of the stupid and greedy. They are local representatives of a growing movement called Communities Against the Cuts and they are fielding candidates in the forthcoming local elections. This is democracy as it should be - not run from a plush office or some political party HQ, but from a shop in a local high street that would otherwise, like so many of its neighbours, be boarded up. They have been active for only a year or so but have already chalked up some notable successes by forcing their local council to abandon plans that strike at the poor, disabled and helpless. And they have uncovered things that even the "News in Shorts" was not aware of. (The attempt to privatise the Blood Service at a local hospital, job cuts at a local dialysis service and the attempted closure of community centres, leisure centres and children's homes to mention but three.) They represent a real choice in politics. Forget the politicians - they cannot or will not help us - its time for us to help ourselves. This reporter for one will be voting for them this time around because I really believe that voting for them is actually voting for myself and not for some amorphous and faceless vested interest group.