Hi, I’m Paul Shkurka, proud Bradfordian, proud Yorkshireman and proud to be British.

Full statement

Born in Yorkshire, I was raised, educated and have lived in the Bradford district all my life, with the lovely village of Wilsden being home for the past 25 years. Now retired, I spent 30+ years in varied management roles, in operations & distribution, with the last three spent working in the fraud department of a major bank. On retirement I became politically active after discovering the SDP. Their New Declaration document with its key slogan – Family, Community, Nation, sums up the SDP Communitarian ethos that drew me into the party. Like many I despair at the decline we are seeing, in our society, in our politics, in our prosperity and quality of life, with our public services, industries and national infrastructure in serious decline. A housing market our young are unable to access, low wage economy, ever growing inequalities, and the growing threat to traditional British values and culture, being common concerns many share.

I can sit back and complain, or I can in some small way try to make a difference. I chose the latter, to stand as a candidate representing a communitarian party that truly has your and our Nations interests at heart.

Although many voters, rightly, have concerns about the decline and poor delivery of vital national services that they care about and that may affect them personally, and which are often local in nature, these can only be fully addressed at a national level. Hence sorting these issues for Shipley resident’s means sorting them nationally, whether that’s NHS waiting lists, lack of GP and dentist access, cost of living difficulties or housing shortages, to name but a few. The same old politics practiced through terms of successive Tory and Labour governments over the past decades have resulted in a steady national decline, which is plain for all to see. As many of us, particularly the less well off and vulnerable in our society are experiencing, through poor public services and cost of living hardships. A new type of citizen centric politics needs to be delivered. The Social Democratic Party is the only party that marries centre left economics with centre right policies addressing cultural and social issues, offering a widespread values and virtues-led cultural renewal, aimed at improving citizens’ happiness, health and well-being. A divided society is a doomed society.

My Personal Pledge to the Shipley constituents:

I will abide by The Nolan Principles of Public Life: 1. Selflessness - Holders of public office should act solely in terms of the public interest. 2. Integrity - Holders of public office must avoid placing themselves under any obligation to people or organisations that might try inappropriately to influence them in their work. They should not act or take decisions in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves, their family, or their friends. They must declare and resolve any interests and relationships. 3. Objectivity - Holders of public office must act and take decisions impartially, fairly and on merit, using the best evidence and without discrimination or bias. 4. Accountability - Holders of public office are accountable to the public for their decisions and actions and must submit themselves to the scrutiny necessary to ensure this. 5. Openness - Holders of public office should act and take decisions in an open and transparent manner. Information should not be withheld from the public unless there are clear lawful reasons for so doing. 6. Honesty - Holders of public office should be truthful. 7. Leadership - Holders of public office should exhibit these principles in their own behaviour. They should actively promote and robustly support the principles and be willing to challenge poor behaviour wherever it occurs.

In addition to avoid doubt: I will not accept gifts or inducements of any nature for personal use or gain. I will diligently abide by all parliamentary rules and procedures. I will donate the residue of the MP’s salary, that portion that is not needed to cover the additional costs of being an MP, mainly the requirement to be London based, between the SDP and a local charity(s).

My key campaign issue – restoration of our democracy: DEMOCRACY, literal meaning “rule by the people”. True democracy needs to be restored, only the Social Democratic Party are serious in achieving this goal and in so doing give the UK citizens a democracy that truly – creates and fosters citizen participation, holds those we elect to serve us in public office to the highest standards of integrity and accountability, puts transparency at the centre to create the necessary trust from all citizens, fosters a political environment that is tolerant and supports a multi-party system. In short, gives back to UK citizens trust in our governance and rightful pride in our country and its institutions, in the knowledge that we are all in this together, and that no individual group has supremacy.

The tired old politics of both main parties do not offer the radical solutions which are needed to address the decline and loss of trust in our democracy, our politicians and politics in general. A new type of citizen centric politics needs to be delivered. As a first step our key institution, Parliament, needs radical reform:

 reform of our democratic systems through a new PR voting system that gives greater agency and better representation to citizens;  action that addresses the seeping corruption within our parliament, by restricting political donations to UK citizens only, up to a maximum value of £500 annually, with political party funding, following a set formulae, to be provided from a central government fund. This government fund will also be open to all donors who wish to support UK democracy;  stricter integrity standards to be applied to MP’s and all public sector employees, with severe penalties for abusers,  all Nolan principles to be applied; no gifts of ANY NATURE to be accepted;  no second jobs apart from for those professions that require involvement to maintain professional registration, i.e. in the medical profession;  greater restrictions on senior government officials moving into private sector roles;  severe restrictions to be applied to lobbying activity, with this to take place only within a controlled space, with access opportunity to all lobbying events given to all political parties represented in Parliament;  the principle of total transparency to be the norm, the only exception being in the interest of national security, i.e. non-disclosure agreements to be barred, public sector contract details to be FULLY disclosed and available for public scrutiny;  tax havens to be considered anti-democratic - any business that has within its ownership structure an entity or shareholder that utilises ‘tax havens’ will be barred from bidding for any public contract.  Parliament must be changed to offer a greater work life balance, to become a less ‘hostile’ environment, with the norm being 9am to 6pm working hours, wherever practical. However, it is understood on occasion, debates may overrun, and evening functions may take place, seminars/lobbying events etc., which MP’s and officials may choose to attend;  all MP’s staff to be government employees, with appropriate rights, standards of employment and treatment.