I have lived and worked in North Northumberland for 24 years.

Full statement

I first came across the Green Party in the 1970s, when it was known as the Ecology Party and was regarded as a bunch of idealists. I came back and joined in 2014, driven by disenchantment with the old “mainstream” Westminster parties, and by a realisation that THEIR aim is the self-interested continuation and expansion of their internal structures and organisations, rather than actually benefitting their constituents.

In almost every instance, the old parties cannot see the future - they seem oblivious to the difficulties that lie ahead for coming generations, and they appear incapable of managing change.

I wanted to be able to vote for an organisation that held a wider and consistent view, and I recognised that the green idealism of the 1970s was in fact realism, and had not been far wrong. I became one of the founding members of the Berwick upon Tweed Constituency Green Party, and we were proud to have Rachael Roberts as our candidate in 2015.

Our constituency is the furthest from London of any in England and Wales – we are ignored and put to the back of the queue, we have regulations and restrictions imposed from outside, our essential services are taken further and further away, children are denied a decent opportunity and older people are left isolated.

It is very clear that the old way of doing politics is broken - the Green Party offers a positive and viable alternative.