I come from Warwickshire but have lived in Cheshire East for more than 10 years.

Full statement

I went to University in Aberystwyth and then Glasgow, studying Maths, Energy and the Environment. Afterwards, I worked as an environmental volunteer, and then for five years with a charity, training people to carry out home energy audits and promoting energy efficiency for affordable warmth. After that, I met my wife, became a teacher, moved to Dumbarton, got married, became a father, moved again to follow my wife’s career to Alsager, with a four-year spell in Congleton. Now, having left teaching, and having experienced a period of foster caring, I am in the enviable position of being a house-husband.

Our society is not fair. In the last ten years, the government has removed vast swathes of our social estate; the backbone of life in Britain which is there to support us all - rich or poor - in small or large amounts, depending on our need and at different stages in our lives. We must replace that with a proper end to austerity – not just for an election year. We need more resources for education; for mental health; for an NHS with fewer pills and quick fixes, and more physiotherapists and osteopaths; for a law system which can properly represent those of us without a six-figure bank balance; for libraries and public spaces; for the police; and for services for the elderly that allow them to continue to live in their own home, a protected home, or in a home specifically tailored toward their needs.

We also need to stop the constant privatisation of our country. This privatisation has “given us” much lower levels of effective service, made us poorer, and unsure about our jobs and our lives, prevented us from knowing who we need to contact about fixing or improving things, and has made huge profits for a very few.

Britain is hugely responsible for climate change. Historically, we have emitted more CO2 per person over the last 200 years than any other nation in the world. Most of that carbon is still there, creating havoc with the world’s climate. So now we should lead the way in demonstrating that we can live in a carbon-free society where we derive all our energy from renewable sources. This will require us to change our habits as well as prioritise the use of our limited resources – like steel, concrete, and rare earth metals which will needed to build renewable energy systems.

The Green Party way is fairer and more democratic – to encourage us all to take part by having a more representative voting system, with more decisions taken locally and fewer decisions overridden by government ministers. It is to encourage people to make the right decisions through sensible and realistic uses of taxation. It is to make us a society with the time and the resources to care about our neighbours and communities rather than only being able to focus on family and friends.