Edmund Potts for Exeter

Members of Left Unity and the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition have selected Edmund Potts to represent them in Exeter in the upcoming general election in May.

Ed, 22, lives in the Polsloe area of Exeter and works in Newton Abbot.

The need for a representative that can stand up for local services has become essential. The so called “main” parties all stand for austerity, which means relentless attacks on public services in the next parliament.

Locally, we have seen the closure of the women’s refuge, loss of care beds for the elderly and now the proposed closure of the NHS Walk-in Centre on Sidwell Street. Ed will campaign to defend and safeguard these essential services. None of the main parties want to talk about an alternative, because they all subscribe to the notion that working class people should be made to pay for the chronic mismanagement of the economy.

Ed said:

It’s about giving people a genuine alternative. I will be one of over 100 socialist candidates nationally, standing on a platform which rejects austerity and calls for a society based on real democracy and common ownership. Locally we’re paying through the nose for privatised public services such as transport and water. It’s simple: we use it, we pay for it – we should own it!

The super-rich and big bosses have very deep pockets. Let’s get them to open their books and uncover all their tax evasion schemes, and then we’ll see whether these cuts are really necessary. We need to start serving people, not profit.

Beyond this, the group of socialist campaigners are aiming to raise the idea of an alternative to the capitalist system, which Oxfam recently reported has left 50% of the world’s wealth in the hands of the richest 1%.

Many local people are being left in poverty, to the point where they can no longer provide for their basic needs. This could be replaced with a democratically accountable planned economy in the interests of everyone. With the public ownership of public services and utilities the focus would be on quality of services and dignity for all, rather than profit for the few. Inequality would be reduced and quality of life would increase.

In Exeter, Ed will be campaigning for improved local transport links, in particular to make the buses affordable for everyone. He will also be challenging the dangerous and toxic consensus that immigration is in any way to blame for the problems we face as a society.

To find out more information and join the campaign group visit: http://exetersocialists.org