‘I support Corbyn, but won’t vote for Marvin’

Suddenly, it’s 2016, the year when we have to vote in local and mayoral elections. Time to take stock!

First of all, I must declare my own political position: I am a keen supporter of Jeremy Corbyn and of the Green Party. This is because the policies of both concentrate upon the greater good of the greater number rather than giving to the rich and taking from the poor – something which both the current government and New Labour seem determined to keep on doing.

Here’s what I think: we should build upon Bristol’s year as European Green Capital, and the best way to do this is to elect a Green council and re-elect our current mayor, George Ferguson.

Why not vote for Marvin Rees if I’m a Corbyn-supporter? There are three main reasons:

1. I don’t think that local policies should be dictated by Westminster.

2. Marvin Rees does not support Corbyn’s views.

3. I do not believe that Marvin has the qualities needed to be in charge of a large and important city. I have no doubt that he is a good person, but we need a great person, and one with 360° vision.

Nobody could say that George Ferguson has not been the subject of a lot of discussion, controversy and loads of abuse during the course of his first term. But in order to make an informed and responsible decision about how to cast our vote in the mayoral election, we really need to look beyond the tittle-tattle and personal remarks, and recognise that George – whatever the colour of his trousers – is uniquely qualified for the role of mayor of this great city.  

Quite apart from his unquestionable dedication to the best interests of this city, he is a very clever visionary who sees the bigger picture in a way that few of us have the capacity or the knowledge to do.  

He has the ability to communicate his vision and to promote the interests of this city both at home and abroad, and he has a rare talent for attracting funding for projects which would otherwise languish in the doldrums for year after year, waiting in vain to be realised – take the Bristol Arena as an example.

It required real courage on his part to take unpopular decisions, such as the creation of residents’ parking zones (RPZs). This has stirred up an amazing amount of hostility and even hysteria, yet people who live in areas which are subject to RPZs soon come to appreciate the new system and the reduction in traffic that it has brought with it.  

From a wider perspective, the hope is that RPZs will encourage people not to commute into town using private cars, but to avail themselves of Park & Ride, or at least to organise a system of car-sharing. This will improve traffic-flow in the city at the same time as reducing death-dealing emissions in the air.

Those who abuse the mayor and call him silly names are not seeing that bigger picture. They are not seeing that, in spite of the truly savage cuts imposed by central government, both upon local authority grants and upon individual benefit-claimants, George is doing all he can to make this a fairer city as well as a greener and more prosperous one.  

He has set up a special mayoral commission to look into ways of protecting the most vulnerable people in our city from the devastation threatened by central government cuts.

He proposes to open up empty office buildings to provide temporary accommodation for homeless people, but there is a limit to what a single city can achieve in the face of damaging national policies.

To cut a long story short, Bristol will not find a better, more dynamic, imaginative and hard-working mayor than George. He owes allegiance to no political party; he toes no party line, but puts the interests of Bristol and Bristolians first. It’s not for nothing that he is standing for re-election under the banner of Bristol 1st.

Sasha Lubetkin is a Green Party member and an honorary fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), nominated by five fellow architects, including George Ferguson. Her father is Berthold Lubetkin

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