GREEN PARTY CANDIDATE FOR WEST DORSET - KELVIN CLAYTON

Kelvin Clayton

This will be the third time that Kelvin has contested the West Dorset constituency for the Green Party at a General Election, having stood in both 2017 and 2019. He is currently a councillor on Bridport Town Council, and has been a councillor on Dorset Council.

Prior to entering politics Kelvin worked as a firefighter for 17 years. On leaving the Fire Service he went to university as a ‘mature student’ and then re-trained to become a careers adviser. Whilst working as a careers adviser he continued his university studies on a part-time basis, finally gaining a PhD in philosophy. Philosophy has been his passion for many years, and he has a strong belief in the value of community philosophy and the teaching of critical thinking. He runs a local Philosophy in Pubs group.

If elected, what would be his priorities? “Well,” he says, “there is so much that needs changing it’s hard to know where to start. Obviously the government needs to start listening to the scientists and take climate and environmental issues seriously. It needs to drastically rethink its planning policies and start a programme that insures that all our homes are warm, dry and insulated. The UK has the worst quality housing stock in Europe. And it needs to take all public utilities back into public ownership – it’s scandalous that some people are making a fortune out of the energy market whilst others can barely afford to keep warm.”

Which is pretty much what you would expect from a Green Party candidate. But is there anything else he would like to change? “Yes,’ he replies, “we need to start doing politics differently. This should include the obvious move to proportional representation, but also the restructuring of Parliament to make it less confrontational. We need to start having open and honest discussions, and we need to open-up these discussions to as many people as possible. I would like to see a move towards greater public participation in decision making.”