West and South Dorset Green Party has chosen its candidates for the next general election for the South Dorset and West Dorset constituencies. They are Jane Burnet (South Dorset) and Peter Barton (West Dorset).
Jane Burnet has lived locally for over thirty years, was a lecturer at Weymouth College for ten years and is now a teacher in a local secondary school. Before entering teaching Jane founded the environmental group War on Waste and worked for the development charity, ActionAid.
Peter Barton has lived in Frampton for over twenty years and is a parish councillor. Now retired, he worked for many years for Dorset County Council’s schools support services before going on to work for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
In a joint press release, both candidates stated, “As Green Party candidates, we will be offering the people of South and West Dorset the chance to vote for policies which are fundamentally different from those of the other parties: policies based on a belief in the value of ‘the common good’, ensuring the well-being of all members of society as well as safeguarding our planet for future generations. Our so-called democracy is not working. People want to feel much closer to power and decision-making. We are both local people with roots in the local community. We are both involved in politics to promote and defend things that we are passionate about, not to become career politicians in line with the bankrupt Westminster model. We reject the level to which market forces are being used increasingly as the means for organising our economic activities and meeting our welfare needs and we oppose the steady privatisation of our public services. We will stand for a publicly owned, publicly run National Health Service and the return to public ownership of both the railways and the supply of our energy needs. We will stand for a much fairer, more equal society by proposing policies which place higher taxes on the most wealthy, introduce a land value tax and crack down on corporate tax evasion.”
