FOR Green election hopeful Sara Ruth the cost of living crisis has hit hard.
Ms Ruth, the Green Pary’s candidate for Colchester, was interviewed by email due to illness, and sent her response in May before the General Election was called.
She is currently studying for a master’s degree in social anthropology at Essex University - starting her degree in 2020 after being made redundant in 2020 due to “covid downsizing”.
Referring to her own experience of the Cost of Living crisis, she said: “So this is my fourth year of living on student maintenance loans.
“For 57 per cent of students it’s impossible to pay rent at market rates and also feed themselves, let alone pay for exponential rises in utility costs.”
Ms Ruth revealed that it was tough for her “being a single parent” in the 1990s but that then she could still feed and keep her children warm.
She added: “And make no mistake – this is a political choice.
“Austerity was a political choice, not a fiscal necessity. We need a Universal Basic Income to lift up the most vulnerable people in society and relieve this terrible burden of poverty."
As the candidate for the Green Party, Ms Ruth said the main environmental issues in Colchester were air pollution in parts of the city centre, river pollution in the Colne, and the “lack of investment in renewable energy” whether solar or heat pumps.
When asked about the Middlewick Ranges, she said: “The Green position has always been that the Wick should not be built on.
“It is a valued green space for the huge urban areas that surround it such as Old Heath, New Town and Berechurch."
While regarding the mineral quarry sites across Essex – which is part of the mineral plan by Essex County Council – Ms Ruth said that these quarry sites should be where they do not “severely harm” local communities or harm the environment or “important heritage sites.”
Ms Ruth also said that other parties “borrowing” Green policies were a sign of their success and that the party hopes to gain a few MPs in the next election.
The Green Party also, according to Ms Ruth, are not “lavishly funded by businesses and wealthy individuals” like the main parties, but are instead funded by members meaning they “prioritise the needs of people and the environment”
For Ms Ruth, housing is the most important issue of the election with “there being multiple housing crises at once”.
She said: “There’s a critical lack of social and affordable housing, there’s a crisis in quality, with lots of dangerously cold and damp homes.
“There’s a crisis caused by the total absence of renters’ rights amid skyrocketing rents and the impossibility of getting a mortgage for many."
Ms Ruth also said that there is a ‘local council crisis’ with councils being unable to afford to house people, instead having to keep them in temporary accommodation at an “enormous cost” which goes alongside the homelessness crisis.
For Ms Ruth, social housing provision and universal basic income - a guaranteed income for everybody which designed to cover people’s basic needs – are the key to “alleviating this nightmare for many”.
When asked about the other General election candidates, Ms Ruth said: “I only know the other candidates by reputation, they are all highly respected in their fields.
“To the best of my knowledge they are all able-bodied, I should think they are homeowners, and presumably financially secure, like the vast majority of MPs today."
She added: “The needs of disabled people who are insecurely housed and on low income cannot be more than theoretical to these MPs and the other Colchester candidates, whereas for me this is my lived experience and that gives me a very different perspective.
“I think it’s so important that Parliament reflects the UK population, and that MPs know the struggles ordinary people in the UK face today”.
For Ms Ruth, coalitions are a “grown-up way of doing politics” when with “other progressive parties”, but that she should work so the large party does not use the “smaller party as a shield”.
She said she was not “really not interested in status and personality politics” and that she was an “intelligent person” who cares about “Green values and helping people”.
Ms Ruth said as “a person with long-term disability” that she had “been left behind” with health issues – like “so many” others across the country.
She said: “14 years of Tory government has crippled GP and hospital services - we cannot allow this to continue."
Ms Ruth said that the Green Party’s policies in this area include increasing funding for the NHS by at least £6 billion per year each year as well as “rolling back privatisation” of the NHS through repealing the Health and Social Care Act 2012 and “abolishing the internal market”.
She added: “We need an increased focus on wellness, on mental health support, and on care for those living with Long Covid.
“We know that the general public values - the enormous sacrifices of people working health services during the pandemic. We need to tap into that feeling of gratitude and convey to NHS staff how much their vital work is appreciated."
She added: “We need to ramp up their pay and treat them like superheroes, as they deserve."
Finally, when asked about her character for office Ms Ruth said: “I’m inspired by the humility of José "Pepe" Mujica, former President of Uruguay, who said: 'A president is a high-level official who is elected to carry out a function. He is not a king, not a god.
“He is not the witch doctor of a tribe who knows everything. He is a civil servant. I think the ideal way of living is to live like the vast majority of people whom we attempt to serve and represent'."
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