Full Name: Willie Bain
Age: 36
From: Springburn, Glasgow North East
PPC for: Glasgow North East
Website: www.williebain.com
Member of the Labour Party since: 1995
CV:
I have never stood in an election before, but I want to stand up for the part of Glasgow that I have lived in all my life to get the best deal for the area. I was the first person in my family to go to university and I chose to study law at Strathclyde University in my home city. After I graduated I decided to stay in education, where I now teach public law. I am also an admissions tutor, which means I get to help people from ordinary backgrounds like mine to get to university too. I studied law to learn how to stop the injustices and unfairness in our society and now I have the opportunity to teach others the same values.
I was inspired to go into politics because:
I remember the devastation caused by the Tory years. I saw the poverty, the mass unemployment, a whole generation and a whole city written off, pensioners living in freezing conditions with no dignity - it made me angry then and it makes me angry now.
My parents are a great source of inspiration. My Dad William taught me the importance of hard work. And although she finds it difficult to leave the house now, my Mum Catherine taught me right from wrong. My Dad was a lift engineer until he got made redundant in the last recession, and was forced to retrain to work in an admin job in Barlinnie Prison. My mum was a payroll clerk, but finds it hard to get out of the house these days.
My main policy interests are:
Cracking down on anti-social behaviour and crime, helping families and pensioners through tough economic times, delivering better local amenities and stopping Glasgow getting ripped off by the SNP government in Edinburgh.
Three things I think should be in the next Labour manifesto:
1 – Tough action on anti-social behaviour to make our communities safer.
2 – More help for pensioners by restoring the link between pensions and earnings.
3 – A commitment to creating 40,000 new green jobs over the next decade.
I think people should vote for me because:
I will work hard for this community that I am proud to call home. As the only local candidate I will fight to get the best deal for our part of Glasgow. I was born in the Stobhill Hospital, I grew up on the Carron Estate in Springburn, I went to the local schools and I've lived here all my life. I know this area and I know its problems. Most of all, I know the people and I am on their side.
AOB:
Willie Bain’s Campaign Centre is based at Flemington House, Flemington Street, Springburn, Glasgow, G21 4BX. Tel: 0141 558 7432. Email: willie@williebain.com
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What the SNP are is a fly in the cushy ointment of Westminster, highlighting the fag paper difference between Broon's New Labour and Cameron's Tories in Scotland.
Labour in Scotland are a mess. Iain Gray could not find his backside with both hands and a map. Martin has gleaned a fortune at the expense of his constituents. We've had the mess over Al Meghari with Milliband saying one thing while Gray says the other. There has been the budget disaster at Holyrood when Labour could have brought Wee Eck down but went into Brown chicken mode instead. There is Marshall with his £500,000 of expenses, Martin with his back pocket full - just what part of Labour in Scotland is 'Animal Farm' writ large has passed you by?
How many folk turned up to Labour in Scotland's Spring 2009 conference in the Caird Hall? 300, 400 hundred for Gordon's speech, many of them CWU members protesting at Royal Mail privatisation? On present vote share in Scotland the likes of both Darling and Murphy are heading for their P45's in 2010.
Just at what point do you get Labour is getting it so wrong in Scotland? What effect do you think calling the SNP 'Tartan Tories' will actually have? The SNP are ahead on vote share and Wee Eck is far ahead in approval terms than Gray or Labour. Basically you are saying that Labour's big plan in Scotland is to use a negative tactic that has failed to engage the majority of Scots.
Just how stupid are you people in John Smith House?
I remember it well---when there was four thousand in the queue for application forms when BOC opened Storeshield in Cumbernauld in 1986---They only had 150 jobs initially & I was one of the lucky ones----We should never ever forgive the Tories for their policies that caused the devastation & crushed communities all over Scotland & the North of England
The SNP are TARTAN TORIES they will do nothing for the people in the Lowlands---Their move to independence would mean a return to the Scottish Lairds owning the majority of Scotland & would create a worse situation for ordinary working class families
Hope the people in Sringburn re
As long as Scottish Labour are run by Millbank edict they will have one hand tied behind their back. Mandelson telling the CWU, in effect, to back down in Parliament to save his embarrassment is a classic! Labour in Scotland agreeing to PFI and pushing it like mad even though £5 billion of public buildings is going to cost £30 billion.
What Willie Bain has to decide is: is he running for Westminster or is he trying to be a MSP in 2011? Why? Because all the issues he has raised are in the remit of Holyrood and not Westminster.
The SNP are currently a more socialist party than Labour in Scotland, that's for sure.
Glasgow is not being ripped off, much the opposite, with all the inward investment going in for the Commonwealth Games. Just how much is the M74 extension completion costing Scottish taxpayers?
Let's not forget Scottish Enterprise's £5m to Chase Manhattan for 500 jobs in Glasgow.....
What are your political beliefs? Do you support 'Tory Lite' New Labour? What are your views on the expenses farce at Westminster?
Just what are you actually standing for? The political status quo at Westminster, maintenance of the Union, just what are your views on Calman and the case for fiscal autonomy for Scotland? Do you support the 80% of Scots who want fiscal autonomy?
You know - things that actually are important to Scottish voters?
Which party has cut the Scottish budget by 1% in real terms every year since May 2007?
Which party now wants another £500 million cut from the Scottish budget?
Which party foisted Edinburgh's toy tram set on the Scottish budget?
Yet you claim Edinburgh is 'ripping Glasgow off?'
Which party has increased funding to front line NHS services in Scotland by £300 million even with the budget cut?
Which party has reduced the cost of government at Holyrood by £500 million+?
Is the M74 extension being completed or not after years of Labour in Glasgow obfuscation?
Inward investment not happening for the Commonwealth Games?
Glasgow ripped off? That'll be thanks to Glasgow City Council's usual over spending thinking the Labour / Libdems would bail them out once they got back in in May 2007. Maybe its because of all the funding that PFI for Schools and Hospitals is sucking out of the local budgets in the Greater Glasgow Area.... now remind me whose great idea was that?
Maybe you could ask David Marshall or 'Speaker' Martin to give back some of the excessive parliamentary expenses they have both claimed to help job create the thousands of 'green jobs' you are claiming in Glasgow East that would be evidence of your socialist credentials. Just maybe you could actually remember what Scottish Socialism is actually about and tell your Millbank and John Smith House minders to get on their bikes and let you address the real issues your constituents face of economic stagnation and no jobs thanks to the SE England, City of London, centric economic policy of New Labour.
Kier Hardy would spit in your eye if you did otherwise, John Maclean would probably give you a doing over if you did not and Maxton would struggle to find words for his contempt of 'New Labour' and your apparent support for this failed experiment.
Local people are seen as less likely to be centrally appointed stooges and to actually know the area and people who live and work in it.
And 50-100 years ago or more the franchise was smaller, less people took part in the process, etc, etc.
I was in my mid twenties when maggie came to power,and believe me comparing what it's like under Labour as to then. We now live in paradise in comparison. One job i went after, the employer took out a full page advert in national papers. Apologising that as there were 7000 applicants, they would only contact those on the shortlist. And i'm talking about skilled people. I agree Labour has not done enough, but we as a people should be forcing whoever is in power, to apply policies that are good for everyone. To often we standby after elections and watch people, in parliament and the lords, dissect policies until the manifestos are a distant memory. If labour do get back in power, we should all be prepared to make noise if they start sliding back due to pressure or time. I say Labour because, remembering those years the tories had power frightens me.
What will you do if / when this pledge fails?
Does this pledge recognise and / or accept the economic and technological realities which may have an impact on delivering it?
How did you come up with the figure 40,000?
Do they have to be 'green' jobs?
How will you determine what that means?
If a car firm that made non hybrid cars wanted to open in your area and create 5000 jobs would you support this polluting employer?
In reference to your picture, who do you think is 'ripping off Glasgow'?
In truth, this time never existed. In the olden days (50-100 years ago or more) there were even fewer local candidates than there are now.
I don't see the problem personally. I want the best, intelligent and worldly people as MPs.
Go easy on the sound bite stuff Willie. 'A commitment to creating 40,000 new green jobs over the next decade.' is banal; no sane person ever woke up one morning and thought that was what was required, it is not even a measurable goal.
This continual PPC refrain of 'I remember how terrible it was 12 years ago' is now getting very thin as well as looking like it is an imposed statement all candidates have to make as ordered by Labour HQ.
You can't keep hiding behind 'remember what it was like over a decade ago?' It makes it look like the Tories were in power recently and that Labour has had no chance over the years to change any of it.
Fight on YOUR record, not someone elses.
You are NOT the opposition, you are the incumbent party.
STOP trying to refight the 1997 election.
It is good to see a Labour candidate who is local and with experience though.