I was born in Fremington, brought up in Bishops Tawton and Croyde and have lived in Bishops Tawton since 1976. I am married with two grown-up children.
I recently retired after 30 years teaching modern languages at Pilton School, a specialist language college in Barnstaple. I’ve been a Green Party member for 29 years and a Barnstaple Town Councillor for 11.
I stood for Parliament in 2004 and again in 2009. I was the lead candidate for the SW Green Party for the 2009 European Elections and stood again in 2014.Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW) International Committee – member
GPEW Conferences Committee – Convener (2011-15)
SWGP Regional Co-ordinator – 2004-5
SWGP Committee – member 2003-8
SWGP Representative on the Regional Council – 2013-15
Founder member of Devon Green Party
Barnstaple Town Councillor – 2003 – present
North Devon Peace Council – (founder member) 1981–92
Tarka Hospital Radio – founder member
Barnstaple Junior Rugby Club – founder member
NASUWT – Devon Committee & School Rep – 1986 – 2009
‘Bikeability’ Training Instructor (since 2009)
Trustee: Barnstaple Bridge Trust / SOL (Language School) / Rock Park Trust
Taw and Torridge Estuary Forum / Tarka Rail Forum – representative
Member: Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Campaign Against the Arms’ Trade, 38 Degrees, Avaaz, Electoral Reform Society, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Stop the War Coalition, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Sunrise.
My main political concerns for the North Devon constituency are renewable energy, integrated transport, sustainable agriculture, tourism and the resilient survival of the NHS and our state education system.
So, why the Green Party? One reason: without a planet, everything we aspire towards, all our hopes and aspirations, all our economic and social traumas are both vanity and pointless. There is only one party that ticks all ten of my boxes and that is the party with a Philosophical Basis that makes the hairs on the back of my head go electric. Read this: http://policy.greenparty.org.uk/core-values.html
We are the only credible alternative party to the business as usual Westminster closed shop that masquerades as democratic representative government. The so-called Big Three have presided over nearly 40 years of evolving systemic failure: economic boom/bust mayhem, financial mismanagement, casino banking melt-down, political corruption, environmental destruction, social upheaval, immoral imperialist wars and the shameful ever-widening gap between the mega-rich 1% and those in real poverty. When is enough enough?