Despite all the crap in the system, “there’s still hope”, insists Blackpool candidate Tina Rothery

Tina Rothery was campaigning as a Green Party candidate in the recreated Blackpool North and Fleetwood in the 2024 general election. She came fourth – beating the Lib Dems.

Describing the current political system in Britain previously to the Canary, she said:

It’s a class system… I’ve lived in places where there was… different levels of existence and poverty but never seen a class system like it is here. Never. Not like this.

And in a post just as the campaign was coming to a close, she spoke about receiving emails from:

people in pain, people fighting injustice, people who just want a bloody dentist or for the operation they need to end their crippling agony. The emails come from people who genuinely give a damn about others too and about animals and nature and veterans… about clean water and most of all… some dignity and a reprieve from all this sadness around us.

The news and party propaganda is devoid of this deeply human side to ELECTION TIME. It’s all about promises and pretense and claiming glory for deeds they claim they will do or had some hand in. And yet… we look around and it’s the Postmasters, Hillsborough families and Grenfell victims standing for justice… the surfers against sewage, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and dedicated activists standing for the environment… it’s the Unions and workers that are doing what needs to be done to get a fair deal and conditions at work and it’s the foodbank volunteers, teachers, nurses and doctors picking up the broken pieces in the fight for a chance in life in this deeply flawed democracy. I’m relieved this campaign is over – because it’s hard to not feel all this.

Speaking to the Canary on election day, meanwhile, she described how a key highlight of the campaign was:

how much hope people do have still, despite 14 years, there’s still hope, and there’s still a reason to keep doing this

Featured image via the Green Party