Tom Baldwin - Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition - No response received yet
Tony Britt (Independent) - Click here to read response
Tim Collins (Save Filton Runway) - Click here to read response
Dave Dobbs (The Birthday Party) - Click here to read response
George Ferguson (Bristol 1st) - Click here to read response
Stoney Garnet (Independent) - No response received yet
Owain George (Independent) - Click here to read response
Rich Fisher (Independent) - Click here to read response
Geoff Gollop (Conservative) - Click here to read response
Neil Maggs (Respect Party) - Click here to read response
Spud Murphy (Independent) - No response received yet
Philip Pover (Independent) - No response received yet
Daniella Radice (Green) - Click here to read response
Marvin Rees (Labour) - Click here to read response
Jon Rogers (Liberal Democrat) - Click here to read response

Tony Britt (Independent)

I support all pledges apart from pledge 6.

Tony.Brit

Tim Collins (Save Filton Runway)

I am very happy to sign up to your six pledges and want to say thank you for the role that Voscur has been playing in this mayoral campaign.

Best wishes,
Tim Collins

Dave Dobbs (The Birthday Party)

Thank you so much for your letter. Please excuse the delay but I am a one man show I’me afraid. At face value I would agree to all you have listed. But I would like to stress that myself and the Birthday Party have no policies. The very concept of giving away sixty percent of the power of the electorate over to one person is ludicrous or perhaps better known as feudal. Especially after it’is taken about a millennium to fight for our democracy and though many have apparently lost interest in it, that needs to be addressed and not exploited.

We are told that 12.5 percent of the electorate voted on giving over 60 percent of their electorate power over to a single person. But in reality so few are even on the electoral register. Many just feel they can’t register because they have lost interest or are unaware that they are taken off the register if they do not actively reapply. Many are sharing rooms and living below the radar and cannot risk Landlords finding out the volumes of people living in a property. Bankers have over lent money and driven property prices to levels that are simply unaffordable. I had hundreds of people that thought they could nominate me and found most were not on the electoral register. I myself am a Traveller and know my rights and am the first person to run a Governmental post who does not live in any property and has no postal address – so I am told. But most people are not aware that their vote actually belongs to them and not a property or banker and thus the percentage of people in Bristol that could have legally voted if they knew their rights is far-far lower than those indicated – without any doubt whatsoever.

I therefore cannot to make promises I cannot deliver and pretend to have an understanding that I do not have on the way in which I could best serve Bristol. That is why I would float the whole thing on social networks because if just ten percent of the population that uses Facebook expressed their political interests we would have a political renaissance in this city. We could create a platform where all could really see the numbers of people that really liked specific ideas and the true demographics of that alone would bring enormous volumes of people together. It would take that massive centralization (US spelling) of power and produce the nearest thing to Proportional Representation ever seen in this country. It is totally feasible and virtually free of charge to run. The transparency of the move would be virtually impeccable. And the likes of yourself would not need to lobby me or whoever the winner of this race is. It would be those in your own immediate community you would need to address.

I am basically a political activist and have been for nearly fifteen years and my fundamental cause in all that I do is actually to stop a looming war with Iran and Syria. Bristol is one of the main places in Britain where drones are manufactured and thus makes the city a key target in war. And with drones costing about a billion pounds per fifty, it’s easy to see why the government is driving such austerity. In fact, the first wave of austerity measures pushed upon Greece ended with 11,000 bombing sortes being carried out from military bases from that country that ended up destroying Libya – or should I say liberating Libya!. It is easy to see where all the money goes from the austerity we are all experiencing. It is truly terrifying what is unfolding right under our noses – right now.

I am invited to so few of the hustings that have been held even though I am an official candidate and I feel the whole process is a massive fix-up. Plus I am not prepared to talk the total rubbish that most of the candidates are spouting when all the money is about to be taken from under their feet. It’s just nonsense and hot air. We are all being shafted here.

So I would like to redirect your ideas back to yourself and your immediate community. What would you do if you had that power because one person can make a lot of decisions but cannot sustain being able to understand the needs and wants of a whole city. It is just not possible. The power triangle has to be turned upside-down and the Mayor in Power needs to be at the bottom receiving the Will and Intent of the people and honour those wishes. If not, all that prevails is a feudal state that reverses nearly a millennium of evolution.

Please check out my book Laughing Gas that is written in my real name David Field, which charters the satirical adventures of my fiction; Dobbs as related to Bob Dobbs – Church of the Sub-Genius and Slack, which was what brought me into the political arena in 2001, when we first discovered that a group could immediately have the right to a twenty four hour bar as soon as they register themselves as a political party which costs only £150 and takes only two people. And the understanding that as soon as you become a house of worship, you are exempt from Council Tax.

I’m afraid with the level of technology now involved with war, it’s time to wake up or face the dire consequences. We know that Iran landed America’s supposedly infallible flying drone and then turned it into a children’s toy.  Perhaps the Iranian Kesh foundation that claims to have harnessed fusion, which terrifies that that propagate war and fossil fuel dependence but considering Iran has not invaded another nation in three hundred years, do we really need to fear them?

Thank you for your letter,

Dave Dobbs – The Birthday Party – A celebration of our Peaceful Birthrights.

George Ferguson (Bristol 1st)

Very happy to do so. Take it as signed!

All the best – George

Owain George (Independent)

I confirm my support for your 6 pledges

Yours sincerely Owain George

Rich Fisher (Independent)

Of course I will support the voluntary sector. I have worked in a voluntary capacity myself for Bristol Playbus Project, Windmill Hill City farm and currently, as and then for BTCV. I recognise the positive benefits across the board including the psychological benefits to empower individuals with learning difficulties etc.

Regards

Rich Fisher

Geoff Gollop (Conservative)

Pledge 1 Yes totally committed , but even more so since your AM, when I was so impressed with the message your members conveyed.

Pledge 2 Yes, the level of knowledge and expertise you have to offer means it would be madness not to, I see regular communication as key both formally through representative meetings, but also through informal discussion.

Pledge 3, I have insufficient time to analyse the Bristol Compact,but do not believe that would be a problem.

Pledge 4, I would not exclude large organisations, but I think we have undervalued the contribution of the small organisations and I would look to Voscurs guidance in how we can correct this.

Pledge 5, I see tackling inequality as a key policy for Mayor and I see providing opportunity, and helping people develop their aspirations as essential. Every community should have the opportunity to develop and it is vital that we actual empower people from all areas of the City. It is a remarkable achievement to have created a situation where the most affluent, the most deprived, and those in the middle, all feel excluded and not listened to.

Pledge 6, I have no problem in endorsing this pledge, but you have also omitted older people from the list, and I feel young and old people are the groups most likely to be unrepresented whose opinions are ignored.

My suggestion, as I mentioned at your AM, is that you should have a paper on how the Mayor works with the voluntary and community sector, waiting on the desk for whoever it is on 19 November. If it were to be, I recognise there are going to be so many issues to deal with in the first month that I would welcome proposals. Whist I have my own ideas, those from the experts are much more likely to be workable.

I hope these answers are helpful

Regards

Geoff

Neil Maggs (Respect Party)

I commit to pledges 1, 2, 4, and 5.

I am yet to be introduced to the Bristol Compact.

I will not have a young Mayor as I believe it important that young people learn to work through democratic processes.  A Young Mayor may work against this principle by putting too much voice into one person.  I will engage with young people at youth forums (fora?) as often as practical as mayor, and will listen to all sections of the community in making my decisions.

Neil Maggs
Respect Party candidate for Mayor of Bristol

Updated 6 November 2012