There will always be an appetite for Socialism.

Lewis Dagnall, one of Labour’s four South Yorkshire Mayoral candidates believes that our futures are not set in stone. The former Sheffield City councillor was the first in his family to attend university.

Mr Dagnall’s Grandad was a market trader and second-hand dealer, many of his possessions were second-hand stuff, including books. Lewis says that taught him that “If you give people the ability to read and to think, then anyone can learn anything. It’s not an exclusive thing. My Grandad was the son of Jewish refugees who fled from Europe – He barely finished school. He did national service in the RAF rather than going to university, but his house was full of books, which is what inspired me to do this behind me,” he says, taking one of the numerous books from the impressive collection behind him.

Lewis has stood on many picket lines in solidarity with a number of trade unions. He says “People take strike action in real adversity, but actually, the experience of taking strike action together, builds something new. I went on strike with my fellow UCU members over pensions and casualisation.” Lewis wasn’t part of the recent industrial action because he currently works on a casual basis and doesn’t have a contract, but observed “There are bits of academia, that are more elite than others, but what I thought was amazing on that picket line, was that you had Professors and Lecturers and temporary lecturers and PhD students, and some professional services staff, who you’d hope might say hello to each other in the corridors, but not always, but when we’re on a picket line, taking collective action together, we’re all speaking to each other completely as human beings. The experience of taking that action by any organisation or union helps people to understand that we have the power to change injustices. I’ve always thought it important in my role as an elected politician, to show solidarity with that as well. It takes our society – which is still far too hierarchical and segmented, and you come together as equals.”

Lewis Dagnall’s campaign material proudly claims that he is a socialist. He told me “I think there will always be an appetite for Socialism. Socialism is the response of people to the systemic injustice of the economic system we have got. If you leave the economy to the market and have companies like we are discussing in the mayoral election; bus companies, that came in and bought up all the privatised services and for thirty years have extracted money out of it to pay shareholders, and then say to passengers ‘We’re going to have to cut your routes, and raise your fairs’, and they say to workers, ‘We’re going to have to cut your pay, and there’ll be job losses’, and that’s not inevitable. That’s a result of the economic model we’ve got, in which things like public transport are managed in the interests of profit and not in the interest of the people who use it, so socialism inevitably is the answer to that. Until we manage peoples lives in the public interest and not in the interest of profit, it will always recur.”

One of his priorities, if elected, is creating an industrial revolution for South Yorkshire – meaning more jobs in manufacturing, energy, logistics, research and nature recovery, actually mean in layman’s terms to those hard-working people who face joblessness as a result of automation? He said “This is particularly acute in our region. Last time it went through a total economic transition, from where most people either worked in the industry or associated industries; it wasn’t just people banging steel in the steelworks, was it? It was the people working in the canteens, the entire region was based on industry and that was ripped away. Interestingly, because of automation, there is data to show that more steel is now produced per ton in Sheffield today than it was 50-years ago. Automation though means that at a time when industry such as coal has completely gone and industries like steel use automation to slash the workforce, when we talk about the need to decarbonise in the UK, that means it’s particularly acute for communities like South Yorkshire, who know what the last economic transition felt like, rubbish, awful! We in South Yorkshire can make renewable energy, we can make hydrogen to perform tasks that renewable energy isn’t as good at performing, that means that people who work in industries like gas can switch jobs and get retrained – yes, we have to phase out gas, but we can find other roles for people to do. By us making hydrogen in south Yorkshire, that allows us to achieve this holy grail of green steel. Putting industry at the heart of our new green deal is very important but alongside that in a low carbon society, there are other industries that don’t currently get respected enough that are low carbon, health and social care. If you look at the way care workers are treated, they’ve got such expertise and training, and skills and yet they’re paid appallingly. It’s an absolute myth that they are unskilled workers. It’s a really skilled job. So, I see a wider new green deal – at the heart, there’s the industry and the transition, but also, we put money into training and recognising other low carbon industries like health and social care. The third element is nature recovery.

The great thing about South Yorkshire is we have pockets of towns and villages amidst some of the best landscapes in Britain, but that landscape is not managed in a way that allows nature to flourish. People can see events across the world like wildfires, unprecedented flooding, and they can see that the climate emergency is real. We’ve seen unprecedented flooding and wildfires in the north of England.

The worst thing that can happen though, is for those of us that think we can stop the climate emergency to turn it into a culture war – along the lines of Brexit, or any other culture war issues because it isn’t. Retired miners in Maltby and young students in Fulwood have got the same interest in sorting out the buses, investing in green jobs, stopping the climate emergency, so done right this is a unifying and inclusive vision – not one where we are going to lecture people about doing stuff wrong but where we try to identify solutions that will benefit people. In my campaign, I’m hoping to win the support of Labour members, but I’ve put a lot of thought into setting out an agenda that I think will win in South Yorkshire. I think it’s a necessary agenda if we are A to wing the mayoral election (which is not a done deal) and B go on to ousting those Tory MPs at the next general election and electing a Labour government that will do a huge amount more for south Yorkshire than we can do alone.

People in South Yorkshire stand up for themselves and for what they believe in.

Former Gleadless Valley Councillor, Lewis Dagnall is hoping to be elected in the race to be the next Mayor of South Yorkshire, after the Labour Party narrowed its list of candidates from seven to four.

At the heart of Mr Dagnall’s campaign is bringing local transport back into public ownership. He said, “We are now in a place, where Dan Jarvis is going to be bringing forward a proposal for a franchise in January, and all four candidates have said they want to use these franchising powers. We need to and can set up a publicly-owned bus and tram company, in my first term as Mayor, that gets awarded that franchise. Setting up a model of networks but then appointing the same private companies that have let us down for thirty years – to run them and pay them a management fee out of the public purse, is not meaningful public control. It’s public control in name only.”

In the recent North Shropshire by-election, the Tories – who have held the seat for almost two centuries, were given considerably more than a bloody nose by the Lib-Dems, and there is a growing perception of a lack of opposition from Labour. In light of this, I asked Lewis if he thought it was now time to do away with the three-party system and introduce something more radical.

“In the past twenty years, we’ve seen some of the lowest levels of turn-out, not only in Britain but in Europe. But we saw in 2017 in particular, an election where there were two very different visions on offer and it galvanised people and the turnout increased. What I’m trying to do in my Mayoral campaign, is say to people – I think the Mayor’s really important. The Mayor has got powers that can really make a difference to people’s lives, so I actually see what we’re doing with our Mayoral campaign, as part of that rebuilding a healthy body of politics – by saying to people ‘Look, there’s an alternative to vote for,’ He said.

So is there an argument for devolving all power and no longer needing Westminster?

Lewis thinks that while we need change, there is still a need for both systems, “In a world with multi-national companies, it’s essential to have powers to take them on at a national and an international level. But we also know that when people feel they have a strong local government – that is responsive, they value that most. Devolution is a process, not an event. For example, the right to food. One of the things we were saying is this is the things we can do as South Yorkshire Mayor, to enact a right to food and help people get access to food and relieve food poverty, but we still need Parliament to recognise, under treaty obligation by the UN by-the-way, that the UK government has a responsibility to meet the right to food across the UK. That’s why both levels of Government have definitely got a role to play.”

He explained, “The core of our campaign is that we think it’s important for people to have a choice – because that is the essence of democracy. To restore confidence in democracy, what we need to do is set out two (or more) visions that people can get behind and mobilise behind. The mantra of there is no alternative is complete nonsense.”

Reflecting on the recent issues around trees in Sheffield, Lewis says “They’d reached a dead end and it couldn’t be worked out where to go from there. I had people tell me it’s Utopian to think that this can be resolved in a happy outcome. When I started going out, and when I walked down every street where this was an issue, and I met the workers at the depot. I went and met the council officers and listened to their expertise. I met with people who fervently wanted the trees down, and I met with people who fervently wanted the trees up. And when I was talking to people, I was saying there’s so much energy here – that we can put to good use, people thought it was just make-believe, but what we’ve since shown is that by a process of dialogue and construction we’ve got a policy. We had the Bishop of Sheffield chair our talks, to vouch for the sense of fair play, and we now have a tree strategy in Sheffield that was co-written by the campaigners and the company and the council – that were set against each other, and they go out on joint visits to inspect the work. So that sort of transformation is totally possible.”

In the long history of Sheffield and South Yorkshire as a whole, people in South Yorkshire stand up for themselves and for what they believe in. Our role, as elected politicians, is how do we give a voice to that and also bring it in, not just leave it outside the town hall. Bring them into the conversation.”

The best investment you can make in health, wellbeing and education is through public transport.

Essentially, the Mayor is a bus commissioner and an adult skills funding commissioner. Lewis Dagnall says “The best investment you can make in health, wellbeing, and education is through public transport. The mayor has had some additional powers awarded to them. The ability to bring in a bus franchise is a new power. The crucial thing Dan has sorted is that he’s got the budget set up. We’ve got a long-term budget, but what’s different to local authorities who have a short-term budget, is the Mayor has a very long-term budget settlement that you can borrow against. This is how the mayor raises a huge amount of money to do things like bringing the buses into public ownership. The other thing about a South Yorkshire Mayor, is they own the tram network. So you can also borrow against the tram network to invest in tram expansion. So there are existing powers that go up to the mayor and there are powers that have been brought down but what really makes the difference is the Mayor’s ability to borrow to raise finance to actually put big ideas into practice.”

South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority

Councillor Rachael Blake.

SHEFFIELD CITY REGION MAYOR

This week, the Labour Party reduced its line-up of candidates for the Sheffield City Region Mayoral election from a field of seven to a shortlist of four. Three of the candidates are from Sheffield and one – Councillor Rachael Blake, is from Doncaster. The election is due to take place in May when current Mayor Dan Jarvis will stand down. South Yorkshire will use the supplementary vote system, where if a candidate receives more than 50% of the first preference vote, they win. If none of the candidates achieves 50% then the top two candidates proceed to the second round and the other candidates are eliminated. Labour party members are expected to vote for their preferred candidate on 5^th January.

Oliver Coppard stood as the parliamentary candidate for Labour in 2015, running Nick Clegg very close in the race to be MP in Sheffield Hallam. Jayne Dunne is a Sheffield councillor in the city’s Southey ward and Lewis Dagnall is married to Sheffield Hallam MP Olivia Blake. He is a former Sheffield Councillor that represented the Gleadless Valley ward, who currently works at Sheffield University.   

Councillor Rachael Blake was first elected to Doncaster Council in 2015 and was elected to cabinet two years later. She’s currently responsible for the Children’s social care, communities and equalities portfolio.

The role of Mayor demands someone that is good at networking and able to bring all the different councils together. The successful candidate will also need a good understanding of the diversity in the region. To fulfil the role properly will also demand a commitment to put in the long hours. Councillor Blake says “Over the last 30-odd years, I’ve always gone out to the public, not expected them to come to me. I love to get out there and find out what matters to people. Whether it be buses, new jobs, training or fly-tipping; so many people tell me in my street surgeries – I’m so pleased that someone is listening and someone cares. I’m not a career politician, I’m all about local government. I’m not in for myself. None of my friends are in politics – I’m not middle class. I’m just honest. If you tell people the truth, they often understand. If you say yes, we could increase this service but we’d have to cancel these services, they understand if you explain. It’s also important to speak in layman’s terms. People don’t want jargon and acronyms. I really take pride in authenticity. If people go away not understanding, I’ve not done my job properly.”

Rachael grew up in Cleethorpes, where her Jamaican dad worked on the docks. “He arrived in 1944, part of a group of people often forgotten. He wasn’t on the Windrush but he came here and worked hard to help to rebuild the country and served in the RAF,” she said.

Councillor Blake, who is the only BAME candidate selected, has chaired many committees and remembers being invited to speak at a chair’s workshop. “It was a very white area of the North West and they’d always traditionally had white male chairs. When I walked in the room someone said to me – you know this meeting is for chairs, don’t you? I’m very proud to be mixed race. I think it’s really important that when people walk into a room, they see someone who looks like them in a position of responsibility. They need someone they can relate to. I think electing a BAME mayor would be really positive, but I’m not into gesture politics. I don’t want to be there as a token.”

Seeing first hand – in Grimsby, the damage done when an industry is eroded, she knows the importance of retraining and reskilling those workforces. With automation looming for many manufacturers, that could be vital – particularly for a region such as the South Yorkshire Mayoral combined authority. Ms Blake – a single parent, is also aware of the need for proper education. “The starting point needs to be more funding. The money schools receive in other areas such as London is much higher. There are so many barriers to our young people. It’s not a lack of aspiration or a lack of skills, it’s doors slamming shut. I went to a Comprehensive school in Cleethorpes. I didn’t go to university – like many of my school friends, it was just too expensive. Living costs are so high today at University. It’s not just the price of the courses. It’s the day to day living. High-level apprenticeships are what we really need for our young people. The mayor’s job is to get out there and persuade employers to use the student levy to invest in degrees, real apprenticeships and job guarantee schemes.”

When current Mayor Dan Jarvis was elected, the position was powerless and had no salary attached to it. Jarvis secured a deal with the local authorities that meant there are now statutory powers and a salary of £79,000. The successful candidate will have powers over transport, strategic planning and coordinating investment and skills. Some people still question the powers that the office of mayor holds but Rachael Blake believes the power of persuasion is one of the most important ones.

Public transport is always high on the agenda of any local politician, and Councillor Blake still catches the bus around her ward daily. “If we are to address the climate issue, for me we need Green buses. We need cultural change. If we are going to get cars off the road and commuters onto buses then they need to be cleaner, more reliable and more affordable.”

Like many of South Yorkshire’s residents, Rachael remembers the good old days of 10p journeys and 2p for the kids. “I’d want to investigate whether there’s an appetite for bringing the buses back into public ownership. The focus has to be on the needs of residents, not profit for the shareholders. There’s a climate emergency. Other authorities that have been given much higher funding, have electric buses and trams and overground trains, and the buses are packed.”

Councillor Blake is chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board in Doncaster, where they have worked with many partners to address health and social care issues, taking a different approach to wellbeing – with one of those different approaches being around dance. “Dance and physical education is brilliant. We’ve been providing classes for our residents that over the age of 55 and we’ve seen it improves their fitness levels, their balance, and their mental health. It’s had a really positive effect on their independence, which ultimately relieves pressure on the NHS. It’s a fantastic example of talking to people, understanding the starting point and making suggestions on how to make things better.”