The South Yorkshire mayoral election is set to dominate the spring’s political agenda in our region. unLTD’s Richard Fidler spoke with print entrepreneur Simon Biltcliffe, who is one of the candidates.
It was a good day to be chatting to entrepreneur Simon Biltcliffe about politics.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson was on his feet at the dispatch box in the House of Commons apologising to the country for his role in the ill-fated gathering in the Downing Street garden during the first lockdown in May 2020.
It’s fair to say that Boris is the very antithesis of how Simon wishes to be seen as he takes his first steps into the political arena as the Yorkshire Party candidate in the South Yorkshire mayoral elections, which take place on May 5.
While Boris is blustering, bewildering and, it could be said, politically beyond help, Simon is sincere in his hopes to make our part of Yorkshire a better place.
“The main aim for me standing in the South Yorkshire elections is to raise the wider issue of Yorkshire devolution,” he tells unLTD over a full English breakfast at Birdhouse in Sidney Street.
“Yorkshire is such a diverse, brilliant place and we are being left behind by decisions made by government in London. Our population and economy is bigger than Scotland and Wales yet they are able – in different ways – to have far more control over decisions that directly impact their people than we do.
“This election is just the start of my journey in politics. For a long time I was a member of the Labour party but I find them less and less reflecting my views so I was pleased to become the Yorkshire Party candidate.”
Spend any time in Simon’s company and you can understand why he has been such a successful businessman.
His printing firm Webmart turns over £20m from its bases in Oxfordshire and Barnsley and he has spoken widely about his ‘Marxist-capitalist’ approach to business – not least in the very first issue of unLTD.
You may expect someone who is entering the political arena to speak in soundbites, particularly if they have a background in business leadership but this is not the case.
A Barnsley accent always provides an air of straight-talking however Simon is considered in his answers, a skill he puts down to his love of history.
“I never understand when people say they aren’t interested in history,” he said. “At your fingertips you have literally thousands of years of case studies, which not only tell you what happened but also what happened next.
“For a leader this is an invaluable resource. You can read about the mistakes people make, the fall-out from those mistakes and what was the outcome over time. History gives you a sense of perspective which is important in business as well as politics.”
The reality of local politics means it is unlikely that Simon will be named as the new mayor of South Yorkshire when the votes are counted. The battle to determine the Labour candidate, in all probability, will decide that.
However, having such a respected figure as Simon campaigning across our area should make people sit up and think.
He said: “The Yorkshire Party has a clear focus and vision. Labour and the Conservatives may have representation here but their decisions are made with the whole country in mind, and at best the whole of the north.
“I think we deserve better than that. Schemes such as HS2 were designed to make London more accessible to northerners, not the other way around. Who ever heard of someone in London saying they wanted to be in Leeds 20 minutes quicker?
“By being able to make our own decisions in areas such as transport we can fix things like the ridiculously poor connectivity we have across the Pennines. Those roads are just cart tracks and aren’t fit for what we need.
“That’s just one example where we can make improvements that directly impact the quality of life of the people in Yorkshire. With devolution we can do even more.”
There’s still a debate to be had about how successful the South Yorkshire mayor’s role is, with Simon now committed to the election it’ll be interesting to see how the people of our area respond to broadening it county wide.
