Mayor hopeful Marvin Rees given ovation as he takes stage

“Ultimately an old Labour tactic......buying votes

A certain Mr Blair did it. Create a million civil servant jobs. Create millions more who never had it so good as on the welfare.

Who are they all going to vote for?

A little substance is all we ask for from our candidates.”

“Marvin Rees's case lacks substance. He's either not able to or did not think of making the economic case for a living wage for instance, to add to the moral/ethical one. It seems to me that he talks about the need for a plan for Bristol but then all he comes up with is warm words and attempted populist generalities. I want to see joined up thinking from him.

Taking 'pot shots' at his rivals too often could backfire for him. Labour in Bristol is already a very tribal sort of outfit, too high on pure party politics. Some of his rivals will attract votes by appealing for people not to back pure party politics so maybe he'd be better off sticking more to making a positive, policy-based case.”

“Bristolred - are you Marvin in disguise?

;)”

“Prepare to be love bombed by Ed & Marv Bristol - until the election is over.”

“I'm surprised he actually turned up, he's not exactly good at that locally!”

“I'm sure that some people know who Bristolred is but for others he seems as anonomous as most of the rest of us.

I'm quite interested in the living wage idea but i'm yet to hear anything that will make me vote for Marvin Rees. I'm a gueninue floating voter, but at the end fo the day someone has to pay for a living wage, either the taxpayer for public sector workers or the private sector under Millibands predistribution proposal. Increasing the minimum wage is a good thing I guess, but the later predistribution proposal is hardly going to be good for small business is it?”

“@BristolRed,
This is a forum for discussing the news isn't it? Its a bit ironic of you to be anonymously criticising people for being anonymous.

I think you and Marv might be missing the point. This is an election so all of us have the opportunity to effect the change anonymously or otherwise. I'll be doing so by voting for an independent candidate rather than a Labour stooge. Its all very lovely to be taking a lap of honour at a party conference but this is about Bristol, not the Labour party. He might need to persuade the voters that he is doing it for the right reasons rather than seeing it as a stepping stone to bigger personal glory in future. I'm afraid thats how it comes across to me.”

“Bristolred (whoever you might be)

If these touchline prophets are anonymous, how do you and Marvin know they are men and how do you know that they arn't involved actively in changing things for the better ? You always seem to engage in these personal attacks on anyone who disputes your claims.

Most people I know believe that the last thing you should do if you want to bring about change is get involved in a major political party !”

“Marvin also talked about touchline prophets. The men (it's always men) who like to scream everything will fail anonymously from the sidelines but never take things forward themselves.

1. KPMG is 1 of the big 4 auditors in this country. It's a massive professional services provider. They are a successful and hard nosed business. They are also a living wage company. I trust the business acumen of experts over some bloke ranting on the Post comments page.

2. Living Wage saves more money in benefits than it costs in wages. We can go to national government and ask them for that benefits saving and invested it directly in Bristol job creation.

3. Marvin only had direct power to increase the wages of Council employees. We have an indirect commercial bargaining power over all businesses the Council does business with. We have an indirect political/moral authority to coax other businesses to get involved in this city too. That's the way it's working in London and that's the way the Bristol Pound works. Business are interested in getting "on the list"

4. Marvin has explained that we will look to cutting the costs of very expensive consultants. There is a curious merry go round for senior officers. They "retire" from their employment. A few months later they return doing a similar job as a consultant at exorbitant rates.

5. Those on lower income tend to spend money locally and so living wage should also have an additional benefit on local small business.

6. Marvin is his own man. Unlike Ferguson, Gollop and Rogers he's not been part of the old Council system. No one dictates to him. He believes in collaborative decision making and discussion but there are core issues like the living wage and encouraging aspiration in the young that he will always drive forward.

Now I know that nothing I've said above will have any impact at all on the anonymous touchline prophets who crawl over these stories & "red arrow" anyone who doesn't correspond with their "ranty" world view.

But I have a challenge for you. If you don't like it. Drop your anonymity, step away from the keyboard and do something to change the world in the way you think is best.”

“This guy will be a disaster if he gets voted in. Who cares about his upbringing. He's just another typical Labour party member with typical Labour party policies. Lets not worry about how to pay for a pay rise for council employees, lets just call it a 'living wage' and claim the moral high ground. Thats not so much fun for those earning less who will still have to fund this pay increase for others. Still, he 'hopes' it will be extended to other workers. Of course it will.”