LIKE other constituents of Bolton West, I have just received my copy of Contact West — the newspaper that Julie Hilling has produced to promote herself ahead of the General Election.

In it there is, as one would expect, an item about jobs. Julie Hilling is quoted as saying, “Fighting for jobs in Bolton West is my number one priority”.

I wonder what she actually means by this. How solid is her commitment to jobs in Bolton, when she has had her papers printed on Tyneside? Does she not realise that we have printers in Bolton?

In the Green Party, we do not just say that we are committed to reducing joblessness, we actually mean what we say and we know that real progress involves encouraging local, smaller businesses. Local businesses are the real backbone of local communities.

Where people can live and work and shop in their local communities, they generally live happier, less stressful lives, and local enterprises make communities economically stronger because more of the wealth that the people produce stays in those communities instead of leaking away.

The beauty of this policy of encouraging small, local businesses is that it not only builds stronger communities, it is also green because it reduces carbon emissions.

Rachel Mann Green Party prospective parliamentary candidate Bolton West