I am a candidate in the Seven Sisters by-election, which will be held on Thursday, January 15 We see any election as an opportunity to ask questions and raise the profile of the Green Party.

The main thing is to get things done. We are in the election to achieve social change. I want to talk to people not just about the environment but about social justice.

What underlies the Baby P scandal is a crisis of social workers not staying, parents having great stresses, and Tottenham’s deprivation is very much at the bottom of all that.

I want to campaign for more jobs to reduce the rise in unemployment and make sure people get paid a decent wage for what they do.

The national minimum wage is just £5.73 and the Green Party is proposing £7.45 in London. I would like to see Haringey Council, as the biggest employer in London, doing the same.

Wards Corner for example is a much bigger generator of jobs than anything Grainger Plc wants to put in its place. What we’ve got in Wards Corner is a very lively and special group that is of real value to the area and need to be given a key place to trade from. It’s folly to accept the Grainger plan.

I recently discovered that the councillors’ allowances in total went up by £300,000 last year. The cost of recruiting staff is way up, which means people are dissatisfied. I think we need to crack that and provide a decent pay standard.

I would like to see the council save a lot of money on things and spend money on people.

I’m also very concerned about the health service. I think it’s important we get an Accident and Emergency back into the borough. We want to make sure that every child that’s born is a healthy child and a well-looked after child.

Give these ideas a voice on the council and vote for me on January 15.