Green Party Councillor Solihull, Max McLoughlin has been standing up for Shirley and the West Midlands for over a year now, after his experiences in China and UK inspired him to be more than an environmentalist. In fact, he denies the idea of being called an environmentalist.
Esther Ogunfeitimi went to visit Max and find out more about his campaign from the election.
I walked around tirelessly searching for the building, moments later Max appeared waving excitedly across the street to call me over. I was greeted with a warm smile. As we made our way to the building, we went upstairs shuffling around to find an empty room, we laughed while he explained the stressful day he had, but I couldn't help notice how much he laughed. He is a very cheerful man with a radiant demeanour. He offers me some green tea making reference to the stereotypes of an environmentalist. It took us a while to begin as we chatted away.
Max is the Green Party candidate elected in 2016 but joined the Green Party in China from 2011.
"When I was in China there were a few things that happened, one was seeing first-hand what was happening environmentally and the effect that having directly on me and my health, and extensionally the effect it was happening on other people's health and the planet.
"That also combined with being in China and not being able to say some of the things, politically, that I’d wanted to say made me question myself.
“So, I came back with a mission and managed to get elected within a year of being back home."
He travelled with Kirncroft a British manufacturing company working in a Chinese factory overseeing quality control and ran his own business (consulting business and social enterprise for students wanting to get into professional work) in the UK.
He explains that his time in China wasn’t just all work based, he became very involved with the culture while he was there.
“All work no play can make someone a bit of a dull person."
He was a drummer in a punk band in China which gave him the chance to travel to different cities. His face lit up and he laughed when he spoke about this experience and he mentioned how he felt “loved and appreciated”. But speaking about this he opened up more about the importance of music in his life.
“Music speaks to people wherever you go and I think it’s a good way of crossing cultural boundaries.”
“I prefer when music has a message. When people say things that are important socially and politically. People who don’t stop saying what they see in the world around them is really important.
“Music is a way of communicating what your truth is.”
He spoke heavily on the influence of truth, with the belief that politics lacks truth and power.
“One thing I struggled with about politics was that people say things that are disempowering, there was a dishonesty of politics and operation with power and how it interacted with society.
“Politicians don’t say they lack of power they actually have but promises to get votes.
“The things you regret are the things that you don’t say, I left the public sector because I could see the change in the political sector.
“I came back in a position where I was allowed to be the voice of what is happening to people in the public sector and what is happening to people in society and I am able to resolve the inequities and the inequalities. I am in a situation where I’m free to talk about that now.”
He explained a story of a disabled family who was being evicted before Christmas due to non-fault and the feeling of fulfilment of helping them.
“There was a father who could no longer work to support his family due to disability. The landlord had forced eviction and sold the house. The only place they could find was 20 miles away and the children who go to school in the local area would have to move away.
“Being able to support that family and the member of that family who was holding it together for them to actually get a house was difficult. I liaised with the landlord, but at the end, they were given a new house close by. In this instance they were lucky .”
When I asked him about his ambition his face grew more emotional and his eyes lit up talking about his plans to help people and create change, his tone became more serious compared to the relaxed voice I had heard earlier. The warm expression had left and had a more nostalgic look.
“My ambition is to learn more, to develop myself intellectually.
“I want to be able to look back at one point and be able to say that I played a role in helping to make the transition that needs to happen in society.
“If I ever get comfortable with knowing that so many people have been let down by society that they are invisible, that someone with a terminal illness is being bathed and lifted by their partner who is a pensioner who is exhausted by the situation, if I become numb to those situations I should not be advocating anything, because I think that is the problem.”
