My hero in 2015? The man with the plan to beat the cuts | Aditya Chakrabortty
John Burgess talks a mile a minute, dresses in any colour as long as it's black, and refers to other men as "lad" - even if they're older than him. He's also one of my heroes of 2015. Unlike most end-of-year gong-winners, Burgess is a name you won't know. But if heroism is about being brave when it counts - about standing up straight even while others try to make you bend or break - he's the real deal. And at a time when so much of the organised left is afflicted by loss of nerve, mind, or both, it is a relief to find someone who still has both.
For our purposes, Burgess's story begins in May 2008 - at the point he was hoping to hang up his boots. After a long slog as branch secretary of Unison in Barnet, north London, he planned to return to his life as a local mental-health care worker. Then the Conservative-run council began offloading its key public services to big business - and he was thrust into the biggest battle of his life. Almost eight years later, he's still defending jobs, campaigning against cuts, pointing out the expensive absurdities of outsourcing. Going back to care work? Nice dream.
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