On behalf of people of very low incomes, Job Seekers, and other benefit holders we want to formally vent our frustration, and anger over last week there was a vote on Welfare Reform and Work Bill, and NHS Bill. We would like to say thanks for making us suffer more by cutting our benefits from the most vulnerable in society who through no fault of our own suffer from a mental health, learning disabilities, and physical disability, very low paid worker, and others through no fault of ours own lost the main form of income to the household owing to companies downsizing and avoiding to pay their fair share of taxes.
Under your welfare and health service cuts this has affected those people tremendously. So much for the big society and one nation conservatism where is the compassion of conservatism and your government. We (the voters) would like to remind you about the food banks dramatically increased not decreased under your previous coalition administration in 2010 and to present time 2015.
It’s no good blaming the previous establishment as it is happening under both your watch now. We would respectfully suggest that you stop playing Punch and Judy politics by hitting the most vulnerable in society we are talking about human lives so much for the caring and working party that your establishment led us to believe.
It’s a stifling policy, and it’s not very democratic. Also this mess is being exploited by usurpers. We’ve got our pinch of salt. It’s hard expressing your thoughts and opinions sometimes especially when there are some of your government ministers who simply refuse to understand where the poor are coming from. This government needs to understand how social policy works and stop using high profit companies who has no interest in society but in the name of profit, profit we will do and laugh all the way to the bank with our public money which is taken from our taxes to improve services. One would suggest that you should stop using quangos and think tanks that does not understand poor communities and never lived in certain parts of the country who only want to line their pockets to further their careers.
We paid our taxes like the rest of people and one of our expectations is for this government is to treat all its citizens fairly and compassionately during the so-called austerity times and look on each case on its merit and not to hit the poorest in society.
This government would do well to launch the attack on big cooperations, billionaires, millionaire who uses tax havens to avoid paying their share of taxes which will generate income to our beloved country. As a government you may beg to differ but if you get off your a raise and tour the country and open your eyes you will see the daily lives of people getting on with their lives to try to either gain employment and make a living and stop putting yes people in your cabinets who are millionaires who have little understanding.
This is why many of will tell the Conservatives to listen to this. see link below:
Another thing we want to express to your attention is our beloved NHS and the hard work that our NHS staff does to look after everybody regardless of their disabilities or income based. This should be applied equality all sections of society should pay their fair share of taxes and those who earn more obviously will pay more into our taxes as Bevan said during the creation our NHS and Welfare System. I find it highly offensive and a cheek of the Conservative Government to use a quote in parliament to force a vote which the Conservatives has no comprehension of what Bevan stood for being a socialist and a moderniser to play a left wing politics to favour vote in regards to our NHS, welfare and work, and pensions bills as Bevan will be turning in his grave to see his name being used in vain.
The question we would seek from Mr Cameron is part of your government policy dodging the damaging health crisis?
To us this represents a U-turn on the PM’s position before the last general election, when he labelled the health service a “priority” for his party.
The Tory Party’s 2010 election manifesto had also insisted: We will back the NHS,” in a bid to dispel the long-standing public view that it could not be trusted with Britain’s most cherished public service.
But the Tories were accused of changing their tune after last week’s chaos which saw 14 hospitals declare major incidents.
It’s No wonder David Cameron has gone from saying the NHS were the three most important letters to him to the health service becoming the subject that dare not speak its name.”
For the many who strongly believes in a strong NHS free at the point of need we say to you and your cabinet in the wise words of Harry Leslie Smith “Get Yer Mitts Off Our NHS”
The truth about NHS privatisation has been exposed. An undercover investigation has found shocking care failures by private health business Care UK. It’s been caught leaving dangerously ill patients waiting for hours, and using work experience students instead of nurses.
This is what happens when private companies get their hands on our NHS. Care UK boasts that they are the single biggest business helping to privatise the NHS. If we can kick them out of our NHS, it’ll be a major blow to the government’s privatisation project.
Huge public outcry will pile pressure on hospital bosses to shut the door on Care UK – at every hospital they approach.
Please sign the petition to stop Care UK making a profit out of our hospitals.Your name will be added to a petition to the CCG group where you live – the group of NHS bosses in charge of contracting our local services. Together, let’s prove that Care UK aren’t wanted anywhere near our NHS.
New Government legislation will include powers to put non-violent extremists who radicalise young people “out of action”, David Cameron has said.
The action against Islamist “influencers” forms part of a five-year plan to crush the home-grown extremism which the Prime Minister said had led to up to 700 young Britons travelling abroad to fight for the Islamic State (IS) terror group and left Muslim parents “living in fear” that their children may be radicalised.
In a high-profile speech at Ninestiles Academy in Acocks Green, Mr Cameron announced plans for a new scheme allowing parents to apply to have their own children’s passports removed if they suspect them of planning to travel abroad to join a radical group.
The PM said Britain must act to “de-glamourise” groups like IS by making young people aware of the brutal reality of life in the parts of Iraq and Syria which they control.
Mr Cameron announces that parents will have the power to cancel their children’s passports if they are worried about them travelling to Syria to join Isis.
He said: “I know how worried some people are that their children might turn to this ideology – and even seek to travel to Syria or Iraq.
“So I can announce today we are going to introduce a new scheme to enable parents to apply directly to get their child’s passport cancelled to prevent travel.”
And he said the UK should do more to promote its own creed of tolerance, democracy, the rule of law and freedom of speech and should make clear that the doctrine of respect for different faiths must be matched by those faiths supporting the British way of life.
Mr Cameron said it was not enough for extremists to say they opposed IS – also known as Isil, Isis or Daesh – for them to prove that they were not a threat. This would be setting the bar for acceptability “ludicrously low”, and groups should be expected also to condemn conspiracy theories, anti-semitism and sectarianism, he said.
“We need to put out of action the key extremist influencers who are careful to operate just inside the law but who clearly detest British society and everything we stand for,” said the Prime Minister.
“These people aren’t just extremists, they are also despicable far-right groups too, and what links them all is their aim to groom young people and brainwash their minds.
“Let’s be clear who benefits most from us being tough on these non-violent extremists – it’s Muslim families living in fear that their children could be radicalised and run off to Syria, and communities worried about some poisonous far-right extremists planning to attack your mosque.”
A new Extremism Bill will include “narrowly-targeted” powers to tackle thes e “facilitators and cult leaders” and stop them “peddling their hatred”, said Mr Cameron.
He also said the Government would take action to tackle sectarian and communal segregation in schools, and said the Government would give communications watchdog Ofcom stronger powers to take action on foreign TV channels broadcasting hate preachers and extremist messages.
Universities should be ready to challenge extremist speakers on campus and broadcasters should use a wider range of speakers from Muslim communities, rather than repeatedly putting extreme voices on screen, he said.
Announcing a consultation on introducing lifetime anonymity for the victims of forced marriages, he said he wanted to see more prosecutions in cases of this sort as part of a drive to “enforce” British values and ensure they applied uniformly to people of all backgrounds.
“My argument with young people being sucked towards this appalling extremist Isil worldview is ‘You are heading towards a belief system that believes in throwing people off buildings, raping children, enslaving women’,” said the Prime Minister.
“The values of freedom and democracy are far stronger, far better than the values of Isil.
“We are not serving our argument or serving our country or serving new arrivals to our country if we don’t enforce these values uniformly.
“And here’s my message to any young person thinking of going out there. You won’t be some valued member of a movement – you are cannon fodder for them.
“They will use you. If you are a boy, they will brain wash you, strap bombs to your body and blow you up. If you are a girl they will enslave and abuse you. That is the sick and brutal reality of IS.”
“If we have a situation where young people are being taken off and married against their will or having the appalling practice of FGM carried out on them, and the British state and the British Government and the British Parliament and police and courts look the other way, we are not showing great confidence in our values.
“Our values are so great that we should want to enforce them for all, including new arrivals, including people subjected potentially to those practices.”
My comments:
Firstly I would love to say in the Arabic phrase shown above is pronounced as Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim, and is a beautifully poetic phrase which offers both deep insight and brilliant inspiration. It has often been said that the phrase Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim contains the true essence of the entire Qur’an, as well as the true essence of all religions.
Muslims often say this phrase when embarking on any significant endeavour and the phrase is considered by some to be a major pillar of Islam. This expression is so magnificent and so concise that all but one chapter of the Qur’an begins with the words Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim.
The common translation:
“In the name of God, most Gracious, most Compassionate”.
Fails to capture either the true depth of meaning or the inspirational message of this beautiful phrase.
In memory of those victims who lost their lives during 7/7 and 9/11 what took place is not recognized under Islam. Every time I read or hear those words recited I am humbled to know that the time has to come to address what establishment stance of extremism as the Koran addresses this issue as haram(Not acceptable and it is forbidden to take an innocent life no matter whatever your religious beliefs) .
On 20 July 2015 David Cameron will be addressing an audience regards to Muslim extremism yet he fails to mention that all forms of religious extremism is wrong. If you look around the world most of the crimes have been committed in the name of religious extremism ie Buddhism vs Muslims, Christians vs Muslims, Hinduism vs Muslims, and Sikhism vs Muslims.
If he wants to talk about British values and integration of the Muslim community, will he mention the fact Birmingham Muslims, despite fasting for 19 hours a day themselves, were feeding the homeless. Will he mention the fact that our forefathers sacrificed their life’s for this, our great country in WW1 & WW2 before any of them set foot in this country.
And how do British values differ from Muslim values? We have been taught and practice that Islam is a religion where we should help and protect our neighbour, before any other, irrespective of their faith. Is this not a British value?
David Cameron’s speech will not support cohesion but divide communities and isolate the British Muslim community.
Daesh has no place in society. They are not part of the religion that I practice.
They need to be condemned at every opportunity as does far right extremism which also threatens to divide our communities.
David Cameron visit to Birmingham and spew his highly problematic remarks about the causes of extremism today. He will focus on ideology; that all extremism is bad, and that it can lead to violent extremism; that the grievance issue is not important; that people do not want to integrate. It’s all completely upside down.
Years and years of research have systematically established the causes of radicalisation among Western European born Muslims. In a nutshell the issues are geopolitical, and failed domestic anti-racism and integration policy. Cameron is using his speech as a sideshow because all capitalist societies need enemies. Elite policymakers in Whitehall are just a bunch of self-serving dim-wits who have no idea of what it is like on the ground. It is tantamount to state racism of the most pernicious nature.
Moreover, those Muslims who start speaking on the behalf of HMG so as to supposedly help Muslim communities, some who start off with good intentions, only end up leaving or feathering their own nests, serving the interest of the elites every time. There is going to be a tremendous reaction to this. Birmingham will not roll over. Too many dedicated and smart activists, campaigners, and professionals, who are savvy and informed will come out responsibly to this. Members of the more intelligent sectors of the press will also report what is right not what powerful people want reported.
His obsession with demanding support for “tolerance, democracy, the rule of law and freedom of speech” sits poorly with the revelation that he authorised British troops to participate in US-led bombing raids on Syria despite Parliament deciding otherwise.
Tolerance, democracy, rule of law and freedom of speech are admirable goals, but they mean different things to us all.
Alarm bells will inevitably ring when Cameron, an inveterate apologist for Israeli war crimes, insists that opposition to Islamic State (Isis) demands condemnation of “conspiracy theories, anti-semitism and sectarianism.”
Who is he to judge when criticism of zionist colonialism descends into these categories?
More basically, when did thinking wrong things become a crime in Britain?
Some people harbour hateful attitudes towards black people, Jews, Gypsies, Travellers, lesbians, gay men and other minorities, but they are prosecuted only when their thoughts translate into action.
Many Irish people in Britain support the reunification of their homeland. Some were sympathetic to the military campaign waged by the Provisional IRA, but they were not persecuted for their thoughts.
There have always been Muslims in Britain and other states more sympathetic to a religious caliphate than secular democracy. They are a tiny minority within a minority.
The weight of the state should only be deployed against those seeking to turn fantasy into reality when they adopt violence.
It is distressing for most people not least the families of those involved — to see young people born, raised and educated in Britain opt to travel to Syria, Iraq or elsewhere to join the Isis death cult.
It reveals a level of extreme alienation brought about by a combination of factors that could include internet propaganda, contact with religious extremists and despair over what they view as this country’s anti-Muslim foreign policy.
Cameron dismisses the idea that a succession of wars launched against largely Muslim countries and ongoing backing for Israel’s murderous occupation of Palestinian land play any part in fomenting alienation.
For him, the problem is simply ideological “non-violent extremists” who radicalise young people by grooming them and brainwashing their minds.
His stance with regard to Syrians who join Isis is fundamentally different, identifying a materialist basis for their doing so his contention that President Bashar al-Assad is “the chief recruiting sergeant for Isil because of his butchery of his own people.”
Imperialism’s obsession with overthrowing Assad, assisted by funds, weapons and recruits from Nato’s Arab allies, has weakened military resistance to Isis.
There is little use in Cameron wishing for viable governments in Iraq and Syria or anywhere else in the region when it is US, British and French oil-influenced military intervention or support for medieval despots that has rendered it unstable.
His Extremism Bill will not destabilise Britain because the vast majority of Muslims perceive no unbridgeable gulf between their own beliefs and attitudes and those of their non-Muslim neighbours.
However, his half-baked dog’s breakfast of bluster, loyalty demands and ill-thought-through censorship proposals to “put out of action” those who he decides “clearly detest British society and everything we stand for” will not help matters.
What absurd level of supremacist thinking does Cameron’s statement that “our values are so great that we should want to enforce them for all” reflect?
His agenda will probably collapse under the weight of its contradictions, but until then it will aggravate the process of integration in Britain rather than help it.
Personally I concur with the response from Yvette Copper. See link below:
Just wondering how many people had to opportunity to read the full content of the government response to taking extremism if you have not then here is an opportunity to read it. See link below:
Ministers have defended plans to tighten the rules on strike ballots after unions said they would make legal strikes “almost impossible”.
Britain has the most restrictive anti-union laws in Europe.
We cannot accept a situation in which our ability to fight back is prevented in this way. The labour movement must unambiguously call for the repeal of the anti-union laws and advocate a positive charter of rights for workers.
Yesterday(15 July 2015) the government will publish its Trade Unions Bill – a grossly unfair package of measures that will tip the balance of power in the workplace.
The proposals will make getting a much-needed pay rise, stopping job losses or negotiating better conditions at work much more difficult. They’ll make it harder for unions to do their day-to-day job of dealing with problems in the workplace before they escalate into disputes. And they’ll stifle protests against cuts to public services, like closures of SureStart centres, libraries and care services.
It’s a strange choice for the party that wants to position itself as the workers’ champion. Not measures to tackle exploitation at work or boost productivity, but an unnecessary attack on workers’ rights and civil liberties.
It’s also a strange choice of priority with the economic recovery still fragile. Ask anyone running a business and it’s unlikely that messing about with trade union laws will be on their wish-list of things the government could do to help.
The details have been widely trailed, and colleagues will blog on this in more detail when the bill is published.
The thresholds for industrial action ballots have made the headlines, but even when ballots meet the government’s new rules, the bill will allow employers to break strikes by bringing in agency workers. It’s a recipe for chaos – agency workers will be put in a difficult position, and the delicate balance of industrial relations will be irrevocably tipped in favour of employers. Decent employers and agencies are likely to want to keep well away.
The proposals are also expected to restrict and police union members’ rights to peacefully picket. At a time when police resources are already badly stretched, it’s hard to think of a bigger waste of time and public money than looking to lock up peacefully protesting teachers, midwives and cleaners.
If ministers were serious about improving workplace democracy they would instead let workers vote online. In an era of online banking, safe and secure online balloting is a common sense option.
Instead, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the government is determined to weaken trade unions so that they can attack rights, pay and conditions for all workers. Collective bargaining works because both sides have some power – that’s why the vast majority of negotiations result not in strikes but in a deal being reached. And collective bargaining benefits union members and non-members alike.
We will oppose these draconian proposals. Our country has a proud tradition of liberty and democracy – and trade unions are central to that. This year, as we mark the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, that heritage is as important as ever. Our aim is clear: to stop this unfair, unnecessary legislation getting onto the statute books.
Now you have it the Conservative are showing their true colours by attacking our trade union right to assemble for strike action. This smells of Thatcherism returning from the dead in the form of mummy return after 30 years ago when she tried to smash the trade unions for good. Not forgetting that this establishment only received 24% of the vote and their cheek to state that trade unions should get 50% of the vote from trade unionists where is the democracy.
Many trade unions will recall what Thatcherism did to the coal miners, public services, manufacturing and industries across the England, Wales and Scotland. What thatcher did not count on was unity the trade unions was very strong and she used the SAS to infiltrate the picket lines and in some cases joining the police forces to intimidate strikers.
This new legislation is design toughen up the laws on strike action is to be introduced by this establishment is one of the worst we will witness for a decade by introducing a minimum turnouts in strike ballots, time limits on mandates for industrial action and changes to political levies.
It’s no wonder there is two hidden agenda on the plate which is to interfere with internal affairs of Labour Party funding process. The other is to smash the unions in such a way that trade union members will not allowed to withdraw their labor when employers talks break down and makes it easier to employ temp staff to do the job.
Tories are very happy for millionaires and bankers to donate to the coffers of the conservatives with open arms which tantalise to double standards. Some will recall the Institute of Employment Rights was established in 1989 by those concerned about the alarming erosion of trade union rights in Thatcher’s Britain.
Since then governments have come and gone but what remains stubbornly in place is a framework of law that fails to protect workers from exploitation and abuse at work.
Now we face another general election and we need to raise our voice and tell politicians what we expect from an incoming government. To that end the IER has brought together a high-profile platform of policy-makers, trade union leaders and lawyers to set out the basics of a progressive agenda on labour law. There is much common ground, with attention focusing on some of the worst problems experienced by workers in our deregulated, fragmented, profit-over-people, labour market workplaces.
Suggestions include strengthening individual rights. Improving access to justice. Removing the benefit conditions that force people into exploitative jobs in profitable companies.
And it’s not just individual rights.
Thatcher attacked trade unions because she knew the power of numbers and the strength of a collective voice.
Without that collective voice the balance of power swings massively in favour of the employer. The result? The growth in inequality, exploitation and bad employment practices that haunt Britain today.
We know that bad practice trickles down far faster than wealth. Last month Britain was criticised for failing to protect workers against unpaid overtime, unpaid holidays, inadequate rest periods, failure to secure a decent standard of living, failure to compensate workers exposed to occupational health risks and much more.
These are problems that should be dealt with by collective bargaining, setting standards at a national level across all sectors of the economy.
That’s why one of our key demands is for a Ministry of Labour at the heart of government, tasked with giving a voice to the UK’s 29 million workers, both in the corridors of power and in the boardrooms of Britain. The minimum demand of the trade union movement to any government elected in May 2015 should be the following essential reforms. These are the least steps necessary to begin to secure social justice, democracy in the workplace, the reduction of inequality and to increase real wages and so stimulate the economy.
The right to a decent wage and to a decent income for those not in employment
The effective regulation of zero-hours contracts
The right of every worker to be protected by a collective agreement
The re-establishment of sectoral collective bargaining and Wages Councils
The re-establishment of a Ministry of Labour
The right to strike in accordance with international law
The removal of a qualifying period for unfair dismissal
The restoration of redundancy consultation rights
The right to legal protection for everyone who works, regardless of their legal status (‘employee’, ‘self-employed’, ‘agency worker’ etc)
The right of all workers to access to justice, including the abolition of tribunal fees
Intriguingly Secretary General Francis O’Grady comments:
If David Cameron really wants workers to get a pay rise, then he’s got a funny way of going about it. Over the last five years we have seen a sustained attack on workers’ rights and protection at work, including trade unions.
Unions are the last line of defence for workers, so little wonder that that the Conservative Party’s belief in freedom doesn’t extend to us. Far from stamping out workplace abuses like zero-hours contracts and pregnancy discrimination, the government has made it easier for bosses to sack workers and act with impunity.
Employees now have to wait two years before getting protection from unfair dismissal. New charges as high as £1,200 make it impossible for many to take a case to an employment tribunal, even if they would get their boss bang to rights at a hearing.
And now the Conservative Party has promised even more punitive rules for strike ballots, in a naked bid to wipe out democratic dissent and weaken workers’ bargaining power.
This government is fond of telling us that any job is better than no job, no matter how insecure and low-paid, and has handed employers the kind of absolute power that Victorian mill owners once wielded. Workers deserve better.
For a start we need to scrap tribunal fees that price workers out of justice. And we need to get rid of the qualifying period for unfair dismissal — this should be a day-one right.
Second, we need tougher enforcement of workers’ rights. Since 2010 the budgets of enforcement agencies, including the Health and Safety Executive and Gangmasters Licensing Authority, have been slashed. And we must reverse the trend of casualisation that loads the dice in favour of bad bosses. This means paying agency workers the same rate as permanent staff, clamping down on exploitative zero-hours contracts and calling time on bogus self-employment.
Spare a thought for those self-employed City Link workers who found out on Christmas Eve that they were losing their jobs. Many had worked at the company for years but will hardly get a penny in compensation. Meanwhile, the private equity chiefs behind the collapsed parcel carrier expect to walk away with £20 million.
This is why we need stronger unions and collective bargaining in workplaces across Britain.
Only a strong union voice, up to and including the boardroom, will build a more equal and sustainable post-crash economy that benefits the 99 per cent who, after all, create the wealth in the first place.
Unite General secretary Len McCluskey:
This government will leave behind an economy working for a few at the top while offering no hope to millions. Not by mistake, but by design.
More than half of people in poverty in this country are in work. Getting a job no longer means earning a good living; instead zero-hours, under-employment and phantom self-employment mean hard-working people can’t even expect a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.
All this while the corporate elites and our best-known brands refuse to pay their fair share in tax.
People across our nations deserve better. Decent work with a living wage, a secure and affordable home, well-funded public services, an NHS taken out of the grip of private healthcare and a democratic system that gives people a voice in their workplace — not just a vote at election time.
Trade unions are a force for good in today’s society. Now more than ever we need a radical shift in employment legislation that has for decades given a free rein to bosses while workers have seen their rights diminished and trade unions shackled.
The ideologically skewed approach to employment relations of successive governments is at the heart of our broken economy, when in reality there are plenty of examples of where trade unions work positively with industry for mutual benefit — look no further than Unite and the car industry.
Inequality is widely regarded as the most pressing issue facing Western economies — Bank of England governor Mark Carney and US President Barack Obama are only the latest to point out the spiraling economic injustices that are a by-product of the neoliberal experiment.
The proportion of GDP going to pay workers’ wages has dropped dramatically from over 60 per cent 30 years ago to just over 50 per cent today.
And Thomas Piketty has shown that the yawning gap between rich and poor will only get worse without government intervention in the market. The economic crisis of today is not the budget deficit. The budget deficit is, like poverty wages and falling tax intake, a symptom of something far worse.
This government attacks working people and workplace justice; Labour’s answer to the economic crisis must be to empower working people and make work pay. This can only be done with stronger trade unions giving a voice to working people.
The late Tony Benn, a proud Unite member, said that “the crisis we inherit when we come to power must be the occasion for fundamental change — and not the excuse for postponing it.”
I can only echo that call.
UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis:
There is a great deal of common ground about a new settlement of union and worker rights to reverse the decline in living standards of the last 30 years.
Unison supports the Institute of Employment Rights collective bargaining manifesto and from a public service point of view there are three areas that stand out in 2015: zero-hours, care workers, and the public-sector leadership role.
We need some firm and worked out proposals on zero-hours contracts that heavily restrict their usage and prevent easy loopholes like one-hour contracts.
The best proposals we have seen so far are in the private member’s Bill by Ian Mearns MP.
This gives a right to regular hours at three months, employee employment status, payments for standby time and short-notice cancellations and restrictions on employers moving weekly hours up and down.
Of course we need action too on agency workers, tribunal fees and bogus self-employment, otherwise gains on zero-hours contracts will easily be negated.
Unison members working in social care are on the front line facing austerity and casualisation pressures, with 15-minute visiting slots, zero-hours, unpaid standby time and unpaid travel time to the fore.
Report after report shows the quality of care is affected for the elderly and disabled, yet even with a multitude of regulators there has been little impact on standards, with only 15 formal care sector complaints to the government Pay and Rights helpline last year.
What we need — apart from the obvious case for strong trade unions — is the various public-sector bodies responsible for care commissioning to set both employment and care quality standards (such as Unison’s Ethical Care Charter) as adopted by several councils already.
There is a wider public-sector role on pay and conditions, for in-house staff and contractors, and what we would like to see is a return of the “fair wages” clauses in procurement, which were abolished in 1983.
This would see not just a living wage but a range of standards for sick pay, holidays and pensions set by national agreements like the NJC in local government being carried through the procurement process to stop the current race to the bottom.
There would be massive benefits for millions of women workers too as it would be an easy way to transmit proper equality-proofed pay agreements to the wider economy and rebuild our country.
The Tories’ announcement of a new raft of anti-union laws if they win the election in May means that trade unionism is at stake in the period ahead.
The Tories want to atomise the labour movement, because they know we are the most powerful force opposing their plans for more austerity, more privatisation and more attacks on workers’ living standards.
That’s what is behind their plans to introduce stiff ballot thresholds, slash facility time and scrap check off.
Britain has the most restrictive anti-union laws in Europe.
We cannot accept a situation in which our ability to fight back is prevented in this way. The labour movement must unambiguously call for the repeal of the anti-union laws and advocate a positive charter of rights for workers.
Important message to all our supporters of NHS please watch and share widely:
Proud to be born in the NHS comes to mind and why should we not be proud of it. As many will have various experience of the excellent service it provides. Granted there has been some failure in it caused by human errors but those are few compared to the wonderful service it provide worldwide from our well trained NHS staff.
The new age of our NHS trained staff are left with a dilemma of job offer aboard with better pay offer which includes better terms and conditions that entice both our nurses and doctors which recruiting companies are headhunting for them to gain a quick profit which they receive large commission from foreign companies as they only want the best for their service providers from abroad.
Whilst some doctors have started up their own consultancy with specialist skills and they tender their service both in the UK and abroad as they see it as a way forward to provide a decent service.
Our National Health Services (NHS) is at a tipping point with a increase population which brings on added pressure to one part of our NHS. The establishment alleged they have invested more in the service by providing more doctors and nurses.
I’m very clear that our NHS should be free at the point of need and those who can afford to pay for the service should make a larger contribution by paying more in tax. This is not about socialism or capitalism but what is best for our NHS. I’m sure that many would be saying that Nye Bervan will be turning in his grave if he saw what is happening to our NHS. This may or may not be some truth in it as the population continues to grow then it’s the question of which is the best model to serve our needs to improve the service. Feel free to listen to his speech:
I find myself concurring with Andy Burnham proposal about our NHS. See link below:
This may be enticing to some of us but those in the know will state that the service they provide lack investment in real terms i.e. the government should provide more investment roughly in the sum of thirty billion pounds. Some will argue that there should be more downsizing in hospitals and more investments in Care in the Community to provide decent services as the patients knows what is best for them. See link below:
Let’s not forget it was the Conservatives who first closed mental health and learning disabilities hospitals and sold prime lands to the highest bidders during the 1980s this included NHS cleaning services at the height of Thatcherism and Majorisim for which I make no apologies for mentioning it.
No doubt there will be a number of assaults coming from a wide range of political parties trying to put the blame a previous Labour Government for the full scale of implementing PFI on hospitals. Let’s not forget the last days of the Conservative Government left our country in debts and voters could no longer stand by a Conservatives and wanted a change of direction. the ideal opportunity came in 1997 when a Labour government came to power and see some improved our NHS and the said thing was when a Labour government continued with the PFI programmes on our NHS and Highways.
It was refreshing to see Labour calling George Osborne bluff and chasing headlines and ideological assault on working families after he announced the slashing of tax credits in Wednesday’s budget.
The cheek of the chancellor to boasted that his budget would provide a so called new contract for the people of Britain. In a nutshell what he is saying is welcome back to the Victorian times of Britain if you are poor then go to the poorhouse to learn a trade or beg and get arrested.
So the golden boy has seemed to forget that working families on low incomes trying their hardest to do the right thing would be hardest hit.
The office for budget responsibility claim that tax increases would be twice as big as any tax cuts over the course of this Parliament adding that it was a budget chasing headlines to support the chancellor to number 10 Downing Street.
It is widely suggested that as many 500,000 families would lose tax credits under the Chancellor’s plan adding that the so-called budget will expose the skewed priorities and failed to build a more productive economy.
It’s comes as no surprise as Work and Pension Secretary Iain Duncan Smith was jumping for joy in parliament when his chum announced the welfare cuts and his response to the chancellor the budget was a groundbreaking measure he introduced was enshrining the idea that if you work hard you should be rewarded. Well Iain Duncan Smith can laugh now but remember this IDS those who laughs last laughs the best.
Here is a YouTube of all the Labour leadership contenders
Is no further surprise that when the Chancellor of the exchequer and IDS attacks people for no reason other than it’s an evil beast, you put it down. When you have a politician that attacks disabled people and the poor for no reason, you make them Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
Iain Duncan Smith (IDS) decides to close the Independent Living Fund (ILF). This fund helped disabled people pay for visits from professionals to carry out some of the more personal elements of their care. It also gave them the ability to employ staff who lived with them to support them. It helps disabled people to stay out of institutions and live relatively independent lives.
In its final weeks the £320 million ILF paid out an average of £300 a week to approximately 18,000 disabled people, but that’s too much to pay out. Much better to waste billions on some vanity project like a train line or new runway in London.Well, carers have seen similar things done with the “breaks for carers” scheme. That wasn’t ringfenced and there was a huge underspend which mysteriously vanished into someone’s pockets. As a carer I know that getting any assistance from councils can be a long process. Accessing one particular resource took me almost four years of constant fighting
Arranging for councils to take over the payments without ringfencing it?
Then we get IDS deciding to scrap the Child Poverty Act, the mentality behind this being that the numbers of children that are in poverty make the Conservatives look bad and there’s no chance of getting rid of child poverty so the best solution is to hide it. For me I have said that Stephen Timms summed it up: “David Cameron’s government is trying to make child poverty go away by pretending that if you don’t measure it, it doesn’t exist.” IDS’s reply was … well who cares what IDS’s reply was because it will have been lies and smears and misinformation.
Still, he can’t cause more misery can he? Yup, he sure can! It seems the BBC Today programme has a scoop that ministers are reviving a secret coalition plan to cut sickness benefits. It has a leaked Whitehall paper describing the Employment and Support Allowance as a “passive” benefit which does not “incentivise” people to find a job, and proposes abolishing the work-related activity group (WRAG) category. If scrapped, weekly payments would drop nearly £30, bringing it in line with Jobseeker’s Allowance.
Yet again the Tories have managed to cure people with disabilities by cutting vital financial help. What a fantastic political party they are.
So the Conservative Party have got rid of child poverty and cured disabled people by cutting two vital benefits, round of applause for such splendid work. Now all we need is the report on how many people have died after being classed as fit for work, and we all know it will be a truthful piece of fiction, I mean accuracy that hides nothing, honest.
When is Labour going to expose the actions of the Tory government? They can easily counter the Tories’ “Labour are the party of benefits” if they want to or have the inclination. It’s just that Labour seems content to sit on its hands and watch us suffer.
The film Brassed Off tried to show how the last Tory majority government treated our miners. The Mr Chuckles rant seems as relevant now as it was then: “So God was creating man. And his little assistant came up to him and he said: ‘Hey, we’ve got all these bodies left, but we’re right out of brains, we’re right out of hearts and we’re right out of vocal chords.’ And God said: ‘Fuck it! Sew ’em up anyway. Smack smiles on the faces and make them talk out of their backsides.’ And lo, God created the Tory Party.”
It’s very good to note that all four of the Labour leadership contenders have put themselves at odds with the party’s front bench after lambasting the government’s public-sector pay freeze yesterday.
Shadow ministers Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall all launched separate attacks against the four-year imposition of the 1 per cent annual cap that Chancellor George Osborne unveiled in Wednesday’s Budget.
Jeremy Corbyn, who has already vehemently opposed any public pay freeze, told the Star yesterday: “Public-sector workers have been hammered over pay and pension cuts, with threats of future job losses.
I put the challenge to the Conservatives to live on the 1% that our public services workers have to put up with whilst MPs get a 11% pay raise why not donate it to our public service workers now?
So this is what will happen for the next Leader of the Conservatives and Prime Minister George Osborne very soon if David Cameron does not watch is his own back.
Well done to Harriet Harman for her pointing out in reply to George Osborne’s Budget speech that the Chancellor constantly plays politics as part of his campaign to move next door.( Next leader of Conservatives).
It’s no surprise how arrogant Osborne takes pleasure in appropriating the opposition’s slogans, weaving “government for working people,” “fairness,” “one nation” and “Britain needs a pay rise” into his diatribe justifying the Tories’ ongoing transfer of wealth from poor to rich.
It’s no wonder that his cynicism reached its apotheosis when he pretended to have adopted the concept of a compulsory national living wage.
The Chancellor’s supposed living wage will be introduced next April at just £7.20 an hour only for over-25s a mere 50p above the level to which the minimum wage will be raised in October.
The Living Wage Foundation assesses the living wage currently at £7.85 an hour outside London and £9.15 in it. Osborne’s devious trick certainly falls into what Harman calls “his political traps, games and tactics,” but it also exposes the conservatism of the Labour opposition, given that its election pledge offered a minimum wage level of only £8 an hour by 2020.
When a viscerally right-wing Chancellor is capable of outflanking Labour from the left, something is seriously wrong.
Harman’s response to Osborne repeated the same austerity-lite approach laid down by former shadow chancellor Ed Balls and which landed both Labour and Balls in the mire on May 7.
Supporting a pay freeze for low-paid public-sector workers and a benefits cap won’t encourage people at the sharp end that Labour is on their side.
Supporting a pay freeze for low-paid public-sector workers and a benefits cap won’t encourage people at the sharp end that Labour is on their side.
I don’t normally concur with Green MP Caroline Lucas is justified in calling Osborne’s emergency Budget “cruel and counterproductive.”
However her reference to the government’s “already stained record on climate change” is strengthened by Osborne’s freeze on fuel duty and reduction of vehicle excise duty for older, more polluting cars.
This go beyond what is believable that the Chancellor can mouth the words “fair” and “government for working people” when he orders a 1 per cent maximum annual pay rise for public-sector workers and a freeze on working-age benefits for the life of this parliament.
Reducing the current £26,000 benefits cap to £23,000 in London and £20,000 outside will cause dire hardship and lead to many more evictions for families unable to afford their rent.
Such indifference to human suffering, delivered as ever with Osborne’s sardonic grin morphing into a sneer, is typical of a generation of rich Tories who understand class war and wage it with a vengeance.
They portray cuts in personal tax-free allowances and increases in the higher tax band in terms of their effect on people at the lower end, yet the real cash bonanza is for the most highly paid.
For all his “worker” claptrap, Osborne and his colleagues are in office to do a job for their own class.
That’s why, along with income tax changes, corporation tax will be further trimmed from 20 per cent to 19 per cent in 2017 and 18 per cent in 2020, why taxation on dividends is to be cut and why inheritance tax that affects only the top 5 per cent of estates will be relaxed.
The anger and despair that many people, in work or unemployed, will experience because of this vicious and despicable Budget must be turned into action.
It cannot be left to MPs, most of whom see this conflict as a political game.
On Wednesday 8th June 2015 I was down in London with some like-minded comrades watching the television when the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced the budget cuts. I started to reminisce just before the elections when I put a question to a Conservative prospective candidate where were the cuts coming from the alleged budget cuts in benefits she said that “We’re All In It Together” and they had to make difficult choices to implement and that the Conservatives were the only party to be the working people party and they are the party that will save this country.
Then she said that if you vote for Libdems, UKIP, Greens or Labour then your vote goes to the SNP and Labour Coalition. Intriguingly this was what they were they were hoping that is will put off people voting for Labour. This however gave me a sharp chill down my spinal cord as this woman wanted to get elected as a prospective candidate for the conservatives. When I applied more pressure to her to give me a flavor of what is conservatism is all about I can only conclude from her is:
1) Conservative Budget was cut short as George Osborne’s living wage promise was exposed as a cruel “con trick.”
2) It’s no wonder that conservative backbenchers celebrated wildly in the Commons as the Chancellor claimed he was creating a compulsory “national living wage.”
3) In the final announcement of his one-hour six-minute speech, Mr Osborne said all workers over 25 would be paid at least £7.20 from next April. He said it proved the Tories were “the party of the working people of Britain.” But his claims unravelled within an hour when the Living Wage Foundation stated his announcement was “not a living wage.”
4) The rate is significantly less than the £7.85-an hour national living wage set by the foundation, which calculates the “minimum acceptable standard of living.” And even the £9 an hour promised by Mr Osborne by 2020 is less than the current London living wage of £9.15. Responding to the Budget, Living Wage director Rhys Moore queried: “Is this really a living wage?”
“This is effectively a higher national minimum wage and not a living wage.”
5) On London, he said: “These changes will not help the 586,000 people for whom even the 2020 rate announced today would not be enough to live on now.” And he suggested that a real living wage would now need to be raised further because of cuts to child and working tax credit announced by Mr Osborne yesterday. The income threshold in tax credits was slashed from £6,420 to £3,850, while families will no longer receive support for any more than two children.
6) A two-tier benefits cap was also introduced, with families in London limited to £23,000 and those outside just £20,000 down from £26,000. The public-sector pay squeeze was also extended for a further four years.
Labour said the Chancellor had tried to “pull the wool over people’s eyes” by rebranding the national minimum wage a living wage.
7) And the party calculated that almost half the income gained by the poorest workers from the new national minimum wage would be taken away due to benefit cuts. Acting leader Harriet Harman accused Mr Osborne of “playing politics” in her response to the Budget. “Normally it’s government that governs while the opposition plays politics, but this government is playing politics with this Budget,” she told the Commons. “This Budget is less about economic strategy, more about political tactics designed by the Chancellor to help him move next door.”
The Chancellor had used the TUC’s campaign slogan in his speech, saying: “Britain deserves a pay rise and Britain is getting a pay rise.”
8) TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady welcomed the fact that he had “finally woken up to the fact that Britain needs a pay rise.”
But she added: “The Chancellor is giving with one hand and taking away with the other. Massive cuts in support for working people will hit families with children hardest.”
“Unions were also quick to brand the Budget a “beautifully crafted con trick.”
9) As Mr Osborne slashed benefits, he compensated big business with another corporation tax cut. Despite Britain already having the lowest rate of corporation tax in the G20 group of economically advanced nations, the Tories will cut it to 18 per cent by 2020.
10) Don’t be deceived by a minimum wage rise that doesn’t begin to compensate for drastic tax credit cuts or the £30 a week stripped from employment and support allowance. Tax cuts don’t help the 6 million too low-paid to pay tax. Housing benefit cuts will cleanse the poor from the south-east.
This was indeed an “emergency” budget for the poor, for children, for students. Osborne sneered in the Sun that he expected “depressingly predictable howls of protest”. Well, start howling now.
I must admit after the discussion with the Prospective Conservative Candidate i told her that my household a lifelong Labour supporters and will never vote for Conservatives let alone another party as it was obviously she was brave or did not read the sign that said that this household does not vote conservatives or another party.
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