It’s time for Theresa May to recognise the catastrophic impact eight years of uninterrupted austerity has had on local services and communities. By 2020, councils will have lost 77 per cent of their budget, leading to infrastructural and social collapse. We have already seen huge increases in crime, foodbank usage and homelessness, alongside a decline in life expectancy. All are ‘inevitable consequences’ of the cuts. I’m happy to show my unconditional solidarity with 60 other politicians from the West Midlands to write to Mrs May demanding an end to her ruinous austerity. Cuts have consequences and the people have had enough.
So glad that Theresa May has come to Birmingham and is so happy with life that she’s dancing to Dancing Queen while our residents have to deal with the impact of a horrendous amount of public service cuts. I couldn’t give a flying monkeys about her dancing style, I’m sure many people on the poverty line will give her lessons any day, I’d prefer if she actually opened her eyes to what everyone else is seeing. Get real.
Here are my reasons why I will not kiss and go into bed with the Libdems, Tories, and UKIP:
76 residents died Grenfell unnecessarily because the regulations here not adhere to for the tenants’ safety which happened under the conservatives.
The lack of justice for the Windrush Generation thousands of commonwealth citizens were recruited to work in Britain. Under the current Conservative government they are being denied visas, passports and permission to remain. Many BAME communities who served this nation of ours in two world wars and when Britain went all over the world to call on those communities to serve this empire they came with their families to work in our public services they felt a sense of belong now they threatened with deportation.
The continuation of private housing is being used by some unscrupulous landlords to maximize rents and if you can’t pay it’s a case of hit the highway. This government alleges that they are building more housing every year. Frankly this is only for the rich and not for the many but for the few.
The concept of universal credit rolled all the benefits into one sounds like a good on paper but in practice it’s not working and it’s hurting the very people who depends on it. The average working people who are working receives their pay every four weeks under the new benefit system the unemployed receives theirs every five weeks instead of fortnightly. They have to wait six weeks for it to be process in the meantime they can take out to cover it until it reaches your bank account. It’s no wonder why people who are just starting out on benefits felt they are being short changed. On a average month there is 31 days, in some there is 30 days in a month and one month there is 28 days.
Philip Hamilton announced there is more cuts to follow at the Conservative conference see details below:
I must say Bishop Welby hit the nail on the head and I dare anybody to challenge what he said is wrong at the TUC conference as I cannot see the Conservatives or DUP and Libdems putting this into action as the Libdems and DUP have lost credibility by jumping into bed with the Conservatives with their manifesto for the next general elections when it will be called. See article below:
Thousands turn out in Birmingham to demonstrate against the Tory austerity plans as we all know that it is hurting and not working, as there is nothing left for future generations. Rather than running services into the ground we should keep public services public properly funded as a key asset. I fully concur with Sir Albert Bore analysts of the Jaws of Doom on the future of public services and how the delivery of councils has changed see article below:
I’m minded to remind Parliamentarians, Councillors from all the political parties that people felt their vote are taking for granted and they cant see any difference to their pay packets, all they can witness is the cost of austerity, unsympathetic policies and lack of understanding for the plight faced by everyday people is ruining lives. Teenage suicides in England and Wales have increased by 67%, rough-sleeping nationally increased by 169% as trends continue with detrimental increases occurring since 2010. The damaged caused in less than a decade is absolutely staggering. So much for austerity one has to wonder if this government and establishment really care enough for our communities. Is it a case of I’m alright Jack I’m doing well, I don’t really care what happens to you I have a roof over my head and I pay my bills on time, I have a rich wife or I have a rich husband that can provide for me and my family.
The effect of the funding cuts to public service shows itself of a daily basis. Im not at all surprised that both Councillors and MPs regularly have complaints from local residents about prostitution, anti social behaviour, and lower level crime which the police simply do not have the resources to deal with. However more can be done to help their constituency to address this by not paying lip services residents want to see more action by our elected members to improve their quality of life not just for them but for their children’s future.
I say to this Conservative Government until the government starts to recognise the root causes of wastage of food, increase of food prices, food-banks, soup-kitchens, mobile bills for those on contract, utilities bills, and petrol. They should not pay lip services with people’s lives rather than tackling the root causes.
This grieves me my heart to constantly read in all National Press, Opposition Parties, Council Leaders and Think-tanks quotes council bosses in UK say the worst is yet to come in cuts to services as the government further reduces local government funding. The County Council Network predicts unpalatable cutbacks next year as the councils identify at least £1bn savings to plug a £1.5bn shortfall by 2020. It also warns the risk of some councils stripping their services back to minimum core offer is growing.
I must admit I do-not belong to any of the fan clubs within the Labour Party and I will praise the leadership when Labour get its policies right and when they get it wrong I will criticise them over our public services like I have done over the years under the leadership of John Smith, Neil Kinnock, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, and Jeremy Corbyn. I do fancy Labour’s position on Public Services
Let’s talk about Brexit for a bit, as I know you’ve not heard enough about it recently. I know there are some people who voted Leave and as well as people who voted Remain this post is for everyone.
Firstly, let’s be clear, this is chaos right now. Theresa May has finally been told to her face that the EU rejects her plan. We all knew it was going to happen, but apparently she is incapable of taking a hint. She has spent 18 months negotiating with her own party and the DUP about what Brexit should look like, came up with a plan that nobody in her party (or the DUP) liked, and then tried to convince the EU that a plan with details they have said from the start wouldn’t work would actually work. Doomed. Utterly utterly doomed from the start. The only reason she managed to get this far is because the Tories are scared of a Labour led government and they don’t dare challenge her. There is now no credible plan and Macron has told the rest of the EU leaders that after waiting 18 months for the Tory party to finish negotiating with itself, enough is enough and the EU has to put its foot down.
Secondly, the lies about Brexit in the referendum. I’m just going to talk about one the lie told to the BAME community by the Leave: “Vote for Brexit and it will be easier for people from India, Pakistan, and China to get visas, work, marriage, joining family, etc it’ll be easier.” And at the same time the Leave campaign was saying that the UK had too much immigration, and the Tory party still has a policy of slashing immigration to 1/3 of current levels. The Leave campaign won the referendum based on lies, and we can see now that those were lies and can not be achieved.
Thirdly, as many people will be thinking “all politicians lie to win elections” well, in the UK yes, but that’s because our political system is broken and our politicians are crap. It is clear that the Westminster political class have failed. Theresa May became Tory leader because all the other candidates stepped down and she was the best of a bad bunch. The Labour party is internally divided as well, with Corbyn seemingly unwilling to hold the Tories to account on Brexit, and many MPs scared to challenge the government on Brexit because they think their voters will desert them. There is no organised opposition and government is led by incompetents. Our media have the lowest level of trust across Europe and are run by millionaires who believe that their job is to disseminate propaganda, rather than report the news. And the BBC is scared of losing their licence fee income. Our political system is broken and our politicians lie through their teeth because they know the press won’t hold them to account and the electorate have no other options.
The EU has been clear from day one what our options are:
We can stay members of the Single Market and Customs Union.
We can have a Canada+ deal, with Northern Ireland having a special status to stop a hard border.
The EU has been clear that they can not permit the integrity of the Single Market to be threatened – this is not being stubborn, instead comes from a clear understanding that the Single Market must survive intact and there can be no cherry-picking of elements of it. The EU can not compromise because it would lead to the Single Market starting to unravel. Those two choices offered by the EU are both still open, but Theresa May has refused to accept them.
So we have a situation now where:
(1) We are 6 months away from the Article 50 deadline, with no alternative plan to the one just rejected (David Davis’ plan that he was working on hasn’t appeared).
(2) Our government is incompetent, led by a PM who refuses to compromise and faced by an opposition leader who doesn’t want to hold the government to account on Brexit. Neither of those leaders look like changing in the near future, nor is it clear who would replace them.
(3) Our government is propped up by the DUP, who will never accept the sensible option of giving Northern Ireland a special economic settlement with the EU (although they are happy with the special social policy settlement that Northern Ireland has).
(4) We have a media who demonise the EU to the extent that even people who voted Remain believe that the EU is failing to compromise. This is not true. I can not repeat this enough it is not true. The EU is protecting the integrity of the Single Market and the leaders of the member states are all on agreement on that point.
This is not a recipe for the careful political debate and compromise necessary to reach a Brexit agreement that the EU can sign up to. British politics has failed and because of that, there will be no agreement reached with the EU. We are incapable of making the hard choices necessary to achieve that we have spent the last 18 months locked in internal negotiations and we have failed to come to a decision without any internal agreement, there can be no possibility of negotiating externally.
Whether you voted Leave or Remain, you have to understand this the UK is incapable of carrying through on the results of the 2016 referendum.
That leaves us with two choices:
(1) Cancel Article 50 and accept that the UK will not leave the EU.
(2) Crash out of the EU with no deal and cause huge damage to the British economy.
The extremists and looters are looking forward to the second result Tory MPs who want to turn us into a tax haven beholden to money syphoned through corruption out of Russia and China. But crashing out will hit us harder than the 2008 global crash, and we have no Gordon Brown to stabilise the banking system this time.
Cancelling Article 50 is the only sensible way forward, if only because of how broken the UK’s political system is.
See some of the article which makes the cases why this government must change directions:
‘Rise like Lions after slumber In unvanquishable number— Shake your chains to earth like dew Which in sleep had fallen on you— Ye are many—they are few.’
I had fond memories of one of my uncles who would take a book of the self, the book was full of dust he would clean the cover of the book with a clean cloth then he would sit us down to read the poem.
Andy Howe sums it eloquently in his article in Labour Uncut about high Labour expectations http://labour-uncut.co.uk/2017/06/28/expectations-for-labour-are-high-policy-is-the-way-for-jeremy-corbyn-to-meet-them/
Tories voted against Labour amendment to stop cuts to police, firefighters and paramedics and to end the pay cap on public sector workers including nurses. The Tories and DUP cronies got their majority to block Labour. Result – 309 – 323 (Majority 14) These Tories are not worthy of your vote and their words mean nothing to our brave firefighters, police, paramedics, nurses and public sector workers, next time the Tories seek your vote use every opportunity remind them of our public sector workers. Remember when Theresa May told a struggling nurse there was no ‘magic money tree?’
The Prime Minister has scraped together £1bn to spend on a deal with the DUP – but just 24 days ago she told a struggling nurse money doesn’t grow on trees
In the closing days of the election campaign, Theresa May told anyone who would listen that there was no ‘magic money tree’.
Some noted that the Prime Minister appears to have found one, because she’s managed to scrape together £1 billion to help her cling on to power.
She’s promised the DUP vast sums of cash to spend on projects in Northern Ireland, in return for which they’ve promised to prop up her minority government.
But just 24 days ago, she told a struggling nurse – who had seen real terms pay cuts for eight years – there was “no magic money tree.”
During a special edition of BBC Question Time, the nurse asked the Prime Minister: “My wage slips in 2009 reflect exactly what I see today – so how can that be fair in light of the job that we do?”Mrs May replied: “I recognise the job that you do, but we have had to take some hard choices across the public sector in relation to public sector pay restraint.
“We did that because of the decisions we had to take to bring public spending under control, because it wasn’t under control under the last Labour government.
“And I’m being honest with you in terms of saying we will put more money into the NHS, but there isn’t a magic money tree that we can shake that suddenly provides for everything that people want.”
Tory Defence Secretary Michael Fallon denied the Prime Minister telling a struggling nurse that money doesn’t grow on trees was “patronising.”
He said: “She was honest about pay restraint within the NHS.”
He said using the phrase “magic money tree” was drawing attention to the “Christmas tree of presents” inside the Labour manifesto that are not costed.”
Hear Ye, hear Ye, on this day 26 June 2017 Conservatives sold their souls to the devil in return for a sweetheart deal viz Confidence and Supply for the sum of £1b to save face in parliament. Thou art a boil for doing this deal with the Democratic Unionist Party https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Unionist_Party
Thou art right to be outraged at the idea that such nasty, regressive bigots as the DUP should wield disproportionate influence over our government, but while people are waking up to how batshit northern Irish politics is, I feel they don’t realize how neglected and poverty stricken it is. Fully concur that the whole of the UK needs investment in its infrastructure, but it feels like dog-in-a-manger politics to begrudge investment that the poorest region of the UK so desperately needs.
I’m not surprised about May’s disgusting deal with the DUP. She thinks she has hoodwinked us all into believing she thinks that her deal is anything other than a shameful bribery to let her remain in power. £1bn for ten votes! Doesn’t that make you rage. Consider this it cost us around £16.66 for each individual UK taxpayer to fund the Tories clinging onto power. Theresa May said she wants EU citizens living in the UK to stay after Brexit as she announced plans designed to put their “anxiety to rest”. All EU nationals lawfully resident for at least five years will be able to apply for “settled status” and be able to bring over spouses and children.
Those EU citizen who come after an as-yet-unagreed date will have two years to “regularise their status” but with no guarantees. Prime Minister told the Commons that she wanted to give reassurance and certainty to the 3.2m EU citizens in the UK as well as citizens of the three EEA countries and Switzerland who she said were an “integral part of the economic and cultural fabric” of the UK.
However, she said any deal on their future legal status and rights must be reciprocal and also give certainty to the 1.2m British expats living on the continent after the UK leaves the EU. It’s all silent from Tory voters and members are they happy to purchase votes, and that each vote from the DUP to prop up the Tories will cost the UK taxpayer £100 Million pounds to the DUP a BILLION pounds, yes a feckin BILLION pounds that could be used for education, or the NHS, or to invest in this country to get people back to work, and with Brexit coming up don’t we need that money for all of the UK. Tory members please tell us, is all this ok with you lot, and can you confirm that this Is what you voted for. So there is a magic money tree after all, but only if you’re a Tory buying votes from extremists..
One wonder how the Tories would feel if this £ BILLION pounds was going to the EU where at least we get something back for our money..
Honestly, whilst I feel like using stronger language I have to be mindful when a Government abuses its people in this way, a Government is so arrogant with YOUR money, when a Government buys votes for a BILLION pounds with money we so desperately need, when a Government takes the piss like this then there really is no other option, and it will be their own doing. People are sick of this constant abuse of our money by greedy arrogant Tory politicians.
Surely if the Conservative government were being honest and upfront, the other parties would by logic, support their efforts to govern, if it was in the Nation’s interest to do so. What is it that the Conservative minority government are afraid of when roughly half of the population are represented by other MP’s?
Why do they need to ruin their chances of a comeback at a subsequent general election by prostituting themselves to the likes of the DUP-a party known for its links to protestant terrorism in Northern Ireland and for its anti LBG rights and its anti-abortionist views. Even the Conservative leader in Scotland has her reservations because of her own sexuality and those newly elected Scottish MP’s are now going to be in a dilemma when it comes to their government’s need for votes. The SNP will be having a field day with this over the coming weeks and months. It is a well-known truism that the Tories when faced with a problem they just throw money at it. One can see that behaviour in the antics of people like Johnson and other ex bullingdon club boys- I call them boys for that’s all they are in their level of maturity.
To resolve their dilemma at present the money they have slung in the direction of the DUP pales into insignificance when one looks at the amount of money they are going to have to dish out to appease the rest of the mainland populace. Their hope that they can ride out the storm of protests is likely to fail, as the security services, already hard pressed to contain society is bursting at the seams with discontent and skill and manpower shortages.
I expect that during the next few months, if they survive there will be emergency legislation passed and malcontents, disaffected and the like who strongly criticise this cuckoo government will see efforts to close down their avenues of dissent. Corbyn’s popularity has reached the point of no return and as long as he does not fall into the Beatles trap of becoming ‘more popular than Jesus’, his little red manifesto will stand the test of time.
He has some excellent people around him. I watched Keir Starmer yesterday with admiration at how he clinically destroyed the three Brexiteers and how he parried sniping from the tories so that their ammo puffed like damp squibs in the chamber. These people, rather than Labour will now feel the pressure as the Tory controlled main stream media begin their hatchet jobs. Corbyn, being the leader he is knows how they work and is no doubt primed and ready to keep opening that DUP sore until it festers in the body of the Tories and they become too weakened through the political infection that they finally capitulate.
They cling desperately to May’s apron strings but I fear that it will all be in vain as she herself is so weakened by her recent actions following on from flawed decisions. We just wait and adopt a siege mentality and sooner or later we will starve them out.
As you may know, the Conservative Party reached an agreement with the DUP today to ensure that they are propped up and kept in power. This has cost us £1.5bn. Questions need to be answered as to how much Wales will now receive outside of the Barnett Formula as well. It is unfair if one part of the country receives more funds just to prop up a minority government. Tim Connor wrote an excellent article about young people see article below:
Theresa May reminds me of the original song of Don’t Cry For Me Argentina
Wow don’t know, whether to cry or knock my head around a brick wall over Theresa May apology to her cabinet ministers for her incompetence and mismanagement of the election manifesto. This remind me of a song Don’t Cry For Me Argentina.
This is very rich coming from Gavin Barwell “Anger over Brexit and austerity caused the Tories to lose seats and Labour had tapped into concerns about the impact of years of years of public sector pay freezes and that his party must do more to listen to Remain voters concern”. Could this be his retaliation reply for losing his Croydon Central seat.
Got to hand it to May for wittingly delaying the Queen Speech on the grounds of she is afraid of going to the Queen to let Labour to form a government as her on ministers are very desperate to save face by wanting this sweetheart deal with Democratic Unionists Party(DUP).
It’s no wonder why Arlene Foster is alleged to say “deal between DUP and Tories could be a tremendous opportunity for Northern Ireland”. In other words kiss my arise first and give us more money to play with our voters and we will open up the heavens and bring forth rain to save you mam. This will come as no surprise that Scotland and Wales would want to benefit in a similar way for any cash boost as well.
Already we are seeing the cracks unfolded for ex-prime minister Sir John Major to say “he is dubious about the idea and its impact on peace process”.
John Major and Maggie Thatcher who were the former prime ministers were responsible for introducing and action PFI to sell of mental health homes, and hospitals, and ridding the cleaning services in NHS by introducing the private sector into the NHS to do the cleaning of hospital wards.
George Osborne also said “The government not to change its economic strategy after being left without a commons majority. A so-called end to austerity would lead to a loss of economic credibility”.
Cor blimey, I would never in a million years would I have thought that I would concur with the former Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne calling “Theresa May dead woman walking” who now is the editor of the Evening Standard.
David Cameron also said “Theresa May will have to listen to other parties as she reviews her Brexit strategy in the wake of the election. There would be pressure for a softer exit from the EU after his party did not win an election majority.
It’s very noticeable the former heavy weights of frontbenchers in Conservatives are coming out in force shooting warning shots to Theresa May to get her act together. David Cameron who gave the nation the referendum vote and he lost the vote decided to resign from politics and sucking up to EU by informing them he will win the referendum.It is said that a week in politics is a long time. I would like some answers from any Conservative members is what do you think of your dear leader, who is weak and wobbly leader, are you just waiting for the backstabbing Johnson to take the helm which he can always deny as much as he wants. He will still be keeping his eyes on ways how to stab his leader with the handle of the knife from behind the scenes.
What I don’t understand is during the campaign trail your dear leader did not want to have a face to face debate with her equal which made her look like a sausage am I missing something as some of your Conservative Supporters have said quietly that she should resign post general elections?
To put the icing on the cake because of a hung parliament they decided to go into a sweetheart deal with the Democratic Unionist Party(DUP) which already a representative is in Northern Ireland wittingly that the DUP has a anti gay and abortion policies and the Scottish Conservative leader is in panic mode with all the assurances in the world you can’t change a leopard spots it’s like eating very soggy rice.
The tide has turned again we have another hung parliament, Conservatives were eight seats short of an overall majority and they turned to DUP have concurred in principle a confidence and supply deal to support a Tory government. This maybe a conspiracy theory in return it looks like two of Theresa May advisors had to be banished into the wilderness or face a leadership challenge by her ministers.
Forgive me if I have my doubts I don’t have any confidence of a Conservative Government on the grounds of witnessing 18 years of underfunding in our public services and decimation of the manufacturing industries during my teenage years as it was more about loads of money to the private sectors and most of all greed.
Question needs to be answered as to why thousands of votes were not included in the results in Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, have I missed a trick or two or has the constituency have muggings written on their foreheads call me syndical for mentioning it in the public domain.
The Tories are on the ropes nationally and it looks like those who had previously refused to serve on Labour’s shadow cabinet under , are ready to serve now.
I don’t think Conservatives will last for very long it’s just not good enough to say “I got you in this mess and I will get you out of it”. Voters wants to see substances, job security, more investment in public services and local government.
Surely something must be done to address the rating cost of foreign package holidays and imported computer games help to push the UK inflation rate up to 2.9% last month from 2.7% in April. The latest inflation rate is the highest since June 2013, and above the Bank of England’s 2% target. The price of food and clothing also went up slightly but fuel is alleged to have fallen for a third month in a row. The pick up in inflation is likely to continue the squeeze on consumers. Theresa May need to address this urgently as foodbanks, soup kitchens, and homelessness continue to increasing rapidly people want action to be taken and not just giving the talk and not doing the walk.
The Guardian has been doing some analysis of the election result and has found some quite startling things: Labour’s percent of share went up best in areas where the average income has risen the most since David Cameron’s Tories came to office in 2010. By contrast, the seats with the largest falls in income saw the highest increases in the Tory vote. The poorest seats in England saw the biggest Tory advances from 2015. Turnout went up by the most in seats with a higher percent of young voters and students: this explains why Labour took Canterbury (For instance). The education divide is also growing. Labour used to do much better with voters on lower education levels. However in 2010 and 2015, this pattern was reversed, and has continued to do so in 2017. Give credit where it’s due, the Guardian puts it eloquently,” Britain’s class politics has been turned completely upside down in 2017. Wealthy professionals in leafy suburbs have swung behind a Labour leader who pledges to sharply increase their taxes, while it was struggling blue-collar workers in deprived and declining seats who were most attracted by the party of austerity cuts to public services and welfare.”
I would urge the Prime Minister should rethink its Brexit strategy, Social Care, more investments in public and civil services most importantly the disabled, mental health, learning disabilities, young and grey powers following last week’s election. For the PM to survive she should be more open and transparent to our nation if not she will not survive. On saying this I would rather have a Labour Government in power instead of a Conservative who are willing to do sweetheart deals with Democratic Unionist Party(DUP) only time will tell if the prime minister survives.
Here is something we all must be aware of which will make you cringe sitting in the comfort of your settee:
Notice how the establishment has immigration high on their agenda just like UKIP as the chancellor has suggested that foreign students and highly skilled workers. Funny enough this does not surprise me at all. Then the government release a statement stating the opposite by denying it and comes out with they are committed to bring net migration down below 100,000 I can only say that they don’t know what the left hand from their right hand is doing as it is a very sensitive issue to address. Somehow this smacks of Donald Trump by saying that he will build a wall the way to Mexico speech.
Michael Gove has been elected to a key body which will scrutinise the work of ministers in charge of Brexit.
The pro-Leave MP is one of ten Tories elected to the 21-strong Exiting the European Union Select Committee, which will have a wide remit to hold David Davis’ department to account.
This comes just months after Gove was sacked as Justice Secretary in the wake of Brexit.
Eight of the conservatives on the new committee backed Leave. Labour has put forward a team of five pro-Remain MPs, including the committee’s Chair, Hilary Benn, who will have a casting vote.
Along with Gove, the Tory team includes Alistair Burt, Maria Caulfield, Andrea Jenkyns, Jeremy Lefroy, Peter Lilley, Karl McKartney, Craig Mackinley, Dominic Raab and John Whittingdale.
Tory MPs Anna Soubry and Peter Bone were unsuccessful in their bids to sit on the committee.
Labour’s committee members include Stephen Timms, Emma Reynolds, Pat McFadden, and Seema Malhotra.
The committee will be almost double the size of nearly every other Commons select committee, a decision some MPs claim is a deliberate sabotage of its work, as it will be harder to reach consensus.
The SNP is to elect two members to the committee, while the Lib Dems, the Democratic Unionist Party, the SDLP, and Plaid Cymru will each chose one.
A major Lincolnshire employer has announced it is moving its headquarters to Europe as a direct result of the Brexit vote in June.
Anxiety over the cost of a hard Brexit, which would see the UK drifting away from cooperation with the rest of the EU, has compelled Smiffys to open a new headquarters in the Netherlands.
Elliott Peckett, director of Smiffys, said 40 per cent of the company sales go to the European Union, its largest trading partner, and he needs to be prudent. “The Government proclaim that they want to encourage Britain to export, but pursuing this hard Brexit approach has simply pulled the chair from beneath us and left us dangling. The simple answer is that we cannot afford to wait.
“During that time [the negotiating process], not only will Smiffys have lost valuable EU sales due to this uncertainty, as we are already experiencing, but we will have lost the opportunity to have acted to protect what are vital sales to our company. “Moreover, the fact that the pound is now at a 168-year record low against the dollar, according to the Bank of England, sums up the outlook for the UK economy under the approach that the Government are taking on Brexit.” The company, a costume and fancy dress supplier which employs 250 people across its two sites in Gainsborough and Leeds, has been based in the UK for more than 120 years.
Mr Peckett said: “Smiffys have no choice but to protect our business by moving our headquarters to the EU. This will allow us to continue growing our trade to the EU, from within the single market.”
Prior to joining the Single Market Smiffys exported only a tiny fraction of their current sales to the EU.
“Both Smiffys and its European customers were then faced with bureaucratic and administrative barriers, not to mention the costly import duties that our products attracted, making us uncompetitive,” Mr Peckett explained.
“Going back to these times would feel like a step back in time and a lost opportunity to freely access a trading bloc of over 500 million people,” he added.
Another concern for the company is the uncertainty surrounding its workforce as it employs over a dozen European staff.
“All we have heard from the Government is that it is highly unlikely that they will be allowed to stay and work for us. If this is the case, this will remove Smiffys’ ability to communicate as well as we currently do with our EU customers,” Mr Peckett said.
Smiffys’ announcement comes as banks and financial firms warned they could start making decisions to move assets out of the UK as early as 2017if there is no deal in place to maintain their rights to sell services freely across the EU.
Open Europe, which took a neutral stance on the referendum, warned that losing access to the single market could cost banks in the UK as much as £27bn, or a fifth of their annual revenue.
On Thursday, Nicolas Mackel, the head of financial development for Luxembourg, said a string of overseas banks and fund managers had explored moving London staff to the tiny country since the Brexit vote.
A senior Tory ally of David Cameron has suggested that Cabinet ministers and the public who back ‘Hard Brexit’ are “stupid”.
Lord Hill, a former EU Commissioner and Leader of the Lords under the ex-PM, warned that the UK had to decide if it wanted to leave the EU with most of its trade links intact, or preferred to make migration curbs a priority.
“I think we have this kind of false choice in the UK often between ‘hard Brexit’ and ‘soft Brexit’,” Hill told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“I think the choice is between stupid Brexit and more intelligent Brexit and that is what we need to go for.
“My whole approach to this would be that if we approach it in a sensible way, because the European system is a deal-based system, there is more scope for trying to resolve it intelligently than if we go at it in a way where we all end up shouting at each other.”
‘Hard Brexit’ is used in Westminster to describe a clean break with the EU’s single market tariff-free system on goods, while imposing strict visa controls on immigrants. Some MPs suspect that Brexit Secretary David Davis, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and International Trade Secretary Liam Fox are prepared to put the UK on World Trade Organisation tariffs rather than remain members of the EU market.
Lord Hill, who resigned as the EU’s Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union soon after the referendum vote, even claimed that many EU leaders felt Britain was too smart to really quit the EU.
The row came as Theresa May faced the humiliation of seeing Brexit discussed right at the end of a working dinner in Brussels at her first EU summit.
Lord Hill’s remarks followed an outspoken David Davis ( Brexit Secretary) by former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis.
The former member of the left-wing government in Athens told the BBC’s Question Time that Davis was running a “Pythonesque department of exit, staffed by several people of very low IQ”. Lord Hill, a long-time ally of Cameron, announced his resignation from his Brussels post just two days after the Brexit vote on June 23.
His comments today sparked a swift backlash from one senior Tory MP, “Suggesting millions of British voters are ‘stupid’ didn’t work for the Remainers in the EU referendum, did it?
“Lord Hill threw his toys out of his pram in June, preferred to flounce off to make money. Hardly surprising as his EU steer to Cameron was so duff. Would you want strategic advice from him?”
On Question Time, Varoufakis refused to name any Brexit department staffers who might be of low IQ, saying these were already well known. UK establishment Brexit Minister (David Davis) to visit his counterpart Micheal Russell in Scotland what transpired his visit since the vote to leave the EU at the roundtable discussion with business figures. All I can say god help us all. As this is not enough embarrassment now transpired that that there is so much u-turn from the UK establishment’s Brexit secretary any arrangements to leave the EU would be a UK deal.
A former Treasury civil servant (Sir Brian Unwin) has eloquently put it by stating that the Brexit Minister (David Davis) is in cloud cuckoo land if he believes Brexit talks are heavily weighted in favour of UK, the Brexit Minister and other should rein back hard and unconstructive talk. The UK has said it will begin formal talks about existing the European Union (EU) by the end of March 2017.
It is alleged that thousands of High Street pharmacies in England could face closure after ministers confirm plains to after the funding system and make cuts. The Department of Health confirmed that they want to reduce the budget by £2.8 billion a year by more than £2 million over the next two years. It has been suggested cuts on this scale could lead up to 3,000 of the 11,700 pharmacies being closed.
We know that Ice Queen Theresa May is in Brussels to talk about Brexit and she is keeping the cards very close to her chest by giving little information to the 28 leaders. To be frank this leads me to strongly believe that she does not know how to move forward on this. The media and public are more focused on the infighting of Labour Party instead of looking at Conservatives who are also doing their infighting with the likes of the three brexiters who occupy the front benches of government. It is further evident that the establishment wants Britain to be part of EU decision-making until Brexit with our negotiating is completed with the summit affecting all 28 members’ states are being discussed.
Its alleged by a former senior police officer (Peter Sheridan) who is now chief executive at Cooperation Ireland warned that Brexit could lead to civil unrest in Northern Ireland and went further to mentioned about the a fragile peace process with the numerous agreements that made up Northern Ireland’s peace process show the brittle nature of its politics and less than a year ago, both governments had to step in to rescue the executives.
I wholeheartedly support the Welsh First Minister by saying for full and unfettered access to the single market. Leaders of the UK’s devolved governments must not undermine Brexit negotiations. Ice Queen Theresa May has offered the Welsh Government a formal seat in the talks to shape the UK’s EU exit strategy. The joint ministerial council which includes Carwyn Jones and the prime minister, met for the first time since 2014.
It’s no surprise that Ice Queen Theresa May has predicted that there will difficulties ahead with the summit leaders to Brexit. She felt it was like a deadlock over landmark EU-Canada trade deal.
Just when we thought we saw the end of George Osborne was parked to the backbenches and out of sight, he is like the prince of darkness read to take a bite by quoting he made mistakes in EU referendum campaign and failed to understand the anger felt by many leave voters. He went to say many voters felt completely disconnected and don’t feel part of the national economy that worked for them.
Establishment borrowing rose by more than expected to £10.6 billon in September according to figure from the Office National Statistics (ONS). The figure was £1.3 Billon higher than the same month last year. For the financial year to date between April and September, borrowing by £2.3 billon to £45.5 billon.
I support the call from the Local Government Association to hold talks with town hall bosses to give councils more building powers to build houses where they are needed and to be freed from restrictions on ability to borrow to fund new home building which includes powers to replace council homes that are sold off as quickly as possible. I’m not convinced that the establishment will grant it instead they rather give the talk but can’t do the walk, the walk. They rather stick to the line of the government is delivering on its commitment to replace all properties sold on a one for one basis.
Anthony Browne British Bankers Association (BBA) quotes leading UK banks are preparing to relocate amid fears over the impact of Brexit negotiations sometime next year over fears around Brexit and smaller banks could move operations overseas by 2017. Their hands are quivering over the relocation button. He further commented most banks had backed the UK remaining in the EU. The current public and political debate at the moment is taking us in the wrong direction.
It’s about time that Jeremy Corbyn challenged Ice Queen Theresa May over shambolic Tory Brexit by saying the establishment has no plan for UK departure and highlighted for clarity and warned of the effect of Brexit on the border.
Jeremy Corbyn took a swipe at the Prime Minister for her inaction over Brexit by saying that her so-called plan is akin to those Blackadder’s loyal dogsbody Baldrick would have devised.
The Labour leader mocked Theresa May’s “chaotic” lack of strategy by insisting that the hapless BBC sitcom character is the only “great philosopher” whose thinking he could detect in current Tory policy.
Mr Corbyn when he said: “On Monday, you told the House: ‘We have a plan which is not to set out at every stage of the negotiations the details.’
“I’ve been thinking about this for a couple of days. I think when searching for the real meaning and the importance behind the Prime Minister’s statement, you have to consult the great philosophers.
“The only one I could come up with is Baldrick, who says: ‘Our cunning plan is to have no plan.’
“Brexit was apparently about taking back control but the devolved governments don’t know the plan, businesses don’t know the plan, Parliament doesn’t know the plan.
“When will the Prime Minister abandon this shambolic Tory Brexit and develop a plan that delivers for the whole country?”
Ms May suggested it was “interesting” that Baldrick actor Sir Tony Robinson was a Labour member, implying that he had left the party.
Mr Robinson tweeted to confirm that he is still a member after 40 years despite being a vocal critic of Mr Corbyn.
The actor ridiculed the state of government by tweeting: “If [Brexit Secretary] David Davis needs any help with Brexit, Baldrick stands ready to serve.”
Ms May outlined a vague plan for Brexit for which the process is expected to start next March in invoking Article 50.
She said: “We’re going to deliver on the vote of the British people, we’re going to deliver the best possible deal for trade in goods and services with and operation within the European Union, and we’re going to deliver an end to free movement.
“That’s what the British people want and that’s what this government is going to deliver for them.”
So in a nutshell she has nothing to offer and it’s time she changed her tune and come up a Brexit plan.
Hey folks have a listen to this, this will want you to join the Junior Doctors Strike:
Recently the establishment decided to curb charity organisations from using funds they received in the form of grants whilst I have always highlighted this in the public domain and I agree with the sentiment somehow I can’t help but feel this government has a hidden agenda. Ah do I hear people saying. Yes you are reading correct the establishment has got it partly right they do need to close the loopholes from some charities abusing their funding. How do you distinguish which is private funds from private organisations that is the question.
The Tories are using the Trade Union Bill to try and break our relationship. Hidden in the Trade Union Bill is a clause that is deliberately designed to restrict trade unions supporting the Labour Party financially – while doing nothing to limit the hedge funds and millionaires that support the Tories.
The union activists who set up the Labour Party all those years ago did so to ensure working people had a voice in Parliament. The Tories are trying to silence that voice. The Bill is not just an attack on the relationship between the unions and the Labour Party, but it’s an attack on our democracy.
Just like those activists in 1901, we have to pull together as working people to protect our voice in politics. That’s why we’re asking if you could take two minutes to sign and share the petition against the Bill –
Well it’s not surprising from this government that they want to curb trade union funds which has been on the cards for a long time coming. Even during the Thatcher years there were talks of this happening ever since the miners’ strike which was but on the back burner then it came back to life again from 2010-16 under the Conservative coalition and a Conservative Government does this have a familiar echo within the trade union movement.
Now the establishment wants to subsidised rents for households earning more than £30,000, or £40,000 in London, will be scrapped in April 2017.
Social housing tenants will be asked to pay rent at or near market rates.
Ministers say it “better reflects people’s ability to pay” – but Labour and the Local Government Association say it would hit hard-working families.
The department for communities and local government argues that is “not fair that hard-working people are subsidising the lifestyles of those on higher than average incomes, to the tune of £3,500 per year”.
Housing Minister Brandon Lewis said people who could afford to pay more in rent “should do so” – but it would be graded, so that those on lower incomes would not have to pay full market rates.
“We have always said we would consider carefully how much more people pay as they move through the pay scales, once they get over £30,000,” he told BBC Radio 5 live’s Pienaar’s Politics.
He said the government would “listen to what comes in before we make a final decision in the period ahead of us”.
According to the LGA-commissioned study, almost 60,000 households in England will not be able to afford to pay rents at the market rate or take advantage of the right to buy.
Councillor Peter Box, housing spokesman at the LGA, which represents hundreds of local councils in England, said: “Many social housing tenants across the country will be unable to afford market rents or take up the offer to buy their council home under this policy.
“A couple with three children, earning £15,000 each a year, cannot be defined as high income. Pay to stay needs to be voluntary for councils – as it will be for housing associations.
“This flexibility is essential to allow us to protect social housing tenants and avoid the unintended consequence of hard-working families being penalised, people being disincentivised to work and earn more and key workers, such as nurses, teachers or social workers, having to move out of their local area.”
The LGA figures, compiled by the estate agent Savills, show that almost 215,000 social housing tenants will be affected by the “pay to stay” policy.
The policy is expected to save £245m a year by 2019-20, ending a situation where higher-income social tenants benefit from taxpayer-funded subsidies of up to £3,500 per year.
Former head of the civil service, Lord Kerslake, now a crossbench peer, will attempt to amend the housing bill, which is being scrutinised next week in the House of Lords, to place the scheme at the discretion of local authorities.
The peer, who is now chairman of the Peabody Trust housing association, has warned that the proposals were part of a package that could “threaten the future of social housing”.
“When this was originally discussed in the coalition government, it was intended to deal with the very small number of high earners on over £60,000.
“The current proposals will affect a lot more households with earnings of half that.”
Well it likes the Tories out to get David Cameron between the legs and it seems that Tory MP David Davis said news of the proposed in-work benefits ban could encourage workers to head to the UK.
Sir Eric Pickles, a Eurosceptic who supports Mr Cameron’s reform proposals, said action had to be taken to prevent a “new influx” of migrants.
The ban has to be agreed by all EU nations at a summit on 18 February.
It will be graduated, so that the longer migrant workers stay in the UK, the more in-work benefits, such as tax credits, they will be entitled to, in order to top-up their wages. Mr Cameron says the move will “make a difference” to high levels of immigration by reducing a “pull factor”.
But it will have to be agreed by member states, as part of a wider package of reforms to Britain’s relationship with the EU, and will only apply for a temporary period as an “emergency brake”.
If Mr Cameron can get a deal on his reform package in two weeks’ time at the Brussels summit he is expected to call a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU in June.
David Davis, a former Tory leadership contender and leading Eurosceptic, said eastern European newspapers had carried numerous stories about the plan to terminate in-work benefits for the first four years after a migrant’s arrival in the UK.
At the same time, he said, Brussels has suggested the scheme could take 12 months to implement.
“Under such circumstances the incentive for anybody wishing to come to live in the UK will be to come as quickly as possible to beat the deadline when any such restrictions come into effect,” he said.
“Accordingly we are likely to see a surge in migrants in the next 12 months.”
Mr Cameron has suggested the “emergency brake” could come into effect within three months of the UK applying for it.
Eric Pickles defended Mr Cameron’s reform deal, on the BBC’s Sunday Politics, saying: “What we need to be clear is, we’re not trying to prevent people moving inside the European Union.”
The reforms were instead aimed at preventing people gaining “something for nothing” by claiming UK benefits before contributing anything in tax.
But Sir Eric. a Conservative former cabinet minister, said action was needed to prevent a surge of migrants: “Clearly as part of the negotiations we have to ensure that that doesn’t happen.” Meanwhile, speculation is continuing about whether a big cabinet name will lead the campaign to take Britain out of the EU. Other potential Tory “outers” include Justice Secretary Michael Gove and Employment Minister Priti Patel, who have said they will make their position clear when they have seen the final deal.
The hot potato of the day was on Sunday 7 February 2016 on the BBC Andrew Marr Show I did not know whether to laugh, cry or bang my head on the wall like many of the junior doctors when Jeremy Hunt quote that the British Medical Association(BMA) of being “totally irresponsible” over a lengthy industrial dispute. The doctors union had refused to sit down and talk about improving patient care and had spread “misinformation”.
Okay now that I’ve got this out of the way, I say what a load of poppycock or what a load of pile of manure coming out of his mouth. No doubt he is promoting a great message by using spin doctoring to put patents lives at risk and he think we were all born yesterday thinking we all will believe him when he says that hospitals should be open 24/7. Er we all know that hospitals are open seven days a week all year round. Don’t be taken in by this spin doctoring by Jeremy Hunt.
Well Jeremy Hunt to put it in a nutshell it’s okay to put health workers lives in danger by this he pointed the finger at the BMA for the breakdown in negotiations, sticking to the mantra of blaming patient deaths on NHS “inefficiencies,” rather than on the cuts and the need for more doctors and NHS staff — but at the same time he announced some shiny new baubles.
Hunt has continually misrepresented independent studies to claim that the 11,000 extra deaths per year over weekends compared to weekdays is as a result of a “five-day” service and the existence of “excessive overtime rates.”
On the Andrew Marr show he managed to twice misquote the contents of the report while trying to claim he hadn’t been misrepresenting it.
“If the government want more seven-day services then, quite simply, they need more doctors, nurses and diagnostic staff, and the extra investment needed to deliver it,” the BMA retorted correctly.
“Rather than addressing these issues, Jeremy Hunt is instead ploughing ahead with proposals that are unfair and could see many junior doctors voting with their feet.”
The cornerstone of his new strategy appears to be the announcement of a fresh round of investment into upgrading and “modernising” the NHS’s IT infrastructure.
Workers are well inoculated to “modernisation” programmes being used as cover for a fresh round of public money being forked over to the usual rogues’ gallery of privateers — an alarming number of which have former government ministers on their boards.
But the potential for abuse and massive waste of expenditure without any substantial improvements is rife, particularly if it’s left to the usual PFI which was introduce by the Conservatives in 1992 under John Major or PF2 as the government has now rebranded them contractors to deliver.
When the Labour Government came to power in 1997 it continued with the Tory’s PFI project NHS programme for IT provides a stark example. It took nearly seven years to complete at a cost of an estimated £10 billion most of which was pocketed by IT companies and PFI specialists before finally being abandoned.
But the Tories themselves already have form in this particular area. Under the coalition government, they attempted to introduce their own version of the NHS programme for IT in 2013.
The then health secretary claimed that the goal was to “go paperless across the NHS by 2018.”
The first element of this, the care.data project which aimed at creating a national database of health records that could be shared across the NHS in England, was quietly dropped in the run-up to the last general election after two years of failing to address critical concerns of campaigners and health professionals.
It was their steadfast refusal to drop the selling of this information on to the private sector that killed off this potentially life-saving project.
Lest we forget, the then health secretary in 2013 is the same as the current one — Jeremy Hunt.
But perhaps poor old Jeremy is suffering from a dose of selective amnesia due to the strain he’s been put under over the last few months and forgotten this.
Selected patient information is already made available to certain private medical research companies through the Health and Social Care Information Centre by many NHS trusts, raising questions about data security.
Aggregating of information and data mining have become a booming international market worth billions. And these are far from shadowy companies operating on the fringes of legality. One of the most notorious British-based data miners, Dunnhumby, is owned by Tesco.
The Tories’ unswerving commitment to the neoliberal mantra of “private good, public bad” will ensure that this latest programme is doomed before it begins.
Now that I have got all this my chest i urge all to join the Junior Doctors strike on 10 Feb 2016.
I decided to use two youtube to show what the knock on affect that can persuade a Member of Parliament to vote for and against to war:
The decision to use bombs from the air is not an easy one and dear I say it, it’s up to all MPs to vote on their
Now we know what the vote is and for those who don’t know here it is:
The amendment resolution to parliament results as follow:
Ayes: 211
Noes: 390
Government Motion
Ayes:397
Noes: 223
I would like to make it very clear that I hold no malice against any of our Labour Member Of Parliament (MP) who voted for and against the ISIS as it was a free vote and they will have to justify the decision to their constituents. There is doubt the tone of language that David Cameron has alleged to use Terrorist Sympathisers does not help the situation. The words alleged Terrorist Sympathisers is unbecoming of the Prime Minister and he should make a public apology to the house. On saying this I concur that the Conservatives should have allowed a free vote on bombing of ISIS too.
No Member Of Parliament can be deselected on a vote which was decided by the party leader to be a ‘free vote’. The term ‘free’ means it isn’t whipped, therefore MPs can vote how they like. Sick to the back teeth of seeing people with no knowledge of our party, attacking MPs for doing what their conscious believes to be right. You don’t have to agree with them, but at least have an adult debate, not behaving like squabbling children because something hasn’t gone the way you’d like and then threaten de-selection on grounds that don’t exist. Also before anyone starts, I would have probably voted against strikes, but it doesn’t mean I don’t understand the views of those MPs who voted for. It’s called democracy.
After listening and lobbying various Parliamentarians both from the past and present I sense that there was an atmosphere between the Conservatives and Labour this is the worst kind of politics I’ve come across in a long time. Whatever I may think of both of the Leader of Labour Party or The Leader of Conservatives I can concur that there are personal circumstances that I’m against the bombing in Syria which I will not go into it.
The bombing of ISIS has gone up a notch with UK playing its part with the coalition forces. What comes to mind is:
1) What is the long term solution to Syria in the event of Assad stepping down to allow free democratic elections?
2) Will this be another mess left by the coalition like what they did in Afghanistan, and Iraq where the rebels or only for another Jihadist group and taking control of both countries as the coalition leaves Syria?
I had long put the argument that the Middle East has to take a bigger role by helping its allies to provide ground troops on their soil with European arm forces to provide them with training and not providing weapons. I’m sure that lessons has or should have been learned if you provide the weapons to the rebel forces they will use it our arm forces or sell the weapons on to their enemies this is what happened the last time around.
Lastly, frankly I’m fed up with people who spent years campaigning against Labour, stood against our candidates or voted for other parties now trying to dictate who should or should not be a Labour Party member. They are demanding we think their way or else using the old Sid Spart agit-prop technique of trying to drown out and intimidate voices who disagree with their warmed over and orchestrated cant. Yeah! How many Socialist Party or TUSC MP’s or Councillors have you had elected or is the re-education of the Proletariat behind schedule?
Who remembers the good old days of thatcher and major governments during the 1970-1997 when the government did their very best to smash the trade unions during the coal miners’ strike.
You forgive me for being a very old fart or loony left for bearing the scares of Thatcher, Major and Cameron establishment on my shoulders.
This is what they through would make them very popular as they said it would stop wildcat strike. What the milk snatcher(Maggie Thatcher) did during that time was to provoke the strike by intimidating the strikers by forcing the police to arrest peaceful demonstrators on the picket lines coupled by bring in undercover solders to work alongside the police force to enforce their will.
Just when the government of the time thought that they did enough to smash the trade unions the Conservatives failed to comprehend by their actions that it made the trade unions even stronger by uniting the trade union movement which saw mergers of trade unions with more bargaining powers in the workplace.
The only concern that the Conservatives have is their paymasters (millionaire donors) have demanded they take action against the tube strikers, public sector workers via the trade unions reform.
So it’s no wonder the conservatives are proposing a new laws and defend their argument by tightening strike ballot rules and the cheek of business secretary Sajid Javid to state that this was “not a declaration of war” on unions or an “attack on the rights of working people”.
He said that it was necessary to stop “endless” threat of industrial action.
This nothing more than the Conservatives to abuse parliamentary powers to stop the trade unions exercising their rights to peaceful assembly and more importantly to isolate Labour Party receiving political funding from the trade unions who are affiliated to our party. For this reason the Parliamentary Labour Party must opposite it and they should put their case to other likeminded people to oppose before it becomes law.
Olde ye olde ye the Tories are so desperate that they have decided to launch their own trade union called Conservatives Workers and Trade Union Movement. Not only this laughable one wonders if the conservatives have a change of heart and decided to hoodwink people that they are the party of working people.
Call me a old fart or a loony left if you wish, this is no coincidence that the nasty establishment wants to attack our Human Rights Act which goes in hand and heart of the Trade Union Rights and Equality Act by watering it down with no teeth or backbone to them. Just look at what they have done to SureStart, School Meals, public services, NHS Workers rights junior doctors and Welfare.
It is purported that the bedroom tax is but one tiny part of welfare. People don’t understand welfare, and the Tories have been allowed to frame the wider debate in terms of ‘scroungers vs strivers’, and ‘welfare recipients are lazy and need to be given less hand-outs’. It’s further purported that Labour barely raised an argument to any of this; on the welfare cap,on the causes of the high welfare bill (low wages, high rents etc), on young people claiming etc. It’s all well and good raising it in parliament (and I don’t doubt the conviction of those that or so), but that doesn’t matter a jot if the public have been convinced that the Tory argument is the right argument, and they do because Labour rarely bother opposing them in public. Most of the time they’re tripping over themselves to agree with them in the press. Labour had their biggest successes when they took the argument loudly and passionately to the Tories, such as the Bedroom Tax, and Tax Credit. That’s because people respond to passionate, evidence based debates.
Unsurprisingly, many of the key areas that caused Labour to fail amongst voters; trust on the economy, welfare, immigration, etc; were the exact same areas in which we’d allowed the Tories to dominate and frame the debate, putting up almost no positive, progressive defence. I would argue there is two sides of the coin. Yes there were times the message were not getting through this is because when Labour tried to promote the message the press, social media, and television are more interested in personality contest rather than substance. The second part of this story is when in opposition it can be hard to put forward and gain enough support to get the motion through the house as any opposition party will inform you even if you get likeminded MPs to support the motion it’s still not enough votes to overrun the establishment.
Here is our leader of Labour Party:
Granted Labour is a broad church and there are times members will disagree without prejudice on policies which is healthy for the party as it stimulates debates. As soon as the new leader got elected what does the Conservative Government does introduce in parliament a bill.
Then if this is not bad enough the conservatives accuses Jeremy Corbyn of a national security against the economy and to the nation without justification for their reasoning. They have the cheek to say they (Conservatives) are the party for the working people and the poor.
Please lobby your Member Of Parliament (MP) to vote against Trade Union Reform and Welfare Reform Bill.
Those with very short memories who want to misrepresent Labour Party here is what the Shadow Chancellor and Leader of Labour had to say:
John McDonnell’s speech to the Labour party conference:
I warn you this is not my usual rant, they get me into trouble and I’ve promised. Jeremy told me to behave myself.
Jeremy and I sat down at the beginning of his campaign for the Labour leadership to discuss what they call the strap line for his campaign leaflets and posters.
We came up with the strapline you see now.
Straight talking, honest politics.
It just embodied for me what Jeremy Corbyn is all about.
So in the spirit of straight talking, honest politics.
Here’s some straight talking.
At the heart of Jeremy’s campaign, upon which he received such a huge mandate, was the rejection of austerity politics.
But austerity is just a word almost meaningless to many people.
What does it actually mean?
Well, for Michael O’Sullivan austerity was more than a word.
Michael suffered from severe mental illness.
He was certified by his GP as unable to work but despite the evidence submitted by 3 doctors, he was assessed by the company given the contract for the work capability assessment as fit for work.
Michael killed himself after his benefits were removed.
The coroner concluded his death was a direct result of the decision in his case.
I don’t believe Michael’s case stands alone.
I am grateful to Michael’s family for allowing me to mention him today.
I send them, I am sure on behalf of all us here, our heartfelt sympathy and condolences.
But also I want them to know that this party, when we return to Government, will end this brutal treatment of disabled people.
Austerity is also not just a word for the 100,000 children in homeless families who tonight will be going to bed not in a home of their own but in a bed and breakfast or temporary accommodation.
On behalf of this party I give those children my solemn promise that when we return to government we will build you all a decent and secure home in which to live.
Austerity is not just a word for the women and families across the country being hit hardest by cuts to public services.
Women still face an average 19.1 per cent pay gap at work.
Labour will tackle the pay gap, oppose the cuts to our public services and end discrimination in our society.
Whenever we cite examples of what austerity really means the Conservatives always argue that no matter what the social cost of their austerity policies, they are necessary to rescue our economy.
Let’s be clear. Austerity is not an economic necessity, it’s a political choice.
The leadership of the Conservative Party made a conscious decision six years ago that the very richest would be protected and it wouldn’t be those who caused the economic crisis, who would pay for it.
Although they said they were one nation Tories, they’ve demonstrated time and time again, they don’t represent one nation, they represent the 1 per cent.
When we challenge their austerity programme, the Conservatives accuse us of being deficit deniers.
Let me make this absolutely clear.
Of course we accept that there is a deficit but we will take no lessons from a chancellor who promised to wipe out the deficit in one Parliament but didn’t get through half.
Who promised to pay down the debt but has increased it by 50 per cent.
I tell you straight from here on in Labour will always ensure that this country lives within its means.
We will tackle the deficit but this is the dividing line between Labour and Conservative.
Unlike them, we will not tackle the deficit on the backs of middle and low earners and especially by attacking the poorest in our society.
We have always prided ourselves on being a fair and compassionate people in this country and we are.
We will tackle the deficit fairly and we can do it.
Here’s how.
We will dynamically grow our economy.
We will strategically invest in the key industries and sectors that will deliver the sustainable long term economic growth this country needs.
Economic growth that will reach all sections, all regions and all nations of our country.
And I meant it.
I was devastated by Labour’s losses in Scotland.
The SNP has now voted against the living wage, against capping rent levels and just last week voted against fair taxes in Scotland to spend on schools.
So here is my message to the people of Scotland:
Labour is now the only anti-austerity party.
Now’s he time to come home.
We will halt the Conservative tax cuts to the wealthy paid for by cuts to families income.
Three weeks ago we saw one of the starkest examples of the difference between us and the Conservatives.
The Conservatives cut tax credits to working families to pay for a multi billion pound cut in inheritance tax.
Families who had done everything asked of them.
Working hard but dependent on tax credits to make up for low pay.
They will have £1300 taken from them to pay for a tax cut to the wealthiest 4 per cent of the population.
The Conservatives argued that they’d introduced a so called living wage to make up for the tax credit cut.
But we all know that it was neither a living wage nor according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies did it make up for the amount families lost.
I tell you now, when we return to office, we will introduce a real living wage.
Labour’s plan to balance the books will be aggressive.
We will force people like Starbucks, Vodafone, Amazon and Google and all the others to pay their fair share of taxes.
Let me tell you also, there will be cuts to tackle the deficit but our cuts will not be the number of police officers on our streets or nurses in our hospitals or teachers in our classrooms.
They will be cuts to the corporate welfare system.
There will be cuts to subsidies paid to companies that take the money and fail to provide the jobs.
Cuts to the use of taxpayers’ money subsidising poverty paying bosses.
Cuts to the billion pound tax breaks given to buy to let landlords for repairing their properties, whether they undertake the repairs or not.
And cuts to the housing benefit bill when we build the homes we need and control exorbitant rents.
Where money needs to be raised it will be raised from fairer, more progressive taxation. We will be lifting the burden from middle and low-income earners paying for a crisis they did not cause.
If we inherit a deficit in 2020, fiscal policy will be used to pay down the debt and lower the deficit but at a speed that does not put into jeopardy sustainable economic growth.
We’ll use active monetary policy to stimulate demand where necessary.
We’ll also turn the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills into a powerful economic development department, in charge of public investment, infrastructure planning and setting new standards at work for all employees.
This is a radical departure not just from neoliberalism but from the way past administrations tried to run the economy.
Why?
Well we just don’t think the current model can deliver.
We don’t think that destroying industries and then subsidising a low pay economy through the tax system is a good idea.
But our radicalism, it comes with a burden.
We need to prove to the British people we can run the economy better than the rich elite that runs it now.
That’s why today I have established an Economic Advisory Committee to advise us on the development and implementation of our economic strategy.
We will draw on the unchallengeable expertise of some of the world’s leading economic thinkers including Joseph Stiglitz, Thomas Piketty, Professor Mariana Mazzucato, Simon Wren Lewis, Ann Pettifor and former member of the Bank of England Monetary Committee, David Blanchflower and many, many others drawn in for their specialist knowledge.
I give you this undertaking that every policy we propose and every economic instrument we consider for use will be rigorously tested to its extreme before we introduce it in government.
And we will demand that the Office of Budget Responsibility and the Bank of England put their resources at our disposal to test, test and test again to demonstrate our plans are workable and affordable.
These bodies are paid for by taxpayers and therefore should be accessible to all parties represented in Parliament.
In government we will establish and abide by that convention.
The foundation stones of our economic policy are prosperity and social justice.
We will create what Mariana Mazzucato describes as the entrepreneurial state.
A strategic state works in partnership with businesses, entrepreneurs and workers to stimulate growth.
Government’s role is to provide the opportunity for massive advances in technology, skills and organisational change that will drive up productivity, create new innovative products and new markets.
That requires patient long term finance for investment in research from a effectively resourced and empowered national investment bank.
A successful and fair economy cannot be created without the full involvement of its workforce.
That’s why restoring trade union rights and extending them to ensure workers are involved in determining the future of their companies is critical to securing the skills, development and innovation to compete in a globalised economy.
We will promote modern alternative public, co-operative, worker controlled and genuinely mutual forms of ownership.
At this stage let me say that I found the Conservatives rant against Jeremy’s proposal to bring rail back into public ownership ironic when George Osborne was touring China selling off to the Chinese State Bank any British asset he could lay his hands on.
It seems the state nationalising our assets is ok with the Tories as long as it’s the Chinese state or in the case of our railways the Dutch or French.
Institutional change has to reflect our policy change.
I want us to stand back and review the major institutions that are charged with managing our economy to check that they are fit for purpose and how they can be made more effective.
As a start I have invited Lord Bob Kerslake, former head of the civil service, to bring together a team to review the operation of the Treasury itself.
I will also be setting up a review of the Bank of England.
Let me be clear that we will guarantee the independence of the Bank of England.
It is time though to open a debate on the Bank’s mandate that was set by Parliament 18 years ago.
The mandate focuses on inflation, and even there the Bank regularly fails to meet its target.
We will launch a debate on expanding that mandate to include new objectives for its Monetary Policy Committee including growth, employment and earnings.
We will review the operation and resourcing of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs to ensure that HMRC is capable of addressing tax evasion and avoidance and modernising our tax collection system.
This is how we will prepare for the future and the day we return to government.
Let me now return to today’s economy because to be frank, I am fearful for the present.
George Osborne fought the last election on the myth that the slowest economic recovery from recession in a century has been some sort of economic success.
In reality the Tories presided over the longest fall in workers’ pay since Queen Victoria sat on the throne.
A recovery based upon rising house prices, growing consumer credit, and inadequate reform of the financial sector.
An imbalanced economy overwhelmingly reliant on insecure jobs in the service sector.
Our balance of payments deficit, which is the gap between what we earn from the rest of the world and what we pay to the rest of the world, is at the highest levels it’s been since modern records began.
I worry that the same pre-crash warning signs are reappearing.
The UK economy is in recovery despite the Chancellor’s policies and not because of them.
You know the narrative George Osborne wanted to present of us this week.
Deficit deniers risking the security of the nation etc.
It was so obvious you could write it yourself blindfolded.
He has brought forward his grandiose fiscal charter not as serious policy making but as a political stunt.
A trap for us to fall into.
We are not playing those games any more.
Let me explain the significance of what we are doing today.
We are embarking on the immense task of changing the economic discourse in this country.
Step by step:
First we are throwing off that ridiculous charge that we are deficit deniers.
Second we are saying tackling the deficit is important but we are rejecting austerity as the means to do it.
Third we are setting out an alternative based upon dynamically growing our economy, ending the tax cuts for the rich and addressing the scourge of tax evasion and avoidance.
Fourth having cleared that debris from our path we are opening up a national discussion on the reality of the roles of deficits, surpluses, long-term investment, debt and monetary policy.
Fifth we will develop a coherent, concrete alternative that grows a green, sustainable, prosperous economy for all.
We are moving on the economic debate in this country from puerile knockabout to an adult conversation.
I believe the British people are fed up of being patronised and talked down to by politicians with little more than silly slogans and misleading analogies.
This is an immense task.
That’s why we need to draw upon all the talents outside and inside the party.
I admit that I was disappointed that after Jeremy’s election some refused to serve.
In the spirit of solidarity upon which our movement was founded I say come back and help us succeed.
We are in an era of new politics.
People will be encouraged to express their views in constructive debate.
Don’t mistake debate for division.
Don’t mistake democracy for disunity.
This is the new politics.
Many still don’t understand its potential.
As socialists we will display our competence with our compassion.
Idealists yes but ours is a pragmatic idealism to get things done, to transform our society.
We remain inspired by the belief and hope that another world is possible.
Friends, thank you so much for that incredible welcome and Rohi, thank you so much for that incredible welcome. Rohi, thank you so much for the way you introduced me and the way our family and you have contributed so much to our community. That was absolutely brilliant. Thank you very much.
I am truly delighted to be invited to make this speech today, because for the past two weeks, as you’ve probably known I’ve had a very easy, relaxing time. Hardly anything of any importance at all has happened to me.
You might have noticed in some of our newspapers they’ve taken a bit of an interest in me lately.
Some of the things I’ve read are this. According to one headline “Jeremy Corbyn welcomed the prospect of an asteroid ‘wiping out’ humanity.”
Now, asteroids are pretty controversial. It’s not the kind of policy I’d want this party to adopt without a full debate in conference. So can we have the debate later in the week!
Another newspaper went even further and printed a ‘mini-novel’ that predicted how life would look if I were Prime Minister. It’s pretty scary I have to tell you.
It tells us football’s Premier League would collapse, which makes sense, because it’s quite difficult to see how all our brilliant top 20 teams in the Premiership would cope with playing after an asteroid had wiped out humanity. So that’s a no-no for sure!
And then the Daily Express informed readers that – I’m not quite sure how many greats there are here, but I think there are three or four – great-great-great grandfather, who I’d never heard of before was a very unpleasant sort of chap who apparently was involved in running a workhouse. I want to take this opportunity to apologise for not doing the decent thing and going back in time to have a chat with him about his appalling behaviour.
But then there’s another journalist who had obviously been hanging around my street a great deal, who quotes: “Neighbours often see him riding a Chairman Mao style bicycle.” Less thorough journalists might just have referred to it as just a ‘bicycle’, but no.
So we have to conclude that whenever we see someone on a bicycle from now on, there goes another supporter of Chairman Mao. Thus, the Daily Express has changed history.
But seriously Conference it’s a huge honour and a privilege for me to speak to you today as Leader of the Labour Party.
To welcome all our new members.
More than 160,000 have joined the Labour party.
And more than 50,000 have joined since the declaration of the leadership and deputy leadership election results.
I’m very proud to say that in my own constituency, our membership as of last night had just gone over 3,000 individual members and 2,000 registered supporters. 5,000 people in my constituency.
I want to say first of all thank you to all of the people of my constituency of Islington North and Islington North Labour party for their friendship, support and all the activities we’ve done and all the help and support they’ve given me in the past few weeks. I’m truly grateful to you. Thank you very much indeed to everyone in Islington.
Above I want to welcome all our new members to this party, everyone who’s joined this party in this great endeavour. To change our party, change our country, change our politics and change the way we do things. Above all I want to speak to everyone in Britain about the tasks Labour has now turned to.
Opposing and fighting the Tory government and the huge damage it is doing.
Developing Labour’s alternative.
Renewing our policies so we can reach out across the country and win.
Starting next year.
In Wales.
In Scotland.
In London.
In Bristol.
In local government elections across Britain.
I want to repeat the thanks I gave after my election to all the people who have served the Labour Party so well in recent months and years.
To Ed Miliband for the leadership he gave our party, and for the courage and dignity he showed in the face of tawdry media attacks.
And also for the contribution I know he will be making in the future.
Especially on the vital issues of the environment and climate change.
Thank you Ed. Thank you so much for all you’ve done.
And to Harriet Harman not just for her leadership and service, but for her commitment and passion for equality and the rights of women.
The way she has changed attitudes and law through her courage and determination. The Equality Act is one of many testaments to her huge achievements. Thank you, Harriet, for everything you’ve done and everything you continue to do.
I also want to say a big thank you to Iain McNicol, our General Secretary, and all our Party staff in London and Newcastle and all over the country for their dedication and hard work during the General Election and leadership election campaigns.
And also to all the staff and volunteers who are doing such a great job here this week in Brighton at this incredible conference we’re holding. Thank you to all of them. They’re part of our movement and part of our conference.
Also I want to say a special thank you to the fellow candidates who contested the leadership election for this party.
It was an amazing three month experience for all of us.
I want to say thank you to Liz Kendall, for her passion, her independence, determination and her great personal friendship to me throughout the campaign. Liz, thank you so much for that and all you contribute to the party.
I want to say thank you to Yvette Cooper for the remarkable way in which she’s helped to change public attitudes towards the refugee crisis.
And now for leading a taskforce on how Britain and Europe can do more to respond to this crisis. Yvette, thank you for that.
And to Andy Burnham, our new Shadow Home Secretary, for everything he did as Health Secretary to defend our NHS – health service free at the point if use as a human right for all.
I want to say thank you to all three for the spirit and friendship with which they contested the election.
Thank you Liz.
Thank you Yvette.
Thank you Andy.
I want to thank all those who took part in that election, at hustings and rallies all across the country. Our Party at its best, democratic, inclusive and growing.
I’ve got new people to thank as well.
The talented colleagues working with me in the Shadow Cabinet and on Labour’s front bench.
An inclusive team from all political wings of our Party.
From every part of our country.
It gives us the right foundation for the open debate our Party must now have about the future.
I am not leader who wants to impose leadership lines all the time.
I don’t believe anyone of us has a monopoly on wisdom and ideas – we all have ideas and a vision of how things can be better.
I want open debate in our party and our movement.
I will listen to everyone.
I firmly believe leadership is about listening.
We will reach out to our new members and supporters.
Involve people in our debates on policy and then our Party as a whole will decide.
I’ve been given a huge mandate, by 59 per cent of the electorate who supported my campaign. I believe it is a mandate for change.
I want to explain how.
First and foremost it’s a vote for change in the way we do politics.
In the Labour Party and in the country.
Politics that’s kinder, more inclusive.
Bottom up, not top down.
In every community and workplace, not just in Westminster.
Real debate, not necessarily message discipline all the time.
But above all, straight talking. Honest.
That’s the politics we’re going to have in the future in this party and in this movement.
And it was a vote for political change in our party as well.
Let me be clear under my leadership, and we discussed this yesterday in conference, Labour will be challenging austerity.
It will be unapologetic about reforming our economy to challenge inequality and protect workers better.
And internationally Labour will be a voice for engagement in partnership with those who share our values.
Supporting the authority of international law and international institutions, not acting against them.
The global environment is in peril.
We need to be part of an international movement to cut emissions and pollution.
To combat the environmental danger to our planet.
These are crucial issues. But I also want to add this.
I’ve been standing up for human rights, challenging oppressive regimes for 30 years as a backbench MP.
And before that as an individual activist, just like everyone else in this hall.
Just because I’ve become the leader of this party, I’m not going to stop standing up on those issues or being that activist.
So for my first message to David Cameron, I say to him now a little message from our conference, I hope he’s listening – you never know:
Intervene now personally with the Saudi Arabian regime to stop the beheading and crucifixion of Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, who is threatened with the death penalty, for taking part in a demonstration at the age of 17.
And while you’re about it, terminate that bid made by our Ministry of Justice’s to provide services for Saudi Arabia – which would be required to carry out the sentence that would be put down on Mohammed Ali al-Nimr.
We have to be very clear about what we stand for in human rights.
A refusal to stand up is the kind of thing that really damages Britain’s standing in the world.
I have huge admiration for human rights defenders all over the world. I’ve met hundreds of these very brave people during my lifetime working on international issues. I want to say a special mention to one group who’ve campaigned for the release of British resident Shaker Aamer from Guantanamo Bay.
This was a campaign of ordinary people like you and me, standing on cold draughty streets, for many hours over many years.
Together we secured this particular piece of justice.
That’s how our human rights were won by ordinary people coming together. Ordinary people doing extraordinary things – that is how our rights and our human rights have been won.
The Tories want to repeal the Human Rights Act and some want leave the European convention on Human Rights.
Just to show what they’re made of, their new Trade Union Bill which we’re opposing very strongly in the House and the country, is also a fundamental attack on human rights and is in breach of both the ILO and the European Convention on Human Rights.
Now I’ve been listening to a lot of advice about how to do this job.
There’s plenty of advice around, believe me.
Actually I quite like that. I welcome that.
I like to listen to advice, particularly the advice which is unwelcome. That is often the best advice you get. The people that tell you, “yes, you’re doing great, you’re brilliant, you’re wonderful”. Fine. Thank you, but what have I got wrong? “Oh, I haven’t got time for that.”
I want to listen to people.
But I do like to do things differently as well.
I’ve been told never to repeat your opponents’ lines in a political debate.
But I want to tackle one thing head on.
The Tories talk about economic and family security being at risk from us the Labour party, or perhaps even more particularly, from me.
I say this to them. How dare these people talk about security for families and people in Britain?
Where’s the security for families shuttled around the private rented sector on six month tenancies – with children endlessly having to change schools?
Where’s the security for those tenants afraid to ask a landlord to fix a dangerous structure in their own homes because they might be evicted because they’ve gone to the local authority to seek the justice they’re entitled to?
Where’s the security for the carers struggling to support older family members as Tory local government cuts destroy social care and take away the help they need?
Where’s the security for young people starting out on careers knowing they are locked out of any prospect of ever buying their own home by soaring house prices?
Where’s the security for families driven away from their children’s schools, their community and family ties by these welfare cuts?
Where’s the security for the hundreds of thousands taking on self-employment with uncertain income, no sick pay, no Maternity Pay, no paid leave, no pension now facing the loss of the tax credits that keep them and their families afloat?
And there’s no security for the 2.8 million households in Britain forced into debt by stagnating wages and the Tory record of the longest fall in living standards since records began.
And that’s the nub of it.
Tory economic failure.
An economy that works for the few, not for the many.
Manufacturing still in decline.
Look at the Tory failure to intervene to support our steel industry as the Italian government has done.
So, as we did yesterday in conference, we stand with the people on Teesside fighting for their jobs, their industry and their community. The company has said that it will mothball the plant and lay the workers off, therefore it is not too late now, again, to call on the Prime Minister even at this late stage, this 12th hour, to step in and defend those people, like the Italian government has done. Why can’t the British government? What is wrong with them?
There’s an investment crisis.
Britain at the bottom of the international league on investment.
Just below Madagascar and just above El Salvador. So we’re doing quite well!
Britain’s balance of payment deficit £100 billion last year.
Loading our economy and every one of us with unsustainable debt for the future.
And the shocks in world markets this summer have shown what a dangerous and fragile state the world economy is in.
And how ill prepared the Tories have left us to face another crisis.
It hasn’t been growing exports and a stronger manufacturing sector that have underpinned the feeble economic recovery.
It’s house price inflation, asset inflation, more private debt.
Unbalanced.
Unsustainable.
Dangerous.
The real risk to economic and family security.
To people who have had to stretch to take on mortgages.
To people who have only kept their families afloat through relying on their credit cards, and payday loans.
Fearful of how they will cope with a rise in interest rates.
It’s not acceptable.
The Tories’ austerity is the out-dated and failed approach of the past.
So it’s for us, for Labour to develop our forward-looking alternative.
That’s what John McDonnell started to do in his excellent speech to conference.
At the heart of it is investing for the future.
Every mainstream economist will tell you that with interest rates so low now is the time for public investment in our infrastructure.
Investment in council housing, and for affordable homes to rent and to buy.
John Healey’s plan for 100,000 new council and housing association homes a year.
To tackle the housing crisis, drive down the spiralling housing benefit bill and so to make the taxpayer a profit. A profit for the taxpayer because the benefit bill falls when the cost of housing falls. It’s quite simple actually and quite a good idea.
Investment in fast broadband to support new high technology jobs.
A National Investment Bank to support investment in infrastructure.
To provide finance to small and medium sized firms that our banks continue to starve of the money they need to grow.
A Green New Deal investing in renewable energy and energy conservation to tackle the threat of climate change.
The Tories of course are selling off the Green Investment Bank. They are simply not interested in this.
This is the only way to a strong economic future for Britain.
That’s sustainable.
That turns round the terrible trade deficit.
That supports high growth firms and businesses.
That provides real economic security for our people.
The economy of the future depends on the investment we make today in infrastructure, skills, and schools.
I’m delighted that Lucy Powell is our new shadow Education Secretary.
She has already set out how the education of every child and the quality of every school counts.
Every school accountable to local government, not bringing back selection.
We have aspirations for all children, not just a few.
Now my first public engagement as Labour leader came within an hour of being elected.
I was proud to speak at the ‘Refugees Welcome’ rally in London. I wanted to send out a message of the kinder politics we are pursuing and a caring society we want to achieve.
I have been inspired by people across our country.
Making collections for the refugees in Calais. Donating to charities.
The work of Citizens UK to involve whole communities in this effort.
These refugees are the victims of war – many the victims of the brutal conflict in Syria.
It is a huge crisis, the worst humanitarian crisis in Europe since the Second World War. And globally it’s the biggest refugee crisis there has ever been.
But the scale of the response from the government, Europe and the international community isn’t enough.
And whilst the government is providing welcome aid to the region, especially in the Lebanon, we all know much more needs to be done. Because it’s a crisis of human beings just like you and just like me looking for security and looking for safety. Let’s reach out the hand of humanity and friendship to them.
Now let me say something about national security.
The best way to protect the British people against the threats we face to our safety at home and abroad is to work to resolve conflict.
That isn’t easy, but it is unavoidable if we want real security.
Our British values are internationalist and universal.
They are not limited by borders.
Britain does need strong, modern military and security forces to keep us safe.
And to take a lead in humanitarian and peace keeping missions – working with and strengthening the United Nations.
On my first day in Parliament as Labour Leader it was a privilege to meet the soldiers and medics who did such remarkable work in tackling the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone.
There is no contradiction between working for peace across the world and doing what is necessary to keep us safe.
Today we face very different threats from the time of the Cold War which ended thirty years ago.
That’s why I have asked our Shadow Defence Secretary, Maria Eagle, to lead a debate and review about how we deliver that strong, modern effective protection for the people of Britain.
I’ve made my own position on one issue clear. And I believe I have a mandate from my election on it.
I don’t believe £100 billion on a new generation of nuclear weapons taking up a quarter of our defence budget is the right way forward.
I believe Britain should honour our obligations under the Non Proliferation Treaty and lead in making progress on international nuclear disarmament.
But in developing our policy through the review we must make sure we all the jobs and skills of everyone in every aspect of the defence industry are fully protected and fully utilised so that we gain from this, we don’t lose from this. To me, that is very important.
And on foreign policy we need to learn the lessons of the recent past.
It didn’t help our national security that, at the same time I was protesting outside the Iraqi Embassy about Saddam Hussein’s brutality, Tory ministers were secretly conniving with illegal arms sales to his regime.
It didn’t help our national security when we went to war with Iraq in defiance of the United Nations and on a false prospectus.
It didn’t help our national security to endure the loss of hundreds of brave British soldiers in that war while making no proper preparation for what to do after the fall of the regime.
Nor does it help our national security to give such fawning and uncritical support to regimes like Saudi Arabia and Bahrain – who abuse their own citizens and repress democratic rights. These are issues we have to stand up on and also recognise in some cases they are using British weapons in their assault on Yemen. We have got to be clear on where our objectives are.
But there is a recent object lesson in how real leadership can resolve conflicts, prevent war and build real security.
It’s the leadership, the clever and difficult diplomacy that has been shown by Barack Obama and others in reaching the historic deal with Iran. A deal that opens the way for new diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict in Syria.
The scale of the destruction and suffering in Syria is truly dreadful.
More than a quarter of a million people killed.
More than ten million driven from their homes.
I yield to no-one in my opposition to the foul and despicable crimes committed by Isil and by the Assad government including barrel bombs being dropped on civilian targets.
We all want the atrocities to stop and the Syrian people free to determine their own destiny.
But the answer to this complex and tragic conflict can’t simply be found in a few more bombs.
I agree with Paddy Ashdown when he says that military strikes against Isil aren’t succeeding, not because we do not have enough high explosives, but because we do not have a diplomatic strategy on Syria.
That’s the challenge for leadership now, for us, for David Cameron.
The clever, patient, difficult diplomacy Britain needs to play a leading role in.
That’s why Hilary Benn and I together are calling for a new United Nations Security Council resolution that can underpin a political solution to the crisis.
I believe the UN can yet bring about a process that leads to an end to the violence in Syria. Yesterday’s meetings in New York were very important.
Social democracy itself was exhausted.
Dead on its feet.
Yet something new and invigorating, popular and authentic has exploded.
To understand this all of us have to share our ideas and our contributions.
Our common project must be to embrace the emergence of a modern left movement and harness it to build a society for the majority.
Now some media commentators who’ve spent years complaining about how few people have engaged with political parties have sneered at our huge increase in membership.
If they were sports reporters writing about a football team they’d be saying:
“They’ve had a terrible summer. They’ve got 160,000 new fans. Season tickets are sold out. The new supporters are young and optimistic. I don’t know how this club can survive a crisis like this.”
We celebrate the enthusiasm of so many people, old and young, from all communities.
In every part of the country.
Joining Labour as members and supporters.
And we need to change in response to this movement.
Our new members want to be active and involved.
Want to have a say in our Labour Party’s policies.
Want to lead local and national campaigns against injustice and the dreadful impact of Tory austerity.
Want to work in their local communities to make people’s lives better.
They don’t want to do things the old way.
Young people and older people are fizzing with ideas. Let’s give them the space for that fizz to explode into the joy we want of a better society.
They want a new politics of engagement and involvement.
Many of them are already active in their communities, in voluntary organisations, in local campaigns.
And we’ve convinced them now to take a further step and join our Labour Party.
What a tremendous opportunity for our Labour Party to be the hub of every community.
The place where people come together to campaign.
To debate, to build friendships, to set up new community projects.
To explain and talk to their neighbours about politics, about changing Britain for the better.
That’s going to mean a lot of change for the way we’ve done our politics in the past.
Our new Deputy Leader Tom Watson is well up for that challenge. He’s leading the charge and leading the change of the much greater use of digital media as a key resource.
That is the way of communication, it is not just through broadsheet newspapers or tabloids, it’s social media that really is the point of communication of the future. We have got to get that.
One firm commitment I make to people who join our Labour Party is that you have a real say, the final say in deciding on the policies of our party.
No-one – not me as Leader, not the Shadow Cabinet, not the Parliamentary Labour Party – is going to impose policy or have a veto.
The media commentariat don’t get it.
They’ve been keen to report disagreements as splits: agreement and compromise as concessions and capitulation
No.
This is grown up politics.
Where people put forward different views.
We debate issues.
We take a decision and we go forward together.
We look to persuade each other.
On occasions we might agree to disagree.
But whatever the outcome we stand together, united as Labour, to put forward a better way to the misery on offer from the Conservatives.
There’s another important thing about how we are going to do this.
It’s a vital part of our new politics.
I want to repeat what I said at the start of the leadership election.
I do not believe in personal abuse of any sort.
Treat people with respect.
Treat people as you wish to be treated yourself.
Listen to their views, agree or disagree but have that debate.
There is going to be no rudeness from me.
Maya Angelou said: “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”
I want a kinder politics, a more caring society.
Don’t let them reduce you to believing in anything less.
So I say to all activists, whether Labour or not, cut out the personal attacks.
The cyberbullying.
And especially the misogynistic abuse online.
And let’s get on with bringing values back into politics.
So what are our first big campaigns?
I want to start with a fundamental issue about democratic rights for Britain.
Just before Parliament rose for the summer the Tories sneaked out a plan to strike millions of people off the electoral register this December.
A year earlier than the advice of the independent Electoral Commission.
It means two million or more people could lose their right to vote.
That’s 400,000 people in London. It’s 70,000 people in Glasgow.
Thousands in every town and city, village and hamlet all across the country
That’s overwhelmingly students, people in insecure accommodation, and short stay private lets.
We know why the Tories are doing it.
They want to gerrymander next year’s Mayoral election in London by denying hundreds of thousands of Londoners their right to vote.
They want to do the same for the Assembly elections in Wales.
And they want to gerrymander electoral boundaries across the country.
By ensuring new constituencies are decided on the basis of the missing registers when the Boundary Commission starts its work in April 2016.
Conference we are going to do our best to stop them.
We will highlight this issue in Parliament and outside.
We will work with Labour councils across the country to get people back on the registers.
And from today our Labour Party starts a nationwide campaign for all our members to work in every town and city, in every university as students start the new term, to stop the Tory gerrymander. To get people on the electoral register.
It’s hard work – as I know from 10 years as the election agent for a marginal London constituency.
But now we have new resources.
The power of social media.
The power of our huge new membership.
Conference, let’s get to it. Get those people on the register to give us those victories but also to get fairness within our society.
And, friends, we need to renew our party in Scotland. I want to pay tribute today to our leader in Scotland, Kezia Dugdale and her team of MSPs in the Scottish Parliament.
I know that people in Scotland have been disappointed by the Labour Party.
I know you feel we lost our way.
I agree with you.
Kezia has asked people to take another look at the Labour Party.
And that’s what I want people across Scotland to do.
Under Kezia and my leadership we will change.
We will learn the lessons of the past.
And we will again make Labour the great fighting force you expect us to be.
We need to be investing in skills, investing in our young people – not cutting student numbers. Giving young people real hope and real opportunity.
Conference, it is Labour that is the progressive voice for Scotland.
There’s another big campaign we need to lead.
David Cameron’s attack on the living standards of low paid workers and their families through the assault on tax credits.
First, remind people over and over again David Cameron pledged during the election not to cut child tax credits.
On the Question Time Leader’s debate he said he had rejected child tax credit cuts.
It’s a shocking broken promise – and the Tories voted it through in Parliament just two weeks ago.
How can it be right for a single mother working as a part time nurse earning just £18,000 to lose £2,000 to this broken promise?
Some working families losing nearly £3,500 a year to this same broken promise.
And how can it be right or fair to break this promise while handing out an inheritance tax cut to 60,000 of the wealthiest families in the country? See the contrast
So we’ll fight this every inch of the way.
And we’ll campaign at the workplace, in every community against this Tory broken promise.
And to expose the absurd lie that the Tories are on the side of working people, that they are giving Britain a pay rise.
It was one of the proudest days of my life when cycling home from Parliament at 5 o’clock in the morning having voted for the national minimum wage legislation to go through.
So of course it’s good to see a minimum wage.
But the phoney rebranding of it as a living wage doesn’t do anyone any good.
And the Institute of Fiscal Studies has shown Cameron’s broken promise mean millions of workers are still left far worse off.
They can and must be changed.
As I travelled the country during the leadership campaign it was wonderful to see the diversity of all the people in our country.
And that is now being reflected in our membership with more black, Asian and ethnic minority members joining our party.
Even more inspiring is the unity and unanimity of their values.
A belief in coming together to achieve more than we can on our own.
Fair play for all.
Solidarity and not walking by on the other side of the street when people are in trouble.
Respect for other people’s point of view.
It is this sense of fair play, these shared majority British values that are the fundamental reason why I love this country and its people.
These values are what I was elected on: a kinder politics and a more caring society.
They are Labour values and our country’s values.
We’re going to put these values back into politics.
I want to rid Britain of injustice, to make it fairer, more decent, more equal.
And I want all our citizens to benefit from prosperity and success.
There is nothing good about cutting support to the children of supermarket workers and cleaners.
There is nothing good about leaving hundreds of thousands unable to feed themselves, driving them to foodbanks that have almost become an institution.
And there is nothing good about a Prime Minister wandering around Europe trying to bargain away the rights that protect our workers.
As our Conference decided yesterday we will oppose that and stand up for the vision of a social Europe, a Europe of unity and solidarity, to defend those rights.
I am proud of our history.
It is a history of courageous people who defied overwhelming odds to fight for the rights and freedoms we enjoy today.
The rights of women to vote.
The rights and dignity of working people;
Our welfare state.
The NHS – rightly at the centre of Danny Boyle’s great Olympic opening ceremony.
The BBC.
Both great institutions.
Both under attack by the Tories.
Both threatened by the idea that profit comes first, not the needs and interests of our people. That’s the difference between us and the Tories.
So let me make this commitment.
Our Labour Party will always put people’s interests before profit.
Now I want to say a bit more about policy – and the review that Angela Eagle has announced this week.
Let’s start by recognising the huge amount of agreement we start from, thanks to the work that Angela led in the National Policy Forum.
Then we need to be imaginative and recognise the ways our country is changing.
In my leadership campaign I set out some ideas for how we should support small businesses and the self-employed.
That’s because one in seven of the labour force now work for themselves.
Some of them have been driven into it as their only response to keep an income coming in, insecure though it is.
But many people like the independence and flexibility self-employment brings to their lives, the sense of being your own boss.
And that’s a good thing.
But with that independence comes insecurity and risk especially for those on the lowest and most volatile incomes.
There’s no Statutory Sick Pay if they have an accident at work.
There’s no Statutory Maternity Pay for women when they become pregnant
They have to spend time chasing bigger firms to pay their invoices on time, so they don’t slip further into debt.
They earn less than other workers.
On average just £11,000 a year.
And their incomes have been hit hardest by five years of Tory economic failure.
So what are the Tories doing to help the self-employed, the entrepreneurs they claim to represent?
They’re clobbering them with the tax credit cuts.
And they are going to clobber them again harder as they bring in Universal Credit.
So I want our policy review to tackle this in a really serious way. And be reflective of what modern Britain is actually like.
Labour created the welfare state as an expression of a caring society – but all too often that safety net has holes in it, people fall through it, and it is not there for the self-employed. It must be. That is the function of a universal welfare state.
Consider opening up Statutory Maternity and Paternity Pay to the self-employed so all new born children can get the same level of care from their parents.
I’ve asked Angela Eagle, our Shadow Business Secretary, and Owen Smith, our Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, to look at all the ways we can we support self-employed people and help them to grow their businesses.
And I want to thank Lillian Greenwood, our Shadow Transport Secretary for the speed and skill with which she has moved policy on the future of our railways forward.
It was wonderful to see Conference this morning agree our new plan to bring private franchises into public ownership as they expire.
Labour’s policy now is to deliver the fully integrated, publicly owned railway the British people want and need. That’s the Labour policy, that’s the one we’ll deliver on.
Housing policy too is a top priority.
Perhaps nowhere else has Tory failure been so complete and so damaging to our people.
In the last parliament at least half a million fewer homes built than needed.
Private rents out of control.
A third of private rented homes not meeting basic standards of health and safety.
The chance of owning a home a distant dream for the vast majority of young people.
There’s no answer to this crisis that doesn’t start with a new council house-building programme.
With new homes that are affordable to rent and to buy.
As John Healey, our Shadow Housing Minister, has shown it can pay for itself and make the taxpayer a profit by cutting the housing benefit bill by having reasonable rents, not exorbitant rents
And we need new ideas to tackle land hoarding and land speculation.
These are issues that are so vital to how things go forward in this country.
I want a kinder, more caring politics that does not tolerate more homelessness, more upheaval for families in temporary accommodation.
A secure home is currently out of reach for millions.
And John Healey has already made a great start on a fundamental review of our housing policies to achieve that.
And we are going to make mental health a real priority.
It’s an issue for all of us.
Every one of us can have a mental health problem.
So let’s end the stigma.
End the discrimination.
And with Luciana Berger, our Shadow Minister for Mental Health, I’m going to challenge the Tories to make parity of esteem for mental health a reality not a slogan.
With increased funding – especially for services for children and young people.
As three quarters of chronic mental health problems start before the age of 18.
Yet only a quarter of those young people get the help they need.
All our work on policy will be underpinned by Labour’s values.
End the stigma, end the discrimination, treat people with mental health conditions as you would wish to be treated yourself. That’s our pledge.
Let’s put them back into politics.
Let’s build that kinder, more caring world.
Since the dawn of history in virtually every human society there are some people who are given a great deal and many more people who are given little or nothing.
Some people have property and power, class and capital, status and clout which are denied to the many.
And time and time again, the people who receive a great deal tell the many to be grateful to be given anything at all.
They say that the world cannot be changed and the many must accept the terms on which they are allowed to live in it.
These days this attitude is justified by economic theory.
The many with little or nothing are told they live in a global economy whose terms cannot be changed.
They must accept the place assigned to them by competitive markets.
By the way, isn’t it curious that globalisation always means low wages for poor people, but is used to justify massive payments to top chief executives.
Our Labour Party came into being to fight that attitude.
That is still what our Labour Party is all about. Labour is the voice that says to the many, at home and abroad: “you don’t have to take what you’re given.”
Labour says:
“You may be born poor but you don’t have to stay poor. You don’t have to live without power and without hope.
“You don’t have to set limits on your talent and your ambition – or those of your children.
“You don’t have to accept prejudice and discrimination, or sickness or poverty, or destruction and war.
“You don’t have to be grateful to survive in a world made by others.
No, you set the terms for the people in power over you, and you dismiss them when they fail you.”
That’s what democracy is about.
That has always been our Labour Party’s message.
You don’t have to take what you’re given.
It was the great Nigerian writer Ben Okri who perhaps put it best:
“The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love”.
But they’re at it again.
The people who want you to take what you’re given.
This Tory government.
This government which was made by the few – and paid for by the few.
Since becoming leader David Cameron has received £55 million in donations from hedge funds. From people who have a lot and want to keep it all.
That is why this pre-paid government came into being.
To protect the few and tell all the rest of us to accept what we’re given.
To deliver the £145 million tax break they have given the hedge funds in return.
They want us to believe there is no alternative to cutting jobs.
Slashing public services.
Vandalising the NHS.
Cutting junior doctor’s pay.
Reducing care for the elderly.
Destroying the hopes of young people for a college education or putting university graduates into massive debt.
Putting half a million more children in poverty.
They want the people of Britain to accept all of these things.
They expect millions of people to work harder and longer for a lower quality of life on lower wages. Well, they’re not having it.
Our Labour Party says no.
The British people never have to take what they are given.
And certainly not when it comes from Cameron and Osborne.
So Conference, I come almost to the end of my first conference speech, and I think you for listening OK, alright, don’t worry. Listen, I’ve spoken at 37 meetings since Saturday afternoon, is that not enough? Well talk later.
So I end conference with a quote.
The last bearded man to lead the Labour Party was a wonderful great Scotsman, Keir Hardie who died about a century ago this weekend and we commemorated him with a book we launched on Sunday evening. Kier grew up in dreadful poverty and made so much of his life and founded our party.
Stood up to be counted on votes for women, stood up for social justice, stood up to develop our political party.
We own him and so many more so much. And he was asked once summaries what you are about, summarise what you really mean in your life. And he thought for a moment and he said this:
“My work has consisted of trying to stir up a divine discontent with wrong”.
Don’t accept injustice, stand up against prejudice.
Let us build a kinder politics, a more caring society together.
Let us put our values, the people’s values, back into politics.
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.
My Thoughts on both speeches by Ed Balls and Ed Miliband:
It’s alleged that George Osborne has promised “No giveaways, no gimmicks” who is he kidding with those words. In a nutshell he will allow up to five million existing pensioners to cash in their fixed annual payments for cash if this is not a gimmick then what is it?
Ed Balls is right to say the Tories were committed to an “ideological plan” for the biggest cuts since WW2.
I’m glad that Ed Balls has challenge George Osborne to a head to head TV debate ahead of a general election. In my opinion I think it will show that Conservatives cannot be trusted with the economy as their policies are not working if anything it’s hurting the poorest in society and if you cut too fast you end up crashing the recovery of our economy.
It’s alleged that Nick Clegg career could end with defeat in his Sheffield Hallam seat, of course, or in resignation after a terrible election performance.
Many FibDems MPs are fighting for their political lives in constituencies, they are thinking hard about life after Clegg.
Talk about being over-confident the Fibdems are here to stay and they claim they will defy poor poll predictions in the general elections which is an understatement and smacks of complacency. They are more interested in doing a sweetheart deals to remain in a coalition with any parties which may lead to another hung parliament on 7 May.
Voters are unlikely to be shocked by the comments of the leader of the ukip would scrap laws against discrimination on the grounds of race or colour.
Hey folks this no surprise by the Thatchererite former stockbroker claims that racism is no longer an issue of modern Britain is assured violent Islamichpioa has risen dramatically in recent years while the Community Security Trust revealed that 2014 saw more than twice as many anti-Semitic attacks as previous year.
Unemployment among Chinese, black, and ethnic minority young people has risen by 51 percent under this coalition took power suggesting that discrimination. Farage claims does not exist is still widespread.
Many people are convinced that ucarp chief is living in cloud cuckoo land he needs a reality check and start to join the queue to smell the coffee. Many will acknowledge to do away with anti-discrimination safeguards is consistent with the ucrap pledge to anti-workers agenda more generally and his desire to see bosses free to hire and dismiss at will without the burden of workplace rights.
It’s a goal that he shares with the Tories whose introduction of fees for employment tribunal hearing has made it far easier for employers to get away with harassment bullying and unfair dismissal.
Must admit some of the journey has been cold, wet, and sunny along the way with fellow comrades. This year’s election saw eyebrows raised when a coach load of Labour activists from across the UK turns up unannounced in towns to meet up with fellow party members campaigning on behalf of Labour machinery especially on the doorstep listening to voters concerns in mix communities they have stories to tell you of what they think of this god forsaken coalition government the queues of people heading to food-banks, the affect of the dreaded BedroomTax, an Increase in crimes because of lack of employment in their wards etc.
There is a strong sense of marginalized communities feel betrayed and undervalued by this coalition when they turn up to the Job Centers only to be informed by job center staff that they face sanctions for one reason or another. Since the coalition was formed they have consistently made claims that people on benefits are getting back to work in actual fact they conveniently forget to mention the real reason why the figures are down is because of the so-called job programmes that the unemployed attend which is mandatory and when the programme is finished some of them are on zero hour contracts and the unsuccessful people who returns to the job center are considered as new claimants does this ring any alarm bells to us. Heck yes it does to the many and not the few. Granted on the doorstep you do get the very occasional it’s the immigrants who are taking our jobs, housing, NHS, and they driving family cars they are taking the piss. Or the famous one is they are in it to line their pockets; they look after their own kind etc. Well the coalition minister is correct when they say “We’re In Our Necks Together”.
There is not a day that goes by on the doorstep we all listen to residents speak about the affects of cuts in our public services like adult, elderly, physical, mental health, and learning disabilities centres which some have been closed and land owned by local authorities sold to private companies to build expensive housing and other grand projects. Then it gets even worst when residents mention about the cuts in the number of police on the beat and some felt afraid to walk home alone after they have attended events and they have to be on guard against any form of robbery.
Here is another example of what ukip leader said of our beloved NHS it almost killed him and people should pay for private health care if they can.
He was fobbed off by NHS doctors and he was later diagnosed with cancer after a scan at a private hospital. Great it one can afford Private Health Care Insurance but damned if you can’t. Personally I would not trust ukip to run our NHS let alone having a pint with this vile person and for the record I don’t drink alcohol.
Many vote can concur with a report by the Commons Health Committee Social Care should be free to everyone at the end of life which includes for a better calls for a better recording of what people want in the last days.
The MPs’ report said there was “unacceptable variation” in the care received by the people in England.
It’s little wonder that many voters can’t trust a post-election deal with ukip and conservatives if there is an EU referendum in 2015 before Christmas.
The conservatives think serious national interests can be solved by applying primary school background behaviour. They are childish and unfit to govern. Talking about sandwiches when people are dying of starvation is either being stupid, silly or bluntly clueless about your duties. How can they avoid real issues facing the country and for weeks concentrate on eating habits?
George Osborne would need to end national bargaining and close three Whitehall ministries to meet his spending plans, a gaggle of vocal right-wingers claimed on 10 March.
This comes as no surprise a stark warning of the Tory-friendly Taxpayers Alliance urged politicians to pledge a whopping £50 billion in extra spending cuts.
A report published calls for abolishing the “triple-lock” that protects the value of pensions, freezing benefits for two years and slashing nearly £5 billion from central grants to Scotland, as well as snatching back winter fuel payments and bus passes from all but the poorest pensioners.
Labour has claimed that Mr Osborne would need to slash spending by £70bn to hit his target of running a surplus by the end of the next Parliament but Tories insist they can reach this target with cuts of “just” £30bn.
The Office for Budget Responsibility has said Mr Osborne’s forecasts would result in spending falling to just 35.2 per cent of GDP — its lowest level since the 1930s.
It is further alleged by the Tax Alliance that another further reduction to 31.7 per cent —a figure that would require the axing of the HS2 rail link and the Department for International Development and raising the retirement age to 67.
“The politicians seeking our votes owe it to all taxpayers to come clean about what spending the country can and cannot afford,” chief executive Jonathan Isaby smarmed. It is great to read from TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady thanked the “shadowy” alliance for publishing their “vicious cuts hits the list.”
She said: “If the Chancellor were to achieve the cuts he seeks these are exactly the kind of attacks on pensioners, the vulnerable and vital investment he would need to make.
“In particular, they show he will come after public-sector workers with job cuts, pay freezes and attacks on union organisation.”
“If the Tories are elected in May, it is clear that a turbo-boosted Thatcherism will be implemented to roll back the state to an extent never achieved in a major democratic economy.”
The prospect of scrapping public-sector national pay bargaining to save £5.8bn set alarm bells ringing among trade unionists.
Unison assistant general secretary Karen Jennings blasted: “Just days after International Women’s Day, the suggestion from the Taxpayers Alliance that national pay bargaining should be scrapped is a slap in the face to women everywhere.
“Around 70 per cent of public service workers are women and such a move would reverse the great strides unions have made towards gender equality.
“National pay bargaining ensures equal pay for women, improves their position in the workforce, and gives workers greater flexibility to move around the country.”
Following hot on the heels of David Cameron’s demand that Ed Miliband rule out a coalition with the Scottish nationalists, a Tory leak in the Sunday Times indicates that the undeclared general election campaign is now well under way.
The paper reported that Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne is planning to use his Budget, due on March 18, for an income tax giveaway and cuts in alcohol duties, while bringing in a “Google tax” crackdown on multinationals that avoid corporation tax in Britain.
Unpopular Tory governments have always sought to provide pre-election bribes, and such an approach from Osborne was always on the cards, given the cuts in public services and benefits and the fall in real wages that have taken place since the Con-Dem coalition was cobbled together by banking and finance interests in 2010.
However, while many workers will benefit from the plan to raise the income tax threshold in April “towards £11,000,” instead of the projected £10,600, the spin being put on this is unjustified.
First, the objective, according to an unnamed “senior government source,” of “lifting the poorest in society out of tax” ignores the fact that the poorest those on minimum benefits, basic-rate state pensions and zero-hours contracts in particular already pay no income tax since their incomes are well below the current £10,000 threshold.
Second, it ignores VAT, council tax and other payments, which mean that the poorest 10 per cent in Britain pay 43 per cent of their income in tax — an enormous burden which can mean making crucial choices between eating, heating and buying clothes.
In contrast, the wealthiest 10 per cent pay only 35 per cent of their declared income in tax and we know that there are many ways in which they can reduce what they declare.
Third, for public-sector workers, the gain from the higher threshold will do nothing to make up for the increased pension contributions imposed by the government “reforms.”
Fourth, it does nothing to address the broader issue of low pay and in fact can be used by employers to justify not paying the living wage.
The other “leaked” Budget proposal was already announced by Osborne in his Autumn Statement forcing multinationals to disclose revenue and profits on a country-by-country basis and then applying a punitive 25 per cent “diverted profits tax” where they are judged to have artificially shifted money abroad to avoid corporation tax.
The measure is designed to look progressive without actually being so.
There is a myriad of ways in which corporations can avoid tax liabilities between jurisdictions, such as transfer pricing between subsidiaries and charging for the use of brands.
Without legislation to prevent this, and to close down tax havens under British jurisdiction, the measure is likely to have little effect, especially as staffing at HM Revenue & Customs has been slashed under the coalition government.
Furthermore, the “Google tax” does nothing to address the already low-level of corporation tax, which has been cut four times by this government, culminating in the 20 per cent figure due to come into force in April one of the lowest rates in Europe. Enterprise Minister Matthew Hancock was quoted yesterday as wanting to reduce it further, to something approaching the 12.5 per cent figure in Ireland.
There you have it this why I would not trust another coalition let alone a ucarp, or conservative government to run our country. I’m so glad that the Conservatives said judge us in five years time by our record in actual fact I have to say I’m not happy with their record in government and its time for a movement for change let alone another coalition. I strongly recommend the young and undecided voters to vote Labour for A better plan. A better future.
I kid you not when I say that this year’s General Election will be nasty and to top of there will be Local Elections in some parts of UK. Already the polls have already shown that the voting patterns differ some making predictions of a Conservative or Labour Government. Ironically all of the polls are based on perdition.
There is still a notion from the predictions of a coalition deals between Conservatives and Libdems, LibDems and Labour, SNP and Labour, or better still Conservatives and UKIP. Intriguingly all deny any such deal quite rightly so. Recently many users of Facebook and Twitter showed their anger over an article involving an established Senior Member of Parliament Gisela Stuart comments which appeared in certain press Re: Conservative and Labour Coalition the wording is as follows:
On reading this I sent a email to the Member of Parliament like may party activists across UK. See my email:
Here is letter sent this morning to a senior Labour MP
Dear Gisela Stuart MP
Hope all is going well with your campaign in Edgbaston. Two burning issues I would like you to address.
This year’s General Election will be ruthless and there can be only one winner in my eyes for this reason team Labour will be campaigning hard to ensure we see a return of a Labour Government. I would urge you and your team to remember to make contact with Chinese and Black Communities to bring out the vote as those communities strongly feel that they are left out in the political process.
Would you be so kind to engage with them whilst you are on your campaign trail.
Secondly, over the last few days I have been monitoring both Facebook, Twitter and other social media of lately most Labour members, and supporters across UK have commented that the article Re: Labour and. Conservative Coalition.
I’m sure that you may be aware of the anger that is being vented both from party members and our supporters have been campaigning very hard to ensure that we see a return of Labour Government.
Some members have been put off by your article and feel that the work they have done in their own CLPs have been wiped out as this has given ammunition to the Conservatives and other opposition parties to say that Labour is not worthy of your vote. I hope you can see the predicament that we face.
I respectfully seek clarification what is Labour position is on coalition deals so I can approach it in various communities I and the rest of Labour members feel confident to engage with voters to return to Labour.
I look forward to hearing your response and remember are our teams from all our Labour socialist societies will be ready on hand to do our duty.
This is the reply from Gisela Stuart MP:
Thanks for this Gordon
We are making contacts with all our voters on a daily basis, on the phone and by delivering leaflets
You are most welcome to join us .
As to Coalitions…… my aim is to make sure that we return a majority labour government.
All the best
Gisela Stuart
Just as we all thought this issue was done then this happens then all of sudden Lord Baker weights from the Conservatives suggesting:
There is only two months to go all the political parties jockeying and lobbying for our votes. Most of the political parties will be holding their Spring Conferences rallying their footsoilders and candidates to spread their message on the doorstep. Interestingly I have to questions to the Conservatives, UKIP, TUSC, Greens, Libdems, and SNP manifestos on Defense, Education, Equality, Employment, Economy, European Union, Housing, Immigration, Public Services which includes NHS and Small Businesses to name a few as their sums does not add up.
Look around and start to smell the coffee parliamentarians. Our country is being torn apart.
People are suffering and dying. Lives are being wrecked. Public services destroyed. Changes we never believed possible are being forced through against our wishes.
They call it “austerity forever” -the idea of a handful of arrogant, aloof Eton public schoolboys and their rich friends.
However, as Karl Marx once said about capitalism, they are creating their own gravediggers.
The British people, true to centuries of tradition, are rising like lions.
People with severe mental health and Learning Disabilities, and Disabled needs in this county are taking their own lives in utter despair as a direct result of cuts in services. the campaign against mental health, and Learning Disabilities cuts which have plunged the service into crisis is one of the biggest, most active and successful we have seen in years.
So it is no surprise that Local authorities in England and Wales will see their main government grant cut by £2.6bn next year, under plans set out by the coalition on Thursday.
Kris Hopkins, the local government minister, said the settlement for 2015-16 was “fair for all parts of the country” with no authority seeing a cut of more than 6.4 per cent.
Local authorities in England and Wales will see their main government grant cut by £2.6bn next year, under plans set out by the coalition on Thursday.
Kris Hopkins, the local government minister, said the settlement for 2015-16 was “fair for all parts of the country” with no authority seeing a cut of more than 6.4 per cent.
The average reduction in council “spending power” will be 1.8 per cent, according to a government calculation that includes all income including council tax and business rates.
But authorities said that after these revenue sources and funds that are ring-fenced for public health and adult social care were stripped out, the main grant was being cut by an average of 8.8 per cent.
That will take the total reduction since 2010 to 40 per cent, equivalent to £20bn of spending cuts according to the Local Government Association, with the loss of libraries, leisure centres and other facilities.
No fewer than 578 children’s centres have closed since the last general election, according to the Labour party.
David Sparks, chair of the LGA, said: “Individuals have paid the price of funding reductions, whether it is through seeing their local library close, roads deteriorate or support for young people and families scaled back.”
Ministers also faced criticism from their colleagues. Martin Tett, Conservative leader of Buckinghamshire council, said authorities had reached a “tipping point”. Surrey county council’s leader David Hodge, also a Conservative councillor, said it would be “extremely difficult” to continue with a programme of spending reductions.
London Councils, which represents boroughs in the capital, said the gap between council income and necessary expenditure was growing dangerously wide.
“Even if councils in London switched off all the street lights, closed libraries and parks, and stopped sweeping the streets, the money saved would not be enough to fund essential local services such as elderly care, child protection and schools,” the group said.
Mr Hopkins promised more money to allow local authorities to freeze council tax for another year, with any authority seeking to raise it by more than 2 per cent having to put this to a local referendum.
This comes no surprise again coming from a coalition the minister said the public had benefited from frozen council tax in recent years, bringing down average bills by 11 per cent in real terms. Bills had doubled during the previous Labour administrations from 1997 to 2010, he said.
Newcastle city council said on Wednesday it would consult on a rise in council tax of up to 2 per cent for 2015-16- the first rise for four years. It says money raised would be used to protect front line services.
Challenged in the House of Commons by a succession of MPs, Mr Hopkins said local government — with a £114bn annual budget — had to be part of the government’s programme of cuts.
He also published a study suggesting ways councils could save money, such as more collaboration, use of technology and working with the private sector.
Mr Hopkins said councils with the highest demand for services were receiving more money: Middlesbrough had “spending power” per household of £2,441 compared with £1,570 in Windsor and Maidenhead, he said.
Hilary Benn, the shadow communities secretary, challenged that claim, saying that prosperous Wokingham in Berkshire was on course to have higher spending per head than Leeds or Newcastle.
“Having claimed that those with the broadest shoulders should shoulder the biggest part of the burden . . . ministers have done the opposite,” he said.
The government also promised a further £15.5m to support countryside authorities in an attempt to close the “urban-rural gap” in spending power.
But Andrew George, a Liberal Democrat MP for Cornwall, said that cuts were causing “carnage” in his rural seat: “He might close the gap by the time the next Ice Age comes,” he told the Commons.
Graeme McDonald, director of the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers, said the cuts would push fragile authorities “to breaking point”.
Libraries need to reinvent themselves as modern, appealing destinations with cafés and better digital resources if they are to survive, says a government report. The Independent Library Report for England said that public libraries, facing a 3 per cent drop in council spending this year, were “at a crossroads”.
It called for “reinvigoration of the library network” by introducing “comfortable, retail-standard environment(s)” with wireless networks, sofas and coffee, to promote them as centres for learning and digital skills.
This should be led by a task force of groups such as the BBC, the British Library and Arts Council England, it said. Data from the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals show 337 libraries have been forced to close in the past five years
The report highlighted the disparate ways in which council libraries are structured, including as mutual organisations part-owned by community members, independent organisations with charitable status, and public-private partnerships.
The differences mean some libraries can function as community hubs with employment support and enterprise advice, while others are still predominantly focused on lending books.
William Sieghart, author of the report, “It’s not quite last chance saloon for libraries if we just view them as book-lending places only but this is our chance to really go beyond that and take libraries firmly into this century.”
He recommends greater transparency from central government on the funding available to local authorities, and suggests councils could benefit from making one collective bid for money.
The Library of Birmingham was opened last year as an example of the modern library with cutting edge computer systems, conference venues and business planning services.
But last week it announced it would have to halve its hours because of budget cuts.
A review into the council found “dysfunctional” management was making it unable to deliver even basic services.
Almost all the £188m raised by Birmingham Council for the new Library of Birmingham was borrowed, leaving the council with a £12m annual debt servicing charge.
To sum it all up I have to concur with David Winnick Midland MP: Tory-Labour coalition idea ‘totally ridiculous’
. See article below:
The damaged caused in less than a decade is absolutely staggering. So much for austerity one has to wonder if this government and establishment really care enough for our communities. Is it a case of I’m alright Jack I’m doing well, I don’t really care what happens to you I have a roof over my head and I pay my bills on time, I have a rich wife or I have a rich husband that can provide for me and my family.
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