Andy Merryfield Says

Andy Says:

‘Equalities’ are the essential element to build a better society. We know that income inequality is key and that we can, (yes we really can), improve the quality of life for everybody. Today, so many people are struggling to survive and definitely cannot thrive. Labour values are based on fairness, hence there are fundamental policies aimed at addressing workers’ rights:

• increase Minimum wage to match the National Living Wage (NLW) of £10 per hour by 2020
• zero hour contracts to be banned (900,000 people on these pernicious contracts); unpaid internments stopped
• wage cap lifted on public sector pay
• a maximum 20:1 ratio between highest and lowest earners in public sector and in companies bidding for public sector contracts
• declare 4 additional public holidays

Currently 6 million employees live below the NLW and 4 million children are being brought up in poverty. This is an outrage that Labour will address in government.

The Tory government has abandoned ( or ‘delayed’ until 2020) the promise to pensioners that there will be a ‘Care Costs Cap’ of £72,000 so that people ‘don’t have to sell their homes’ to pay for their care. The referendum, a result of Tory in-fighting, led to campaigns based on lies and deception; we need a change of government to ensure that the Brexit process secures rights for everyone who lives in the UK and the rest of EU.

The NHS is in a critical condition requiring urgent life support. The staff, from around the world and from UK, do a fantastic job but an injection of funds and progressive ideas are needed now to build an infrastructure of health and care.

Education is in a dire state with schools facing severe budget cuts; some, mainly ‘Academies,’ are ditching subjects and the staff who teach them (predominently music, drama, art,) that are less academic to save money as education has become a ‘business’. As a teacher I am devastated by these changes as I know that the subjects being dumped are crucial to the development of young people.  As the product of a grammar school, I totally reject May’s dogmatic insistence on increasing selective education.

Labour will build a million more homes by 2020. Supply and demand, the basic economic principle, determines that prices will continue to rise until there is a greater supply. Simple, but the Tory government has failed again.