I grew up in the 1970s in Worcester with a grandad who worked for British Leyland at Longbridge in Birmingham, the heart of the car industry in the Midlands. A staunch union man a socialist -he was married to my gran a property owning Tory! There were always good "debates" in their household. My memories however were of Grandad coming home early.. "On strike again" my gran would stand and accuse him. "Not enough sugar in their tea and they're off on strike again!" Obviously her own Tory exaggeration at the time but it had a ring of truth, as strikes were happening on a regular basis, on some issues that would appear trivial these days.
My Uncle worked for a small machine tool factory in Worcester. They were never on strike, but as Thatcherism hit home hard in the early 1980s my uncle was first on a 3 day working week, swiftly followed by the ludicrous 1 day week as more and more workers in the factory lost their jobs. Union bosses fought hard but in vain against its closure. The company shut for good in 1985, like thousands across the UK.
Two very different experiences, but part of my early memories of Trade Unionism. I spent a week with miners wives in the food kitchens as an 18 year old politics student at college which has been an abiding memory for me, and haunts me to this day.
Trade Unionism and belonging to a union became a dirty word under Thatcher and the myth peddled that under unions, workers were always out on strike took hold and flourished in working class communities. Just like today when Cameron peddles the lie of austerity that must be imposed on the working class, we have fallen for it, hook line and sinker and taken our eyes off the real culprits; the robber barons, the bankers, the Tory elite, Ukip and the millionaires.
Time to shake off the shackles of the 1970s! I believe firmly however that the dark cloud hanging over the Trade Union Movement is lifting. I want to see it being not only fashionable but imperative to belong to a union. This is all down to Len McCluskey opening up Unite the Union to members of the community, not working in the traditional unionised workplaces. Other unions will be certain to replicate the new way forward. As a Unite Community member myself you can literally hear new breath being breathed into the unions lungs, new energy and new working class people coming forth to take up the fight against Tory imposed austerity.
Community members shout loud and proud they are members of Unite. I walked round Labour Conference with my Unite lanyard holding my conference pass on proud display. I travelled the Manchester trams and proclaimed to all that would listen "I am a member of Unite the Union". The time to go unseen or casually not to mention union membership when talking to people is being banished. The sleeping giant of trade unionism that has taken an almighty kicking since the '70s is emerging into a new dawn in the 21st century.
Why? Because people in communities and workers in our factories, schools, hospitals and public sector are sick to death of taking a battering from the ConDems, the right wing media and the emergence of the extreme right wing Ukip. For us in community we are seeing social services slashed, libraries and swimming pools closed, carers and disabled voices going unheard. Workers are being battered into accepting zero hours contracts and agency work is the norm. Let's face it, the Tories have put the power directly with the bosses. They hold every card without a crumb on the table left for the workers. Cameron quite openly tells us of his plans to literally eradicate trade unionism should the Tories be elected in 2015. Never has the time been riper than to belong to a union or join a union. Education is the key too as we talk to the younger generation about workplace rights. And this education has to begin at age 14+ as young people, brainwashed by right wing TV, need to know there is a union there, a band of people willing to protect them from the onslaught of the worst excesses of capitalism.
But the future of a new modern era of Trade Unionism can only gain momentum by slaying the other
major opponent; apathy. In a Tory society of "I'm alright Jack" it is imperative we change the selfish
narrative and list the benefits of belonging to a union and the history of success we have had. I bang the gong on the following Trade Union successes: The Weekend, Maternity/Paternity Leave and Rights, Sick Pay, Workplace Pensions, Paid Holidays, a Minimum Wage, Health and Safety at work. These are the workplace successes. Imagine the community successes we will be able to list within the next five years! With constant attacks by the Tories and now Ukip creeping up on the working class disguised as sheep in wolves clothing by announcing they will ensure those on minimum wage pay no income tax, we must stand united against this right wing extremism. While Ukip make these soundbite policies they still back zero hours contracts, agency employed staff and a huge slashing of the workplace rights so hard fought for by unions. They are on the side of the bosses even more so than the Tories.
So If you're in a union already, have that talk with friends, relatives and workplace colleagues. Let them know you belong to a union. If it's possible, encourage others to join themselves. Unite Community for example only costs 50p p/w. Let's show the bosses, and Cameron and Farage that you "really don't get me; because I'm part of the union!"**** -
A 21st century modern trade union fighting to protect the rights of the working class against greedy capitalism.
***1973 song by The Strawbs for those who can't remember it!
Sunday, 28 September 2014
Thursday, 25 September 2014
My Labour Conference 2014
Being working poor with a large family, I could not afford the cost of Labour Conference. The pass was £63 for the low paid/unwaged and £109 for everyone else. Accomodation was quite frankly extortionately priced for budget accomodation. £120 per night plus on average. Wanting desperately to go I crowd funded my way there and I am eternally grateful to the many people ( including MPs) who put their hands in their pockets and paid for me to attend. I then began a campaign which I will continue to take up with Labour Gen Sec Iain McNicoll entitled #ForTheManyNotTheMoneyed
The campaign was to give a voice to every person who simply could not afford the best part of £1000 to attend conference week. The campaign continues for 2015 as Mr McNicoll looks into it.
Attending Labour Conference is an experience like no other. Every member rich or poor should be given the opportunity for a "seat at the table", a chance to engage with their party, meet people, smell the politics and in my case most importantly, learn from the event and come out wiser than when I went in! Of course it is useful to sit in the main conference hall and listen to the speeches by the party leader and shadow cabinet, but the fringe events on a wide variety of topics from What makes a working class MP, to the Cuba and Venezuela Solidarity campaigns are where you have to be to learn the most. I was like a political kid in a sweet shop! Scouring the days events in my conference book and making a list of MPs and other speakers I wanted to hear from most, made the entire conference all the more enriched. Of course while I was there I had my own article coming out, announcing my intention to stand for Parliament in 2020 and that it was truly a time for working class MPs who have compassion and the human touch to be elected to change the make up of the current establishment. I had a terrific response to my Morning Star piece, with one lady rushing to the Morning Star stand to subscribe to the paper having read the article!
People make conference. A wide variety of people though, not just suits who can afford to be there. I met with some grandmothers in their 80s who told me of their experiences after the war when the welfare state was being set up, I met with a young man whose mum was being hounded by the DWP and faced sanctions as due to her mental health she couldn't understand the letters being sent to her demanding her constant appearance at assessment centres, I met a whole array of feisty disabled people demanding change from the Labour Party and fighting to mould disabled policy within the party. These experiences were my education. Of course I also met with my own Unite the Union General Secretary Len McCluskey for the first time, and was delighted to meet up with the MPs I admire most, Ian Lavery, Grahame Morris and Ian Mearns. These four men have something in common more priceless than diamonds; the ability to connect, engage and care about what you are saying. No one feels the hurt of austerity on their people and constituents more than these guys believe me! And they are not just empty words. They act immediately. When you have heard Ian Lavery deliver a hell raising speech on how children at a school in his constituency are stealing bread from the school kitchens as they are hungry and how there is simply no need for austerity in one of the richest countries on earth, you can be damned sure that speech will be seared in your brain forever! Christine Blower from the NUT telling delegates that teachers are hoarding cereal snack bars and the like to feed hungry pupils in school, the realisation from newly qualified and perhaps middle class young teachers that teaching is only part of their job, and social worker and feeding children is also part of their remit wrenches your insides literally. Kevin Macguire of the Daily Mirror sitting alongside 91 year old Harry Smith at a fringe event when he weeps as he tells of his sister dying from TB aged 10 because there was no NHS. These speakers told the real stories of conference. The stories that were happening to ordinary people. To me these were far more important than any policy announcements taking place in the main hall as they told the real story of what is going on under the watch of Cameron's Britain.
I was also involved in an incident concerning myself and other disabled people prior to the leaders speech taking place. Huge queues had formed and all disabled people were allowed in first, but the queuing system was pretty haphazard as of course there were people on mobility scooters and in wheelchairs as well as the "walking wounded", the deaf and blind. All week long on the front row of the floor level balcony seating, stewards reserved seats for the disabled who couldn't climb the
balcony. I was among them. However, when stewards showed us to this front row, 2 party officials insisted we could not sit there as they were reserved for other party members. Despite vehement protestation from the stewards and also myself, I was told to move up to the balcony seating. However by this time a lot of the upper seats were occupied so there were quite a few stairs to climb. The stewards did their best to assist but I lost my footing with my crutch and fell. Thank you to the steward who picked me up and saved me! On seeing the scene, the party officials quickly urged stewards to fetch chairs from outside the hall and put us seated next to the wheelchair users in the main part of the hall. Myself and a few others who had attempted the balcony climb were very angry and of course shaken and in disbelief this was happening to us at Labour conference. We felt frankly like 2nd class citizens, a bit of a nuisance to the female party suits desperate to avoid a scene and get their people seated in the reserved disabled seats.
At the end of conference all became apparent as Ed Miliband and his wife Justine walked to the back of the hall and shook hands with the long line of party members sitting in the reserved seats. Of course Ed himself would have been oblivious to the fact we had been ousted from this area, and the feeling of somehow not being good enough or photogenic enough for the cameras following him pervaded our thoughts. I was very angry on leaving the hall and gave my account of what had taken place to a Morning Star reporter. Whilst Luke James reported the facts, another Tory paper copied the story and added its own right wing twist for public gain. Not what was intended. Labour got it wrong for disabled people, but it was a time for bringing this to the attention of Kate Green, shadow minister for the disabled and not for Tory rags to gain politically from it. Both Kate and John McDonnell MP are raising the issue seriously with Ed Miliband and looking into the behaviour of party officials. For the record it is up to people like me to speak out and ensure that at future events this is never repeated. With the arrival of Disability Labour as a new group I will work with them as a voice to improve procedures for disabled people at conference. It is not enough to moan. Change must come by fighting for it personally.
The conference centre foyer was packed full of stalls ranging from Unions to the Campaign for Real Ale (popular with delegates for samples!) and all had stacks of information; leaflets, free pens and fridge magnets etc. I have much to read in the coming weeks! The sheer volume of stalls and causes made me swivel- headed but again enriched the experience for me.
Finally I would like to thank the cleaners, the stewards, the workers providing us with food and drinks, the centre receptionists, the centre guides. These were the unsung heroes. People like us on minimum wage and perhaps a short term contract, all working to 200% to ensure conference was enjoyable to all. A special mention to the security guards on the gate who always opened up the main gates when they saw myself and other disabled people coming along, rather than the turnstiles for others. They were cheery every day and always glad to welcome us. The Manchester police were obviously present but again did their jobs and directed us to taxis etc when needed. The taxi drivers were animated and asked lots of questions about conference and what Labour would do in certain areas, and I hope I converted a few!
I marvelled at the cheapness of the tram tickets (£3 return) and how safe and welcoming Manchester was to a lone female. Thank you Manchester, a truly great city.
Labour now has to knuckle down with a huge job of work leading up to May 2015. Trying to change the narrative and how the right wing media perceive the party and leader will be a difficult task, but we have it in all of us grassroots members, us the people, to campaign to ensure a Labour victory next May. Just view the alternative on offer: Cameron, Clegg and Farage, or a combination of all 3, for the next five years. Stand with Labour, and campaign for change from within.
The campaign was to give a voice to every person who simply could not afford the best part of £1000 to attend conference week. The campaign continues for 2015 as Mr McNicoll looks into it.
Attending Labour Conference is an experience like no other. Every member rich or poor should be given the opportunity for a "seat at the table", a chance to engage with their party, meet people, smell the politics and in my case most importantly, learn from the event and come out wiser than when I went in! Of course it is useful to sit in the main conference hall and listen to the speeches by the party leader and shadow cabinet, but the fringe events on a wide variety of topics from What makes a working class MP, to the Cuba and Venezuela Solidarity campaigns are where you have to be to learn the most. I was like a political kid in a sweet shop! Scouring the days events in my conference book and making a list of MPs and other speakers I wanted to hear from most, made the entire conference all the more enriched. Of course while I was there I had my own article coming out, announcing my intention to stand for Parliament in 2020 and that it was truly a time for working class MPs who have compassion and the human touch to be elected to change the make up of the current establishment. I had a terrific response to my Morning Star piece, with one lady rushing to the Morning Star stand to subscribe to the paper having read the article!
People make conference. A wide variety of people though, not just suits who can afford to be there. I met with some grandmothers in their 80s who told me of their experiences after the war when the welfare state was being set up, I met with a young man whose mum was being hounded by the DWP and faced sanctions as due to her mental health she couldn't understand the letters being sent to her demanding her constant appearance at assessment centres, I met a whole array of feisty disabled people demanding change from the Labour Party and fighting to mould disabled policy within the party. These experiences were my education. Of course I also met with my own Unite the Union General Secretary Len McCluskey for the first time, and was delighted to meet up with the MPs I admire most, Ian Lavery, Grahame Morris and Ian Mearns. These four men have something in common more priceless than diamonds; the ability to connect, engage and care about what you are saying. No one feels the hurt of austerity on their people and constituents more than these guys believe me! And they are not just empty words. They act immediately. When you have heard Ian Lavery deliver a hell raising speech on how children at a school in his constituency are stealing bread from the school kitchens as they are hungry and how there is simply no need for austerity in one of the richest countries on earth, you can be damned sure that speech will be seared in your brain forever! Christine Blower from the NUT telling delegates that teachers are hoarding cereal snack bars and the like to feed hungry pupils in school, the realisation from newly qualified and perhaps middle class young teachers that teaching is only part of their job, and social worker and feeding children is also part of their remit wrenches your insides literally. Kevin Macguire of the Daily Mirror sitting alongside 91 year old Harry Smith at a fringe event when he weeps as he tells of his sister dying from TB aged 10 because there was no NHS. These speakers told the real stories of conference. The stories that were happening to ordinary people. To me these were far more important than any policy announcements taking place in the main hall as they told the real story of what is going on under the watch of Cameron's Britain.
I was also involved in an incident concerning myself and other disabled people prior to the leaders speech taking place. Huge queues had formed and all disabled people were allowed in first, but the queuing system was pretty haphazard as of course there were people on mobility scooters and in wheelchairs as well as the "walking wounded", the deaf and blind. All week long on the front row of the floor level balcony seating, stewards reserved seats for the disabled who couldn't climb the
balcony. I was among them. However, when stewards showed us to this front row, 2 party officials insisted we could not sit there as they were reserved for other party members. Despite vehement protestation from the stewards and also myself, I was told to move up to the balcony seating. However by this time a lot of the upper seats were occupied so there were quite a few stairs to climb. The stewards did their best to assist but I lost my footing with my crutch and fell. Thank you to the steward who picked me up and saved me! On seeing the scene, the party officials quickly urged stewards to fetch chairs from outside the hall and put us seated next to the wheelchair users in the main part of the hall. Myself and a few others who had attempted the balcony climb were very angry and of course shaken and in disbelief this was happening to us at Labour conference. We felt frankly like 2nd class citizens, a bit of a nuisance to the female party suits desperate to avoid a scene and get their people seated in the reserved disabled seats.
At the end of conference all became apparent as Ed Miliband and his wife Justine walked to the back of the hall and shook hands with the long line of party members sitting in the reserved seats. Of course Ed himself would have been oblivious to the fact we had been ousted from this area, and the feeling of somehow not being good enough or photogenic enough for the cameras following him pervaded our thoughts. I was very angry on leaving the hall and gave my account of what had taken place to a Morning Star reporter. Whilst Luke James reported the facts, another Tory paper copied the story and added its own right wing twist for public gain. Not what was intended. Labour got it wrong for disabled people, but it was a time for bringing this to the attention of Kate Green, shadow minister for the disabled and not for Tory rags to gain politically from it. Both Kate and John McDonnell MP are raising the issue seriously with Ed Miliband and looking into the behaviour of party officials. For the record it is up to people like me to speak out and ensure that at future events this is never repeated. With the arrival of Disability Labour as a new group I will work with them as a voice to improve procedures for disabled people at conference. It is not enough to moan. Change must come by fighting for it personally.
The conference centre foyer was packed full of stalls ranging from Unions to the Campaign for Real Ale (popular with delegates for samples!) and all had stacks of information; leaflets, free pens and fridge magnets etc. I have much to read in the coming weeks! The sheer volume of stalls and causes made me swivel- headed but again enriched the experience for me.
Finally I would like to thank the cleaners, the stewards, the workers providing us with food and drinks, the centre receptionists, the centre guides. These were the unsung heroes. People like us on minimum wage and perhaps a short term contract, all working to 200% to ensure conference was enjoyable to all. A special mention to the security guards on the gate who always opened up the main gates when they saw myself and other disabled people coming along, rather than the turnstiles for others. They were cheery every day and always glad to welcome us. The Manchester police were obviously present but again did their jobs and directed us to taxis etc when needed. The taxi drivers were animated and asked lots of questions about conference and what Labour would do in certain areas, and I hope I converted a few!
I marvelled at the cheapness of the tram tickets (£3 return) and how safe and welcoming Manchester was to a lone female. Thank you Manchester, a truly great city.
Labour now has to knuckle down with a huge job of work leading up to May 2015. Trying to change the narrative and how the right wing media perceive the party and leader will be a difficult task, but we have it in all of us grassroots members, us the people, to campaign to ensure a Labour victory next May. Just view the alternative on offer: Cameron, Clegg and Farage, or a combination of all 3, for the next five years. Stand with Labour, and campaign for change from within.
Sunday, 14 September 2014
IDS wants Obese Poor on Celebrity Diet Plan...
You have to wonder what goes on in the Duncan-Smith country estate at weekends. Like a scene from a James Bond film you can picture IDS in his "lair" pondering how to rule the world and what dastardly plan he can hatch out next to humiliate, degrade and punish the poor. Never in the history of British politics has one man, backed by his leader, and even worse turned a blind eye to by the LibDems, been allowed this much freedom to target his own personal hatred onto one section of society; the most vulnerable. Backed up by a willing right wing media who have conned the working class into actually believing a lot of IDS' rhetoric we are now never shocked by what this right wing maniac will do next.
I use maniac willingly and in context. "An obsessive enthusiast" " A person exhibiting wild or violent behaviour" "a person suffering from mania" "a deranged person". IDS is certainly an "obsessive enthusiast" over his plans for the poor, sick and disabled. His latest wheeze probably would have shocked us a few years ago, but such is our "unshockability" at what he does, his latest idea barely raises an eyebrow, as we have come to expect demonisation of the poor as a daily occurrence, both from Duncan-Smith and his propaganda machine the DWP.
IDS has written to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt in a cunning plan to ask if poor obese people claiming JSA and ESA could be put on the celebrity diet "The Cambridge Plan" - a £45pw liquid diet. Now many people radicalised by right wing media may well see nothing wrong with poor obese people being given "help" this way. But with the Tories and particularly their hatchet man IDS, you have to peel back the layers to find the hidden truth and reality of the situation. IDS' constituent Ruth Barber is the brain-child of The Cambridge Diet. "All in this together" certainly rings true. As with ATOS being handed multi million pound contracts and various Tory cronies having more fingers in pies than the nursery rhyme figure Little Jack Horner, it seems IDS is keen to put a huge NHS "diet contract" Ruth Barber's way. Of course were the scheme to become reality, there is always a stick with Duncan-Smiths harebrained ideas and you don't need a crystal ball to know there will be an element of compulsion to participate if you are obese, and in receipt of JSA/ESA or the inevitable sanctions will be applied.
Putting aside, that this is the latest in a whole range of punishments from a man so dim his own party derides him, let's look at the facts of obesity and being poor.
Poverty and being on benefit is a vicious grinding cycle. While many of us would like to put some portly MPs, obese due to lavish subsidised lunches and expensive champagne receptions, on one of these celebrity diet plans, yet again the spotlight falls on the very poorest, who in Tory eyes, are not permitted to be obese like their richer "betters". While lardy Cameron parades his belly chillaxing on the various beach holidays he enjoys each year, this is simply not permitted to be poor and fat and scraping by on £71pw JSA.
Those of us whether poor or working poor have very limited incomes which have to be stretched like never before due to Tory imposed austerity. When I have the electric bill to pay or one of the kids comes home with torn trousers which needs replacing immediately, the food budget is where I , and thousands of other people turn to in an effort to find the money needed. To cut down means to go without or replace with bulky cheap food the kids will eat. Simple as that. I know I can go to Iceland and pick up a pizza for £1 and frozen chips for £1. As much as I would like to , minced beef and fresh vegetables are a lot more expensive. I have fed a family of 6 on £30 for a weeks meals when desperate, but I know how to as I was taught practical cooking skills by my parents and by school. Many people are not so fortunate. The school GCSE for example is full of theory based health and safety questions rather than how to feed yourself on a strict budget.
Once someone like IDS has lived for a year controlling a food budget week in week out on JSA of a total £71pw income or on a Carers income of £61.35pw, then he can speak with authority of how poor obese people should be truly helped. Imagine your food budget as a single person on JSA is £10pw every week, every month which thousands are living on. Now imagine doing a weekly food shop in the supermarket. Out goes the nutritional more expensive food like meat, fresh vegetables; in comes the bulky highly processed foods like frozen pizzas, chips, and value bread. In fact everything becomes the supermarkets value brand; the lowest common denominator. Now after weeks of living on this cheerless bulky high sugar diet, your health starts to suffer you feel lethargic, less motivated, sapped, stressed with the anxiety of wondering where the next meal is coming from, so your mental health takes a bashing. You feel cooking is a chore, you feel less motivated to cook, less motivated to go out. The walls and your horizons start to narrow as your life consists of one long huge effort to survive. And the inevitable thing is that your weight increases on this high sugar diet and lack of outdoor exercise and obesity occurs. Obesity brings its own demons of higher blood pressure, diabetes and other related health problems. Then a man comes along earning £100k a year plus and tells you the answer is a celebrity liquid diet, a cure for your obesity and poverty in one, and that by going on this diet, you will be fit for work, off benefit and your life improves with a wave of the IDS magic wand!
What utter tosh! GPs will tell you of the complex array of health problems caused by poverty. Poverty and a lack of education and life skills go hand in hand and have done for decades. Successive governments have never found the cure. Likewise GPs will also point to the excessive lifestyles of the rich where their obesity is caused by too many rich foods and lavish dinners. But IDS is not pushing a celebrity diet onto his cronies is he?!
So stuff your liquid diet IDS. Stop trying to award big fat privatised NHS contracts to your chums. And get off the backs of the poor who can't carry the weight of austerity any longer. Fat chance Cameron will sack you sooner, but I very much think that like your party, you will be history in May 2015.
I use maniac willingly and in context. "An obsessive enthusiast" " A person exhibiting wild or violent behaviour" "a person suffering from mania" "a deranged person". IDS is certainly an "obsessive enthusiast" over his plans for the poor, sick and disabled. His latest wheeze probably would have shocked us a few years ago, but such is our "unshockability" at what he does, his latest idea barely raises an eyebrow, as we have come to expect demonisation of the poor as a daily occurrence, both from Duncan-Smith and his propaganda machine the DWP.
IDS has written to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt in a cunning plan to ask if poor obese people claiming JSA and ESA could be put on the celebrity diet "The Cambridge Plan" - a £45pw liquid diet. Now many people radicalised by right wing media may well see nothing wrong with poor obese people being given "help" this way. But with the Tories and particularly their hatchet man IDS, you have to peel back the layers to find the hidden truth and reality of the situation. IDS' constituent Ruth Barber is the brain-child of The Cambridge Diet. "All in this together" certainly rings true. As with ATOS being handed multi million pound contracts and various Tory cronies having more fingers in pies than the nursery rhyme figure Little Jack Horner, it seems IDS is keen to put a huge NHS "diet contract" Ruth Barber's way. Of course were the scheme to become reality, there is always a stick with Duncan-Smiths harebrained ideas and you don't need a crystal ball to know there will be an element of compulsion to participate if you are obese, and in receipt of JSA/ESA or the inevitable sanctions will be applied.
Putting aside, that this is the latest in a whole range of punishments from a man so dim his own party derides him, let's look at the facts of obesity and being poor.
Poverty and being on benefit is a vicious grinding cycle. While many of us would like to put some portly MPs, obese due to lavish subsidised lunches and expensive champagne receptions, on one of these celebrity diet plans, yet again the spotlight falls on the very poorest, who in Tory eyes, are not permitted to be obese like their richer "betters". While lardy Cameron parades his belly chillaxing on the various beach holidays he enjoys each year, this is simply not permitted to be poor and fat and scraping by on £71pw JSA.
Those of us whether poor or working poor have very limited incomes which have to be stretched like never before due to Tory imposed austerity. When I have the electric bill to pay or one of the kids comes home with torn trousers which needs replacing immediately, the food budget is where I , and thousands of other people turn to in an effort to find the money needed. To cut down means to go without or replace with bulky cheap food the kids will eat. Simple as that. I know I can go to Iceland and pick up a pizza for £1 and frozen chips for £1. As much as I would like to , minced beef and fresh vegetables are a lot more expensive. I have fed a family of 6 on £30 for a weeks meals when desperate, but I know how to as I was taught practical cooking skills by my parents and by school. Many people are not so fortunate. The school GCSE for example is full of theory based health and safety questions rather than how to feed yourself on a strict budget.
Once someone like IDS has lived for a year controlling a food budget week in week out on JSA of a total £71pw income or on a Carers income of £61.35pw, then he can speak with authority of how poor obese people should be truly helped. Imagine your food budget as a single person on JSA is £10pw every week, every month which thousands are living on. Now imagine doing a weekly food shop in the supermarket. Out goes the nutritional more expensive food like meat, fresh vegetables; in comes the bulky highly processed foods like frozen pizzas, chips, and value bread. In fact everything becomes the supermarkets value brand; the lowest common denominator. Now after weeks of living on this cheerless bulky high sugar diet, your health starts to suffer you feel lethargic, less motivated, sapped, stressed with the anxiety of wondering where the next meal is coming from, so your mental health takes a bashing. You feel cooking is a chore, you feel less motivated to cook, less motivated to go out. The walls and your horizons start to narrow as your life consists of one long huge effort to survive. And the inevitable thing is that your weight increases on this high sugar diet and lack of outdoor exercise and obesity occurs. Obesity brings its own demons of higher blood pressure, diabetes and other related health problems. Then a man comes along earning £100k a year plus and tells you the answer is a celebrity liquid diet, a cure for your obesity and poverty in one, and that by going on this diet, you will be fit for work, off benefit and your life improves with a wave of the IDS magic wand!
What utter tosh! GPs will tell you of the complex array of health problems caused by poverty. Poverty and a lack of education and life skills go hand in hand and have done for decades. Successive governments have never found the cure. Likewise GPs will also point to the excessive lifestyles of the rich where their obesity is caused by too many rich foods and lavish dinners. But IDS is not pushing a celebrity diet onto his cronies is he?!
So stuff your liquid diet IDS. Stop trying to award big fat privatised NHS contracts to your chums. And get off the backs of the poor who can't carry the weight of austerity any longer. Fat chance Cameron will sack you sooner, but I very much think that like your party, you will be history in May 2015.
Thursday, 11 September 2014
A new era for Labour requires a new kind of Politician
Many of you who regularly read my articles in the Morning Star, will know just how deeply concerned I am about the lack of working class candidates and MPs in the Labour Party. So as well as writing and campaigning on the issue I am putting my (lack of money) where my mouth is, and throwing my hat into the Westminster ring as a potential candidate. Albeit I am a little too late for 2015, but will use the time until 2020 to keep campaigning and standing up for the working class people of this country.
You see it is time for a different politician and a different way of 'doing politics'. For every phone conversation at our local CLP, for every door knocked upon you hear time and time again. 'They're all the same. They are all in it for themselves and haven't got a clue about the lives of ordinary people' And apart from good solid working class MPS like Ian Lavery, Dennis Skinner, Ian Mearns, Grahame Morris, Katy Clarke and co I have to agree.
If ever there was a time for compassionate politics it is now! If ever there was a time to stand on the door step or at the Labour local office and say to worried anxious people "Why don't we have a cuppa and talk about the problems you are facing a bit more." Ordinary people want MPs and candidates and door knocking volunteers like me, to shut up for a minute and listen. Listening skills are missing from many MPs. They stare dreamily over your shoulder, check their watch and start walking away, because the bedroom tax does not affect them, the fact you can't afford petrol for the car for the entire month for work and the worry that causes you, is a million miles away from anything they have encountered, caring for a disabled child or elderly relative is an experience alien to them.
It's not 'weak' to be compassionate. Neither is it weak to listen and show empathy. Ordinary people want their MPs to understand how bad things are in their day to day lives thanks to Cameron and particularly Iain Duncan-Smith. But before all Labour MPS grab their tissues and run to their constituents, I have to point out, its something you either have in you or not. Compassion and empathy cannot be learned or you will end up looking a fraud either on the doorstep or on TV, as working class people are too canny to fall for 'pretended compassion' (I refer you to Cameron and the Hug a Hoodie campaign he ran.)
Dennis Skinner is a genuine compassionate politician who 'won't take the MPs payrise until all working class people have had a payrise.' He refuses to drink in Westminsters subsidised bars as he feels deeply just how wrong this is, while many are suffering the welfare cuts. Ian Lavery when speaking about the bedroom tax said 'We should never forget that these properties are not just statistics these are people’s homes'. He understands because he listens.
I chat to people all the time as a member of Unite Community; a proud arm of Unite the union no longer confined to workplace members but people from all walks of life in our communities. All I hear is the plea ''We need MPs who have done a factory job, worked in a supermarket, cared for a disabled relative, shop in our shops, don't just try to look like us but ARE one of us.' Indeed recently an elderly lady complemented me on my dress as she had her eye on the same £14 dress in Matalan but felt it was a bit too young for her!
Compassionate MPs are needed urgently in our communities. Our working class people have born the brunt of this austerity going into a fifth year in 2015. We are austerity-battered, weary, frightened and trying to hang on in there as best we can often living from week to week on zero hours contracts and a pay day away from losing our homes. I know this because its happening to me too. Last week as my third son started 6th form, HMRC already cut to the bone with staff shortages, cut all tax credits from every family in the UK with a child starting 6th form or college or a training course. It meant a £50 immediate cut in income that week; a week when every penny counts as you kit your child out and spend money on bus fares, lunches for their first week on a new part of their lives. HMRC acknowledged the huge error which they are putting right 'shortly'. That error made me panic over what to cut down on that week, alongside all the thousands of other families affected too. These 'errors' can tip us over the edge into financial peril, such is our grip on the cliff edge of austerity.
Alongside compassion and empathy for our fellow man/woman people are fed up to the back teeth of corrupt politics, corrupt politicians and morally bereft government. Its time for honest politics. You may laugh and think me naive but I believe there is an honest way to do politics and an honest way to be an MP. If you make an error of judgement for example, if you make a big cock-up, tell people. 'I'm sorry but I got it wrong'. Again don't say it if you don't mean it as the people will see through you. Don't say things that sound insincere or out of the normal kind of way you say things or it all sounds false and forced. Take Dave over Scotland saying 'its not about giving the effing Tories a kicking.' False written all over it. Likewise if I was ever to say Nigel Far-raj talking about Nigel Far-idge leader of Ukip then give me a kicking too! If as a Labour MP cuts have to be made, be honest, tell people why and explain the situation. Don't ignore people on twitter or facebook asking you polite pertinent questions that mean a lot to them, unless they abuse you. Our concerns MUST be the Labour MPs concerns too, or why are you in politics at all?
Whilst I have decided it is right for me personally to enter the political ring, I understand how daunting that could be for others. It's the reason the working class is so under represented in Westminster. We are too busy battling to survive to devote time to campaign or try to change things. This is what Cameron and the Establishment rely on.
Labour have shown the way on All Women Shortlists, perhaps it will be time to go further after 2015 and develop a few working class shortlists, disability shortlists etc.Although there is a small financial pot to help future candidates this needs to be taken to the next level, as finance and giving up work to campaign to become a candidate is probably the prime reason working class candidates are woefully under represented in Parliament. If you are a Carer for a disabled child as I am, arranging appropriate childcare may be a struggle. Other candidates I know are struggling with sleepless nights caused by gangs on their estate, one is constantly back and forth to school as their child is being bullied, another can't afford the transport costs of campaigning in their rural constituency. Let's act as a party and support candidates who are struggling. The Labour Party needs the drive, will and sheer determination of candidates who are working class themselves. It's a much higher cliff for us to climb into the political arena than for others.
I believe in this toxic sea of austerity when people are crying out for change, the Labour party must use that vital sense; listening. Its not enough to say 'We hear you'. Now is time to say 'We hear you, we will listen to you further, we understand you entirely and we will act.''
I hope ordinary people will one day have enough faith in me to vote, and send me to Westminster. It's a priveledge to represent people. It's vital that their views, their lives, their struggles are represented by a politician who cares deeply for them. Time for the compassionate politician.
You see it is time for a different politician and a different way of 'doing politics'. For every phone conversation at our local CLP, for every door knocked upon you hear time and time again. 'They're all the same. They are all in it for themselves and haven't got a clue about the lives of ordinary people' And apart from good solid working class MPS like Ian Lavery, Dennis Skinner, Ian Mearns, Grahame Morris, Katy Clarke and co I have to agree.
If ever there was a time for compassionate politics it is now! If ever there was a time to stand on the door step or at the Labour local office and say to worried anxious people "Why don't we have a cuppa and talk about the problems you are facing a bit more." Ordinary people want MPs and candidates and door knocking volunteers like me, to shut up for a minute and listen. Listening skills are missing from many MPs. They stare dreamily over your shoulder, check their watch and start walking away, because the bedroom tax does not affect them, the fact you can't afford petrol for the car for the entire month for work and the worry that causes you, is a million miles away from anything they have encountered, caring for a disabled child or elderly relative is an experience alien to them.
It's not 'weak' to be compassionate. Neither is it weak to listen and show empathy. Ordinary people want their MPs to understand how bad things are in their day to day lives thanks to Cameron and particularly Iain Duncan-Smith. But before all Labour MPS grab their tissues and run to their constituents, I have to point out, its something you either have in you or not. Compassion and empathy cannot be learned or you will end up looking a fraud either on the doorstep or on TV, as working class people are too canny to fall for 'pretended compassion' (I refer you to Cameron and the Hug a Hoodie campaign he ran.)
Dennis Skinner is a genuine compassionate politician who 'won't take the MPs payrise until all working class people have had a payrise.' He refuses to drink in Westminsters subsidised bars as he feels deeply just how wrong this is, while many are suffering the welfare cuts. Ian Lavery when speaking about the bedroom tax said 'We should never forget that these properties are not just statistics these are people’s homes'. He understands because he listens.
I chat to people all the time as a member of Unite Community; a proud arm of Unite the union no longer confined to workplace members but people from all walks of life in our communities. All I hear is the plea ''We need MPs who have done a factory job, worked in a supermarket, cared for a disabled relative, shop in our shops, don't just try to look like us but ARE one of us.' Indeed recently an elderly lady complemented me on my dress as she had her eye on the same £14 dress in Matalan but felt it was a bit too young for her!
Compassionate MPs are needed urgently in our communities. Our working class people have born the brunt of this austerity going into a fifth year in 2015. We are austerity-battered, weary, frightened and trying to hang on in there as best we can often living from week to week on zero hours contracts and a pay day away from losing our homes. I know this because its happening to me too. Last week as my third son started 6th form, HMRC already cut to the bone with staff shortages, cut all tax credits from every family in the UK with a child starting 6th form or college or a training course. It meant a £50 immediate cut in income that week; a week when every penny counts as you kit your child out and spend money on bus fares, lunches for their first week on a new part of their lives. HMRC acknowledged the huge error which they are putting right 'shortly'. That error made me panic over what to cut down on that week, alongside all the thousands of other families affected too. These 'errors' can tip us over the edge into financial peril, such is our grip on the cliff edge of austerity.
Alongside compassion and empathy for our fellow man/woman people are fed up to the back teeth of corrupt politics, corrupt politicians and morally bereft government. Its time for honest politics. You may laugh and think me naive but I believe there is an honest way to do politics and an honest way to be an MP. If you make an error of judgement for example, if you make a big cock-up, tell people. 'I'm sorry but I got it wrong'. Again don't say it if you don't mean it as the people will see through you. Don't say things that sound insincere or out of the normal kind of way you say things or it all sounds false and forced. Take Dave over Scotland saying 'its not about giving the effing Tories a kicking.' False written all over it. Likewise if I was ever to say Nigel Far-raj talking about Nigel Far-idge leader of Ukip then give me a kicking too! If as a Labour MP cuts have to be made, be honest, tell people why and explain the situation. Don't ignore people on twitter or facebook asking you polite pertinent questions that mean a lot to them, unless they abuse you. Our concerns MUST be the Labour MPs concerns too, or why are you in politics at all?
Whilst I have decided it is right for me personally to enter the political ring, I understand how daunting that could be for others. It's the reason the working class is so under represented in Westminster. We are too busy battling to survive to devote time to campaign or try to change things. This is what Cameron and the Establishment rely on.
Labour have shown the way on All Women Shortlists, perhaps it will be time to go further after 2015 and develop a few working class shortlists, disability shortlists etc.Although there is a small financial pot to help future candidates this needs to be taken to the next level, as finance and giving up work to campaign to become a candidate is probably the prime reason working class candidates are woefully under represented in Parliament. If you are a Carer for a disabled child as I am, arranging appropriate childcare may be a struggle. Other candidates I know are struggling with sleepless nights caused by gangs on their estate, one is constantly back and forth to school as their child is being bullied, another can't afford the transport costs of campaigning in their rural constituency. Let's act as a party and support candidates who are struggling. The Labour Party needs the drive, will and sheer determination of candidates who are working class themselves. It's a much higher cliff for us to climb into the political arena than for others.
I believe in this toxic sea of austerity when people are crying out for change, the Labour party must use that vital sense; listening. Its not enough to say 'We hear you'. Now is time to say 'We hear you, we will listen to you further, we understand you entirely and we will act.''
I hope ordinary people will one day have enough faith in me to vote, and send me to Westminster. It's a priveledge to represent people. It's vital that their views, their lives, their struggles are represented by a politician who cares deeply for them. Time for the compassionate politician.
Tuesday, 2 September 2014
Britain needs a Pay Rise; But Women are desperate for a Living Wage
In TUC conference week much of the talk will revolve around low pay and the curse of zero hours contracts and rightly so. Since Day 1 of the ConDem government, employers have been positively encouraged to put the lid firmly on any pay increases and demand massive flexibility with their staff, to the point where workers are no longer employed directly but through agencies in many cases. Sacked on a whim, laid off on the spot for a week or two, scrambling for any extra hours the employer has to offer is now general. Even the Tories own manipulated figures on the economy are showing a skewed 'recovery' yet the lid remains firmly closed at the whisper of any increase in pay for the workers. Four years have passed with no pay rises, despite big bonuses for the bankers continuing, while austerity has virtually broken the backs of the poorest.
Those most bearing the brunt are women. Successive governments have urged and pushed women to the brink in a swift return to work after the birth of a child, economic forces have removed a woman's right of choice to work flexible hours, or take a few years to stay at home and care for her child should she wish, single mothers have been villified and not even a tax break given to couples, but a pernicious culling and freezing of child benefit at a time when it is needed more than ever.
We have ended up with a situation where nurseries have become daycare warehouses for babies under 2, while mum desperately tries to find work that will cover the bills, let alone provide a few luxuries like holidays. Its all very well if the woman is a high flyer and can afford nannies and au pair help but the majority of us cannot. On top of this, although in theory a woman can request flexible working hours to care for a disabled child or elderly relative, in practice employers do not want an employee who may have to leave work at a moments notice. Being female under this ConDem government has meant hardship on every front and none more so than on pay.
A recent survey in the north west by the TUC revealed 2 in 5 part time jobs in the UK pay less than the living wage. However in Pendle Lancs, 3 out of 5 women - 61.5% are paid below the living wage. There is a 34%part time gender pay gap! A toxic mix of zero hours or ridiculous low hours contracts like 4 or 7 hours a week only add to the problem. In an effort to combine caring with work, women will often take any low paid factory work or supermarket job to make ends meet. Pressure is being mounted by unions to see councils adopt the Living Wage and this is having some success. But lets get into the private sector companies and show them the benefits of both the Living Wage but also Living Hours and employing staff directly. It is definitely a case of going back to the future, but without stable employment on a Living Wage, women and all workers face a future of slave labour.
A new generation of young women are emerging from school having spent the last 4 years perhaps watching their own parents struggle on low pay. A new generation of women who think zero hours, low pay and no workplace rights is the 'norm'. We have to work fast to change that narrative. There will be many women who go onto careers, but there will be many who will shift between one low paid job to the other and this government have so far been successful at brainwashing people into thinking this is their lot in life. A zero hours low paid job where renting a house is beyond them. We cannot allow Cameron and co to have this kind of blanket power across the working class. We need to empower women and all young people through education in high schools that it is a basic human right that a Living Wage and Living Hours are theirs to demand from employers. When they feel too vulnerable to stand up to an employer as a member of a Trade Union they have the right to representation. Education is the key.
The concept of in work poverty is alarmingly, slowly being absorbed and accepted. When a woman returns home from work in a low paid, unskilled, zero hours job she often then has to turn to household chores, childrens activities/ homework and caring duties. Having the time and strength to campaign against in work poverty alludes her. That is why it is absolutely imperative we campaign within our unions and take to the streets in demonstrations to show society and employers and companies we are not prepared to accept low pay and less than the living wage and living hours. A Labour government post 2015 must also put an end to in work poverty and Ed Miliband has pledged to free us of the scourge of routine zero hours contracts.
A mandatory Living Wage would be the cherry on the cake Ed. Lets do it!
Those most bearing the brunt are women. Successive governments have urged and pushed women to the brink in a swift return to work after the birth of a child, economic forces have removed a woman's right of choice to work flexible hours, or take a few years to stay at home and care for her child should she wish, single mothers have been villified and not even a tax break given to couples, but a pernicious culling and freezing of child benefit at a time when it is needed more than ever.
We have ended up with a situation where nurseries have become daycare warehouses for babies under 2, while mum desperately tries to find work that will cover the bills, let alone provide a few luxuries like holidays. Its all very well if the woman is a high flyer and can afford nannies and au pair help but the majority of us cannot. On top of this, although in theory a woman can request flexible working hours to care for a disabled child or elderly relative, in practice employers do not want an employee who may have to leave work at a moments notice. Being female under this ConDem government has meant hardship on every front and none more so than on pay.
A recent survey in the north west by the TUC revealed 2 in 5 part time jobs in the UK pay less than the living wage. However in Pendle Lancs, 3 out of 5 women - 61.5% are paid below the living wage. There is a 34%part time gender pay gap! A toxic mix of zero hours or ridiculous low hours contracts like 4 or 7 hours a week only add to the problem. In an effort to combine caring with work, women will often take any low paid factory work or supermarket job to make ends meet. Pressure is being mounted by unions to see councils adopt the Living Wage and this is having some success. But lets get into the private sector companies and show them the benefits of both the Living Wage but also Living Hours and employing staff directly. It is definitely a case of going back to the future, but without stable employment on a Living Wage, women and all workers face a future of slave labour.
A new generation of young women are emerging from school having spent the last 4 years perhaps watching their own parents struggle on low pay. A new generation of women who think zero hours, low pay and no workplace rights is the 'norm'. We have to work fast to change that narrative. There will be many women who go onto careers, but there will be many who will shift between one low paid job to the other and this government have so far been successful at brainwashing people into thinking this is their lot in life. A zero hours low paid job where renting a house is beyond them. We cannot allow Cameron and co to have this kind of blanket power across the working class. We need to empower women and all young people through education in high schools that it is a basic human right that a Living Wage and Living Hours are theirs to demand from employers. When they feel too vulnerable to stand up to an employer as a member of a Trade Union they have the right to representation. Education is the key.
The concept of in work poverty is alarmingly, slowly being absorbed and accepted. When a woman returns home from work in a low paid, unskilled, zero hours job she often then has to turn to household chores, childrens activities/ homework and caring duties. Having the time and strength to campaign against in work poverty alludes her. That is why it is absolutely imperative we campaign within our unions and take to the streets in demonstrations to show society and employers and companies we are not prepared to accept low pay and less than the living wage and living hours. A Labour government post 2015 must also put an end to in work poverty and Ed Miliband has pledged to free us of the scourge of routine zero hours contracts.
A mandatory Living Wage would be the cherry on the cake Ed. Lets do it!
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