Council Housing.

Image via WikipediaI grew up on a large council estate on the outskirts of London.Being a council estate it had its fair share of poverty and the problems associated with that but the vast majority of people who lived on the estate were decent, hard working people.Most people tended to live on the estate for decades, some for a lifetime, with many handing there homes down to sons and daughters so it was a stable community, with a strong community spirit where people cared about one another and there community.
I think government proposals to end the lifetime tenancies of council tenants and force people to move if their finances improve will ruin many good communities and make council estates little more than poor ghettos of people who are here today and gone tomorrow. It will end all chance of establishing close, stable communities and will inevitably lead to more social problems which the government said they wanted to tackle but which we have heard little more about since the election.
This policy is short sighted and is all to do with cuts not about tackling the housing shortages or improving communities.It will do great harm and damage the lives of many. Its shameful and I hope that  when Labour come back into government they will reverse these damaging changes.

Related articles

• New Shake-Up Of Council Housing Tenancies (news.sky.com)
• Council Houses For Life Set To Be Scrapped (news.sky.com)
• Council house tenants set for eviction rule change (guardian.co.uk)
• Council house life tenancies to end (telegraph.co.uk)
• Charities condemn plans to reform council home tenancies (guardian.co.uk)
• Simon Hughes faces dilemma as coalition tries to end social housing | Patrick Wintour (guardian.co.uk)
• New law to end council house queue jumping by immigrants (dailymail.co.uk)
• Social housing: anger over two-year tenancies and applicant curbs (guardian.co.uk)

Education!

Education is vital to this country`s future. Not just for economic reasons but for social reasons as well.We need an highly skilled, highly education population to be able to compete with other countries who are investing heavily in education because they rightly see the value of it to their countries future but we also need to invest in education for social reasons as well..
We have a country that as far too many young people involved in gangs, crime and anti-social behaviour.A lot of this is caused by  poor education which helps keep young people stranded in poverty.You will not get educated people involved in theses things because education does not just bring opportunities to build careers and get out of the poverty you were breed into it also teaches you right from wrong and how life can offer more than just crime and violence
I believe the cuts in further education and the increase in tuition fees by this government are wrong. They will damage this county`s economic prospects and be responsible for lost lives and increased crime.They shown that this government is short sighted and clearly knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

IVF.

Being unable to have children is not a preserve of any class or group of people. It hits rich and poor and can be heartbreaking for people.It can put a great strain on even the strongest of relationships and when people decide to take action to try and have children through whatever method IVF or adoption etc there are no easy routes and all of those paths can lead to pain and disappointment.
I have known couples who have resorted to IVF as a way to achieve their dream of having children and seen the joy that a successful outcome to the treatment has brought them.This treatment is expensive and for many the only hope of having this treatment is through the NHS.
I think it is outrageous the way a number of local primary care trusts have announced in the past few months since the election that they will no longer offer this treatment on the NHS. This is effectively shutting this avenue down to poor people who through various medical problems have found it impossible to have children .It is wrong and unfair and is dividing our society when we should be working to unite it. It is also stopping some people who would make brilliant mum and dads from being parents and that is a tragedy.

Related articles

• IVF treatment halted to cut costs (bbc.co.uk)
• Couples face new IVF postcode lottery as NHS cuts costs (telegraph.co.uk)
• Trust plans to stop IVF treatment (bbc.co.uk)

Prescription Charges!

I believe that now that prescription charges have been abolished in other parts of the United Kingdom there is a strong case for abolishing them completely in England. They are unjust and a tax on the sick. In this post I would like to concentrate on a move that as just been made by my local primary care trust that as effectively meant a doubling in prescription charges for some.
My local PCT as told doctors not to prescribe any medication or treatment for longer than twenty eight days where previously people on long term medication have been given two or three months supply at a time. This means someone paying seven pounds and twenty pence for a two month supply of drugs is now having to pay fourteen pond forty pence for those drugs.I find this outrageous and a scandal. It is punishing people who are struggling with sickness and who may be finding things though financially because of an inability to work because of their condition.I think its wrong and if we had a caring government which we do not have they would intervene to stop.It is an effective tax increase of one hundred per cent for being ill!!!!

Related articles

• SNP: Prescription charges to be cut (mirror.co.uk)
• Scotland to drop prescription charges (guardian.co.uk)
• Prescription charges 'will be cut' (mirror.co.uk)
• NHS Prescription Charges - Can You Claim? Help With Health Costs Is At Hand But Get The Facts, Not A Penalty Charge. UK (medicalnewstoday.com)

Remploy.

Remploy is the largest state owned manufacturing company in the United Kingdom. It was set up straight after the last world war in 1945 to employ disabled servicemen. Since that time it has employed thousands of disabled people of all different shades nationwide in there factories manufacturing various goods.
The company receive a grant from the government of about one hundred million a year which when you consider the money it would cost the taxpayer in benefits and finding day centres etc for the workers who mostly would never get the opportunity to be employed by in a private company that figure is probably a lot less in net terms.
It has been reported that the government are going to reduce the grant given to Remploy to such an extent that most if not all the factories will be forced to close. Not only do I think this is callous in the extreme it is also short sighted and will cost the taxpayer more in the long run than will be saved.
I use to live near a Remploy factory. It was a joy to see the workers come out of the factory in the evening laughing and joking with one another clearly very happy and contented.Remploy have given them the opportunity to feel useful and wanted and to be able to socialise. All the future will probably hold for them is isolation and boredom home alone for most of the day with nothing to do.
Its a tragedy and really shows the government for what it is a nasty, right-wing Tory government without any compassion or feeling for the most vulnerable people in our country.

Benefit Changes!

Image via WikipediaThe basic flaw about the governments efforts to reduce the benefit budget by getting people off benefits and into work is that the jobs they say that they want them to go into simply do not exist. The government themselves are going to axe seven hundred and fifty thousand public sector jobs in the next few years which is expected to push unemployment close to three million so there is clearly going to be a jobless problem at a time when the government are seeking to push people into work.
I also think it is wrong that some people with serious illness like Parkinson disease, MS, cancer are being told they are fit to work when they clearly are not.Something i think will get worse when companies doing the medical tests are paid by results. In other words they will be paid to say people are fit to work.This is a callous and will put already stressed people under even more stressed.
This government is acting in a more callous and uncaring manner than even Margaret Thatcher did at her worse.It is a right-wing government of the sort that we have never seen before in this country.It is unbritish as we are a compassionate and caring nation that as always believed in a society that cares for its weakest and most in need and I think it deserves to get kicked out of office as soon as possible.

Public Service Cuts Hurt!