Ambition!

Image via WikipediaThe last Labour government clearly had ambitions for this country.  Ambitions for every school child to be taught in modern buildings with excellent facilities,patients to be treated in hospitals fit for the twenty first century.To give every young person the opportunity to go to university if they chose to.To have a work force highly skilled and educated that can help our country compete in the world..To give young people more opportunities to follow their dreams by creating more apprenticeships.To create sporting facilities to rival the best in the world and have Great Britain competing to host the greatest sporting tournaments.
When a government has ambitions it inspires people to greatness and makes them proud of their country. All governments should have great ambitions. Ambitions to reach for the sky and beyond and ask not why but why not!
The present government lack ambition. They believe that the government cannot change things, that people must be left to there own devices and allowed to sink or swim. They have no ambition to have the best and be the best.They believe in pulling out and doing nothing rather than creating and building.There is no shining light with this government just a black hole of nothing. No inspiration, no aims, no ambition.
When you give people no hope they sink in despair and lose ambition for themselves.A nation without ambitions will achieve nothing.I also fear people will in their despair go out and try and take what they cannot have any longer and that will see the reduction in crime we saw under Labour reversed.
We need hope, ambition and a light at the end of this long dark tunnel we are traveling into. Only Labour can give people that hope. They must not let the people down.

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Renationalise the Railways!

Image via WikipediaSince the railways were nationalised people have seen their fares soar but the service hardly improve at all. We have also seen subsidies increased to such an extent that the railways are now costing the taxpayer more than they did when it was in public ownership.
It makes sense to me that the railways need to be taken back into public ownership. Firstly from an economic point of view it doesn`t make sense for the taxpayer to subsidies a service to such an extent that it is costing more than when the taxpayer actually owned it. Secondly railways are crucial to the green agenda.We need to get cars and freight of the roads and onto the cleaner railways and we will not do that if private companies are taking money out of the industry and  making rail travel and transport more expensive than it should be.
In the nineteen twenties Winston Churchill campaigned for the railways to be nationalised because he thought they were crucial to the nations future. What was true then is true now and we should take the railways back into public ownership at the earliest opportunity.

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The Fight For Justice!

Image via WikipediaThe fight for justice in this country for the needy and the poor will in the next few years fall to the Labour Party has the Lib/Dems have shown by there pact with the Tories that their concerns are no longer for the poor and the needy.
The Labour party need to decide what road it wants to take. Does it want to continue down the path of New Labour and the ideals of Tony Blair and Lord Mandelson or does it want to go back to its roots and once again stand for the ideals and principals of Bevin and Atlee.I believe that the British people are longing to see the party once again fight for the poor, the needy, the old, the sick and the disabled. To stand up for human rights and fight for a better world for all.Labour need to harness that desire for real change and make people believe that we can have a country where everyone has a decent life and that everyone has the opportunity to fulfil there potential.
The question has to be answered who of the leadership contenders is the person who does believe in those old ideals and principals and who has the ability to take the message forward and lead the party back into government.I believe Ed Miliband is the person to do that. His ideas represent the ideals of Bevin and Attlee.He as the skills in communications and policy to put together a programme for change and for government and sell it to the people.He is the man for the future not a man of the past. I would urge all Labour Party members to vote for him and give all those suffering under this government hope for the future.

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NHS Reforms.

Image via WikipediaPersonally the part of the governments NHS reforms that I think is wrong and will lead to patient dissatfaction is transfering commissioning of treatment and services from the PCT to GP`s.Your doctor is there to treat you and to decide the best course of treatment you need for your condition.Once the doctor as not just a  clinical responsibility but also a responsiblity for commissioning and paying for the treatment there is a conflict of interest there. Who is to say some doctors will not go for the cheapest option when deciding treatment rather than the best when they have responsibility for budgets and commissioning.
The governments reforms will instill distrust in patients and will lead to some patients beliving they are not receiving the treatment they should.You get the imprssion from the government that their reforms are ill thought out and hurried based on not what is best for patients and the NHS but what fits in with there political ideology.I suspect this expensive experiment will cost billions and damage rather than improve the NHS.

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The Winter Fuel Allowance.

There as been much speculation in recent days about government plans to restrict the winter fuel allowance because of  spending cuts and there need to fund the reform of the welfare state. Many of the cuts we have seen since the government have come to power have been vicious and callous but this would be the most vicious and callous of them all.
Many old people struggle even with the allowance to pay their energy bills during the winter months. Many because they are frightened of not being able to pay spend there time when indoors with there coats on or in the one room they can afford to heat. Some turn there heating down or off because of their fear of not being able to pay their bills and end up in hospital or even dead because of it.Any cutback in the allowance will make this situation worse and will result in lose of life.
Personally I think there is a need and a good case to extend the allowance not cut it back. I think many people who are on benefits because they have long term medical conditions should also receive the allowance.Those for instance with long term lung problems are advised to keep there homes above a certain temperature to stop their condition worsening  suffer great hardship trying to do this in the cold winter months.
A government should be judged not on balencing the books or how it treats the well off in society but how it treats the needy and the vunerable.This government have shown time and time again that they deserve to be judged badly because of the way they are treating the vunerable in our society and targeting them for cuts!

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Real Cuts!

Image via WikipediaIn the emergency budget in July the Chancellor announced that most benefits for the disabled and the sick would be uprated in line with the Consumer Price Index rather than Retail Prices Index in future.We Can see in this months inflation figures what a difference that is going to make to people.In July the Retail Prices Index was at 4.8% whereas the Consumer Price Index was at just 3.1%. The figures tell the story in itself. They mean next April when benefits are uprated then the sick and disabled will see an effective cut in their benefits. With the increase in VAT which will hit all goods either directly or indirectly we can see now what an effect this will have on the living standards of some of the most vulnerable people in the country.
David Cameron said before the election that he will protect the most vulnerable in our society from the effects of budget cuts. This is now shown to be as false as his other pledge that he had no plans to increase VAT!

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The Coalition: 100 days. 100 cuts.

Coalition: 100 days. 100 cuts - UK Politics, UK - The Independent

Country Parks and Nature Reserves!

Image by Scootzsx via FlickrOne of the greatest treasures we have in this country are our country parks and nature reserves. They allow people to get out of the towns and cities and relax and be closer to the beauty of nature and give youngsters time to learn to respect and love wildlife and the countryside.
I was horrified to read this morning that the Tories are thinking of selling off these treasures to private companies because of there cuts agenda.This would be madness and would lead to many of these treasures becoming little more than commercialised money making concerns.
Harold MacMillian said of the Thatcher government when they were making cutbacks that there was a danger that the country was selling of the county`s silver I think this government could be cutting the heart out of the country in an effort to lance a boil!

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Fair Pay, Total Commitment!

I believe that everyone working in the public sector deserves to be paid well. I think the attitude of some on the right that those engaged in public services should be paid less than those in the private sector is totally wrong. At the same time I think that if you are employed in public service than your commitment should be total and you should be engaged in your job full time.
There are many in the public services like doctors, Members of Parliament and those in management who get a full time salary often a very good full time salary but do not give a full time commitment. I think its wrong that a doctor is paid over one hundred thousand pounds in some cases but spends only about a third of the time he spends on his private practice working for the NHS. I think its wrong that some managers get upwards of eighty thousand ponds a year for working the eqvalient of about three months a year.I think its wrong that Members of Parliament are often absent from the House of Commons because of board meetings of the companies they are directors of.
The right talk about value for money well lets have that by outlawing outside work for those employed by the taxpayer. Lets have total commitment for a fair salary not half hearted commitment by everyone and stop people treating the taxpayer who funds there salaries as nothing more than cash cows!!!

Turning Hope Into A Recession!

We saw last week with the new growth figures that by bailing out the banks and putting money into the economy  the last Labour government didn`t just stop a recession turning into a depression they had started to rebuild our economy and give us hope.
In recent days we have seen that hope fade and a new recession start to appear on the horizon because of the fear of Cameron`s cuts.Just as the economy recovers the government are taking billions out of the economy by sacking  people in the public sector andscraping building projects on schools and hospitals which is also throwing people out of wortk in the private sector. We also have of course the looming disincentive for people to spend and help create jobs of the VAT rise.
The public spending cuts are being done to soon and too fast with an ideoligical zeal and relish that suggests this cuts are being done more as part of Tory political dogma than economic neccessity.
The Tories were responsible for a recession and massive unemployment soon after they last came to power as so often happens I think history seems to be about to repeat itself.

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The Cuts Start TO Bite!!

BBC News - Nottinghamshire County Council says 3,000 jobs at risk