The time has come

So here we are, Labour seeking a fourth term.

I've recently finished Roy Hattersley book on the inter war years, with the causes of the great depression.

It's seems clear to me that if Labour had not borrowed to invest in jobs and quantitative easing to pump money into the economy to keep it afloat and had not bailed the banks out, then I believe another great depression would have occurred.

Repaying the debt needs to be handled in an orderly way, to quick in cutting public expenditure with cuts to frontline services will be dangerous.

Let's be clear, in Shepton, all the schools has seen investment, we have sure start and the children's centre, the health service has been strengthened with the new treatment centre treats many, the community hospital has new services and the stroke ward. So without doubt public services have improved.

Let's turn our backs on these achievements, finally, an anecdote, when Labour came to power in 1997, I remember the government gave £500 in books to infant schools, the then headteacher simply couldn't believe it, the first investment in years, although she never gave credit to the Labour government, like many it's easy to get complacent, but Labour has made a difference, because those young people who benefited from those new books and literacy strategy achieved the best results in whitstone history, funny that!

Going Negative early

With the Conservative opinion poll lead going down they have today launched their new poster advertisement.

Two things to say, Lord (none dom, not British tax payer) Ashcroft donations to the Conservatives probably wasted, they're for media consumption, and the conservatives clearly nervous about not winning the coming election have nothing to say other than negative comment on Labour.

Gordon Brown rightly stated this is a crossroad election with two opposing views on the management of this country, one where government is an important partner and one in which the state is diminished, Labour appear to outlining the principles of their vision for Britain, the Conservatives want to go negative.

So the question is this, if you are running on a change message, should you not explain what the change will look like? It seems to me, it's more of the same old conservatives.

You can't win in politics

The General Election is looming, probably it will be called within the next month.

Gordon Brown took this opportunity to visit serving British troops in Afghanistan to thank them and to let them know the government appreciates their efforts.

Gordon Brown undoubtedly has few opportunities left to visit Afghanistan, so typically the Conservatives attack him for 'using the troops', if Gordon Brown did not visit before the election he would be accused of indifference to the troops.

This probably says more about the Conservatives, they are spooked, they see there lead in the polls slipping, their lack of detailed policy unravelling, the veil of the new conservatives slipping, they are the same, small government, tax cuts for the rich, cuts in services that hurt ordinary people.

I look forward to the intense month of campaigning, if the media covers the election campaign in a balanced fashion, the exposure will see the conservatives left bare.

A Radical agenda

With the general election just weeks away, the opinion polls closing, are Joe public ready for a change in policy.

What about;

1. Every worker paid a living wage, this agreed by a pay commission every person who works hard should receive an adequate standard of living.
2. Progressive taxes and closing tax havens.
3. A Huge expansion in affordable housing, with training programmes for young people.
4. A Transaction tax.
5. Investment in Green technology.
6. Nationalised Banks to be mutualised.
7. Strengthening Regulators
8. Expansion in childcare and early years education
9. An elected second chamber
10. Additional Member System voting system for all elections.
11. Greater devolution of powers down to councils.

Getting interesting

I've neglected this blog, running 2 blogs is not easy, but some constituents did not want to read about national politics, but did want my local councillors stuff.

Anyway, the Conservative lead down again to 2% this time, this despite a pretty poisonous media towards Gordon Brown, and the continued love in with Cameron.

I'm starting to look forward to the coming campaign, what a difference a year makes, when I stood for the County Council elections, no one was interested in Labour's message, but now the conservative Somerset County Council are making cuts, the damage is starting to be known.

Politics is about momentum and Labour has it.

A Living Wage

The Labour Government introduced the National Minimum Wage (NMW), that ends the obscenity of slave wages, the NMW is now £5.73 or £229 a week, the Labour Government has also introduced tax credits to help low paid workers with children.

Low paid single people have not enjoyed as much support from the government with the loss of the 10p tax band, although this tax was mitigated by raising the tax allowance, this gave more tax breaks for higher earners.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation JRF, published a report stating that the recession had effected low paid people harder than most, with higher inflation on food, domestic heating and transport costs at the same time low or no pay rises and the risk of losing their jobs. Whilst inflation has been lower on higher priced luxury goods, this is important as low paid people has less disposable income, if any, whilst higher income groups are less effected.

The JRF states that a single person needs after tax £13900 to enjoy an adequate living whilst a couple needs double that and increases with children.

In an age of bankers paying themselves huge salaries and massive bonuses, the gap between rich and poor has widened dramatically, the government needs to make the living wage a priority, they need to assess how much is needed to live an adequate life, further work needs to be carried out on developing the social wage, low cost affordable housing at the top of the list.

Robin Hood Rides Again

A Tiny tax of 0.05% from international bankers transactions could generate hundreds of billions of pounds every years to stop cuts in our public services, help fight global poverty and tackle climate change.

There is a new campaign, The Robin Hood Tax, http://robinhoodtax.org.uk/ that is campaigning for such a tax, launched by church charities, trade unions, environmental groups and international development charities.