Essential Reading - what a working Labour peer gets up to in a week

Willy has sent us his diary for the past week.  It's top of the page list on the right (well, even this page has to have a right as well as a left).  Fascinating reading.  Thanks, Willy.

In Spring 2013 the IMF said that the Conservative-led Coalition was "playing with fire ... with the growth flat-lining... [and] should be easing off some of those spending cuts."

This is Robert Peston on BBC Radio 4's PM last Tuesday:

There is a debate still to be had about whether or not the UK approach over the full period of the parliament was the most effective in terms of generating recovery.

It shouldn't be forgotten that UK national income is still below its peak of the first quarter of 2008.

Other counties that are currently growing more slowly than ours, such as Germany, have an income that is about that of 2008.  In other words, these countries have continued along the path of enrichment better than we have and they are wealthier than they were before the crash of 2008 whereas we are less wealthy than we were before the crash.

Thanks to David F.

The case for Labour's Banking Reforms

Ordinary British people are facing the worst cost of living crisis in a generation.  We here in relatively prosperous South Leicestershire are no exception.

Prices are soaring, wages are falling, working people are £1,600 per year worse off and small businesses are struggling to access the finance they need to grow. Yet David Cameron continues to demonstrate how out of touch he is with the struggles millions are facing and is determined to operate our economy as business as usual.

Members of Lutterworth and Broughton Astley Labour Party are delighted that Labour has made firm plans to help people struggling with the rising cost of living, such as Ed Miliband's pledge to freeze energy bills until 2017. But as important as this pledge is, it only helps to deal with the consequences of our current economic state, and not the symptoms.

The Tory-led Government has failed to make the long-term changes needed to build a new economy that works for everyone and not just a few at the top.

The Tories won’t build a new economy that can tackle the cost of living crisis. They are determined to cling on to the old economy in a global race to the bottom. They think low wages, low skills and insecure work is the way to take Britain forward in the hope that some of the wealth will trickle down from the top. 

If we’re serious about dealing with the cost of living crisis and winning the race to the top with countries like China and India, then we need to build a new economy that works for everyone, and that means dealing with one of Britain’s broken markets: our banking system that works for banks but not for businesses and families.

Britain’s banking system is dominated by just four banks that control 85 per cent of small business lending. This lack of competition is a root cause of poor service, a breakdown of trust and a massive drop of £56bn in lending to business since May 2010.

Part of the reason we rely too much on low paid, insecure work is that the small firms that could create the good, high paying jobs of the future can’t get the finance they need to grow both themselves and our economy.

Of course we need to keep supporting Magna Park and the international companies based there. But we mustn't forget that our local economy depends on small and medium-sized businesses. Even our villages have small business parks which are key to growing our future economy. For these enterprises to thrive, government must promote a wider range of banks that have to compete harder with each other for customers.



That’s why the next Labour Government will bring in a legal threshold to ensure no bank can get too big and that the market remains competitive for the long-term. We will improve the amount of lending to small businesses, improve the service to all customers and create new banks that will work for the communities they serve.

Under a Labour Government, small businesses will have a better chance of getting the support they need to grow, employ more people at decent wages and help Britain earn its way to better living standards for everyone.

Items of note

David F has sent me notes from November's meeting of Warwickshire Fabians - former Health Minister Mike O'Brien on the NHS.  You can access the page by clicking on the title in the Pages section on the right.

Also sent by David, a link to a fascinating New Statesman on Paul Dacre, the Mail editor who hates Labour so much that he hyperbolises diary entries by the late Ralph Miliband.  If you haven't already seen it, you can access it by clicking here.

Freedom of Movement - Glenis Willmott

"The answer to making freedom of movement in the EU work for everybody isn’t to limit people’s working rights, but to strengthen them. With high standards of social protection across Europe we can stop undercutting and exploitation, and go back to being the Britain that welcomes migrants, and recognises the contribution they make to our country."

---Glenis Willmott MEP

Read the article in full here: http://www.gleniswillmott.eu/making-eu-migration-fair-for-all/

Christmas Quiz!

Our regular Christmas quiz was held again in the Red Admiral, Broughton Astley. Our excellent Quizmaster, David Fish, stretched our minds on subjects from national and international politics to African Geography and pop music. Sandra P organised a lovely buffet. It was great to have old members returning to join in, along with members from neighbouring Branches. We had a great time, there were great prizes and a raffle, and we made about £80 while having a good time! Thank you to David and Sandra for organising!

Sally Gimson on PMQs

Floods and fires and sinking plans

Further to David F's proposals about making Prime Minister's Questions something more than a playground jeering match, here is Sally's article on today's engagement.

Cameron pledges the rich will pay less tax

 

 Michael Dugher, MP for Barnsley East and Labour's Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office, condemns David Cameron's pre-election speech on the Andrew Marr Show:

 

"David Cameron wants to be judged on his record.  Families are £1,600 a year worse off and Cameron showed once again he has no answers to the cost-of-living crisis facing millions of families across Britain.

 

"Rather than helping hard-working families, David Cameron is again choosing to stand up for just a privileged few at the top.

 

"In 2013, Cameron gave people earning over £150,000 a year a big tax cut.  Now he's paving the way for yet another cut to the top rate of tax, a further tax giveaway for millionaires and the top Tory donors who bankroll Cameron's Conservative party.

 

"Under David Cameron millionaires get tax cuts while hard working people are worse off.  Cameron's tetchy interview underlined that he is out of touch with the country and that he has no answers to Britain's cost-of-living crisis."

 

Tory cuts - NHS crisis

The Sunday Times reports that in the last six weeks 8000 operations have been cancelled as hospitals fill up with elderly patients – that’s a 17% increase in cancellations compared to the same period in 2012, itself a 20% increase on the year before.

The Department of Health says the number of cancellations remains low in the context of ‘millions’ of operations performed by the NHS each week.  (You’ve got to question that statistic – are we all having one each?)  Our own David Fish says this is ‘head-in-the-sand denial.’  DoH bureaucrats and ministers have been warned plenty of times by front-line health professionals that when it comes to essential healthcare, cuts means crisis.

 

Labour’s Shadow Health Minister Andy Burnham says the cancellations are because more people than ever are being admitted to hospital from A&E – “a clear sign that too many frail, older people are struggling to cope because of the loss of care support at home.

“David Cameron’s fingerprints are all over the crisis in A&E.  On his watch, it has got harder to get a GP appointment and people are ringing surgeries to be told nothing is available for days.  Add to that his severe cuts to social care, the closure of Walk-In Centres and the break-up of NHS Direct and we have an A&E crisis made in 10 Downing Street.”