Tristan Koriya - What I stand for

I am a member of the Round Table, which does such great work for local causes. Every year on Christmas Day I volunteer at Lutterworth Open Christmas which provides a festive meal and entertainment for local people who need a bit of extra company at this time of the year. I have completed the three-peaks challenge four times and helped to raise thousands of pounds for various charities.

 I proudly serve as an Army Reservist with the Royal Logistics Corps.

 My sense of duty and caring for others comes from my parents. My mother worked in the NHS for 26 years. My father has been a factory worker for 30 years after serving in the Armed Forces.

 Sarah and I are expecting our first child. I worry about the future our child will have under a Tory government. The gap between the richest and the poorest is wider than ever. I want to build a Britain that works for the many, not the few. That means building the homes we need to rent and to buy. It means keeping our communities safe. It means giving our schools the funding they need. And it means restoring our NHS to its place as the envy of the world.

Tory threat to NHS

The Health Service Journal has today revealed the extent of the threat posed by a re-elected Tory government. Essentially, the HSJ says: "Closing wards and services, blocking choice of private providers, systematically extending waiting times, and stopping some treatments are all being considered under a national programme targeted at the health economies with the highest overspends."

In response, Jonathan Ashworth, Shadow Health Secretary and Leicester MP, says:

"With 48 hours to go until the General Election, the true scale of the secret Tory plan for cuts and closures across the NHS has been revealed by the Health Service Journal.

"We now know if the Tories are re-elected on Thursday we'll see hospital wards closed, waiting times growing, treatments rationed and staff cut.

"The fact that NHS bosses have described this as the most extreme and difficult NHS finance process they have experienced and would challenge the value basis of the NHS, will make chilling reading for patients and their families who deserve the very best levels of care.

"Every single day the Tories are in power hospitals are being left to crumble, staff are being let down, waiting lists are growing and patients are being denied the care they need and deserve.
"Let's be clear - these new, secret Tory plans will only be stopped by electing a Labour Government on Thursday.

"The NHS cannot survive five more years of a Tory government. That is why Labour has pledged to bring the health service back from the brink with a multi-billion pounds rescue package. The British people deserve nothing less."

Incidentally, did you see this story on the BBC lunchtime news? No, me neither. Funny that. Questions may need to be asked.

Jeremy Corbyn's reponse to Jeremy Hunt

Amanda Hack - your Labour Candidate for South Leicestershire

Amanda's election address should be dropping through your letterbox any day now.  Congratulations to the election team - it looks great and the contents are spot on.

If yours hasn't arrived yet, here are some key points:

• We've seen massive cuts to local services - social care, children's services, school support, youth services, all either closed or cut to the bone.  The next tranche of Tory cuts will close libraries and museums.  Labour is committed to a fairer alternative.
• The NHS as we know it cannot survive five more years of Cameron.  Labour will hire 20,000 more nurses and 8000 extra GPs, funded by a clamp down on tax avoidance, a mansion tax on properties worth than £2 million, and a levy on tobacco firms.
• The cost of childcare has risen by 30% under the Tories.  Labour will provide 25 hours free childcare each week for parents with 3 and 4 year-olds.  Labour will work with primary schools to provide childcare for school-age children from 8am to 6pm, and help parents balance work and family life.

Find out more about Amanda and her campaign by visiting the constituency party's website or by following Amanda on Twitter @hack4labour.

We all know that Farage and UKIP want to privatize the NHS because he has publicly said so.  David Cameron and his on-the-run Tories aren't so upfront.  But they want to privatize just the same.  They want to flog off the last of our national crown jewels for a short-term gain and long-term pain.  And the rubbish Health and Social Care Act (HSCA) is their vehicle for doing so.  Never heard of it?  No, Tory newspapers like the hideous Daily Mail and media like Sky haven't exactly been headlining it.

For the avoidance of doubt, let's be clear: Labour is pledged to repeal HCSA.  It really is that simple.

We're Britain. We're better than this."

"We are talking more about immigration as a party and it's right that we do so.  But it will always be on the basis of Labour values, not UKIP values.  Unlike David Cameron what will never do is try to out-UKIP UKIP.

"I think it is time we levelled with people about UKIP.  It is time we had a debate about where they really stand.

"They think that working mothers aren't worth as much as men.  Life was easier when there wasn't equality for gay and lesbian people.  The NHS would be better off privatised.  Rights at work, whether they come from Europe or from here, are simply a barrier to economic success.

"We're Britain.  We're better than this.  You can't build a vision of the future if you don't believe in equal rights.  You can't succeed as a country if you try to close yourself off from the world.  You can't make a fairer country if you try to destroy our National Health Service."

Ed Miliband, November 2014

A future for the many, not the few

The Tories can't build a better future for working people because they stand up only for a privileged few.

 

Under the Tories’ failing plan too many people are treading water, working harder and harder just to stay afloat, and worried that the next generation are finding it harder to get on than the last.

• Working people are an average of £1,600 a year worse off under the Tories
• Family energy bills have been allowed to rise by over £300 since the election.
• The average age of first time buyers has now reached 33.

David Cameron claims this economy is fixed, but their plan has seen a recovery which is benefiting a privileged few far more than most families.

• David Cameron has cut tax for people on over £150,000 a year while raising it for everyone else.
• Hedge funds have been given a tax break worth millions.
• Families with children have been hit hard, with childcare costs up 30%.

And despite promising to protect the NHS, under David Cameron it is going backwards with people struggling to see their GP and waiting lists rising. You can’t trust the Tories with the NHS.

• One in four patients are waiting a week or more for a GP appointment.
• Waiting lists for treatment are at their highest level for six years.
• Thousands of frontline NHS staff have been lost while £3 billion has been wasted on a damaging reorganisation they promised wouldn’t happen.

The Time to Care Fund

The NHS is one of our greatest achievements but it’s struggling under a Tory-led government which wasted billions on an unnecessary top-down reorganisation. Even the Tories themselves see it as their biggest own goal.


That’s why Ed Miliband has announced that the next Labour government will create a £2.5 billion a year NHS Time to Care Fund to save and transform our health service.

We’ll support 20,000 more nurses, 8,000 more GPs, 5,000 more careworkers and 3,000 more midwives. By appointing these additional staff, our doctors and nurses will have the time they need to care properly for patients, as well as transforming services in communities and at home.

The Time to Care Fund will not be paid for through more borrowing or by raising taxes on everyday working people. Instead, the money will be raised from a tax on houses worth over £2 million, a co-ordinated crackdown against tax avoidance, and by ensuring tobacco companies contribute towards the costs they impose on the NHS.

The Tories haven’t just destabilised our health service; they’re holding it back from meeting the challenges of the 21st century as well. We need a world-class health and care service that is equipped to address the modern challenges that come from an ageing population, more people living with chronic conditions, the rise of mental health, and a higher premium on preventing illness.

The NHS is going backwards under the Tories so there has never been a better or more important time to care about its future. 

Only Labour can be trusted to protect the NHS and with the Time to Care Fund, we’ll ensure we have a health service fit for the 21st century.  

The real choices - the Labour alternative

As the Labour Party meets for its annual conference up in Manchester there are less than nine months to go before Britain is faced with a choice.

The choice to elect a government that only represents the interests of a few or a Labour government that will take on vested interests and stand up for the many.

The Tories and LibDems will use every tool at their disposal to try and discredit us and blame us for their failure.

Remember, under this useless Coalition the use of food banks has increased tenfold, prices continue to outstrip wages and it's getting harder and harder to get an appointment with your GP.

Ed Miliband's Labour Party offers a real alternative.

A Labour Government elected in 2015 will axe the cruel Bedroom Tax, strengthen the minimum wage, introduce a cap on energy bills to reset the broken market, and stop the Tory privatisation of our world-beating NHS,

The Scottish Referendum showed that people will come out and vote in huge numbers (86%) when given a clear choice about issues that matter to them.

Should be a record turnout in 2015 then.