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.

Lutterworth Labour party Summer BBQ

A big thank you goes to Mike Wailloo for once again hosting a BBQ in his lovely garden this July. He provided and cooked a delicious meal. Music was provided by Peter and Elaine, and the raffle was truly Socialist ensuring everyone won a prize! The prizes were great, and included donations from various local businesses. About 35 people attended, and we had a great day, and the weather was not bad either! £885 was made, which will help nicely towards costs of the forth coming General election.

Our next social / fund raising event will be a wine tasting on 25th October, tasting the delicious wines of Leigh Jones! Please join us!

Your Labour Candidate for South Leicestershire

AMANDA HACK

Labour Party members in South Leicestershire have selected a local councillor to take on sitting Tory MP Andrew Robatham at the general election.

Amanda Hack, a married mum of two, represents the Thorpe Astley ward on Braunstone Town Council. 

Professionally, Amanda works as Head of Economic Development for the Asra Housing Group – a leading housing and regeneration provider, managing 13,500 homes in the Midlands and South East England.

Speaking after her selection as Labour’s choice for South Leicestershire, Amanda said: 

I’m delighted that local people have backed me to take on the Tories and LibDems in South Leicestershire.

Independent figures reveal that wages are an average of £1,600 down in real terms since 2010 as prices and inflation continue to raise faster that pay packets.

Combined with an average increase of £300 on household utility bills, hardworking people in South Leicestershire find themselves in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis.

It needn’t be like this - it’s only because of the decisions David Cameron’s government has made that people who work hard and play by the rules are so out of pocket.

Living standards for the majority have fallen in 44 of the 45 months David Cameron has been in Downing Street – all whilst the out-of-touch Tory-led government hands a £3billion tax break to the top 1% of earners by cutting the 50p income tax rate.

People are playing by the rules but not getting any better off.

Ed Miliband has committed a future Labour government to delivering an energy price freeze and introducing a Jobs Guarantee to get the million unemployed young people back to work – a government who stands up for the many, not the few.

Amanda added: “I’m looking forward to getting out on the doorsteps of South Leicestershire and making the case for Ed Miliband’s One Nation alternative here.”

South Leicestershire Constituency Labour Party member Lord Willy Bach, who serves as a Shadow Foreign and Commonwealth Office Minister in the Lords, welcomed Amanda’s selection. He said: 

Amanda has a proven track record in standing up for local people – just the kind of advocate the people who have been left worse off by this government need. I look forward to working with her in the run up to the general election.

Follow Amanda's campaign on Twitter @hack4labour

Mending the Fractured State

Andrew Adonis's report on how to build a fairer economy and restore meaningful politics nationally and locally, was generally welcomed when it was published yesterday.  It certainly attracted very favourable comments at our Branch meeting last night.

Andrew identifies the problem:

• Big strengths and big weaknesses characterise the UK economy. We have world class universities and centres of research, and many of the world’s largest firms. Inward investment is high. London is a preeminent global city. Yet growth is unbalanced. The link between growth and living standards has been broken, exports are weak, young people widely lack the opportunities they deserve and inequality is vast, both between people and between regions.
• The report argues that government needs to become smarter and more entrepreneurial, nationally and locally. Working in intense collaboration with leaders across education, business, science and public services, it needs to facilitate innovation by promoting higher rates of business and export growth. 
• The report recommends giving city and county regions the powers they require to promote growth. Local Enterprise Partnerships – as the regional voice of business – need to be significantly improved. In partnership with local authorities at the city and county regional level, they should then be empowered with larger devolved budgets to promote better skills, infrastructure and economic development, in return for credible growth plans.

The overriding aim of the report by Lord Adonis is to promote a smarter, not a more expensive, state. It argues that we need to build on the best of Britain and be optimistic that the best is yet to come.

Download your copy of MENDING THE FRACTURED STATE by clicking here.

Labour - Fighting for Britain's Future

Labour's Cost of Living Contract

Last week, Labour would have delivered a Queen’s speech to help Britain be better off 

Parliament should be making real progress to address the public’s discontent and chart a new direction for Britain. Labour’s Queen’s Speech would have included: 

 

• A Make Work Pay bill to reward hard work with a higher minimum wage.

 

• A Banking Bill that backs British business with a real British Investment Bank and new regional banks.

 

• A Consumers Bill to freeze energy bills until 2017 and reform the energy market

 

• A Housing Bill with long term reform to increase supply to 200,000 homes by 2020, and measures to end rip-off letting fees and make three year tenancies the norm.

 

• A Communities Bill to give people a say over pay day lenders and betting shops on their high streets.

 

• An Immigration Bill, to stop workers being undercut through enforcement of the minimum wage and banning recruitment agencies that only use overseas labour.

 

• An NHS Bill, to put a stop to its privatisation and improve access to GPs. 

 

To make that happen we need a different government, a Labour Government.

 

Labour will take immediate action to deal with David Cameron’s cost-of-living crisis:

 

• Freeze gas and electricity bills until 2017, as we reform the broken energy market to prevent customers being ripped off.

 

• Get the next generation into work, with expanded apprenticeships and a compulsory jobs guarantee for young people unemployed for a year or more – with a real paid job they’ll have to take or lose benefits.

 

• Introduce a lower 10p starting rate of tax to help make work pay and cut taxes for 24 million working people on middle and lower incomes – funded by a mansion tax on homes worth over £2 million.

 

• End the abuse of zero hour contracts and strengthen the minimum wage.

 

Labour will make big long-term changes so that hardworking people are better off

 

• Get 200,000 homes built a year by 2020, creating up to 230,000 construction jobs.

 

• Make work pay with 25 hours free childcare for three and four year olds with working parents paid for by an increase in the bank levy.

 

• Improve school standards, by guaranteeing that all teachers must be qualified, and transforming vocational education for the 50 per cent of young people who don’t go to university with gold-standard technical qualifications at age 18.

 

• Repeal David Cameron's NHS changes that put private profit before patient care – and we will give patients and the public a say when changes to local services are proposed.

 

Only Labour can make Britain better off, putting hardworking families first with a plan to tackle the cost-of-living crisis and earn our way to higher living standards for all.

Welcome ban on plastic bags at last!

The Government's crack down on plastic bags is welcome, but rather late compared to us locals!

Lutterworth Labour Party and friends were campaigning for plastic bag reduction many years ago: "Join blitz on plastic bags", Lutterworth Mail, 2008; "Recycling is in the bag", Lutterworth Diary, 2009; "Campaigners succeed in bid to cut plastic bags", Lutterworth Observer, 2009.

If only the Government would take up some other Labour party ethics such as build more houses rather than heating up the housing market; put effort into getting NEETs into work or education instead of playing down the numbers of young people in this difficult position; keeping the NHS in the public sector where it belongs and providing economic stimulus for manufacturing to get more people into work.

Well at least our suggestion regarding plastic bags has been heeded - lets keep hoping!....

Elaine Carter