Why we support public sector workers defending their pensions

Today the Chancellor promised to ensure Britain "remains the home of global banks and that London is the world's pre-eminent financial centre".

In other words, the Government is committed to subsidising, bailing out and rewarding the City of London -- at the cost of public sector workers, pensioners and private firms.

Tomorrow, hundreds if not thousands of public service workers in Hillingdon will take industrial action. These are ordinary working men and women who are striking to protect the pension schemes they have paid into.  Is it too much to ask for a retirement without poverty after a lifetime of public service?

It is not just refuse workers, teachers, health workers, civil servants, meals on wheels providers who are being fleeced by the cabinet millionaires. It is also their families, many of whom work low paid in the private sector, who depend on these pensions.

That is why this issue has gathered such wide-spread support from trades unions which have never previously taken part in industrial action. .

Yet if you believed the Government’s line you would be forgiven for thinking that tomorrow’s strikers are greedy, self-serving and not living in the real world.  

Since the election in 2010 Conservative ministers have been systematically attacking public sector services and directly or by inference public service workers. They are attempting to use public sector pensions to divide public sector and private sector workers. But never does a Government minister ask why private sector employers were cutting employees' pensions during the years of growth and prosperity? The Conservatives take every opportunity to call public servants lazy, wasteful, entrenched, overpaid, privileged, enemies of enterprise - except of course when they threaten to withdraw their hard work. Only then do Tories start adding up the value added by public services.

Education Secretary of State Michael Gove this week described some union leaders as “militants itching for a fight”.  In reality it’s the Government that has been itching for the fight, setting up public sector workers as the Aunt Sallys while supporting their friends in the City, the real authors of the financial straits we face.

We should resist this Government’s attack on public services and public sector workers.  Everyone except the very rich will be harmed by the Conservative ideological attacks on public services.  

When a Conservative MP asked this week “Will the Prime Minister acknowledge that the most disruptive impacts of next week’s strikes will be on mums and dads with children in school?“ she  was peddling deceits using sound-bites and scare tactics, rather than addressing  the real issues.

The first deception is that public employees somehow owe us their work. They do not. They are not slaves, nor convicted to hard labour. They get paid to do a job. A strike is the withdrawal of that labour at the worker’s own cost.

Second, a strike would be utterly pointless as an expression of extreme dissatisfaction, if it did not have some disruptive impact. The brunt of this impact is borne by the striking workers who do not get paid while on strike. It is untrue to say that giving up 20% of their weekly pay in the current economic climate is a decision taken lightly.

Third, is the implication that public servants are not mums and dads, with the suggestion that no mums and dads support the strike. They do!

Did the same Tory MPs complain about the Government’s decision to give a bank holiday to celebrate the Royal Wedding in May? Did they express concern for all the waiters, shop workers, hospital workers, taxi drivers, police, pub staff and plumbers would look after their children, with schools closed? No they did not!

If you work in the private sector do not be misled into resentment of public sector workers. Ask who is really benefiting from all these attacks on the public sector.

Ken's policy week

Ken Livingstone

The Ken Livingstone campaign is holding 4 policy workshops in London in the run-up to the Mayoral election in May 2012 and the publication of the manifesto.




The meetings are to be held at the LP offices at 39 Victoria Street from 6.30pm to 8pm and the details are as follows:

• Crime and Policing Evening Monday 28th November
• Transport and Fares Evening Tuesday 29th November
• Young People 30th Wednesday November
• Housing 1st Thursday December

They are open to all Labour Party members and members of affiliated organisations. The aim is to discuss policy and to build campaigning momentum ahead of the elections in May.

 

A more detailed agenda will be sent to attendees before the meeting.

 

To register your interest in attending click here.

Help Ken's campaign with Navin Shah AM in Harrow this Saturday

Navin Shah - Labour Party  Assembly Member
for Brent and Harrow

WHAT: Action day in Harrow with Navin Shah AM
WHEN:   Saturday November 19, 2011 at 10:30am
WHERE:  Labour Party Office,
                 132 Blenheim Road, Harrow,
                 HA2 7AA
(a short walk from West Harrow Tube station)

CONTACT:   Andrew Clark  07595090033
For more information click here

'The housing crisis should dominate next year's Mayoral Election'

A new report paints bleak picture of London housing market, with an entire generation locked out of the housing market.

To buy a house of average price in L.B. Hillingdon with a 75% mortgage requires an annual income of £60,518, while the average income is only £26,068.Even to buy a house of lower value requires an income of £43,929.

National Housing Federation assistant director Kate Dodsworth said: 'An entire generation has been locked out of a broken market. The housing crisis should dominate next year’s mayoral election as Londoners face their own Olympian struggle to find a home they can afford.

The average Londoner would need to triple their salary to £87,000 to buy an average price property in the capital, according to a report launched today by the National Housing Federation. .

And if owning a home looks a forlorn hope renting is not looking much better. Private sector rents have risen 30% since 2008 and are expected to rise by a further 20% in the next 5 years.

Government Ministers have consistently argued that the changes in local housing allowance would lead to reduced rents in the private rented sector and would not lead to more homelessness.

One year later rent have increased 12% meanwhile a report by London Councils estimates the Household Benefit Cap and Housing Benefit cuts will leave 133,000 households unable to pay their current rents. In 2010/11 10,180 families were accepted as homeless and in priority need by London councils, an 8% rise on the previous year and the first increase since 2004.

Meanwhile the Goverment's solution is to provide social rented homes at 'affordable rents' which is double-speak for unnaffordable rents.

New social housing being  supplied at ‘affordable rents’ means setting rents in Westminster at 65% of market rents. This  would require a household income of £65,000 to cover the cost without benefit.

In Haringey, a rent set at 80% of local market rents would require a household income of £31,000 for a 1 bed flat, and in Newham a 2 bed flat would require a household income of £27,000.

No Easy Options: Irregular immigration in the UK

We are pleased to pass on an open invitation to all local Labour Party members to hear Tim Finch , the Director of Communications for IPPR, the Institute for Public Policy Research, who has agreed to talk at the next CLP meeting of Uxbridge & S Ruislip Constituency LP about the report he co-wrote earlier this year on how to control Irregular Immigration, one of the most difficult of public policy issues in the UK.

Tim Finch

Given that the best recent estimate put the number of irregular immigrants in the UK at well over half a million, the scale of the phenomenon is one obvious reason why it demands attention.

The meeting will be held at 8pm Wednesday 23 November 2011 at Christ Church, Redford Way, Belmont Road, Uxbridge, UB8 1SZ.

Christ Church is just a few minutes walk away from Uxbridge Undereground station and bus station.

 

For more information email Paul Espley, Branch Secretary at South Ruislip and Manor Branch LP

Outrage at closure of daycare centres for severely disabled adults

If a civilised society should be judged by how it can provide for its most vulnerable people then we should be concerned how posterity will look back at Hillingdon Council in 2011.

Labour Group Leader
Cllr Mo Khursheed

Labour's leader on Hillingon Council, Cllr Mo Khursheed, has described plans for replacing three day centres with one larger centre in Queens Walk, South Ruislip as outrageous.


Cllr Khursheed says the planned  one large centre is "out of line with current thought that favours smaller day service provision" and the overall reduction "from the current 140 places to just 70 in one new day centre" disregards the evidence of increased need contained in two papers submitted to the Council's Cabinet on 30th September.

"An immediately obvious issue is that one day centre to cover all 43 square miles of Hillingdon will entail people travelling further than currently. For those of us that live in Hillingdon, we are fully aware that it is criss-crossed by motorways and major roads. It only takes one problem and grid-lock usually follows. Already carers and users complain about the fairly long periods of time users spend on transport getting to provision. The new proposals will compound these problems. Possibly users may spend more time travelling than they actually do at the new mega day centre. I am coming to the conclusion that the retention of at least one of the south Day Centres is vital because of this."

In the Disabilities Commissioning Plan 2011-2015 the Council said the needs of all service users at the affected day centres - Phoenix in South Ruislip, Woodside in Hayes and Parkview in Hillingdon - would be reviewed

One Harefield resident "whose 29-year-old son needs 24-hour care for his rare metabolic disease and epilepsy" has expressed anger the closure of Phoenix Cenre, South Ruislip, as it will cause "major upheaval in her life and severe distress to her disabled son".

"Chris goes to Phoenix Day Centre five days a week during school term time, and has three nights a month respite, which helps us have some independence.

"As I work at a school I care for him full-time during the holidays, as well as in the mornings and evenings after work. This is becoming increasingly difficult as I get older and sometimes struggle to get through a day.

"To now hear via our local newspaper that the day centre is to close is devastating."

" Chris found travelling long distances stressful, and she would have to give up her job to care for him full-time if Phoenix closed".

Cllr Khursheed concludes his remarks " I fear these proposals are not about doing the best for our residents, they are more concerned with balancing the books".

NHS cancer figures contradict David Cameron and Andrew Lansley's claims

"David Cameron and Andrew Lansley's repeated criticisms of the NHS's record on cancer have been contradicted by new research that shows the health service to be an international leader in tackling the disease, as  reported in the Guardian.

While the Tory led coalition Government attempts to justify their shake up of the NHS to introduce further privatisation, it turns out that  the publically owned, tax payer funded, free at the point of use system is actually very efficient in the treatment of cancer.

"In fact, the NHS in England and Wales has helped achieve the biggest drop in cancer deaths and displayed the most efficient use of resources among 10 leading countries worldwide, according to the study published in the British Journal of Cancer.

Private tenants given two months to get out after nearly 10 years

As reported in the Uxbridge Leader,  a commercial private landlord has given 8 families in North Road, Hayes, two months notice get out of their homes so they can be sold.
All eight tenants, who had been resident for up to ten years,  are all on Assured Shorthold Tenancies which provide virtually no security of tenure.

Their Labour ward Councillor Janet Gardiner is reported to be raising the issue of tenants' rights at the next full Hillingdson Council meeting.