The second of tonight’s guest posts is by Paul Riley, the founder of Sustainable Liverpool. The Tories might expect Paul to be a natural supporter, but he explains why he’s anything but – and why we must oust the Tories from Downing Street on Thursday:
I have spent the last nine months breaking my back trying to get a new social enterprise off the ground, working nights and weekends around my existing full-time job. Sustainable Liverpool is the name of the project, and the goal is to promote environmental awareness, improve standards of living, tackle debt and work towards a more cohesive and progressive community.
For the last month I have put all of that on hold in order to campaign against the Conservative Party in this election. If, on Friday, we wake up to another five years of Tory government, then it’s fair to say that any good that comes from my burgeoning social enterprise will be swallowed up and eclipsed many times over. My reasons for voting Labour can be found on my site.
This week, we have the most important General Election since 1945. We are on the brink of disaster in so many ways, and yet I have never been so excited about any election (or referendum). That is because while the Tory agenda seems so close to a breakthrough in so many areas, the mass of protests and mobilisation against them also seems to be reaching a critical mass. We need a final, decisive push in order to ensure that it is the Labour that prevails.
We are literally at the stage where either the Labour win the election, or the Tory party will push our NHS, Education and Social Care systems beyond the point of no return, plunging the country into a very dark time from which they will be able to argue that the only road to salvation is further austerity and mass privatisation.
With that in mind, here are some of the reasons why you must vote against the Conservative Party in this election, and why you must engage with others to support them to make the right decision. I will break this into a number of smaller posts to make it more shareable and readable, so please do spread the word in these last vital days. First up, we will look at Debt, Finance, Pensions, and Tax:
Despite portraying themselves as the party who know best how to deal with our finances, the Tories have been the biggest borrowers, on average as well as in total, over the last 70 years [1].
They have piled on more debt in four years than Labour did in 13 [2], and there is a further rise in wealth inequality on the horizon [3]. Since 2008, living standards have fallen for all but the richest [4]. UK wages dropped 10% since 2007, the second-biggest hit in Europe [5], and as of 2011, British people work the 3rd longest out of everyone in Europe [6] while 16 million people have less than £100 in savings [7].
UK productivity growth is the weakest since WW2 [8], GDP per capita is lower than it was before 2008 [9] and as for that deficit, which was supposed to be eliminated by 2015? Now the target is 2020 [10].
For parents in full-time work the rate of poverty has risen to 8%, and the number of people in people in absolute poverty grew by 2 million in the last decade [11].
In a bid to buff their numbers (read: hide some of their bad press), the Tories tried to change the definition of Child Poverty in 2015 [12]. This move was blocked by the House of Lords [13], and then in 2016, the figures showed 250,000 more children in poverty [14].
Six million workers are paid less than the living wage [15] and on average, households with children overall were expected to be £1,300 worse off after the 2017 budget [16]. The number of homeless children hit an eight year high last year [17], and child poverty is expected to rise by 50% by 2020 [18].
They argue that these are necessary cuts, and that austerity measures must remain in place to make Britain strong again. However. By 2022 Conservatives will cut a combined £70 billion in corporation tax, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, and bank levies [19].
This does not add up. Tax breaks for the richest and suffering for the majority of the country is something that we cannot tolerate. Vote Labour to make a change, and to redress this balance before it is too late.
Next, we will be looking at Human Rights, Education, the NHS and Public Services
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Sources:
[2] https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2013/11/the-tories-have-piled-on-more-debt-than-labour/
[3] https://www.ft.com/content/4642c8d6-eb95-11e6-ba01-119a44939bb6
[6] https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/dec/08/europe-working-hours
[7] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37504449
[12] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jun/23/child-poverty-measures-figures-first-rise-in-decade
[15] http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-34691404
[16] https://fullfact.org/economy/average-working-families-and-budget/
[18] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jun/28/number-uk-children-living-inpoverty-jumps-200000
[19] http://press.labour.org.uk/post/158315410419/the-tories-70bn-tax-giveaways-to-the-super-rich
Anyone thinking of voting Tory should read this. They are destroying the very things that make us civilized.
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Let’s get this info out there….Read it people~ don’t bury your head in the sand….Think it out for yourselves….We’re all better than this woeful excuse of the last Govt…
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EVERY TIME I HEAR AND SEE THOSE WHO ARE ORDINARY PEOPLE TELLING OTHERS THEY’RE GOING TO VOTE TORY I THINK THESE PEOPLE DON’T LIVE IN THE REAL WORLD!
TONIGHT I SAW AND HEARD A MINER SAY HE WAS GOING TO VOTE TORY!
IT LEFT ME REELING, AN EFIN MINER!
HE SAID HE WAS 61, THAT WOULD HAVE MADE HIM 17 OR THERE ABOUT WHEN THATCHER CAME INTO POWER!
THESE PEOPLE HAVE VERY SHORT MEMORIES IF THEY CAN’T REMEMBER WHAT SHE DID TO THE MINERS!
GOD HELP AS ALL!
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