Were all in it together – sign the 38 Degrees Petition to Protest at Fat Cat #RBS Boss £1million Bonus

 

Have you seen the news today? Stephen Hester, chief of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), has been awarded a bonus worth £1 million. [1] We’ve already had to bail RBS out to the tune of billions of pounds. Since then, it’s failed to meet small business lending targets set by the government. [2] Now, we’re expected to cough up £1 million to reward the chief executive for good work. Politicians have failed to stop RBS awarding this bonus to Stephen Hester. Today, lots of them are speaking out, asking him to refuse to accept the money. [3] If we all add our names to a huge petition telling Stephen Hester to refuse his bonus, we can shame him into doing the right thing. Click here to sign the petition: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/RBS-chief-bonus The gap between the have and have-nots in our society is getting bigger all the time. Many wealthy bankers, politicians and businessmen seem to live in a different world from the rest of us. In their world, it’s the done thing to make as much money as possible for yourself while watching others struggle to get by. Government ministers have failed to stop this massive payout – so let’s tell Stephen Hester that tens of thousands of us are disgusted at his bonus and demand that he do the right thing: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/RBS-chief-bonus Today, politicians from all sides have spoken out against the £1 million bonus paid to the RBS chief. A Foreign Office minister, Jeremy Browne MP, said that Mr Hestor earned more in three days than a soldier fighting in Afghanistan earns in a year. [4] When half a million of us spoke out together this time last year, we stopped the sell-off of England’s woodlands. [5] People power worked! Now, together, we can demand that Stephen Hester does the right thing and refuses his million pound bonus. We’ll deliver all the signatures to him at the RBS offices. He might decide that the money means more to him than his sense of what’s right and wrong. Or he might bow to our pressure and refuse to accept the payout. One way or the other, we can send this bank boss a clear message – tens of thousands of us believe that it is wrong for him to take this money. Add your voice to the message to RBS boss Stephen Hester: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/RBS-chief-bonus Thanks for being involved, Marie, Becky, Hannah, David, Johnny, Cian and the 38 Degrees team Notes: [1] http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/298320/Bailed-out-bank-chief-Stephen-Hester-receives-1million-bonus/ [2] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/8889611/Project-Merlin-fails-small-business-lending-test.html [3] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9043366/Boris-Johnson-brands-RBS-chiefs-bonus-absolutely-bewildering.html [4] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2092652/RBS-boss-turn-1m-bonus-says-leading-Lib-Dem-outrage-reward-failure-builds.html [5] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/we-got-it-wrong-on-forests-says-spelman-2217731.html/

From an email sent by www.38degrees.org.uk 38 DEGREES Registered Company No. 6642193

This Tory plan is hurting, but it’s not working says Ed Balls, Labour Shadow Chancellor

We now know just how badly David Cameron and George Osborne’s reckless gamble with the economy has backfired.

After stalling for a year our economy has now gone into reverse. Unemployment is at a 17 year high. And the result is £158 billion more borrowing than planned.

This Tory plan is hurting, but it’s not working.

Of course if we had won the election there would have been difficult decisions for Labour on tax, spending and pay. But, as we always warned, cutting spending and raising taxes too far and too fast has completely backfired.

So while we have never opposed every cut, we will continue to oppose this Tory-led government when they do things that are unfair, bad for jobs or self-defeating. And as I say in the Daily Mirror today Labour would be making different choices now – and we will make tough but different choices in the future.

That is why we are campaigning for Labour’s five point plan for jobs

Our plan includes a temporary VAT cut, tax breaks for small firms taking on extra workers and a bank bonus tax to fund 100,000 jobs for young people. It would be a fairer and better way to get the deficit down – investing in jobs for the future rather than borrowing to keep more and more people on the dole.

But if these complacent Tories and Lib Dems plough on regardless, the next Labour government will inherit a really difficult situation.

That’s why Ed Miliband and I can’t make any promises now – over three years before the election – to reverse spending cuts or tax rises. We will have to see where we are in 2015 because – unlike Nick Clegg – we won’t make promises we can’t keep.

And we will have a big job on our hands to sort out the deficit, clear up George Osborne’s economic mess and deliver social justice in tougher times

This government’s economic failure also means tough times are set to continue now. And in tough times the priority has got to be protecting jobs rather than pay rises – which is why we can’t oppose the government’s decision to extend public sector pay restraint. But I’ve told the Chancellor the average 1% cap must be done fairly – tougher on those at the top to give bigger pay rises to those on lower incomes.

If David Cameron and George Osborne refuse to change course we cannot duck the reality – the next Labour government will have to pick up the pieces and clear up their mess. But as long as this government is getting it wrong, we will continue to say so loud and clear.

So in the eight weeks between now and the Budget, let’s expose how the Tories and Lib Dems are getting it badly wrong. And let’s make the case for Labour’s five point plan for jobs – a fairer and better way to get Britain working again.

Yours,

Ed Balls

P.S. Labour’s jobs plan is needed now more than ever. Help to spread the word by going to www.labour.org.uk/plan

Wyre Forest District Council Budget : Labour Group 2012/13 Alternative Proposals

Wyre Forest Labour Party have released their alternatives to the Tory Councils budget – the proposals are due to be discussed at Thursdays Budget Scrutiny Meeting on 26th January. Amongst other suggestions, Labour will implement in full the recommendations of the Review Panel to cut Councillor Allowances to finance the reintroduction of £1000 per Councillor Community Fund to be spent on the community in their wards. Labour Group Leader Jamie Shaw said “Our budget puts the community first and we believe residents would prefer to see their money being used for public benefit rather than going in to Councillors pockets.”

The key points are –

£1.35m to part-fund construction of 34 mixed tenure “affordable” homes with Registered Social Landlords, (RSLs), e.g., Community Housing, in 2012/13 & 2013/14

Appoint Empty Homes Officer, re-introducing a role currently not filled by the council, at a cost of £32,000 per annum.

Annual grant of £50,000 to bring empty homes up to a habitable standard, so as to be able to be rented by an RSL for a period of at least five years.

An Empty Homes strategy based on the above provision would be likely to enable 35 to 40 properties to be brought back into occupation per annum; therefore, including the capital sum for new construction; approximately 109 new units of accommodation would be available for occupation by March 2014, through the implementation of Labour proposals.

Jamie Shaw said, “Last year our budget proposals made a major statement, ‘New homes, not new council offices’. This year, we have had no choice other than to move to a lesser strategy of a few key amendments, because of the commitment of the council’s capital resources to the seriously flawed new office project. Our recently agreed manifesto, shortly to be launched, identified Housing as a major priority. It therefore features strongly in our budget proposals.”

Other proposals are to spend £50,000 per annum on a Business Development Manager with a specific remit for business start-up in the area and tourism-related initiatives plus general marketing of Wyre Forest as a destination.

Howard Martin, Labour Deputy Leader with responsibility for Economy and Finance said “We recognise the desperate need to regenerate the area and look at new initiatives. We see Tourism as a growth opportunity for the area and believe the council should be much more proactive in its approach – consequently the role of a Business Development Manager would address this and other economic growth matters – the potential payback will give outstanding value for money.”

The proposals are delivered with no Council Tax increase this year but in subsequent years an increase of 3.5% will be brought which will cost residents just under £2 a year more than the Tory planned 2.5% rise. “Our proposals represent positive action for the community and value for money” said Cllr Shaw.

Howard Martin is Wyre Forest Labour Parliamentary Spokesperson

For Further Information contact Jamie Shaw – 01299 824410 or Howard Martin – 01562 67338 or 07976915428

Liar Liar Pants on Fire – Cameron gives inaccurate answers not once but four times at #PMQ’s

Ed Miliband MP, Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party, has written to the Prime Minister over inaccurate claims which he made in response to questions in Parliament today.

The text of Ed Miliband’s letter is below:

Dear Prime Minister,

I wanted to write following this week’s Prime Minister’s Questions to draw your attention to some inaccurate claims you made today.

In an answer to me, you said that “There are more people in work today than there were at the time of the last election”. In fact, the most recent employment figures from the Office for National Statistics show that total employment between May-July 2010 and September-November 2011 fell by 26,000.

In an answer to Lindsay Roy MP, you said that the Merlin agreement “actually led to an increase in bank lending last year”. In fact, the latest Trends in Lending report from the Bank of England, published last Friday, said that “the stock of lending to SMEs contracted between end-April and end-November 2011”.

In an answer to Paul Maynard MP, you spoke of “the real shame… that there are so many millions of children who live in households where nobody works and indeed that number doubled under the previous government”. In fact, according to the Office for National Statistics, the number of children living in workless households fell by 372,000 between April-June 1997 and April-June 2010.

In an answer to Rt Hon Anne McGuire MP, who said that your Government was planning to cut benefits to disabled children, you said that “The Hon Lady is wrong”. In fact, according to page 28 of the Department for Work and Pensions’ own impact assessment on the introduction of universal credit, your policy of mirroring for disabled children the current adult eligibility for Disability Living Allowance means that the rate paid to those disabled children who do not qualify for the highest rate of the DLA care component “would be less than now (£26.75 instead of £53.84)”.

I am sure that you will want to take this opportunity to correct the record.

Yours sincerely,
Ed Miliband

TULO – Your rights at work are worth fighting for – Don’t let the Tories turn back the clock.

 

Today, we are launching a new campaign to defend your rights at work – and I wanted to make sure you are one of the first people to know about it. Yesterday, a group of Conservative MPs hosted a drinks party in Parliament to unveil a campaign with just one aim – to make it harder for trade unions to speak up for you when you need them. Yet again, David Cameron’s Tories are proving they’re on the side of big business, and not on the side of ordinary working people. Our rights at work have been fought for and won over more than a century – and now Cameron’s government is trying to unpick those rights one by one. But we’re not going to let the Tories turn back the clock – today, we’re starting a campaign to defend each and every one of those rights, and to make sure we have a trade union to back us up when we need them. http://www.unionstogether.org.uk/worthfightingfor And we’re starting out with a petition to protect one of the most important rights – the right to go to work without our safety being put at risk, and our lives put in danger. This month, David Cameron declared that “this coalition has a clear new year’s resolution: to kill off the health and safety culture for good”. The Conservatives want to erode the rules that stop our employers cutting corners on something as fundamental as our safety at work. Last year 171 people were killed at work, and thousands more were injured. That’s why today, we’re launching a petition to demand that Cameron breaks this ‘new year’s resolution’ to undermine our right to be safe at work. http://www.unionstogether.org.uk/worthfightingfor This government are showing us that we can’t take even our most basic rights for granted. Your rights at work are worth fighting for – join our campaign today.

Reproduced from an electronic communication sent by Byron Taylor on behalf of TULO, both at 39 Victoria St, London SW1H 0HA.

Has the Tory controlled Council a coherent plan for the future of Stourport? asks Carol Warren, Wyre Forest Labour

Our monthly Branch meetings give a chance to talk about the things that really matter- the future of our town. We fear that the Tory led District council is concerned more about its internal workings than what is happening in the real world!

Here in Stourport we are facing massive changes to the built environment – and it all seems to be happening in a haphazard way. Recently Stourport Primary School moved into their brand new state of the art building, necessitated by a political decision to reconfigure education in the Wyre Forest. Whilst we welcome this provision and wish the school every success in the future, we do have concerns about what will happen to the old school site.

Do the County Council have plans for the site? Are they waiting to see what happens to the Tesco site when the new store opens in Mitton Street?

We hear that the County Council wish to move the Library into the soon to be vacated Civic Centre and that they may be joined by the Police and possible the Housing Company as well. Where does that leave the Health Centre and Fire Station? If County Buildings are partly demolished, how viable will it be to retain these other services on the site?

We hear very little now about the future plans for the Lucy Baldwin site. Is the Worcestershire Health & Care Trust still committed to the provision of services in partnership with others for people with dementia and based in Olive Grove?

When will the people of Stourport, or even the Town Council, have a chance to engage with these public bodies about the future of our Town and the kinds of developments we want to see? Has the District or County Council got a coherent plan for the future of Stourport? And when will we have a High School building fit for the 21st century?

Carol Warren Lickhill & Mitton Labour

One in ten Wyre Forest District Council staff paid ‘poverty wages’ says Wyre Forest Labour

A Freedom of Information request has found that Wyre Forest District Council (WFDC) fails to pay more than one in ten of its staff the hourly rate judged to cover basic living costs.

The Living Wage of £7.20 an hour is the minimum amount necessary for an individual to cover costs such as housing, food and utilities for themselves and their family.

The request to the district council found that 10.9% of its employees were paid below the living wage hourly rate. This figure does not include those who work for contractors on behalf of WFDC, about whom information is unavailable, meaning the figure could be even higher.

Subsidising poverty wages comes at a great cost to the tax payer – estimated by the Institute of Fiscal Studies to be £6 billion per year. Despite 57% of children in poverty having working parents, the annual bill for tackling child poverty is £25 billion.

Tom King, who submitted the Freedom of Information request, said “It’s disgraceful that Wyre Forest District Council aren’t paying their employees a fair wage that will allow them to support their families and have a decent standard of living.”

He added “It’s crucial that ‘work pays’ and this cannot be achieved when the Council is paying poverty wages. They should be setting an example on this issue and I call on Council Leader, John Campion, to take immediate action.”

Howard Martin, Labour Councillor and Parliamentary spokesperson, said “This information is of serious concern – the fact that WFDC appears to be paying 10% of its employees less than the recommended living wage needs further scrutiny and the Labour group will look into this.”

Kidderminster Shuttle: Wyre Forest council staff pay ‘below living wage hourly rate’

New Yacht for the Queen? Are we really all in this together? asks Barry McFarland Wyre Forest Labour

Despite our country’s economic plight.
Despite the massive job losses in our country.
Despite the savage, unnecessarily deep cuts imposed by the Tory-led Government on the people in our country.

The Tory Education Secretary, Michael Gove, wants to buy the queen a brand new yacht – the cost of which was estimated to be £60 million in 1997.

This is the cabinet minster who threw out the Building Schools for the Future Programme, thus depriving our children of modern, fit for purpose school buildings.

This same minister has slashed school budgets meaning less money to educate our children and young people.

He took away the Educational Maintenance Allowance from our 16-19 year olds.

He supported university fees of £9000 per year, preventing many of our bright young people from going to university.

Michael Gove is hell-bent on privatising our educational service where a child’s educational opportunities will depend on the wealth of their parents.

Michael Gove is an enthusiastic member of a Tory Government that is causing abject misery for so many people in this country and yet he wants to spend way in excess of £60 million on a new yacht!

Are we really all in this together?

Barry McFarland Wyre Forest Labour

38 Degrees – Can you take 2 mins to email Energy Chief Executives to stop Customers being ripped off? :

 

Are we finally starting to tackle the gas and electricity rip-off? A week ago, 38 Degrees members started asking the big gas and electricity companies an awkward question: how come global prices have dropped, but our bills are still sky high? [1] Our 90,000-strong petition started making the news and suddenly the companies started to get jittery. [2] As the numbers on the petition grew, one after another, EDF, British Gas, Scottish & Southern Energy and npower announced they will at last drop prices. [3] But they’re still only offering to pass on less than half of the savings, with price cuts of around 5%. Meanwhile E.ON and Scottish Power are still refusing to budge at all. The companies are hoping we’ll settle for these small price cuts. Let’s show them we’ll keep the pressure building until they pass on all the savings. The heads of all these companies need to personally understand that after years of price hikes, we’ve finally had enough. Can you take 2 mins to email one of these company bosses and ask them to stop ripping us off? https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/contact-a-boss Phil Bentley, Tony Cocker, Ian Marchant, Vincent Derivaz, Volker Beckers and Keith Anderson. We’ve got the email addresses of each of these six highly-paid chief executives. They probably don’t understand what it’s like to struggle to cope with price hike after price hike – and they won’t be used to hearing directly from thousands of us who do. When they see an avalanche of emails from fed-up customers and potential customers, alarm bells will start ringing at their company HQs. They’re the men in charge – and they’ll be the ones held responsible if customers start leaving in droves. They’ll be picking up the phone to board members and scheduling emergency meetings to decide what to do. The more of us that email a company chief, the more they’ll feel the pressure to cut their prices, and fast. Can you join in? https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/contact-a-boss We know that when we work together in big numbers we can win. It’s true for politicians, like when our half-a-million strong petition showed them they couldn’t sell off England’s woodlands. [4] It’s even more true for big businesses who want our custom every day – not just our vote once every five years. 38 Degrees volunteers gathered in London this morning to hand in the 90,000-strong petition to the offices of E.ON – one the companies who are still holding out. [5] Make sure the men in charge of our nation’s biggest gas and electricity companies can’t miss us in their inboxes as well as outside their office windows: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/contact-a-boss Thanks for being involved, Becky, Marie, David, Hannah, Johnny, Cian and the 38 Degrees team PS: Two of Britain’s smaller gas companies – Co-operative Energy and Ovo Energy – cut their prices before any of the biggest six suppliers. [6] If E.ON, Scottish Power, British Gas, EDF, npower and Scottish & Southern don’t get their act together, they can expect to lose a flood of customers to their smaller rivals in 2012. Ask the big companies to stop ripping us off now: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/contact-a-boss NOTES: [1] Independent: Consumers welcome gas price cuts, but is it enough? http://www.independent.co.uk/money/spend-save/consumers-welcome-gas-price-cuts-but-is-it-enough-6289689.html [2] Channel 4 News: EDF cuts prices – but is it enough? http://www.channel4.com/news/catch-up/display/playlistref/110112/clipid/110112_EDF_11 [3] The Telegraph: Npower announces 5pc gas price cut http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/household-bills/9013343/Npower-announces-5pc-gas-price-cut.html BBC: British Gas and SSE announce price cuts http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16526539 [4] Read more on the 38 Degrees blog http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/2011/02/17/victory-government-to-scrap-plans-to-sell-our-forests/ [5] Read more on the 38 Degrees blog http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/2012/01/16/e-on-%E2%80%981234-cut-your-prices-for-us-all%E2%80%99/ [6] Which?: Ovo Energy cuts gas and electricity prices http://www.which.co.uk/news/2012/01/ovo-energy-cuts-gas-and-electricity-prices-276057/

From an email sent by 38 Degrees 38 DEGREES Registered Company No. 6642193

Wyre Forest Tory MP Mark Garnier says, “If we wanted to have our Nose in the Trough I could go back to being an investment banker”

In his MP column in this weeks Shuttle, Mark Garnier makes several reasonably sensible observations on why residents and, in particular the young, do not vote and are turned off by politics. In the same edition of the paper, however, there is an article commenting on his acceptance of corporate hospitality “gifts” that he has received in the last few months. It seems these “gifts” may start to give a clue to the low opinion of politicians which partly turn off the many voters Mark wishes to encourage.

He is right when he says he has done nothing legally wrong. He has acted within parliamentary guidelines and declared the hospitality, so fulfilling his statuary requirements under parliamentary rules. But, where is the morality of his actions in all this?

He accepted two tickets from Japan Tobacco International worth £1100 to attend the Chelsea Flower Show. Why two? Are we to presume a member of his family or friend was also invited? If so to what end? How does that help the residents of Wyre Forest? More significantly tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship in the UK are universally banned because of the harm smoking does and the massive cost to the NHS. It seems that our MP considerers it acceptable to receive perks aimed at promoting a tobacco company and thus supporting and condoning their activity when it is not acceptable for them to advertise or promote themselves conventionally. Very poor moral judgement on his part, I might suggest?

He accepted a “free” ticket for a Ball, valued at £1000, which was a charity fund raiser for the Tory Party! But since this was to raise party funds wouldn’t the correct action have been to offer to pay for it as his contribution to those funds not just accept a free night out? But no, so he helped a Tory Charity event by going “free.” The benefit of his attendance at that event to the residents of Wyre Forest is lost on me. Presumably then the time spent at these events contributes to the 100 hours a week he, allegedly, spends on his parliamentary duties on behalf of Wyre Forest? It’s a tough life.

In looking at him and his perception that this corporate hospitality is “just part of life” serves to demonstrate just how totally out of touch he is with the true quality of life for many of those he represents. The idea of attending a £1000 ball or 2 corporate tickets to the Chelsea Flower Show valued at £1100 are in a world that few of those on minimum wage or benefit can ever hope to aspire to. What, one wonders, would a single parent on a tread mill of borderline poverty make of a windfall of the £2000 Garnier accepted to enjoy a couple of good days out? How would money like that be used to improve the quality of life for children with little to look forward to? To our MP events like that are the norm and the money involved is just loose change. To some of those he represents it can mean the difference between food on the table or the bailiff coming in. Over stating the case it may be but it demonstrates the extremes of the have and have not’s in this.

How can someone from a privileged, traditional Tory background, educated at a top public school where the current fees top £30k a year, truly be in touch with a community in which average earnings are well below the annual cost of Mark’s education. In fairness to Mark it isn’t even reasonable that he should be expected to have empathy with the real world of those he represents – it is totally foreign to him and those of his ilk. He isn’t here because of any desire to serve Wyre Forest. He is here because he wanted a career in politics and to be a Tory MP, so he was shipped in with no background or understanding of the area and the people who live here. His priority will always be the Tory Party and Tory values. That is evident from the way he has consistently voted since he became MP. Party before people every time, as many said it would be even before he was elected. It is Wyre Forest that is suffering.

Then to cap it all our poor MP bemoans the fact that to serve us, he, and his Tory MP chums in Worcestershire, took a cut in income to the paltry £65k pa (plus expenses) that he now has to struggle by on, no longer having the generous earnings of an investment banker. “If we wanted to have our nose in the trough I could go back to being an investment banker” he says. At last common sense and sharp, perceptive observation from Mark in admitting that investment bankers are overpaid and on the take! Seems his former career was good training for the way our MP currently undertakes the task of putting the community he was elected to serve uppermost in his mind and actions. Still, only for 3 more years!

Howard Martin is Wyre Forest Labour Parliamentary Spokesperson

Kidderminster Shuttle: Garnier defends tickets ‘gifts’

Wyre Forest Labour: Tory Snouts in Troughs

Over 90,000 have signed the petition telling gas and electricity companies to cut their prices – in just 4 days!

 

Over 90,000 have signed the petition telling gas and electricity companies to cut their prices – in just 4 days! And it’s starting to work. Numbers on the petition are sky-rocketing and it’s making the news – have a look at this report covering the petition on Channel 4 news: http://www.channel4.com/news/catch-up/display/playlistref/110112/clipid/110112_EDF_11 In just 4 days, three of the biggest gas and electricity companies have folded under the pressure. EDF Energy, British Gas and Scottish and Southern have all said they’ll cut their gas or electricity prices by around 5%. It’s not enough, but it’s a start and proves that if enough of us get involved we can win. Three big companies – E.ON, npower and Scottish Power – are still holding out, and those that have dropped prices haven’t gone far enough. The bigger the petition, the bigger the message we send that we’ve had enough of being ripped off. Can you forward this email to your friends now to ask them to add their names and help send the petition rocketing past 100,000? https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/stop-the-energy-rip-off Can you also spread the word on Facebook and Twitter, if you use them? You can tell your friends about the petition easily by clicking the quick links below: Share on Facebook: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/energy-ripoff-facebook Share on Twitter: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/energy-ripoff-twitter When 38 Degrees members have come together before in huge numbers, we’ve won some amazing victories. Last year, half a million of us worked together to force the government to reverse their plans to sell off England’s precious woodlands. Let’s turn up the heat on the gas and electricity companies now by forwarding this email and asking everyone we know to add their voice: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/stop-the-energy-rip-off Thanks for being involved, Becky, David, Hannah, Marie, Johnny, Cian and the 38 Degrees team

From an email sent by 38 Degrees   38 DEGREES Registered Company No. 6642193

TUC spread the word on #Spartacus Report following three major Tory defeats in #HOL

 From an email sent by the TUC.

We’d like to thank everyone who helped to spread the word about the Spartacus Report on the government’s proposed cuts to disability benefits as part of the Welfare Reform Bill.

There’s some good news to report after Wednesday night’s debate and vote in the House of Lords. The government suffered three major defeats, with amendments passed that meant:

• The Bill’s limit on Employment Support Allowance will be increased to at least two years (not one as planned).
• Cancer patients will be exempt from the ESA time limit.
• Young people disabled before they are able to build up qualifying contributions will not be denied access to ESA.

These three unexpected defeats for the government give real hope for more progress in winning changes to this hugely damaging Bill. As crossbench Peer Lord Patel said in the debate:

“I am sympathetic to cutting the deficit, but I am highly sympathetic to sick and vulnerable people not being subjected to something that will make their lives even more miserable.”

We’re glad we could help support this important work by a group of committed and resourceful campaigners. Disabled activists have moved mountains on this through their own hard work and organisation, and deserve huge credit for what they’ve achieved so far.
Sue Marsh, one of the lead authors of the Spartacus Report has a good post on her blog, explaining where these victories on amendments and the Spartacus report fit into the wider concerns with the Welfare Reform Bill for disabled people.
The threat is far from over though, with proposals still on the table that will lead to very real hardship for many disabled people and other vulnerable people who need support from our benefits system.
If you contacted a Peer about the Spartacus report, have a look at the voting record on the amendments to see how they voted. If they supported amendments, why not drop them an email to thank them for their help?
If you helped spread the word online, please help get out word of this initial victory. Making sure everyone knows about the government’s comprehensive defeat in this first skirmish in the Lords will help greatly in setting the tone for the next debates and amendment votes that are coming next Tuesday.

Going To Work is a project of the Trades Union Congress (TUC)

Read a copy of the Report Responsible Reform

The battle to protect the #NHS is now entering its most crucial phase : Sign the Petition & RT

Our battle to protect the NHS is now entering its most crucial phase.

I am more convinced than ever that we can stop the Government’s privatising Health Bill – but I need your help.

In the first few months of 2012, Labour’s Drop The Bill campaign will intensify. By the time the Bill comes back to the Commons in April, we want to have revealed the full weight of opposition across the country to the Government’s plans.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/22670

Two weeks ago, I revealed David Cameron’s hidden ambition to turn NHS hospitals into private businesses by allowing them to make 49% of their income – and filling half of their beds – with private patients.

This dangerous plan brings home to people how the NHS will never be the same again if the Tories get their way. Labour will continue to take David Cameron to task over his privatisation plans.

I will not stand by and let David Cameron turn our precious NHS into a US-style system, where hospitals are more interested in profits than people.

With the NHS able to devote half of their beds and theatre time to private patients, people are beginning to see how our hospitals will never be the same again if Cameron’s plans gets through Parliament.

Time is running out for the NHS but it’s not too late. If Labour, the public and our healthcare professionals stand together, we can stop this Americanisation of the NHS.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/22670

At the end of last year a local GP, Dr Kailash Chand, set up a Government e-petition calling on the Government to drop the Bill. If we can get 100,000 people to sign it we can pile on the pressure for David Cameron to change course and put the NHS first.

Nye Bevan famously said that there would be an NHS “for as long as there are folk left with the faith to fight for it”. That fight is now upon us.

Please sign the petition here and ask four people you know, who care about the future of our NHS, to sign as well.

Thank you,

Andy

Andy Burnham MP
Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary

You can’t negotiate with HMRC to pay less tax, so why can Goldman Sachs?

You can’t negotiate with HMRC to pay less tax, so why can Goldman Sachs?

Every year over £70,000,000,000 (£70bn) of tax goes unpaid in the UK, that’s 70 times more than is wrongly claimed in benefits.
Big businesses are depriving the public of billions through tax deals as HMRC lets them off the hook and the government looks on. But a massive outcry can push the Prime Minister to ensure transparency, full payments and a tax system that’s immune from corporate lobbying.

You can sign this important petition to get Goldman Sachs to pay its tax.

Help to get the Petition to 100,000 signatures  http://www.avaaz.org/en/goldman_sachs_pay_your_tax/?sbc

Stourport Town Council calls for improved access to Wyre Forest Cemetery and Crematorium

Access to the new Wyre Forest Cemetery and Crematorium from Stourport would be much improved by the replacement of the traffic lights at Stourport Road, Kidderminster/Minster Road, Stourport by a roundabout. This proposition was put by Labour to Stourport Town Council on January 3rd and was unanimously supported.

Currently, the arrangement for a funeral cortege travelling from Stourport is to proceed beyond the traffic lights into Stourport Road, Kidderminster, to turn right across the carriageway into a service road, to drive back towards Stourport, and re-join the main road at the traffic lights.

There is an obvious issue of road safety. A procession of vehicles crossing a flow of traffic on a busy road is clearly undesirable. Also, the dignity of such an occasion has to be considered. It is not appropriate that a funeral cortege should be routed along a road servicing an industrial estate.

The successful motion has been passed to Worcestershire County Council, as the authority responsible for highways, with the request that survey work be carried out so that a scheme could be ready for inclusion in its 2013-14 budget.

Help shame the energy companies into passing the price cut on to their customers – sign the 38 Degrees petition now

 

Have you noticed the global price of gas has dropped recently? [1] Probably not – the prices we pay for gas and electricity are still at record levels and have risen six times faster than household incomes since 2004. [2] There are nearly a million 38 Degrees members. If enough of us get involved we can drive down gas and electricity bills for everyone. Companies are always eager to pass on price hikes. But too often when the wholesale price falls, our bills stay sky-high. Is this just the mysterious way the markets work? Or is it profiteering? We need to act fast to force them to pass this price cut on to us, their customers. Help shame the energy companies into passing the price cut on to their customers – sign the petition now: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/stop-the-energy-rip-off A huge petition could shift the energy companies’ thinking. They’ll know that the public is losing patience with them. They’ll be risking even more bad publicity. And they’ll know every signature is a customer or potential customer. So let’s make this petition huge! The Times reports that even British Gas insiders “believe that a cut of less than 10 per cent would be affordable”. [3] A 10% cut would make a big difference to families struggling to heat their homes this winter. But if we don’t speak up, there’s a real risk the companies will continue to cream off the extra profit instead. We’ll deliver the first batch of signatures to British Gas – the biggest gas and electricity company – later this week. Please add your name now: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/stop-the-energy-rip-off Before Christmas, 38 Degrees members voted to work together to stop the energy rip-off. [4] We’ve all been hit by gas and electricity price hikes. This fall in global gas prices is a chance to challenge the energy companies to treat us more fairly. Let’s work together to make it count: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/stop-the-energy-rip-off Thanks for being involved, Becky, David, Hannah, Johnny, Marie, Cian and the 38 Degrees team PS Help make the gas and electricity companies realise that no amount of clever advertising and slick PR will rescue their reputation if they don’t pass this price cut on. Please sign the petition, then forward this e-mail to all your friends and family: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/stop-the-energy-rip-off NOTES [1] This is Money: Ovo Energy cuts fixed energy prices by 5% – putting pressure on ‘big six’ to follow http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-2083041/Ovo-Energy-cuts-fixed-energy-prices-5-falling-wholesale-costs.html?ito=feeds-newsxml [2] Financial Times: Ovo Energy cuts fixed energy prices http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e8818e18-3860-11e1-9f07-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1ixA28Naq [3] The Times: And now the race is on to lower energy prices, Annual energy bills have hit a record average of £1,345,http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/industries/utilities/article3278179.ece [4] Read more on our blog http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/2011/11/29/stop-the-energy-rip-off-poll-results/

Reproduced from an email sent by 38 Degrees 38 DEGREES Registered Company No. 6642193

Tory Education Policy is Entrenching Privilege says Jamie Shaw Wyre Forest Labour

Tory Education Policy : Dismantling Structure, Entrenching Privilege

At a Christmas social gathering, I fell into a conversation with a lady who holds a position at a secondary school in Worcestershire.   My most recent professional duties having been exclusions from schools, we discussed a couple of cases of extreme behaviour with which her school was currently faced.  She explained to me that, because her school now had full control of its budget,  staff actually had fewer options in addressing these individuals’ extreme behaviour, because of school’s unwillingness to spend a significant sum on them for a possibly limited return, when there were other ”more productive” ways of spending its money.  Sounds reasonable?  Actually, no; it’s an example of Tory educational “reform” beginning to have its pernicious effect.

Previously, the school’s budget would not have been fully devolved.  A proportion, perhaps 7%, would have been held centrally by Worcestershire County Council.  A centrally-held budget, providing a range of services cost-effectively to schools, can afford otherwise-disproportionate expense, for example, to address extreme behaviour.  Indeed, I remember one case of a pupil whose problems were so serious that he had to be sent to a specialist boarding school two hundred miles from home, at a level of expenditure out of the reach of his school’s budget.  Such an organisation of resources requires schools to see themselves not as a single entity, but as part of a wider endeavour.  But commonality of purpose offends the free-market agenda of the extremist Tories in government, therefore dismantling central services which require co-operative effort is part of the Tory agenda. 

The Tories appeal to schools is based on selfishness and blinkered vision.  Therefore, for example, a “good” school with a favourable catchment area and high academic achievement, which, in all probability, would have less recourse to the Local Authority’s Behaviour Service, reduces overall resources for that service by taking 100% of its budget share.  The selfish view in the “good” school, focusing only on its own interests, will see advantages in being able to spend that extra 7% on its priorities, perhaps, for example, coaching A Level pupils in university interview techniques.  But in the longer term, when sufficient numbers of schools have done the same, central services will be diminished to the point of non-viability.  Thus, the idea of a universal service, serving all in the community is likewise diminished, in line with the Tory agenda.

Maybe relatively few people would regret the reduction in resources for the poorly-behaved, but centrally provided services are about a whole lot more than this.  Just consider the circumstances when, as the Tories intend, all schools are free from Local Authority links; no centrally-provided school attendance, specialist teaching, expert adviser, building, personnel, future- provision, or admissions-planning services…The list is longer, but, hopefully, I make my point.

How are opted-out schools to be provided with such services?  Tory policy is so extremely “anti-state” that it offers no alternative.  Instead, every “good” school is free to make its own arrangements, for example by federation with schools in other parts of the country, by amalgamation of schools under a “super-head”, by contract with private providers, by an opted-out school pyramid, by sponsorship from a private school, or combinations of the above, or any other feasible arrangement.  Any rational analysis would conclude that, as my former colleague is beginning to find out, the quality and range of services will decline.  However, there is method in this Tory madness; to balkanise into a plurality of arrangements removes the reference points created by common experience, so hides inequality of provision and injustice, and therefore allows privilege to flourish.   

Also, so as to ensure that privilege will be further ensconced, the English Baccalaureate has been introduced, which will be the subject of a future blog.

Jamie Shaw Wyre Forest Labour

Howard Martin is appointed Wyre Forest Labour Party Parliamentary Spokesperson

Wyre Forest Constituency Labour Party has announced that they have appointed Deputy Leader and Broadwaters Councillor, Howard Martin, as their Parliamentary Spokesperson with immediate effect. The unanimous decision was taken at December’s meeting of the party’s Executive Committee.

Constituency Labour Party (CLP) Chair, Bernadette Connor said, “It may be some time before we are able to appoint a Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC) but we need to raise Labour’s profile on more than just local Council issues and we felt the time was right to make this appointment as an interim measure. Too much is going on at present, both nationally and on non-council issues which affect us all, on which comment is not being made, and the community needs to know the Labour position as it affects Wyre Forest. We feel, in Howard, we have made an appropriate appointment to effectively address that need.”

Howard said “It is important that we raise the profile of the Labour Party as much as possible in Wyre Forest. We want to be in a position to make a serious challenge at the next General Election and to do that we have to make sure the public know what Labour is currently offering. In terms of opposition, the current Conservative MP has pretty much a free run in the media and it is important that we promote an alternative view, hold him to account, scrutinise his performance on behalf of his constituents and ensure the people of Wyre Forest are getting the quality and level of representation they deserve. I want to ensure the public feel Labour wants to hear their views, but is also listening to them and will do all it can to truly be an advocate, in opposition, for the community. I see it as an exciting and challenging time but it is an opportunity I relish and I hope to be able to lay the foundations for whoever the party finally choose as PPC.”

Howard has a background of employment over 30 years in central government , with the Department of Trade & Industry, varying from overseas trade promotion to economic development and regeneration, lifelong membership the PCS (Public & Commercial Services Union) and 11 years as a local Councillor. He said “I think my background, knowledge and both depth and breadth of experience will prove invaluable assets in my new role.”

ends

For further information – contact Howard Martin 01562 67338 or 07976 915423. Email – hmartinhc@blueyonder.co.uk

Independent Forestry Panel sees a continuing role for a National Public Forest Estate.

Last year over half a million people signed petitions against the Tory-led Government’s plans to sell off the Public Forest Estate in England which threatened over 1400 woods across the country, including our own Wyre Forest and other local woodland.

It was because of ‘People Power’ that the Environment Secretary, Caroline Spellman, was forced to execute an embarrassing U-turn. To advise her on the way forward she set up the Independent Panel on Forestry, chaired by the Bishop of Liverpool. The Panel published their progress report in the beginning of December 2011. You can read the Panel’s full report using the following  www.defra.gov.uk/forestrypanel/reports/

Wyre Forest Labour welcomes the Panel’s report which reflects the views of some 40,000 people, including many from Wyre Forest, and groups and their heartfelt affection for England’s forests and woodlands.

The report states that the Public Forest Estates (PFE) provides the gold standard of public access in England. It stresses that we should maximise the “triple bottom line” that our forests and woodlands provide for the environment, people and the economy. Increasing woodland cover, a vibrant forestry sector, improving access for recreation and enhancing nature can and should go hand in hand and is good for the rural ecnomy. In the report, the Panel recognised the value of our forests by backing the Public Forest Estate and making expanding public access a priority for future woodland policy.

The authors also point to the recreational value of public visits to woodland which have been estimated at £484 million a year, whilst the cost to the public purse of maintaining the PFE is £20 million. They contrast this with the £250 million Eric Pickles has found to fund weekly bin collections.

Although we won the battle for our forests, the war is not yet over. The Secretary of State has only suspended the sell-off while waiting for the final report from the Independent Panel. And despite the Tory-led Government’s U-turn, they still intend to sell 15 per cent of England’s estate – the maximum sales allowed under the law as it stands. This is not what I want and it is not want you want and so Labour will continue to press the Government to drop its plans to sell off any part of our public forest estate.

We can but hope that our MP will act on the wishes of his constituents – he didn’t last time.

Barry McFarland Wyre Forest Labour

The Tory Tea Party Agenda is Extremist says Jamie Shaw, Wyre Forest Labour

Sarah Palin, Donald Trump, Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich….What does this list of one-time or current US Republican Party Presidential hopefuls have in common with the British Conservative Party? Political extremism. Each of these individuals has been at some point in 2011 the favoured torch-bearer of the Tea Party movement, which seeks not only to entrench the interests of the Super-Rich, but also to dismantle key structures of a civilised society. Just like the British Conservative Party.

People and policies; the links are clear. Take Atlantic Bridge, the phoney charity of disgraced ex-Cabinet member Liam Fox. Its purpose; to import ultra-free market, minimal-government ideas from the USA into Britain. Its backers along with Fox; Conservative Cabinet ministers Gove, Osborne and Hague, and Tea Party funders, the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch. Take the ideas of Rick Perry, abolishing the US Education Department; of Herman Cain, flat-rate national taxes; of all of them, opposition to Obama’s “socialist” health reforms and the conscious denigration of the disadvantaged in society.

Now consider Tory policies; the dismantling of the structures through which Education services are provided, the dismantling or privatisation of NHS structures and services, the attempt to remove government responsibility for the NHS….And today, as I write, comes a further denigration of council house and housing association tenants, alleging widespread occupation by people earning over £100,000 annually.

There will have been others like me who have taken pleasure from the fall of most of the selfish, self-righteous, Republican candidates as their shallow philosophies have crumbled under questioning, but, in the British context, I fear that the same agenda is proving harder to combat. One suggestion; in political discourse, let us not use the polite language of the tea party, let’s identify the Tory agenda for what it is, extremist.

Jamie Shaw Wyre Forest Labour

The consequence of voting Tory – Up to half of 160,000 NHS beds could be turned over to private patients

Health Bill will turn England’s hospitals into American-style hospitals

Labour today reveals the full extent of David Cameron’s ambitions to turn NHS hospitals into private businesses, pitting one against another in a competitive market.

In a move that will send shock-waves around the NHS, the Government is seeking to amend its own Health Bill to allow NHS hospitals to devote up to 50% of their beds and theatre time to private patients, replacing Labour’s stringent private-patient cap.

The free-market plan will give patients and the public the clearest sign yet of how the character of England’s NHS will change if the Government’s Bill gets through Parliament in early 2012. It will open the door to an explosion of private work in NHS hospitals.

Labour believes that this plan – coupled with other measures in the Health Bill – will result in lengthening waiting lists for NHS patients. The Government’s relaxation of NHS waiting time targets means hospitals are free to devote more theatre time to private patients. And they will have a clear incentive to do so and maximise income, with the move to full financial independence and a “no bail-outs” culture where hospitals in financial trouble are allowed to go bust with no Government help.

It is a decisive move away from Labour’s planned NHS system where NHS patients were always the priority. The message sent out to hospitals and health service managers by the 50% cap is that private patients can be given equal priority.

Labour’s limit on private work allows private patients to be treated on the margins of NHS work, with income – typically capped at around 2% of turnover – reinvested to the benefit of the health service.

Andy Burnham MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, said:

“This surprise move, sneaked out just before Christmas, is the clearest sign yet of David Cameron’s determination to turn our precious NHS into a US-style commercial system, where hospitals are more interested in profits than people.

“With NHS hospitals able to devote half of their beds to private patients, people will begin to see how our hospitals will never be the same again if Cameron’s Health Bill gets through Parliament.

“This free-market NHS re-organisation opens the door to an explosion of private work in the NHS, meaning longer waits for NHS patients. It takes us straight back to the bad old days of the Tory NHS, when the only choice patients had was to wait longer or pay to go private.

“Andrew Lansley was forced to reveal this 50% figure in an attempt to calm nerves in the Lords about his Health Bill. But, in doing so, he has only succeeded in bringing home to the public the full implications of his dangerous and flawed plans. What other free-market plans has he got in mind that he’s not telling us about?

“Time is running out for the NHS but it’s not too late. If public and professions stand together, we can stop this Americanisation of the NHS. If people want to do one thing to help the NHS this Christmas, they should take just a moment to sign the ‘Drop the Bill’ e-petition.

“Our arrogant Prime Minister needs to be reminded that nobody voted for this re-organisation and that he doesn’t have a mandate to privatise England’s precious NHS.”

Andy Burnham MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary

Lessons in Leadership (3) : David Miliband by Jamie Shaw Wyre Forest Labour

The Labour Leadership campaign of 2010 pleased me in one very important way : we had contenders who are more than just seekers after high office; they are thinkers, capable of re-moulding the base of Centre-Left politics to address the unexpectedly extreme demands of present world economic circumstances and their resultant social and political tensions.

Therefore, my interest was caught by David Miliband’s “Questions to be Answered” essay printed on 7th December in the IPPR Journal. It presents a perhaps-expected congruence of views with brother Ed on broad economic policies, citing the primary principle of the necessity of interaction between the state and the private sector to encourage new, productive economic activity in Britain and providing similar examples to Ed’s, a British investment bank, the engagement of employees in the affairs of their company, as per the German model, and qualitatively-better skills training.

However, it is in the area of social policy and its relation to the state and politics that David’s ideas are tilling the freshest soil. He identifies welfare, housing and crime as areas in which the Centre-Left needs to add to its moral concern of combating inequality new views about individual responsibility. His is no narrow “get on your bike” invective against fecklessness, rather it is a perspective which seeks to encourage a fuller participation by members of a local community in that community’s affairs. One example he provides is of the state, in the form of local authorities, allowing devolved, but certainly not wholly separate, management of housing stock to co-operatives. Thus local communities are empowered, but representative democracy retains crucial role in ensuring that key decisions are taken with reference to wider society. The application of this, or similar principles, can be seen to be pertinent to a whole range of welfare issues, from healthier living, to childcare, to care of the elderly, etc.

Moreover, David sees such a model as having significant implications for the Left’s conduct of politics and proposes a much closer engagement with community groups exercising local power. This has led to his founding role in Movement for Change, which he describes as “a leadership academy for community organising, designed to train 10,000 community leaders in the next four years”. The vision is a stronger link between representative democracy and revived community endeavour, in stark contrast to what he sees as the as the intent of the Right to demonise representative politics itself, as seen, for example, in the Tory-led government’s plan to reduce the number of seats in Parliament.

Actually, both David’s vision and perception of the motivation of the Right is seen in microcosm here in Wyre Forest constituency. The Right’s agenda here is seen in the diminution of the role of councillors, by for example cutting their numbers at district level by twenty-five percent, and of the role of representative democracy in Education, by detaching schools from accountability to their local community. David’s positive agenda, more happily, is seen in the forerunners set by previous Labour governments, for example the Wyre Forest Community Safety Partnership, PACT meetings and tenant participation at the highest level, the board of directors, of the Community Housing Group.

I am heartened by, and believe in David Miliband’s leadership in providing creative ideas, which have real potential to develop credible strategies to meet the challenges faced, not just by Britain, but by many Western democracies.

Jamie Shaw Wyre Forest Labour

Consultation – Proposed Gypsies, Travellers and Travelling Showpeople Sites

There will be a special scrutiny meeting of WFDC on Monday 30th January 2012 to discuss the issues raised by the public consultation. Recommendations from this meeting will go to a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday 31th January 2012 where site locations will be determined. Both meetings will be held at The Civic Hall, Stourport-on-Severn at 6.00 pm. Both meetings are open to the public. Please do your best to attend. let us try to ensure that our views are heard and acted upon in a truly democratic manner. Details on how individuals can register to speak will follow or you can phone the HUB (01562 732928) to enquire.

Wyre Forest Labour Grand Draw 2011 – List of Prize Winners

Wyre Forest Grand Draw – 2011

List of Prize Winners

 

 

Monica Boehmer	Christmas Hamper
Dave Hyde	Fairtrade Hamper
Gren Jones	70’s Hamper
Dan & Jo Watson	Wine Hamper
Carol Lewis	Gardening Hamper
David Prain	Relaxing Hamper
Mr Rafferty	Slate cheese board
Bernadette Connor	Box of chocolates
Vi Higgs	Box of sweet allsorts
Jenny Knowles	Surprise prize

 

Mark Garnier MP heeds Labour advice to represent Constituents on high fuel prices in Wyre Forest

Barry McFarland raised the question of high fuel prices in Wyre Forest compared to neighbouring towns on the Labour blog in October and called on Mark Garnier to represent Constituents.

Good to see Mark has finally caught up on Fuel prices. But our MP needs to go further than call for a boycott of supermarket fuel. If Mark thinks there is a prima facie case of a cartel or price fixing in Wyre Forest he needs to ask questions in the house of Commons and refer to the Office of Fair Trading and Competition Commission.

There are still plenty of issues where Wyre Forest Labour fundamentally disagree with Tory Policies including cuts to services, Pensions and Winter Fuel Allowance.

Labour Blog: Why are we paying more for our fuel in Wyre Forest?

Kidderminster Shuttle: Wyre Forest MP calls for boycott on supermarket petrol