Pendle Labour Party Blog

Re the "two arrogant posh boys"  - we always knew, but it's nice to hear it from the Tory backbenches.

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“I received my postal vote on Saturday, it took me a few minutes to work out which pieces of paper were intended to fit in which envelope but I got there.”

“My mother needed some help in understanding the instructions that came with the postal ballot, but herself and a neighbour worked it out together. I hope that other people who have difficulty in understanding the instructions also ask a family member or friend for help.”

“I hope my mother voted for the Labour candidate in Whitefield; I feel certain she will have done, she has a lifetime’s knowledge from which she can reach a conclusion on which political party will always work in the interest of all working class people and in particular pensioners.”

“I have just used my own postal vote in favour of Barrowford Labour Party candidate Susan Nike”.

“I guess no one would expect me to do anything different, but I have known Sue for many years, she is hard working, absolutely genuine and she has a tremendous knowledge of local government, as a Pendle councillor she would be a real asset to the people of Barrowford.”

“Sue understands how hard it will be for families and pensioners to cope in these difficult times as Family Tax Credits are reduced and Osborne’s ‘grab a granny’s tax’ reforms start to bite. I hope the people of Barrowford give her the opportunity to work hard on their behalf”.

Following the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government’s budget:

Families on £20.000 will lose £253 a year.
This is on top of the VAT rise which is costing families an average of £450 a year.

4.4 million Pensioners will lose an average £83 a year.
People turning 65 next year will lose most, up to £322.

14,000 millionaires to get a tax cut worth over £40.000 a year each.

The Tories and Lib Dems are out of touch and George Osborne’s budget has failed the fairness test

At a time when Pendle families are being squeezed by rising fuel prices, seeing their tax credits and child benefit cut, one million young people are out of work and there’s a big deficit to clear, it is the wrong priority to cut taxes for millionaires.

The local elections that will take place on 3rd May provide an ideal opportunity for you to vote Labour and send a strong message to this Conservative and Liberal Democrat Government, that we need action on youth jobs and to stop a tax credits bombshell for working parents, not cutting taxes for the very richest.

At a Recent Pendle Labour Party meeting, an interesting debate took place on the possible replacement of the Trident missile system. The clear view of the meeting was that the money would be better spent on cutting the deficit and protecting front line services.

The meeting was also mindful of the number of skilled jobs in the North West that are dependent on platforms and delivery systems for nuclear weapons. The meeting called for a government sponsored arms diversification programme into former, traditional and new industries to run alongside the cancellation of the Trident replacement programme, in order to avoid any job losses in shipbuilding and associated industries.

The full text of the motion can be downloaded here. 

http://www.pendlelabour.com/PDF/TridentMotion.pdf

In a week in which the press and media have been occupied in reporting Tory PR disasters, it is perhaps not surprising that they failed to report an important revelation recorded in a letter to the Morning Star by James Chespy.

According to the letter, reporting on a recent extraordinary speech, Francis Maude said,

"The government wants to end state provision of any public service - even if it means they end up being run by private equity companies from tax havens."

You can read the full article here.

Subject: Proposed Housing Development.

Dear Sirs,
 
Could I, through your letters page in the Colne Times, thank every one who braved the elements on Wednesday 22nd February to attend the Public Meeting that I called to oppose the proposed housing development on the land adjacent to Knotts Mount in Colne.  Despite the atrocious weather, over 30 people turned out to voice their views.  It was decided to form an action group to oppose the development once planning permission is applied for and I will be in touch with all residents again when this happens.  Thank you all for your contribution on the night.  Why build 200 new houses in Colne when there are so many existing properties lying empty due to absentee landlords?
 
Yours sincerely,
 Ian Graham.

On Thursday 9th February Ed Milliband delivered a speech

The media and press made scant reference to this speech, They are more concerned about taking cheap shots at his appearance.

For me, the speech was one of best made by a Labour Leader during the last 20 years, In his speech he set out a clear direction for a future Labour Government to build a new model of a political economy, one which delivers prosperity and fairness for the working people of Britain once again.

I have been a critic of Blair’s “New Labour” model for many years and whilst Miliband’s approach is not to take us back to “Old Labour”, none the less it is a very welcome change in direction, which focuses the emphasis on government to serve the best interest of working people.

Anyone who has concerns that the Labour Party has become rudderless should read this speech and be assured that Ed Miliband knows how to take us forward and that we should all get behind him.

At Barrowford Labour Party’s January meeting, Mark Porter, a local trade union and party activist, led a robust discussion on the current Banker’s Pay dispute.
He said that, while difficult economic times meant uncertainty for millions of people, there was one constant that could be relied upon: the Banker’s Bonus. The meeting noted that despite the Tory manifesto promises to curb executive excesses, the latest round of banker’s bonuses just kept coming. Last week’s announcement that the chief executive of the bailed out bank RBS was due to receive a massive bonus on top of a salary of £1.2 million annual salary beggared belief.
The meeting was told that David Cameron had said he didn’t think it was right that employees should have a seat on company remuneration committees, but he did think it appropriate that shareholders be given rights to block such payments agreed by those committees. The government, which is the major shareholder in RBS and which should be demonstrating its serious intent to to tackle endemic executive high-pay, should therefore be blocking such enormous bonuses.
But the government did absolutely nothing. The chairman of RBS quickly announced that he would not take up all of his option of a £1.4 million bonus. But  it was not until several days later amid mounting pressure, most notably a motion tabled by the Labour opposition, as well as growing anger from the public that the CEO, Mr Hester, finally announced that he would not take up the bonus.
The meeting felt that if the government is unwilling to instigate regulatory reforms, despite widespread acceptance that they are needed to ensure the country’s financial stability, then surely they have lost the right to govern us!

I have just read Gordon Prentice’s blog - The trouble with Billionaires.

Gordon lays out the extent to which the ratio of pay between the highest and lowest is out of control. According to Gordon, the High Pay Commission tells us “top pay has spiralled alarmingly to stratospheric levels in some of our biggest companies”.

Bankers and company directors are currently in the spotlight and quite rightly so, but what about the excessive salaries paid to football players, film and TV personalities? It is not just the bankers and company directors who are doing very nicely.

Coincidentally the latest TUC Touchstone Extra pamphlet “All In this Together?” looks at how the recession and ongoing economic weakness has had an impact on different parts of the workforce. According to the report “the falling proportion of national output that goes on wages has meant that UK workers today are taking home £60bn a year less (in today's money) than workers did 30 years ago”.

Therefore it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that the yawning pay gap has arisen from the combination of increases at the top and decreases at the bottom. The theory of the market being that to maximise performance you pay the wealthy more and the poor less!

Pay is only part of the picture; the accrued national wealth is in the hands of a tiny majority. Should we dare to put this under the microscope, we are accused of “The Politics of Envy”. We should be vigorous in redefining this as the “Politics of Fairness”.

The Coalition Government is compounding this problem with their attacks on the benefit and welfare system. I guess that not many of us support benefit cheats and it is right that they are dealt with properly, but most of would want to retain the existing benefits that we have paid our taxes for in case we or our families need assistance.

Whilst other colleagues within the Labour Party seek a new utopia of “Responsible Capitalism” and pay restraint for the public sector, my view is that current thinking falls a long way short of achieving the “Dynamic Economy” set out in Clause Four of the Constitutional Rules of the Labour Party.

Of course we need growth, but it needs to be sustainable and we must plan which areas of the economy need to grow to deliver higher pay for the workers, and also consider who else should benefit from the proceeds of that growth.

Fairness means redistributing wealth through a just taxation system rather than the one that is currently tipped in favour of the rich.

We need that revenue to invest in our children’s education and training. We need it to invest in everyone’s future. We need it to get the country back to work.

Lancashire Telegraph have started asking questions about the elusive Mike Calvert. He says that he is living at a relative's address in East Lancashire and also his holiday home in Silverdale, Cumbria. However, he won't disclose his address as "it's nothing to do with anyone" yet he is still claiming travelling expenses to County Hall from Trawden.......

I have said that the people of Colne are suffering from the lack of Calvert and Askew not being in Colne to deal with issues and they both need to reconsider their positions..... watch this space