Here are what Labour plans to do to help you decide whether Labour is right for you.
I will start to list their plans as they come out and add to them as they are announced.
Once the manifesto is published I will outline it in full for your perusal.
We will start with Brexit - just to get it out if the way.
Brexit
Negotiate a new deal within 3 months. (remember Labour has been talking to Brussels for 3 years)
People’s vote by May/June.
This vote will be legally binding. No ifs or buts.
Health
The NHS will never be up for sale
Universal Free prescriptions Not so expensive as it sounds. Remember approximately 90% of prescriptions are free at the point of use.
Social Welfare
free personal care for the elderly a very popular move. Funding will be announced next week.
Education.
end of university tuition fees - another popular move, that will please my grandson. He has opted to live at home and commute in order to keep his debt to a minimum. At the moment he will leave with at least £40K debt.
Tax
super rich avoiders/evaders will be targeted to ensure that they pay their fair share just as everyone else does
Consideration is being given to a financial transaction tax
Shorting, by hedge fund managers has meant that they are betting against our country and making millions - disaster capitalism. Labour proposes that these transactions should have a tax attached to them.
Employment
zero hours contracts many employers are getting vastly wealthy at their workers expense who are being exploited and effectively being paid less than the legal minimum wage level. Labour therefore proposes-
guaranteed minimum number of hours of work a week this will allow zero hours contract workers a semblance of normality and stability, and give them the chance to plan their lives.
minimum wage £10
Environment and Global Warming
Children are now growing up in our cities with reduced lung capacity due to the pollution emanating from various sources.
green new deal Labour proposes to set a target of net zero carbon by the 2030’s
Following the earthquakes
Labour will * immediately ban fracking*
Housing
Landlords are going to be encouraged to ensure there is more affordable housing. Councils and town planners are to be given more enforceable powers.
Slum landlords will be banned.
These contracts are not new.
There has been a boom in bad gig economy companies. Zero hours contracts have made news, rightly so! But that does not mean that other organisations have not been sucessfully and appropriately offering zero hr contracts for years
Of course they could exist without zero hours contracted staff.
We aren’t talking about getting rid of the experienced staff, merely changing their terms of contract - it happens all the time
Anything is possible and it is defeatist to suggest otherwise.
They have used them for many years. They are the safer cheaper solution to reliance on agency.
The NHS's current pressures however can not be compaired to the past anyway.
How do you imagine the NHS functioning without its bank staff? Do you really think loosing all those experienced trained up healthcare workers is worth it?
What did the NHS do prior to zero hours contracts?
Assuming that it is correct that at certain periods the NHS is totally reliant for its running on zero hours contract staff
The NHS relies on support from its bank staff all year round walk into your local hospital today and many of the staff you will see will be there doing bank hours on their 0 hours contracts.
But even more so during winter pressures!
Too simplistic to get rid of all zero hours contracts, but that’s typical of Labour.
It all depends on the employer how you are treated.So some are treated well, and others not.
www.nhsprofessionals.nhs.uk/en/Joining-NHSP/Our-NHS-our-Bank
It is not exploitative if it is a choice. For many it is preferable to a permanat contract. It is only exploitative if it is the only option or if it is missused/abused. In which case it is the missuse/abuse that is wrong! Not the existance of zero hours contracts.
25 MILLION hours of work a year is done in the NHS by zero hours staff. BY CHOICE as permanant contracts are also available.
Who will fill those hours if bank is banned?
No WWM2....DIL ( nurse) works this way for the NHS because she wants to, as do several of her friends, it fits in with their family life.
Assuming that it is correct that at certain periods the NHS is totally reliant for its running on zero hours contract staff, simply does not negate the argument that zero hours contract are exploitative.
Labour recognises this exploitative relationship and will seek to support the weaker person of this exploitative contract.
Sorry, going off to drink my Labour Kool Aid now. Back later .
If you genuinely feel strongly enough that all zero hours must be banned that you are willing to vote in a way that will sacrifice NHS staff and care for that cause! Thats okay and your right. If thats your priority then vote that way
But dont in the same breatg turn around and tell me that if I cared about the NHS I would vote labour.. because that will not ring true!
You can abuse anything. Doesnt make the thing that is abused wrong!
And that was wrong.
But how are NHS zero hour bank contracts also wrong? And how do you propose your local hospital will last the winter without them?
Funny how its apparently only labour who cares about the NHS but its members/supporters dont challenge the party when they are about to do something that will leave the NHS on it's knees!
On a very basic level I was paid £ 7.00 and hour, the client was charged £17.00.
They would ring me up with a pack of lies asking if I could pop round to Mrs Smith and make her a cup of tea.
Mrs. Smith had been waiting hours to go to the toilet and had been subject to a different pack of lies.
Ok so explain how your local hospital will last one winter if all its zero hour staff are suddenly banned. Since yoy are in favour of this!
I agree. I am disabled and have used care agencies in the past...never again! They are badly run, inefficient, greedy so and sos. The carers are always lovely...willing to bend for fear of having few hours the following week. Some were on 1 hour contracts. They were run ragged.
I can assure you , I haven't swallowed any kool aid. I described my experiences and I am totally against zero hours contracts. Nobody should be having to choose between heating and food and be basically lying to employers, to keep them sweet, to "get more hours"
^ this applies to all their policies.
It is scary how labour members/supporters view non labour members. It defies logic: if you dont vote labour you hate the NHS and disadvantaged people and the environment blah blah blah
Actually no, almost all voters care deeply about all those things. The conversation should be about the pros and cons of proposed solutions but you cant have that discussion when you are being told that the only people who care about the problems vote labour...
It's so hard to discuss politics with people who have swallowed the labour kool aid:
Disagreeing with how a problem should be SOLVED does not mean that we don't see the problem!
People who disagree with labours proposed SOLUTIONS to gig economy cobtract abuses are not denying the problem is there. So stop TELLING.US.WHY.ITS.A.PROBLEM like we're slow, we all agree on that already
What we disagree on is labours proposed solutions, and whether they will make things worse not better!
Nobody is praising or denying worker abuses!
Re landlords and housing, Labour love banging on about Right to Buy as introduced by the Evil Tories, but they had many years in which to abolish it.
So why didn't they?
Because they thought it would lose them votes. I know of more than one lifelong Labour voter who was only too happy to exercise her right to buy.
I won't be voting Con or Labour - Labour come nowhere here, not that I'd ever vote for overgrown student activist Corbyn anyway. The LD candidate lost by only about 50 votes last time, so I'll be voting for her - strong Remain area so she's bound to get in.
The reasons why the gig economy is abusive is because of monopoly.
If a company has a monopoly, a large share of the pie, they can pretty much treat you like crap because you have no other options
The way to push standards up is to INCREASE choice/competition, so that companies have to compete to get and keep staff by making themselves desirable companies to work for.
Labour does the OPPOSITE! See again: landlord licence zone trials!
Labour tells us we should all be living the exact same way
No they don't.
The whole of the multi million pound Care Industry is built around abuse. It is sickening.
Topping up your job with extra hours is not the same as some of the awful things I saw.
Well, those who feel that Gig Economy and Zero Hours terms of employment is so good should try working in one of the huge distribution centres there are in this country that supply the supermarkets and online ordering markets.
I am often around such places and in my experience you can speak to as many as you desire but never find anyone speaking a good word for Zero Hours or Gig Economy terms of working in those places.
As has already been stated, how does anyone arrange childcare when your employer can ring a person with a young family up at eleven o'clock in the morning and tell then to be at work at 2 pm for perhaps five or six hours.
That is when we see the child latch children whose parents are then so often condemned on this forum.
However, that is life on Zero hours and Gig Economy working conditions in Britain today.
Registering is free, easy, and means you can join the discussion, watch threads and lots more.
Register now »Already registered? Log in with:
Gransnet »Get our top conversations, latest advice, fantastic competitions, and more, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter here.
