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.
And not to mention all the student nurses who work zero hrs bank contracts for extra experience/CV and flexibility! They can do none for weeks if they have a busy placement or exam, then do full time in the holidays.
They could not commit to fixed minimum hours whilst on placement! They would not want to!
Zero hours contracts are absolutely wrong in every way.
Here is direct experience. I rather naively decided to find some work in the Care industry ( and it certainly is an industry). The recruiters were charming, I would be trained and visit and assist older people. I have a car and a great deal to offer.
They offered me training, no pay. They offered me hours, great, I find my feet. The clients like me, they say "see you next week". Then I get to grips with the rota.No you can't go to Mrs Banks as you did last week, you must do 10 half hour slots on Monday, nothing on Tuesday and a 14 hour day on Friday.
As if this wasn't bad enough , the company would ring at all hours with " Can you just.... I soon discovered if I didn't acquiesce with Can you just,there were very few hours on my rota the following week.
An abuse of power, a money making machine, older people getting a rough deal and (mostly) women accepting appalling work practices.
Would anybody care to defend this?
Nobody is defending those who abuse zero hours contracts grapefruit. I am defending the good ones, I dont think people realise how many thousands and thousands of good ones there are!
If you go on a hospital ward, you will tell who is agency but you would never be able to tell without asking who is there that day on a 0hrs contract and who is on contracted hours. It could well be half the ward! Even higher grade staff do bank shifts on their 2nd contract to help out!
Everybodys lives are different. Labour tells us we should all be living the exact same way. On the same work contracts. With the same landlord... no room for variation!
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.
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.
Labour tells us we should all be living the exact same way
No they don't.
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!
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.
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!
^ 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...
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"
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.
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!
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.
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!
You can abuse anything. Doesnt make the thing that is abused wrong!
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!
Sorry, going off to drink my Labour Kool Aid now. Back later .
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.
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.
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?
It all depends on the employer how you are treated.So some are treated well, and others not.
Too simplistic to get rid of all zero hours contracts, but that’s typical of Labour.
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!
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