In last week's Plympton, Plymstock and Ivybridge News, our local MP Gary Streeter asked to be allowed to ‘finish the job’. I, for one, don’t want the Tories to ‘finish the country off for good’ for that’s where we are headed.
Gary Streeter was celebrating the news of unemployment being
down but in reality many local people have little to celebrate. He proudly
details 42 fewer claimants for unemployment benefit since November. It would be
very interesting to know the story behind these statistics. Have these 42
people found full time jobs with good pay and working conditions, like sick
pay, holiday pay and maternity rights? The sort of work everyone is entitled to and our
unions have been fighting for since their conception.
There are a number of
reasons why these figures may look so good but the story behind them is usually
showing a widening gap between the haves and the have nots. Thousands of
disabled people across the country have been forced off benefits into
destitution as a result of the despicable ATOS tests which carry out
the government's benefit reduction agenda. This is evidenced by the huge increase in homelessness and food
banks.
Another way these figures are brought down is by sanctioning people for
not doing enough to find work. Badly trained, insensitive, often young and
inexperienced people make decisions about the most vulnerable job seekers in
our society who find it almost impossible to access work and record their
efforts within this incredibly hostile environment. But maybe those 42 have
been ‘lucky enough’ to find a job with the many zero hours contract employers
out there. These contracts mean that ‘employees’ have no set hours and only get
paid when they are called in. They live a miserable existence on irregular
hours worrying about whether they can pay their bills each month.
Gary Streeter
praises the wealth creators who lie awake at night worrying about business
decisions – surely he should also be praising the other true wealth creators
who work hard every single day in these businesses but still often have to
claim working tax credits because their wages are so low. I urge you to seek
the truth behind the rhetoric. Gary Streeter makes it clear who he favours in
his article. He stands for a Party which rewards and protects the wealthy and
in reality prefers greater unemployment because desperately unemployed people are
too busy trying to survive to worry about who they vote for.
