Friday 4 March 2011

Movement for Change

It does seem to be happening, people are starting to make their feelings clear to this coalition - they are taking their ideological objectives too far and they do not have a mandate to make such crude, drastic and frankly heartless changes to our society. The campaign to stop the sell off of the forests attracted over a half a million on line signatures, the new 'Save the NHS' petition is gathering momentum and trust for the government is at rock bottom.
What is the aim? Before long we will end up with a free market NHS where profit will be the priority over the health and well-being of all, a lost generation of youths with no jobs, prospects or ideas and those that do graduate leaving higher education with £30k worth of debt. On the plus side, erm..well - unemployment is rising, the economy is shrinking and we don't appear to have a foreign policy...

Its easy for a lefty to blame the rich and focus on those without a social conscience but it really does seem that the only people that are going to come through the next few years unscathed under this astonishing coalition are the very people that make up the cabinet- incredibly rich people who will never need to consider the cost of their mortgages, let alone the price of bread.

For those of us in the Labour Party our focus has to be to ensure we are working actively in the community, listening to peoples concerns and working with them and for them wherever possible. Policy is coming through so quickly and with so little debate it is hard to follow exactly what is happening and when- on a local level we need to be there for the fallout. Working together to ensure that communities stay strong and supportive and that our voices are heard. This is no time for navel gazing but a time for action.