Norfolk People's Assembly - David Peel

Economic recovery! What economic recovery? It's rich for George Osborne to start making boasts when people in Norfolk are facing another winter of choosing between putting food on the table or staying warm. 

 

Five million people in Britain are out of work - the real unemployment figure - and they are having their benefits cut. Of those lucky enough to be hanging onto jobs, many are now on zero hours contracts and don't know if money will be coming in this week or next.

 

Across Norfolk and the rest of Britain, in accident and emergency departments, doctors and nurses are warning now that if staff shortages are not addressed, people will die this winter. Our NHS, which is loved and cherished and was bequeathed to us by our parents and grandparents, is today in meltdown after just 65 years.

 

Even fire stations are being closed down, a decision that our firefighters have warned will cost lives.

 

Students are leaving university with debts they can never repay and in schools, the government is privatising education and creating a new generation of haves and have-nots.

 

Disabled people are abused in the street egged on by government campaigns about shirkers. They are told they are fit in dubious assessments and are ordered back to work, irrespective of the consequences. The consequences are that disabled people are dying. And Ministers have the nerve to shut our Remploy factory. What sort of a society are we creating? It's breathtaking and shameful.

 

Meanwhile, queues at food banks are lengthening, more people are sleeping in doorways, not enough homes are being built and even spare bedrooms are being taxed while MPs sabre rattle about a war we apparently can afford, outraged about a chemicals weapons attack when it turns out this country is a chemical weapons supplier.

 

Out here in the real world, millions of people are facing years of deeper and harsher cuts to their living standards and the public services they need and rely on. This so called economic recovery is just a game of lies, damned lies and economic 'indicators' played by people who have never known what it is to struggle in their daily lives, and never will.  

 

This week the trade unions meet to plan the defence of our hospitals, schools, and welfare services and fight these cuts. This autumn, teachers, fire fighters and post men and women will strike to save our public services. They cannot fight alone.

 

It is time for us to get off our knees and stand with them. If we don't, it will not be our generation that pays the price, it will be our children and our children's children. The Norfolk People's Assembly is the best chance we have of coming together to create a better future. We urge people to join us. 

 

- David Peel, Norfolk People's Assembly

 

On Thursday 12 September at St Andrews Hall, Norwich, local people, campaigners and trade unionists from across the county, angry and hurt by Government policies are meeting at 7.30pm to officially launch Norfolk People's Assembly against the cuts.

 

For more information, see:

 

facebook.com/NorfolkPeoplesAssembly

 

facebook.com/groups/NorwichPA

 

NorfolkPeoplesAssembly.tumblr.com

 

Or email NorfolkPeoplesAssembly@mail.com

Discipline and Fear

Oh, I was doing so well. It's been a beautiful few days and I've been taking the opportunity to get outside, watch some sport, enjoy the sunshine and generally not get upset or offended by anything. Of course, then I happened to flick briefly through the liberal press, and at the risk of mixing my metaphors, I discovered a proverbial turd in the ointment.

Enter Oliver Letwin, Conservative MP for West Dorset. This craven Thatcherite relic, exposed by his regressive plans for local government as far back as 2001 when he occupied the position of Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, has already been a policy leader in the government's proposed breakup of the NHS. If that were not in itself a reason to despise him, he has now attacked those very workers who are responsible for ensuring that the country's most essential services are delivered for the benefit of those who need them the most.

The Guardian yesterday reported Mr Letwin as having said the following:

"You can't have room for innovation and the pressure for excellence without having some real discipline and some fear on the part of the providers that things may go wrong if they don't live up to the aims that society as a whole is demanding of them."

Firstly let us bear in mind that Mr Letwin is a banker, and by extension of his profession, can probably teach us all something about letting society down. We should also bear in mind that he went into hiding in 2001 as a result of his disastrous work on that year's Conservative election campaign. Yet, in a manner contrary to his own suggestion that failure should carry consequences, he has now risen phoenix-like to a position specially created for him in the Cabinet Office.

It is also worth mentioning that Mr Letwin's ill-advised comments were made at a report launch at the headquarters of KPMG, a private consultancy firm that has been among the first to benefit from tendered NHS contracts. In these times of cuts to health and social care budgets, I'm comforted to know that consultancy firms are still raking in hard-earned money from the taxpayer. As everyone familiar with consultancy firms knows, they rarely recommend that you waste less money on consultants.

I could go on and on about how Letwin is a figurehead in a government whose policies are in no way ameliorating the UK's perilous financial position, or that it is a truly horrible thing to expect fear of joblessness and resultant poverty to act as a motivator for excellence. The reason that this matters so much is that the changes proposed by this Tory-led government will have a massive effect on how the UK develops over the medium to long-term future. It may seem obvious to state, but many of the cuts being made by the coalition are resulting in real hardships for many and the services and expertise being lost are not easily replaceable.


Public sector workers will shake our heads and batten down the hatches. We are used to continual abuse - both from our paymasters and the public we serve. Tomorrow they will attack us again - threaten our conditions, our pay, our pensions, always spreading lies about how much better the service will be when it is being provided by a private firm with a profit margin and absolutely no duty of care. No doubt if he ever needs an ambulance, Mr Letwin would want his privately-paid paramedics to be highly focused on their jobs as a result of his proposed reign of terror. Let's just hope that they're not too scared to go to him in the first place.

Public sector workers - your doctors, nurses, taxmen, binmen, social carers - know that we deliver a great and improving service on a consistent basis, and it is only a flagrant and unforgivable lack of resources from central government that prevent us from improving further. No matter that we are already disciplined enough to put the needs of others above the opportunity to earn higher wages elsewhere. The public sector already feels the fear, and does it anyway.

People of Norfolk, Your Services Need You

People of Norfolk, your services need you! Only by turning up and showing your opposition to the cuts in large numbers is there any chance to prevent Norfolk County Council from agreeing a system of cuts that will decimate and devastate your local community, putting the livelihoods of residents and the wellbeing of vulnerable people at risk.

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NORFOLK COALITION AGAINST THE CUTS

PRESS RELEASE

For immediate use

Norfolk's 'Valentine's Day Massacre of Services' will face protest!

Norfolk County Council will meet on Monday - 14 February - to consider a Conservative group budget proposal to slash millions of pounds of services - part of a plan to cut £155 millions of Norfolk services.

The meeting has been dubbed the 'Valentine's Day Massacre of Services' by anti-cuts campaigners, who will mount a protest outside County Hall at 08.45 - shortly before the council meeting.

Protesters will lobby councillors to reject the proposed cuts and instead join a campaign for alternative government action to tackle the national deficit, such as ending corporate tax evasion and avoidance which costs the treasury billions of pounds each year.

Norfolk Coalition Against the Cuts is urging all Norfolk citizens to contact their County Councillors this week, voicing opposition to service cuts, and to come along to the 'Stop the Valentine Day Massacre of Services' protest on Monday.

Campaigners will display 'bloodstained' signs of the services affected by the proposed cuts, which include:

* Closure of youth centres and an end to confidential advice and support for young people - perhaps the most severe cut in youth services in the country.

* Funding for services designed to keep children in a safe family environment is being axed or reduced, increasing the risk that children will be taken into care.

* Foster and adoption services are being cut - even though keeping children in institutions is the least preferable and most expensive option.

* Cuts to travel subsidy for students, which will force some to cease studying.

* Ending of subsidy for community meals for the elderly.

* Sensory support services to be cut by nearly £1/2 million.

* £1/2 million cut from services to support those with mental health difficulties to live independently.

* Day centres for adults with mental health difficulties likely to close;

* Reduced opening times for libraries;

* 1000 county council workers will lose their job, squandering the skills and years of experience and dedication. This will create downward pressures on wages in the private sector, suppressing demand, hitting retailers and small businesses.

Mark Hughes, vice chair of Norfolk Coalition Against the Cuts said:

'If Conservative plans go ahead, next Monday will be infamously remembered as Norfolk's own Valentine's Day Massacre of Services, when many vulnerable people including a generation of young Norfolk people were abandoned.

'We must not let politicians acting like gangsters tear the heart out of our community. I urge everyone to contact their county councillor this week and to join our protest at 8.45 on Monday morning.'

The Norfolk protest is one of many similar protests around England including a 'Stop the Valentine's Day Massacre' outside Downing Street on Monday.

Nationally, plans are developing for a massive 'March for the Alternatives' against the cuts and privatisation, in London on Saturday March 26th. More than ten coaches are already booked to take people from Norfolk and others are expected to be needed. Information is on the Norfolk Coalition Against the Cuts website www.norfolkcoalitionagainstcuts.org.