Labour leader Ed Miliband was in the South West last week, publicising Labour’s new ‘Cost Of Living’ crusade. Speaking to a packed hall of Labour activists in Bristol on Thursday, Ed lambasted the Cameron-Clegg austerity machine, busy building a recovery for a minority on the hardship of the majority: “the worsening cost of living crisis isn’t an accident of the policies of the Tory-led government. It’s a direct consequence of them. People are now working harder, for longer, for less”.
Bridgwater Labour’s Mick Lerry and Julian Taylor were among the members present, and spoke to Ed about Hinkley C, the development of our energy infrastructure more generally and the potential impact on the people of Bridgwater.
The government recently concluded negotiations with EDF on the pricing of energy generated by a third reactor at Hinkley Point, effectively green-lighting the next phase of the massive China-sponsored development.
‘Help the most vulnerable’
Meanwhile, Ed has been vigorously campaigning against Coalition policies that are making life harder for low and middle income families. “This year alone, on average a single-earner couple with children will lose over £1,500 a year”, he recently explained in a speech to the Resolution Foundation, “more than double the loss of a couple without children”.
Just in the last few months, Labour have announced a raft of policies designed to help the most vulnerable members of society weather continuing recession –pledging to freeze energy prices for up to 20 months if they win the next election, and to offer tax breaks for firms willing to pay employees the Living Wage.
The Con Dems are content to cut taxes for the richest and defend energy firms even while they endanger the lives of thousands of vulnerable people with outrageous price hikes. They’ve abandoned ordinary people to be the indistinguishable parties of the elite, leaving Labour as the only party for the hard-working majority.