Less than 2 days from the General Election which Theresa May called, smug in her 24 point lead over Labour, the tables have turned. Polls are showing Labour just 1% behind and a collapse in the Lib Dem, Green and UKIP votes. People are genuinely supportive of the Labour manifesto and Jeremy Corbyn is attracting 10’s of thousands at his rallies.
In Bridgwater, the Labour controlled town at the hub of Somerset Labour, stocks are running low as demand for election material and offers to distribute leaflets, knock on doors, staff street stalls and put up posters reaches fever pitch. The popular newspaper ‘Bridgwater and West Somerset Rose’ has virtually been snapped up to the extent that we have decided to print it’s content here so everyone can have the chance to see why people are now looking to Labour for the change this country needs.
On June the 8th, vote Labour. Together, we can build a better, fairer Britain.
The Conservatives told us cuts were necessary. They said they would bring down the national debt. Instead, under them, that debt has doubled to £1.2 trillion, while cuts have devastated social care, education and our NHS – and it’s communities like ours that have paid the price.
In an area where 40% live in poverty and food banks are everywhere, it’s harder than ever to find decent jobs and housing, our Health Service is at risk, and our Social Care is being pushed to breaking point. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
A Labour government would invest to create jobs, not cut the vital services that we all rely on. It would build council houses, not give £32 billion tax breaks to the richest in society. And it would restore our NHS, providing healthcare for the people, not for profit.
That means voting Labour on June 8th
Get the Tories out
In Bridgwater and West Somerset the Conservatives have a large majority and so they take their voters for granted. In fact Tory MP Ian Liddell-Grainger is so contemptuous of the people he’s supposed to represent that he won’t even turn up to public meetings.
But the reality is that more people DON’T want Liddell-Grainger than do.
At the last election the vote was like this
That’s a defeat for the Tories of 29,527 to 25,020.
The people don’t want him, the Tories know that and so they hide him away
This time around the UKIP vote is collapsing and recently they lost ALL of their county council seats. But mainly this vote went to the Tories.
The Lib Dems are no alternative. The last time people trusted them with their votes they put the Tories back in power and at the same time broke their election promises.
The key to getting rid of Ian Liddell-Grainger is for the progressive vote to unite around Labour to provide a single alternative.
Labour is best placed because we have a strong local government base. We control Bridgwater Town Council 14 seats to 2, while for every 1 Lib Dem county councillor in the area Labour has 2 and for every Lib Dem district councillor Labour has 5.
But the real decider will be getting out the 28,389 people who didn’t vote at all. Now is their time! Get them out and we really can get rid of the Tories.
Labour candidate Wes Hinckes: “Wes in his own words”
The Labour Party candidate to challenge Ian Liddell-Grainger on June 8th will be Sedgemoor District Councillor Wes Hinckes who represents the Hamp ward of Bridgwater .
Wes says “Bridgwater and West Somerset has what it takes to become a world renowned location to live, work, bring up a family, and enjoy a good life. We need to steer towards that opportunity. It can be reached when we change our direction.
Today, we need the cuts to stop. They are causing harm and risking our future. The services and infrastructure we all use are becoming non-functional, falling below national standards and a pale comparison of what we should expect.
Our local authorities have become unable to fully function as their funding from central government has been reduced beyond all reasonable need removing ‘our’ services and redefining the very standards they should protect, leaving the public at risk of harm.
How can our economy and tourism thrive when our roads, railways, buses and public transport are a national embarrassment? We know that it cannot.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
We can turn our constituency around and we can deliver success equally to our people, communities and businesses. More cuts cannot work, they are only damaging and causing harm to the lives of all of us. It is time for us to heal and it is time for us to recognise our strengths and to develop those assets.
We are a constituency of proud people, rural communities and industrial towns.
We are a place of beauty and splendour, hilltops, seaside, rivers and meadow.
We have a culture of celebration and festival, bonfires, beacons, carnival and arts.
Bridgwater and West Somerset has everything to shout about and everything to fight for.
Labour’s manifesto gives us everything we need to achieve this vision.
Let’s save today and we shall build tomorrow.”
Please vote for us on June the 8th.
It doesn’t have to be like this
Desperate Head Teachers from Dulvertons’ two primary schools sent letters out to parents imploring them to write to their MPs about the devastating funding cuts, which will take over £59,000 from their schools. A Labour Government will pump 4.8 billion pounds into English schools and provide free school meals for all primary school children.
West Somerset residents were shocked to see their bus services disappear last year. Local Town and Parish councils have stepped in to replace them BUT the Tory government immediately passed a Buses Bill preventing Local Authorities from running bus services including the 17 already successfully doing so. A Labour Government would allow the start up of publicly owned bus companies.
West Somerset College has been forced to severely restrict its curriculum as funding has been cut by over £200,000. Loss of Further Education funding has closed much of the state of the art vocational training centre. Students now have to endure a four hour round bus trip to train at Bridgwater College. A Labour Government would boost spending on education by 5 billion pounds, bring back Education Maintenance Allowance and scrap university tuition fees.
A shortage of trained nurses has closed Minehead hospitals two wards. A Labour Government would bring back the student nurse bursaries and attract trainees to the area with a Somerset University.
West Somerset Labour protested outside Minehead job centre about benefits sanctions which leave vulnerable families unable to pay for essentials. The food bank in Minehead has to provide over 1500 food parcels a year to people, many of whom are suffering through failures in the benefit system. A Labour Government would reverse welfare cuts, abolish punitive sanctions and stop the bedroom tax
The loss of over 800 Police officers from Avon and Somerset Constabulary has hit rural communities like Watchet hard, with Police Stations being centralised. A Labour Government promises 10,000 extra police officers nationwide.
Williton hospital provides essential stroke rehabilitation for patients living in this rural area. Already hospital beds have been cut by half with the rest under threat, leaving the nearest community stroke provision 40 miles away in South Petherton. A Labour Government would put £6 billion into the NHS and stop planned hospital closures.
Hinkley Point C is an important infrastructure development for our regions economic future This nuclear investment is at risk now due to the Conservative Government’s decision to leave the Euratom treaty which has controlled the peaceful use of nuclear energy since 1957. Labour welcomes the investment in new nuclear energy, as part of a wider programme including renewable energy and opposition to fracking.
In growing industrial towns like Bridgwater stagnating pay is being partly driven by shifts in the labour market. Recent increases in employment are to be welcomed, but those who moved into work in the last year are paid less than the real living wage of £8.45 an hour. Labour will bring in a realistic minimum wage of £10 per hour
What voting Labour means
There has never been a more important General Election. The Tories have called it because they think they will win easily, but they have miscalculated. Labour’s policies are proving popular and every week the Polls show Labour closing the gap. We can and must end this Tory Government and their austerity programme. Labour has different priorities and we will deliver the real change that Britain needs, so that no community is left behind.
Education
The Conservatives have spent seven years starving schools of funding, meaning cuts in support for students and colleges forced to increase fees. It has created a downward spiral that is bad for the people being held back, and bad for the economy.
- Voting Labour means an increase in schools funding and introducing free, lifelong education in colleges
- Voting Labour means capping class sizes in schools and providing teachers with the resources they need
- Voting Labour means extending free school meals for all primary school children
Young People
Young people have been punished for a debt they did not create, but have inherited, by Tory increases to tuition fees, abolition of student university grants, abolition of education maintenance allowance for college students and a Living Wage which excludes young people.
- Voting Labour means reversing these unjust cuts and delivering on a Real Living Wage for all of £10 an hour.
Social Care
We have a higher proportion of older people living in Somerset than the national average, and this is expected to grow significantly over the next ten years, so chronic underfunding of health and social care services, combined with workforce shortages, is causing increasing stress and anxiety for both staff and patients.
- Voting Labour means a fully integrated health and social care system which looks after the needs of our ageing population, treats people with dignity and ensures that mental and physical health are treated equally.
Work and Workers Rights
Under the Conservatives, Britain has dived to third from the bottom of the wages league table. By 2018, it is predicted that wages will have fallen by 6.8%, since 2008, if current economic policies continue. In the world’s sixth richest economy, we see nurses having to use food-banks to get by, six million people earn less than the living wage and four million children are growing up in poverty. A change of government will bring these humanitarian crimes to an end.
- Voting Labour means investing £500 billion in infrastructure and industry, backed up by a publicly-owned National Investment Bank and regional banks.
- Voting Labour means creating a million good quality jobs across our regions and nations, and guaranteeing a decent job for all, in a high skilled, high tech, low-carbon economy where no-one and no community is left behind.
- Voting Labour means strengthening working people’s representation at work and the ability of trade unions to organise, so that working people have a real voice at work. Labour will give people stronger employment rights from day one in a job, outlaw zero-hours contracts, and create new collective bargaining rights.
- Voting Labour means putting the defence of social and employment rights, as well as action against undercutting of pay and conditions through the exploitation of migrant labour, at the centre of the Brexit negotiations agenda for a new relationship with Europe.
Transport
As a result of the Tory austerity cuts we see long delays in road improvement programmes in Somerset, bus routes disappearing and a complete absence of a county-wide transport strategy. The railways are expensive, unreliable and suffer from a lack of investment, while profits of more than 200 million pounds a year are going to the owners of the UK rail franchises, among whom are the governments of the Netherlands, Germany and France.
- Voting Labour means seeing those profits coming back to the UK, to be re-invested to improve services and reduce fares.
- Voting Labour means a county-wide transport strategy for Somerset, and the investment to provide the bus services that residents want, need and deserve
Policing
We deserve to feel safe in our homes and in our communities. When our police cannot be seen patrolling our streets and actively preventing crime, criminals become emboldened, and innocent citizens begin to feel unsafe. Our police should be there when we need them and with the resources to respond in person and in time when we do. Avon & Somerset has already lost over 800 police officers and the effects of this on ordinary people’s lives are self-evident.
- Voting Labour means getting your police back on the streets and into our communities by providing the resources they need and giving them the backing they deserve. .
Health
Somerset’s NHS services are in imminent danger and the conservatives plan drastic and irreversible changes immediately following the election. Somerset’s expensively commissioned Sustainability and Transformation Plan (referred to as the plan to deliberately Slash, Trash and Privatise our NHS) outlines a future where treatments that we see as normal today and that we know are beneficial to our health and wellbeing will be stopped and you will instead have to pay.
The NHS that we know and love, the envy of the world, will never look the same again. This situation is being forced by a government which is denying the funds our NHS needs to keep our services running and running safely.
- Voting Labour means halting this process and creating a new quality, safety and excellence regulator – to be called “NHS Excellence”.
Contact;-
Website – www.somersetlabour.co.uk
Facebook – www.facebook.com/weshinckes
Twitter – twitter.com/weshinckes
Telephone -07487 300 802