At the rally with CWU General Secretary Billy Hayes
Fantastic turnout Wednesday for the CWU’s Keep the Post Public Rally, which I addressed in Westminster Central Hall. The Con-Dem government’s plans to privatise the Royal Mail pose a real threat to our post offices and could see an end to Saturday mail deliveries. We will fight this all the way.
This Queen’s Speech offers no hope and no change in Wales. It is the point at which we face the sad truth that we have wasted two years due to the madhouse economics of the Tory Lib Dem coalition. It is the point at which the deep and fast cuts made by Chancellor George Osborne are exposed as having failed our nation. As a result there is no growth in the economy and we face the increasing problems of a lack of work for our unemployed youth. One million young people are now unemployed. This is a recession made in Downing Street. Yet it was this same Chancellor who provided a tax break for millionaires while placing an extra tax burden on pensioners.
This Queen’s Speech will do nothing offers no hope for Wales. It is in fact marked by an unsightly spat within the Tory Lib Dem Coalition over reform of the House of Lord’s -while the rest of the country wishes to focus on jobs, the economy and growth. David Cameron and Nick Clegg making a visit to a tractor factory won’t make a difference when the wheels have come off their grand economic plan.
There is a better way, and across Europe we can now see people voting for an alternative to the austerity plans that are plunging economies in to deeper crisis. We need a clear focus on stimulating growth and securing greater fairness in our society. It is a time for action to deliver the investment in infrastructure that can help the long term future of our country and provide a boost to employment. In these tough times when there is less money around, only Labour has an agenda for change which would improve living standards for families, ensure security for pensioners and get our young people back to work.
That is what should form the core of this Queen’s Speech. Labour would deliver a living standards bills.
If Labour was in government now and writing this year’s Queen’s Speech, five of the Bills which we would be introducing would be to help families immediately by tackling rip-off prices and creating real jobs for young people. These measures offer practical, affordable ways to help people right now and get our economy moving again. But to bring them about requires a government in touch with the needs of families in this recession.
It requires different choices and different priorities.
Five Labour Priorities for the Queen’s Speech:
• A Fair Deal on Tax. Alongside implementing Labour’s five point plan for jobs and growth, Labour’s Finance Bill would reverse tax cuts for people earning over £150,000 a year. We would use that money to help pensioners on fixed incomes hit by the “granny tax” and we would restore cuts in tax credits which have hit families.
• A Fair Deal on Energy. Labour’s Energy Bill would break up the dominance of the Big Six power companies and require them by law to offer 4 million elderly people the lowest rate available.
• A Fair Deal on Transport. Labour’s Transport Bill would stop train operators raising fares by more than one per cent above inflation, stop them exploiting commuters with unadvertised rates and give local authorities more control over bus firms. A UK Labour Government would work with the Welsh Labour Government to deliver this in Wales.
• A Fair Deal for Consumers. Labour’s Consumer Bill would give new powers to the Financial Conduct Authority and Competition and Markets Authority to stop rip-off surcharges by banks, low-cost airlines and pension firms.
• A Fair Deal on Jobs. Labour’s Jobs Bill would ensure some of the money raised from a tax on bank bonuses is used to provide real jobs, with real wages and responsibilities, to more than 100,000 young people aged 18-24.
Last week the results of the Council elections in Wales show that people believe there is a better way.
Welsh Labour has pledged to stand up for Wales and is delivering practical actions to deliver on that promise: opportunities for young people through a Jobs Growth Fund which can help to offset the waste of talent in such high youth unemployment. Employing extra CSOs to help keep the streets safe, rather than the Tory cuts to Police Officers. An economic renewal package to help stimulate the welsh economy and support firms who can provide jobs and deliver apprenticeships for our young people.
Welsh Labour’s very encouraging results in the Council elections tell us many things, but one message is very clear. The people of Wales believe there is a better way. A way that is providing greater fairness across our society. Labour’s priorities for this week’s Queen’s Speech are measures that would help families immediately by tackling rip-off prices and creating real jobs for young people. Labour’s Queen’s Speech would speak to the challenges of our time and not the unfair priorities of this UK Tory Lib Dem Coalition.
Nia Griffith MP today met officers from Dyfed Powys Police Force who joined some 35,000 police officers on a march through central London. Their purpose was to send a strong message to the Conservative-LibDem coalition government that 20% cuts to police budgets is criminal, and is a real risk to public safety. Nia later met the Chairman and Secretary of the Dyfed Powys Police Federation Phil Addicott and Paul Herdman, for more a detailed discussion about the implications of the cuts and concerns about the future of policing.
Nia said, “ The Government’s decision to cut 20% from police budgets goes too far and too fast, and means 16,000 officers across the country are going. Already since the election over 5,000 have gone from 999 response units, neighbourhood policing and traffic units. Contrary to the Prime Minister’s claim that the front line would be protected, we have already lost thousands of the very officers who respond most quickly to public cries for help.
Labour voted against the 20% cuts and we have continually campaigned for the government to change its plan. Of course the police do have to make their share of efficiencies. We have said for some time that we believe the police could sustain a cut of around 12% in their budget by the end of the Parliament and still maintain the number of police officers and the quality of service. That’s based on the independent analysis by the HMIC, the work Labour did before the election and the evidence since, and has been supported by many police officers and experts too. But instead of cutting 12%, the government is cutting 20% with the steepest cuts in the first two years – and that is why so many valued frontline police officers are being lost. This is criminal and it is certainly not what the public want.”
LLANELLI MP Nia Griffith has urged the Government to secure a better deal on energy prices for heavy industry to provide an incentive for companies like Tata Steel to invest in Wales. She made the demand as Tata announced it would invest £800million in Wales.
Speaking up from the opposition frontbench at Welsh Questions, Nia said: “I certainly welcome the announcement by the Labour Welsh Government that Tata Steel will invest £800 million in Wales, but as the Secretary of State will know Tata bosses have repeatedly said that the prices they have to pay for energy in the UK are simply not competitive when compared with what industry pays elsewhere. What discussions has she had with the Energy Secretary and energy companies to secure a better deal on energy prices for heavy industry to provide an incentive for companies such as Tata to invest in Wales?”
Nia, who is also secretary of the Parliamentary Steel Group, has previously slammed government plans for a steep Carbon Floor Price which she has dubbed a super tax on industry.“ This is a mad, bad Tory tax, unique to the UK, which will make us uncompetitive even compared to other European countries nevermind countries with very cheap labour costs, and the mitigation measures proposed by the government are too little too late. I want to see a proper industrial policy and better incentives for companies like TATA to invest in the UK.”
Keith Davies AM, Nia Griffith MP, Ray Jones, Jan Williams and Tegwen Devichand meet Health Minister Lesley Griffiths AM.
Speaking about the meeting, Nia said
“We stressed to the Minister that services must be accessible and local, and that we want to keep the widest possible range of services at Prince Philip Hospital. We pointed out the difficulties for patients and their families of having to traipse all the way to Carmarthen for treatment, with the problems exacerbated by the lack of joined up public transport. I reiterated our concerns about retaining Accident and Emergency services at Prince Philip Hospital, and stressed the importance of better A&E facilities which could benefit many Llanelli residents and prevent them from making unnecessary journeys to Carmarthen for basic treatment.”
Nia has described the Government’s decision not to protect mesothelioma victims from having to pay their fees out of any compensation awarded as “absolutely shameful”.
Thousands of industrial workers, who came in to contact with asbestos, who have also contracted the disease later in life, have made claims against their former employers and many more are expected.
But under reforms to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders’ Bill, new claimants could have to pay their legal fees from their eventual award.
Government Ministers refused to bow to pressure from the Lords, who demanded an assurance that victims of mesothelioma will not have to pay their fees from any compensation awarded.
Condemning the Government’s decision, Nia said “It is absolutely shameful that the Government is effectively lumping in sufferers from the terrible industrial lung disease mesothelioma as part of a fraudulent and trivial compensation culture.It is a painful disease that can develop many years after exposure to asbestos, and, once diagnosed, sufferers have a life expectancy of only 9 to 12 months.They and their families need all the help and support that they can get, and, by throwing out the Lords’ amendment, the Government is leaving mesothelioma victims having to pay up to 25% of any compensation award they receive as fees to their lawyers. They deserve to keep every penny of that compensation.”
Mike Evans, Managing Director of EBS Automation, showing his company’s products to Business Minister Edwina Hart, Keith Davies AM and Nia Griffith MP
With Aaron from the Foyer and members of the Lost Community group at an evening when young people from Foyer showed a film they had made about the history of Llanelli
Nia spoke up for the people of Llanelli at the recent hospital protest, telling the TV reporter that the demonstration attended by over 600 local residents was a clear indication of just how much the people of Llanelli and surrounding areas value the services at Prince Philip Hospital , and just how determined they are to get the message across to the Health board that we, as the most densely populated part of the Health Board’s area should keep the widest possible range of services at Prince Philip Hospital.
Speaking up in the budget debate, Nia Griffith accused the Government not just of robbing pensioners to pay for a tax cut for the rich but of having no growth strategy to offer hope to the unemployed. She also pointed out that the Government has carefully avoided saying that raising the personal allowance is costing a lot of money, much of which will benefit those higher up the pay scales, whereas tax credits, which they are cutting, target money much more effectively on lower-income households.
She then referred to excellent work done by volunteers seeking to restore the Railway Goods Shed in Llanelli and Cwrt Farm in Pembrey and went on to raise concerns about the imposition of VAT on approved alterations to listed buildings, saying “So much for this Government’s pretence at being the greenest Government yet. It would be much greener to encourage alterations to listed buildings, to make them practical to use in the 21st century.
Furthermore, far from stimulating the economy, the VAT increase is likely to discourage people from undertaking such work, so there’ll be less work for local builders, and we all know about the difficulties faced by the construction industry at the moment. That is why Labour is calling for a cut to 5% in VAT on all household repairs, precisely to stimulate the construction sector and provide more work for builders, plumbers, carpenters, electricians and so on. This Government needs to get its act together on bank lending, getting the economy going and providing jobs for our young unemployed.
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