Dennis Skinner’s ‘spirit of 45’ manifesto

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We are currently reaping the rewards of Margaret Thatcher’s casino economy with everything from the banking crisis, our public utilities being owned by foreign companies, the selling-off of the NHS, Rupert Murdoch, our largely rightwing press, our diminished manufacturing base, and the horrifying revelations of Jimmy Saville, child abuse and Elm house.

As Dennis Skinner put it at the Durham Miners’ Gala, if the miners had won in 1984, the course of history would have been totally different … and we wouldn’t be living through the last months of this hugely destructive and anti-democratic government.   Another 5y is unthinkable and we need to fight back, if need be, again and again!

First and foremost, we must destroy ‘the mantra of balancing the books’ which was a Ronald Regan invention.  The deception is exposed in that it only applies to public spending.  Why should it be good for private business to borrow and invest for expansion but not for government to invest in jobs for the 8m unemployed and underemployed?

Jobs create income which leads to spending and more jobs are created in response to the increased spending – taxes rise and deficit falls.  “Look after the unemployment, and the budget will look after itself”. (Keynes, January 1933)

 

Dennis Skinner at Durham 2014

Published on Jul 13, 2014  Dennis Skinner MP at Durham Miners Gala July 2014

The Dennis Skinner manifesto:

1.  Put an end to the wage freezes

2.  A living wage across the whole of the UK

3.  Introduce free collective bargaining across the private sector

4.  Get rid of zero hours contracts and use of private companies like Serco, Capita and Atos.

5.  Put an end to the sequestration of Union funds.

6.  Proper decent public ownership of utilities

7.  End the Bedroom Tax

8.  Embark on a 1945-style house building programme – ‘Homes for heroes’

9.  A Robin Hood tax with the proceeds fed straight into the NHS

10.  Remember that Austerity is the biggest lie.

Together let’s start building the manifesto of Tony Benn and Bob Crow!

 

 

8 thoughts on “Dennis Skinner’s ‘spirit of 45’ manifesto”

  3. I’m in – I’d love to see a change in mood that made public building programmes into sector leaders in standards (as they were in ’45) rather than ‘welfare’ housing for ‘scroungers’.

    In 1945 architects’ plans included such things as cloakroom/ w.c on the ground floor near the back door, so children playing outside wouldn’t have to go traipsing through the house to get to the upstairs bathroom. Such a civilised approach to society!

    So seeing the ‘homes for heroes’ message makes me smile!

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  4. Dear Mr Dennis Skinner, Sir,

    Why no mention of the loss of women’s state pension at 60 from 2013, that is vital food and fuel money to many of the 530,000 women who have lost the money so far please?

    The Flat Rate Pension coming in 2016 will leave many women, and a lot of men, with no state pension for life, and halve or more for many others. This must be the case, as each time I say what this stated law will do, Tory readers ban me from forums and blogs, as well as off Google Plus.

    See if you lose most or all of your state pension:
    https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/state-pension-at-60-now

    I would vote for Dennis Skinner but not for Miliband and Ball’s New Labour. But no-one is offering the millions of women who are losers on into the future, the state pension payout, that is fully funded by a full National Insurance Fund, not having needed a top up from tax for decades.

    Not only is national debt and austerity based on being economical with the truth, but state pension payout denial is based on the lie that pensioners cannot be afforded.

    As the NI Fund is not a tax, it cannot be emptied by government to pay off a national debt. If that were so, how come government is returning the interest from any sums loaned.

    As there are over 23 million people over 50 in the UK, and Labour Left tell us that 35 million voters did not vote Labour in last two general elections, then a Dennis Skinner type of Old Labour would win a landslide victory in 2015.

    Miliband and Balls are being thought of as bringing only a lost election and the Tories continuing in power, either by votes or by Labour being a minority government.

    Revoke the Pension Bill
    Revoke the Flat Rate Pension
    Give women back their state pension at 60 lost since 2013
    Equalise state pension (funding neutral) for men and women at 60 from 2015.

    And watch how Labour soar far above the mere few points poll lead ahead of the Tories.

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  5. Further to my last post, came across the Socialist Party’s promise to people in their 50s (around 23 million in the UK today).

    Labour has not said one word about the two bills that will leave the poorest people with no money in old age forever:
    https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/state-pension-at-60-now

    The ring fenced National Insurance Fund is contribution based from worker and employer, not having needed a top up from tax for decades. So the so-called longer lifespan of the working class by low income has not had one effect on the viability of the state pension.

    The NI Fund cannot be emptied by law to pay off national debt (doesn’t exist as needs to be over 100 per cent of nation’s wealth) as it is not a tax and so cannot be used for general expenditure by government. Any loan of the money, is being paid back through interest at the moment back in the NI Fund.

    So the state pension is not a burden on the taxpayer, as the pensioner, working poor on benefits and the 3 per cent of the benefits bill only that is the unemployed, all pay about 90 per cent tax rate, from benefit cuts, 75 per cent of personal tax that come from stealth taxes, Bedroom Tax and the green taxes that are half the energy bills.

    SOCIALIST PARTY MANIFESTO PROMISE
    Socialist measures to provide decent pensions would include ending the hundreds of billions handed out in tax cuts to big business and taxing these companies’ mega-profits to provide:

    The right to retire from the age of 55 with a decent, living pension equivalent to the European Union decency threshold of £320 a week for all pensioners with flexible rights for workers to continue working if they wish to do so.

    Part-time work with part pension to bridge the gap between work and retirement for those who want it.

    Pensioners, having contributed to society all their lives, should be entitled to rent free public sector housing, heating, telephone and travel within the UK.

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