Labour Leadership Election 2016; Why I'm Team Jezza

A few minutes ago I received my online ballot for the labour leadership election: Anyone I have ever had a political discussion with will probably assume I voted for JC.... You are right. Yes I did.

Throughout the leadership election I was inclined to vote JC because he was the man who inspired me to join the labour party to begin with, and because I view the election we are going through as a attack on him & an anti-democratic coup rather than an election to exercise a democratic right.

Before JC became leader I looked at the labour party and saw what looked to me like a shell of its former self, and doubted that it could play more than a minimalistic role in the workers movement leading to a fairer, more egalitarian society. JC's commitment to restoring that party to a party of social change, a party about standing up for the metaphorical 'little guy' and a party of the most fundamental of socialist values; equality, liberty, democracy and peace made me re-evaluate that belief; I now believe that the labour party can be saved, and I stand by my belief that the leader best placed to do that is now and will be for the foreseeable future JC.

In the interest of fairness I read the statement provided by Owen Smith on the voting form and wasn't that impressed. Namely because I don't actually believe that he is the 'unity' candidate that the 'anyone but Jezza' crowd are demanding.

Jezza is who I voted for because he IS a unity candidate in my view; namely because of his his pledge to democratise the party and his willingness to work with those who have made it perfectly clear that they don't agree with his views despite there open and destructive opposition - it beggars belief that an open hand was treated like a clenched fist simply because it was JC who held it out.

Not only do I have every faith that JC has the skill and the determination to unify the labour party, I believe that he has the skill, the drive and the compassion to unify the country and deliver a labour victory in the 2020 general election.

Why we should all support the creation of a National Social Care Service

With people living longer who are sick, funding social care is very hard. One of the actions of the current government which is very controversial is the way that they propose to fund the care of the elderly. According to The Telegraph 340,000 people entitled to home help will soon get none.

It doesn’t surprise me when I hear horror stories about the way people in care area treated. When the state cannot afford to provide a public service they often sub-contract it out to a for profit agency, usually the one who claims they can do it while charging the government the least. The result of this is people working for private care providers aren’t properly trained because the company operates on a ‘for profit’ basis; so any training beyond the bare necessities is in their eyes a waste of money, and cuts into their balance sheet.

This is also why people working for private care companies are often not paid well. I am personally aware of 3 legal loopholes that are used to avoid paying the national minimum wage to people working for private care companies in the area where I live.

The first is regards to agency work, a care home will need people to cover a shift and will ask a temp agency to provide the cover offering the NMW to the worker sent, of which the agency wants a ‘finder’s fee’ which they deduct from the already minimum wage.

The second is regards to community care; a care worker is working an 8 hour shift (for example), but they are informed that they are only ‘at work’ when they are actually inside a client’s home, the time spent travelling from 1 clients home to another counts as travelling to work, not work itself – so the worker gets paid a fraction of what they actually work. When the cost of keeping a car on the road is factored into this equation such employment becomes almost pointless, earning a few pounds per week above what they would be entitled to on state benefits.

The final one is regards to working night shifts at some elderly residential homes. At night most people would expect a worker to get a wage enhancement for working anti-social hours, but no… there are some care homes which don’t do this, in fact they don’t even pay night staff a ‘wage’, they pay them an ‘on call rate’ after the residents have gone to bed which is a fraction of the minimum wage and enhance their pay to the NMW for each our that a resident is disturbed or in need of assistance.

So I cannot help but wonder if any subcontracting of state care to private companies will inevitably result in abuse or mal-treatment due to poor training, and poor conditions. Care is a high-responsibility job, yet many carers are paid low wages… well no: the minimum wage of for minimum responsibility jobs, the major high-street supermarkets pay people a few pence an hour above the NWM to stack shelves, some of the smaller chains pay over a pound an hour above the minimum wage. And yet if someone wants to work in care, they have to have the lives of vulnerable and sick people put into their hands for a pittance? Where I ask in the incentive to do that I can’t help but wonder?

E.U. or not to E.U.

I’m probably about to say something that is going to alienate a lot of my fellow Britain’s: I’m pro-Europe.

In fact I’m not only pro-Europe I’m openly proud of my European citizenship: Almost as proud of my European Citizenship as my British Citizenship (I did say almost). I don’t support further integration of the E.U. and in a lot of ways I think it’s doing a bad job: I think if it becomes too integrated, i.e. into a United States of Europe then a lot of the advantages that it can bring will be nullified, for example if we have a social problem that needs solving one thing which can be done is to look at other countries which have had similar problems and think ‘who’s idea worked best’, which if were so integrated we all have to do the same thing cannot be done.

But when it comes down to it we need the E.U. Look what happened a short time ago when the British government announced a referendum after the next election: business leaders for British business were on the case condemning it immediately. Although my political viewpoint is leftist I do recognise the necessity of being pro-business, especially when the economy is in such a mess – so I cannot take the populist position of the E.U. as a good for nothing institution of money grabbers.

It does seem ironic, that someone who’s views are often referred to as ‘soft core euro-scepticism’ seems so adamant that we be in the E.U., I may not like the E.U. I do not but we do need a E.U., even if it isn’t this one. But yes the E.U. does have a redeeming virtue, and this is one of the things I’m so proud of my European Citizenship for: up until the 1940’s saying the nations of Europe didn’t get on was an understatement: in the last century Europe was the focal point for the only 2 world wars in human history and for centuries before that we sailed the oceans shooting from ship to ship – we hated each other. And in only a few decades we put aside centuries of hate and are now one of the world’s leading emerging superpowers, a leader in trying to stamp out disease and war and hunger throughout the globe, which is definitely something to be proud of.

So when the pro-Europe arguments from Britain’s political parties start should the referendum go forward please listen with an open mind to the pro-E.U. arguments before turning up to vote.