Budget cuts

The recent budget is a clear attack on ordinary working people and the public sector. The rise in VAT to 20% will impact more harshly on those on low and middle incomes -struggling to replace household items -which are often designed not to be cost effectively repaired but thrown away and replaced. The Tories have a crude view of the public sector -bad, private sector -good and there is no relationship between the two! Hammersith and Fulham recently published a list of all invoices paid over £500. The vast majority of their expenditure was to pay for goods and services purchased from the private sector -helping to sustain thousands of jobs in the private sector. The government plans to slash 25% of public expenditure will lead to thousands of job looses. Locally in Lewisham, the South London Press reports more than 3,500 will loses their jobs -throwing even more out of work in the private sector. However Labour would have also carried out a similar scale of cuts -just not quite so quickly!

Alliance for Green Socialism turns corner

Just got back in from a long return drive from Leeds. I had been attending a weekend strategy conference of AGS. Not only has the the organisation decided to endorse and support the Rugby conference on 24th July, but it has turned the tide, stemming the tide of falling members. The years of active campaigning in Leeds is starting to pull in new younger members. AGS gained more than 3,500 votes in Leeds, gaining almost 8% in their strongest ward Chapel Allerton. The weekend decided to put to its growing members a range of options, including the possibility of engaging a part-time worker to help with building the organisation. In addition it agreed to explore the possibility of carrying out sustained community work -including running information and advice surgeries in some wards in Leeds. It also resolved to have a presence at Tolpuddle in July.