I want the government to stop the agenda of cutting vital public services and centralising power in an attempt to repair the damage to the economy caused by bad banking practice and the incompetence and greed of big corporations. I want them to remember the values of fairness, humanity and respect that underpin our country and stop this attack on the most vulnerable in society and those who work to provide services to people in their communities while the rich get richer and banks remain unscathed.
Why is this important?
I work in a local authority and I am dismayed by the affect that Government grant cuts are having on jobs and services. Maybe at one point there was some spare flesh to cut from local government, but that time is long gone and we are now cutting deep into the bone.
Local authorities provide vital services to the most vulnerable such as the elderly, people with physical and mental health problems and learning disabilities, the homeless and looked-after children. Huge cuts are being made to these services by the government at the same time as the need for these services is going through the roof – largely because of job losses and cuts to housing, disability and employment benefits. This means that the government is taxing the most needy and least able to pay in society TWICE. Firstly by cutting their benefits, and then again by cutting the money paid to local authorities to support them.
Local authorities are also providers and protectors of the culture and heritage of all of our towns and cities. They look after libraries, museums, galleries, parks and local countryside. These areas are often the first to suffer because they are none-statutory services. How much poorer are the educational and cultural opportunities for local people because many councils have been forced to close libraries and museums because of cuts?
People who have dedicated years to providing support and services to the people in their communities for very modest rates of pay are being forced out of worthwhile jobs while incompetent bankers carry on lining their own pockets. Making tens of thousands of local authority workers redundant only adds to the people unable to contribute to the economy or pay income tax, many may well go on to lose their home, adding to the housing benefit bill.
At the end of the day, it is not public sector workers, or immigrants or people on benefits who have caused this financial crisis. Please, whatever your political persuasion, think long and hard about whether it is fair that jobs and services that are dedicated to serving and helping people in your community are losing nearly half their government grant, while the very banks and super-rich people who put us in this mess in the first place are getting off scot-free? This country has been built on the ideals of fairness, humanity and respect for the ordinary person. These cruel and unfair cuts attack that very foundation of our nationhood. The most vulnerable people are having their quality of life cut from just about liveable to unbearable; at the same time the number of billionaires in the world has doubled since the financial crisis started, and the 5 richest families in the UK own as much wealth as the bottom 20% of the population. Meanwhile it is estimated by the Institute of Fiscal Studies that another 300,000 children are soon to be added to the 2.5 million who are currently living in poverty in this country if the next round of cuts go ahead.
Please sign this petition and lets show the government that we will no longer accept vital jobs and services being attacked to make up for the mistakes of the banks and super-rich.
