Wed 16 Jan 2019, 09:43 AM | Posted by editor
LETTER from Mark Langabeer, Newton Abbot Labour Party, personal capacity
Following the Christmas break, the Daily Express had a headline, ‘3 million hard-working families are swamped in debt’. During the holiday period, channel 5 broadcasted Billionaire Babies, which gave an insight into the lifestyles of the super rich: a Monopoly board game for £5000, a rocking horse for a snip,£10000, and, unbelievably, a Christmas star, valued at £615,000.
Also broadcast was I Daniel Blake, a film that reveals the cruelty of today’s welfare system imposed by the Tories. Blake, a carpenter by trade, develops a heart condition and his doctor declared that he is unfit for work. The Work and Pension Department decide otherwise and refuse to pay sick benefit (now called ESA). He ends up selling many of his possessions in order to pay bills. Just before he attends an appeal over the DWP decision, he dies from a heart attack.
While he is struggling with the DWP, he had met a young single mum of two children, who is sanctioned (benefit cut) because she was late for an interview with the DWP. Hunger drives her to shoplifting and prostitution. In my view, the most poignant moment was when she visits a food bank and immediately eats a cold can of bake beans.
These are the reasons why it’s essential that 2019 is the year that there is a General Election. The election of Labour, committed to socialist policies is the only solution to the growing poverty and inequality in Britain today.
