Author: Richard Ryan

Labour Newsletter Fareham Spring 2017

Fareham Labour Party will be in West Street, Fareham this Saturday to highlight the plight of the NHS under the current Tory Government’s hands and demanding changes to Save our NHS.

Fareham Labour is joining the Labour party’s national ‘Campaign Day’, our members will be distributing leaflets about the ‘ill health’ of the NHS nationally and campaigning for better services locally.

The poor state of the NHS in our area has been highlighted by the failing performance of QA hospital’s A&E department.  In particular, waiting times for patients in ambulances, waiting for admission for hours before being treated, creates serious problems for the local Ambulance service and other healthcare and welfare support providers.

Recent NHS data has shown that Portsmouth NHS Hospital Trust is the 17^th worst performing trust out of 140 and that long A&E waits are more likely for local residents than in most other parts of the country.

Labour demands immediate improvements in our local area and blames the Tories for the lack of funding and poor organisation that have resulted in this current state of affairs. Only a Labour Government committed to the NHS will be able to bring in the improvements to our local NHS services that are so desperately needed.

We look forward speaking to Fareham residents about their concerns with the current NHS problems and our plans to Save our NHS for a better future.

Notes :

The target for Accident & Emergency cases is 95 per cent of patients should be seen within four hours but the QA has only achieved 76.2 per cent.

Members will be meeting with the public in West Street between 10.30 and 1200 this Saturday, 26 November.

Fareham Labour Party has condemned local MP Suella Fernandes after she was reported as writing in The Daily Telegraph that the UK should leave the EU single market and the customs union.

Labour spokesperson Richard Ryan said “Of course we should respect the British people’s wish to leave the EU but I’m sure people didn’t vote to be poorer or cut themselves off from our friends and neighbours. If we were to leave the single market and the customs union we would put this country in danger of having to endure trade tariffs which would increase prices at home and make our exports more costly abroad.

What we don’t need is right wing Tory MPs like Ms Fernandes making out that cutting ourselves off from the largest trading block in the world will somehow be to our advantage. We need responsible leadership that will try to achieve an agreement which gives us the greatest possible access to the single market and retain membership of the customs union.”

Fareham Labour Party has expressed support for a Solent Combined Authority. Two separate consultations have recently closed regarding the devolution of powers in the Hampshire area – Serving Hampshire and the Solent.

Labour’s spokesperson Richard Ryan stated: “We have carefully reviewed the joint proposal put forward by Portsmouth, Southampton and the Isle of Wight, as well as the suggestions from Hampshire County Council. We believe that a combined Solent Authority, stretching from Portsmouth to Southampton and including all the councils in-between will provide the best future for the area.

“Important matters such as the future of the M27 and improving Junction 10, over-subscribed schools and GP waiting times are examples of such issues that require the kind of co-operation that we believe can only be achieved under a combined Solent authority.

More needs to be done to promote Fareham’s position on this matter. At the moment, Roy Perry and Hampshire County Council are dragging their feet. By refusing to commit to any solid plans they are holding smaller councils like ours hostage to the will of the Hampshire authority.”

Fareham Labour Party submitted the following view to Hampshire County Council’s consultation which closed on 20th September:

Fareham Constituency Labour Party believes that local decisions about how we live should be determined as closely as possible to the people affected. Our view is that Hampshire County Council is too ‘distant’ to residents and we need local decision made by more local authorities.

The options given in the Hampshire consultation don’t meet the aspirations of local people.

• A whole county unitary authority would make the situation worse as this would remove district councils. If we look at other counties such as Cornwall we see that that county has to also have parish or town councils to help administer local functions. Fareham for example doesn’t have parish councils.
• Two unitary councils would, we believe still be too remote from voters.
• The third option of unitary councils for North Hampshire, Greater Portsmouth & Greater Southampton would still create remote authorities.

We believe the only practical reorganisation for our area should be a ‘Solent’ Strategic Authority with a metro mayor. We see this authority comprising of: Southampton, Eastleigh, Fareham, Portsmouth, Havant and IoW. This option would give the advantage of keeping District Authorities which already work closely with local residents plus bringing services such as education and social service much closer to the people receiving them. This option would follow other areas such as Greater Manchester where the strategic authority has received more powers and finance from central government. This would bring more devolved services closer to local people.

Six reasons why Labour is campaigning against the Tax Credit Cuts:

1. The cuts to tax credits will hit more than three million families in work
2. On average, each of these families will lose £1,300 next year
3. For these families, it’s effectively a penalty for working
4. The government has claimed that their so-called ‘National Living Wage’ (lower than that calculated by the Living Wage Foundation) will compensate for the cut. The independent Institute for Fiscal Studies has said that this is “arithmetically impossible”
5. As a result of the cut, child poverty will increase. The Resolution Foundation has found that all the tax and benefit changes in the Government’s Summer Budget will push 200,000 children into poverty next year
6. David Cameron never mentioned these plans before his election campaign despite having lots of opportunity to do so. In fact, before the election, he promised not to cut child tax credits and made no mention of any other changes, yet these cuts were announced in his first Budget after the election