A week is a long time in politics . . .

The Green Party leader, Natalie Bennett, had an interview today, which was at best, “awkward” on LBC radio. She was unable to spell out the financial details of her party’s plans to build 500,000 council houses. Given that this was supposed to be part of their manifesto launch, the interview did not come across at all well.

http://www.lbc.co.uk/incredibly-awkward-interview-with-natalie-bennett-105384

While it is true that there is a crisis in housing, and that people are being exploited by unregulated private sector landlords, the Greens are unwilling to take the necessary steps to solve the situation.

This would involve taking housing stock back under the democratic control of local people; using the powers of local councils to utilise the thousands of empty properties which are lying vacant to provide social housing; for investment in a mass programme of council house building and renovation to meet demand.

The resources are there in society to provide housing to meet our needs, but the problem is systemic and simply taxing private landlords is not an answer. Here are the Socialist Party’s alternative, to solve the problems of homelessness and unaffordable rents – www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/19759

In other political news, today hasn’t been great for the main parties either, with Jack Straw and Malcolm Rifkind both being caught out selling their services to reporters. At least Rifkind has had the decency to fall on his sword and resign. Any chance of Jack Straw doing the honourable deed for once?

And finally, a senior member of the Labour Party in Scotland, Robert McNeill, has tweeted this helpful infographic – asking Labour voters to tactically support the Tories or Lib Dems in order to avoid an SNP meltdown for Labour in Scotland.

So what is the alternative to parties of incompetence, greed, corruption, austerity and dishonesty?

Fortunately, there is also TUSC – the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, which is standing 100 Parliamentary candidates and is aiming to stand 1000 local council candidates in the upcoming elections. Many TUSC candidates pledge to take the average wage of a worker in their constituency if elected, far less than the £60,000 Rifkind thinks it is “unrealistic” to expect him to scrape by on.

Join the fight to build an alternative for the 99%. http://www.tusc.org.uk

Join the Leicestershire Against the Cuts protest

Leicestershire Against Cuts is a broad-based campaign to defend our public services. It is supported by Leicester and District Trades Council and local UNISON, NUT and PCS branches. We are all in this together, except for the fat cats at the top – and we all need to unite to save our jobs and services.

It has organised a march from Victoria Park cafe to the Clocktower on Saturday 30th October. Assemble at 12 noon

HOUSING
Under the Tory / Lib Dem proposals, housing benefit is being cut back at the same time as people are being forced out of council housing if their income goes above a certain level. Rents will rise to 90% of market value, forcing working-class families into ghettos.

COUNCIL SERVICES
In Leicestershire, the council is slashing 1,000 jobs. Services for the elderly, bus routes and community facilities are being axed. Our central library is under threat of closure.

NO FUTURE FOR OUR YOUTH
Over 1 million young people are unemployed, but jobs are under threat at job centres and at Connexions, an agency which helps young people find jobs. This is madness when young people cannot find decent employment and the council is axing jobs.

NHS
700 jobs are under threat at Leicester’s hospitals, 1,400 at the Primary Care Trust. Instead our NHS budget is to be handed over to GPs, with no experience of running hospital budgets. Our hospitals are being turned into Foundation Trusts, which will have to compete with each other for patients and can be taken over by the private sector.

EDUCATION
Comprehensive education is being destroyed by “Free Schools” and by academy schools , which can be run by private companies or religious groups. Fight to maintain a decent education for all children.

NO TO PFI – FOR DIRECT FUNDING OF OUR PUBLIC SERVICES
PFI deals hand over the running of our hospitals, schools and public services to private companies. They are wasteful and expensive as they can last for 30 years and tie us into delivering services, even if these are no longer needed.

Leicester Against Cuts is saying that these cuts are not necessary. There is an alternative.

We say NO to cuts and closures. Ordinary people should not have to pay for an economic crisis, which was caused by the boom / bust failures of capitalism. Why should the most vulnerable in society have to suffer, when bankers are raking in huge bonuses? The cabinet is made up of millionaires – it is OK for them to send their kids to private schools and book themselves into private hospitals. I do not think it is OK for the rest of us to suffer as a result of their hypocrisy.

We demand:
No more cuts or job losses. We need to defend our public services.
For services to be run democratically; for local people to have a real say in what they want.

Direct, public funding of schools, health centres and hospital building programmes. No to fat-cats profiting from our public services.
Hospitals, schools, libraries should be run to provide a service, not to make a profit for privateers.

We CAN afford to invest in our public services:
Instead of axing hundreds of thousands of civil servant jobs, use them to collect the tax owed by the non-doms and the rich Don’t believe the lie that there is no money left. In 1945, Britain was ravaged by the Second World War & debt was much higher. But we built the NHS and the welfare state. People fought for better services then and we need to do the same now.

WE ARE ALL AFFECTED – UNITE TO FIGHT BACK!

We are all users of public services. If jobs are cut, there will be less money for consumers to spend. Many private companies depend on the public sector for contracts and if there are massive public sector cuts, this could send us back into recession. Public services are there for everybody, whether they work for the private or the public sector. We need a united fight to save our NHS, our schools, council services and libraries which are under threat of closure.

We need to stand up now, before it is too late. We need a mass movement of ordinary people, demanding investment in our hospitals, our schools and our council in order to build an alternative to cuts and privatisation.