Cardiff – my patients are let down by cuts
I am a mental health nurse. My standard of living is constantly under attack, even though I do a socially worthwhile job.
I enjoy my job. It is challenging, but it is satisfying and emotionally enriching. I feel fortunate and humbled that my patients let me work in partnership with them at such a vulnerable and frightening time of their lives.
But I am also angry. Angry that my patients are so let down by the scarcity of services on offer to help them lead a truly dignified and rich life.
Mental health services are patchy where I live. Patients are often unknowingly in competition with each other for a ‘space’ on our unit. I feel frustrated that I cannot offer the care they deserve.
I believe people need an alternative to the current pathetic offerings of the incumbent party holding the seat where I live. I am standing for the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), not for my own ego and grandiose sense of self-worth, but because, as an ordinary worker, I understand the struggles people are going through.
The cost of living is rising. For many people like myself, it is a frightening time.
Where are we going to get the ‘extra’ money from to pay the bills? If elected, I will fight on a genuine socialist agenda for ordinary people, because I am an ordinary person.
Helen Perriam
Liverpool by-election – 7 April
Everton is an inner-city ward, the most deprived in the city. When Ian Byrne was elected as a Labour MP in 2019, despite protests, he refused to give up his position as a councillor until opposition left him with little choice but to stand down… over two years later!
One of Everton’s councillors had the Labour whip withdrawn for joining six other Labour councillors, and three former Labour councillors, in opposing the Labour mayor’s cuts budget. That budget actually increased council reserves at the same time as making cuts.
While we welcome that ten councillors have voted against cuts, their strategy has its limitations. They propose avoiding cuts by selling off council assets, with no plan of building a campaign to force the Tory government to adequately fund vital services in the city.
I am standing for the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) in Everton. Our campaign will promote a ‘needs budget’, based on what is necessary for working-class people, rather than implementing Tory cuts.
We say, use reserves and judicious borrowing to achieve this, while building a campaign in the estates, with trade unions etc, to fight for a government U-turn to benefit the hard-pressed people of Everton, and Liverpool generally.
Roger Bannister, TUSC candidate in Everton ward
