Chancellor George Osborne is today visiting Plymouth on a fact-finding mission and the Plymouth Herald invited its readers to suggest questions to put to him.
But Ryan Aldred, TUSC candidate for the Ham ward in Plymouth was banned from posing any questions. Ryan reports:
George Osborne is on a fact finding mission, so let’s give him the facts:
- £64 million spending cuts to our council.
- 2,000 of Plymouth’s most vulnerable hit by the bedroom tax.
- 20,000 in arrears with council tax after benefits have been cut by 25%, many of whom are working in jobs with poverty wages.
- More than 25% youth unemployment rate in Plymouth.
- Prevalence of zero-hours contracts.
- Scapegoating of immigrants as the cause of the economic problem while companies like Starbucks get away with 0% corporation tax on £3 billion profits and bankers bonuses being at astronomical levels despite the 2008 crash.
The list could go on for pages and pages…
Let’s welcome our chancellor to this fine city and show how him and his rich friends are destroying the lives of the people in it by voting for council candidates who will fight against all cuts and privatisations. If you’re against cuts, vote for TUSC!
Having just spoken to the political columnist for the Plymouth Herald, he has told me that he is sworn to secrecy about the visit (why would George Osborne be so unwilling to meet the public, whose living standards are falling dramatically?).
I have furthermore spoken to George Osborne’s press officer who assured me that I wouldn’t be able to meet him to pose any questions even if I was there as a reporter for the Socialist newspaper.
If George Osborne, and by extension this Con-Dem government, are happy to inflict their destructive austerity measures on the people of Plymouth, should they not at least have an atom of integrity and demonstrate a modicum of accountability by facing the public that they are swindling? After all, is it really that much better that Plymouth has its first billionaire when more than 25% of youths in the city face the grim prospects of a pitiful standard of living with no job opportunities?
