Tories admit inequality – Only TUSC challenges it


A Socialist Party press release, 9.3.15

Today prime minister David Cameron is set to admit that for families, growing inequality brings insecurity. Conservative MP Alec Shelbrooke is quoted in the Mirror (9/3/15) about a return to a Downton Abbey era. But Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition chair Dave Nellist lays the blame at the Tories’ feet.

Dave said: “It’s rare that I find myself agreeing with Tory MPs, but when Alec Shelbrooke said ‘We are creating class-based society by returning to a Downton Abbey era, where who your parents were determined whether you go on in life,’ I couldn’t agree more. Shelbrooke was speaking about unpaid internships, but the policies of this Conservative-led government have been aimed squarely at making workers and young people pay for the bosses’ crisis.

“Bankers’ bonuses returned to pre-recession levels long ago, but the minimum wage has fallen in real terms. Local services have been slashed up and down the country, the NHS is collapsing under the weight of PFI debt, and the idea of home ownership and stable employment is a pale joke for today’s new generation. The Tories, Labour, Lib Dems and Ukip all stand for much deeper cuts throughout the next parliament”.

“That’s why so many are getting behind the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition challenge this May. We’ll be the sixth biggest party, standing in over 110 parliamentary seats as well as hundreds of council seats across the country. TUSC is clearly calling for a living minimum wage of £10 an hour immediately, for an end to austerity and for a mass council house building programme.

“Our candidates won’t be career politicians, but trade union leaders, community activists, young workers and students. TUSC is building a real challenge to austerity, rather than ‘caring’ conservatives slashing our services”.