Tuesday 31 August 2010
New members sign up



Since the General Election membership of Pendle Labour Party has increased by over 100.

We are encouraged that many of the new members are young people.

This local increase in membership reflects the national increase of 25,000 new and rejoining members.

Anyone joining before 08 September 2010 will qualify to vote in the election for the Labour Party Leader.

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Monday 30 August 2010
Help save NHS Direct



Labour Councillors are urging Pendle residents to sign an online petition and force The Conservative/Lib Dem government to withdraw their proposal to scrap NHS Direct. Labour Leader, Cllr Mohammed Iqbal said “Since its introduction in 2,000, millions of people across the country have used NHS Direct; however, unfortunately this government seems hell-bent on destroying anything introduced by the last Labour government.

What is also really disappointing is that our MP, Andrew Stephenson and his new friend, Lord Tony Greaves are quiet on this issue which will affect Pendle people. They appear to be happy to go along and do as their masters say. I would urge people to sign the petition at http://www.savenhsdirect.co.uk/ and the Prime Minister is on record as saying that if 100,000 people sign a petition, he will reconsider any proposal”

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Wednesday 25 August 2010
Liberal Democrats making the poor pay



Today the Institute For Fiscal Studies (IFS) has concluded that the Budget will hit the poorest families hardest.

The IFS has found that jobless couples with children will suffer most losing about 8.5% of their income over four years.

It’s further evidence that Liberal Democrat policies are making the poor in the North West pay…

The Budget offered no help, no chance and no hope for the poorest and most vulnerable in the North West.

Increasing VAT to 20% will hit the poorest the hardest: Cameron's said it ‘hits the poorest hardest’ and Clegg and the Lib Dems described it during the General Election as the ‘The Tory secret VAT bombshell’. Now they are the ones helping to light the fuse.

Young people and families will suffer the most with child benefits already frozen for three years, the health in pregnancy grant abolished and cuts made to the Sure Start maternity grant.

Don’t forget the ConDems have already cut the Child Trust Fund, ended free swimming, cut back on free school meals and taken away tax credits from families on less than £30,000.

Liverpool Lib Dem leader Warren Bradley said cutting the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) project was ‘unforgivable’ and admitted it made him feel ‘physically sick’. The ConDems have scrapped 4 BSF projects in Colne and Barnoldswick alone.

They've also scrapped the Future Jobs Fund; putting the axe to a future 12,000 opportunities for young people in the North West making the region the hardest hit in the country.

Now a senior Lib Dem Liverpool councillor has joined Labour in protest at ConDem cuts. Cllr Ian Jobling says he can no longer belong to a party of ‘double standards and hypocrisy’.

It’s clear that the price of 22 Lib Dems jobs in a Tory Government is that thousands of North West people will have to lose theirs.

In the words of Lib Dem Burnley Council leader Charlie Briggs: “The cuts announced by the government are hitting deprived areas like Burnley much harder than more affluent areas.”

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Friday 20 August 2010
The Condems Spending Cuts Programme - targeting areas in the North West with the greatest need



Benefits review is a shocking betrayal of North West families and pensioners

• Older people could have to wait at least six years longer to receive winter fuel payments, under ConDem plans to cut welfare benefits.
• And Liberal Democrat ministers, led by Nick Clegg, are pushing for the qualifying age to go even higher.
• Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Yvette Cooper said: "Winter Fuel Payments help many pensioners across the country. David Cameron has promised time and again that the Tories would protect them. This is a shocking betrayal of pensioners."
• So much for Cameron's general election pledge that the payments - along with free eye tests and bus passes for older people - would stay in place.
• And not content with all this, Nick Clegg is refusing to rule out further cuts for hard hit families by scrapping universal child benefit.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11017908

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Sunday 15 August 2010
Pendle Labour campaigns to save our schools whilst Andrew Stephenson 'chickens out' of facing anti-cuts protest.



Pendle Labour Party continued the fightback last weekend against the Tory and Lib Dem cuts to the Building Schools for the Future programme in Pendle. Party members joined Labour Borough and County Councillors and other demonstrators in a rally outside Colne Library against the plans to scrap the programme.

The demonstration had been timed to coincide with the scheduled Saturday surgery at Colne Library of the new Conservative MP for Pendle, Andrew Stephenson, at 10.00am. However Mr Stephenson failed to materialise at the front of the library and it was reported he had gone elsewhere.

Pendle Labour Party vice-chair Robert Oliver said “Before the election Mr Stephenson was saying that BSF funding for Pendle schools was safe. So he should be banging the drum to ensure that Colne and Barnoldswick pupils get the facilities they were promised. He can’t just hide behind the delaying tactic of yet another review.”

Colne Labour Party members Tim Ormerod and Alan Sheraton who want to see the Pendle schools built were interviewed on Graham Liver's Breakfast Show on Radio Lancashire on Friday 13 August.  To listen to their comments follow this hyperlink Graham Liver's Breakfast show and go to 2.48.50 on the timeline.

Stephenson Twitter's:

• had a four hour supermarket surgery yesterday at ASDA in Colne, have Surgeries in Nelson, Colne and Barnoldswick next Saturday 1:52 PM Aug 1st via Twitter for BlackBerry® in reply to BenHews.
• "has some busy advice surgeries tomorrow morning....14 people booked in with appointments, followed by 3 home visits 10:43 AM Aug 6th via web"
• "Labour have organised a protest against cuts outside my surgery at Colne Library. Such a shame I don't have a surgery in Colne today. 2:26 AM Aug 7th via Twitter for BlackBerry®

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Friday 13 August 2010
The ConDems Spending Cuts Programme - targeting areas in the North West with the greatest need



Thousands of North West families will be hit by housing benefit cuts

• Shocking figures show that tens of thousands of North West families will be badly hit by the Government's plans on housing benefit.
• Crisis, the charity for single homeless people, is warning that the ConDems £1.8bn of housing benefit cuts could lead to worsening debt problems and homelessness.
• According to an impact assessment by the Department of Work and Pensions, the North West will be the hardest hit region outside London.
• Virtually all of the 131,180 households in the region reliant on Local Housing Allowance (LHA) will be affected. Claimants will see their LHA cut by an average of £10 per week or £520 per year.
• People living in one bed properties will be especially badly affected – for example support will be cut by £780 in St Helens.
  
  Source: The Guardian, 10 August
  http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/aug/12/housing-benefit-cuts-by-local-authority

	Labour Cllr Asjad Mahmood speaks in support of pensioners and others least able to afford the VAT increase.
	Nick Clegg using opposition to VAT increase as a publicity stunt April 2010

During the unveiling of the poster, Nick Clegg said “We will not have to raise VAT to deliver our promises...Let me repeat that: Our plans do not require a rise in VAT.”

Cllr Asjad Mahmood says “Nick Clegg and Vince Cable warned of a Tory VAT bombshell in the general election but are now helping to deliver it. The increase in VAT from 17.5% to 20% announced in the Conservative and Liberal Democrat Government’s June Budget will fall hardest on those least able to afford it. The increase in VAT will lead to higher prices for goods and services; will have a disproportionate impact on pensioners and other low income groups who have not had a compensatory increase in other benefits and allowances; and will have a severe impact on businesses, charities and community groups in Pendle”.

“The way the VAT increase will affect pensioners and other low income groups runs counter to the Liberal Democrat and Conservative Government's Coalition Agreement statement on 20 May 2010 that it would ‘ensure that fairness is at the heart of those decisions so that all those most in need are protected’.”

“It will cost UK households an average of £500 each, every year and we will see a greater contraction in consumer confidence, as already stretched households face the threat of unemployment from large and unspecified public and private sector cuts, rising prices from VAT increases, and real-terms benefit cuts."

“There are concerns, that the new higher rate of VAT could also stoke inflation, cause cash flow problems which could push some businesses into insolvency and trigger higher interest rates, increasing the danger of the economy lurching back into recession”.

“Cllr Asjad Mahmood is calling on the Member of Parliament representing Pendle to stand up for Pendle’s pensioners, businesses and wider community, to voice their opposition to this unfair increase in VAT and to vote against it in Parliament”.