This is the local election address which socialists campaigned for in Hull in 2001. To see current information about the Socialist Alliance and the Alliance for Green Socialism in this area go to our forthcoming events page.

 

Hull & East Yorkshire Socialist Alliance - June 2001.

The Socialist Alliance has adopted local teacher Roger Smith as its Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the Hull North Constituency in the 2001 General Election - expected on 7 June. The election agent will be Geoff Collier.

The Hull & East Yorkshire Socialist Alliance will be campaigning for a vote for Roger Smith in Hull North and will urge socialists elsewhere in Hull to vote for the Socialist Labour Party candidates (expected to be Dave Skinner in Hull West and Hessle and Linda Muir in Hull East).

The Socialist Alliance local election address for the Hull North constituency is reproduced below. This is not a complete statement of all the policies supported by the Hull & East Yorkshire Socialist Alliance but simply the statement which Roger Smith will put before the electors. Anyone wishing further information on HEYSA policies or activities should E-mail heysa@bigfoot.com .

To return to the HEYSA main page click here.

To see details of forthcoming HEYSA activities click here

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Election Campaign 2001 - Hull North constituency

People Before Profit - Hull & East Yorkshire Socialist Alliance Election Statement

In 1997 millions of us voted for "New Labour" to get rid of the hated Tories. For many, the Labour Government has been a terrible disappointment. "New Labour" has been too much like the Tories, and now people are saying, "there's no point voting" because all the parties are the same. The Socialist Alliance is different.
Tony Blair and Tory leader William Hague are friends of big business. The Socialist Alliance is on the side of the working class - ordinary people in Hull who have been forgotten by "New Labour" at The Guildhall as well as in Parliament. Since 1997 the gap between the rich and the poor has grown - under "New Labour" the rich are still getting richer, while the poor have seen little or no benefit, apart from the miserably low "minimum wage" and last year's 75p pension increase. "New Labour" abolished student grants and introduced tuition fees - something even the Tories couldn't bring themselves to do. Now "New Labour" has carried on privatising public services; national air traffic control, the London Underground and the local schools meals service.
The Socialist Alliance (and our Scottish Socialist Party comrades) are standing over 160 candidates in a campaign across Britain. This is the biggest challenge from the socialist left in modern times. We are offering a new hope to people who are sick to death of political parties who serve the bosses' interests and ignore the needs of the rest of us. We appeal to people in Hull North to read our statement and support our candidate - local teacher Roger Smith.
Our Priorities:

Privatisation & Public Ownership

"New Labour" has refused to restore to public ownership and control the services privatised by the Tories. Instead they want to take privatisation further in the NHS, education, housing and transport. Only the bosses benefit from this. In local government the "fairer funding" and "best value" reforms have been a disaster, especially in the area of housing benefits. The Socialist Alliance insists that these are public services and must be in the public sector.
Tax the Rich
Gordon Brown boasts that Britain has the lowest level of Corporation Tax in Europe, whilst he increases indirect taxes on all of us. Working-class people pay more in tax now than they did under the Tories, YET "NEW LABOUR" SPENDS LESS THAN THE TORIES DID! The rich still only pay 40p in the pound, just like they did under the Tories. We are all paying more, yet the rich can afford much more than we can. Gordon Brown's "prudence" is OK if you're rich, but it means cuts and further poverty for millions. Britain is a very wealthy country that could afford better welfare, health and education if we had a fairer tax system. Major multi-national companies get away with huge tax "savings" in off-shore havens thanks to Brown's "prudence" and "New Labour's" desire not to upset the bosses.
The NHS - for patients not profit
"New Labour" is introducing NHS spending con-tricks known as Private Finance Initiative (PFI) Schemes. This should be "PFI scams". Hospitals built under PFI will never be owned by the NHS and cost hundreds of £millions more than the traditional funding methods. "New Labour" are offering private companies the opportunity to cut wages for NHS workers by privatising services like cleaning and catering. Queues for appointments and operations have been "reduced" by deceit. There are still taxes on being ill - prescription charges - despite various Labour promises to get rid of them whilst they were in opposition. "New Labour" has behaved just like the Tories where the NHS is concerned - it is not safe in their hands: and now they are abolishing the Community Health Councils, one area where NHS managers and ministers can be held to account.
Raise pensions and restore the earnings link
Brown's 75p pension increase last year was a disgusting insult to pensioners, who are amongst the poorest in Europe. The Tories abolished the link with earnings and in opposition, like a lot of other promises, Labour promised to restore the link only to break it when in Government. Now they say they "cannot afford it". The Socialist Alliance says the link must be restored for a decent pension to be paid - £150 per week minimum for a single person, £200 for a couple.
For the right to work and rights at work
"New Labour" claims unemployment is "below one million". This is a lie. The Tories changed the way unemployment is counted over 30 times, and "New Labour" is using similar methods to hide the true figure - at 1.5 million. In some parts of Hull North three generations in the same family have not had a steady job for decades. Meanwhile multinational companies shut factories down without giving a damn about the communities affected. "New Labour" is so scared of upsetting their friends - the bosses - that they do nothing to challenge the hiring and firing powers of employers, who see Britain as a "soft touch" because of its boss-friendly employment laws; laws Blair boasts of as the most repressive and restrictive anti-union laws in Europe.
The Socialist Alliance believes a Labour Government with a majority of 180 could easily have repealed the Tory anti-union laws, instead they tinkered with them, making employers feel comfy in the knowledge that Britain won't do anything if Ford or Vauxhall or Corus closes the odd factory or three.
"New Labour" likes to tell us how wonderful its "minimum wage" of £3.70 is. It is a disgrace and must be increased immediately to £7 to meet the minimum European decency threshold. "New Labour" promised to protect trade unionists involved in trade disputes - try telling that the six UCATT caravan workers sacked at Willerby Holiday Homes for going on (official) strike in March. Safety is another basic right at work. Here in Hull the Health & Safety Executive are closing their local office, thereby depriving workers of the most basic protection at work.
Defend Asylum Seekers

Britain has a long record of granting asylum to people fleeing persecution and injustice. Our asylum laws are amongst the most mean and miserable in the West. Local Tory off-licence owner and MP John Townend recently embarrassed even the Tory leadership with his racist attacks on asylum seekers and immigrants. The Socialist Alliance is proud to defend the right of asylum seekers and immigrants to a decent life here in Hull, a life free from racist violence, persecution and "New Labour's" wretched voucher system.
Education - a right and not a privilege
Tony Blair promised "Education, education, education" in 1997. Gordon Brown promised £19billion to schools. Ask any teacher in Hull if those promises mean anything and they'll say a loud "No!" Hull is pilloried for its secondary schools coming bottom in a miserable national league table. Hull schools need more resources and smaller class sizes. The Government and the City Council are closing schools instead of reducing class sizes. Hull teachers, like all public sector workers, need better pay, but David Blunkett refuses to cough up unless performance-related conditions are attached. Teachers in Hull do not need insults like this. "New Labour" introduced the so-called "Fairer Funding" system which is attacking local service like school meals, school libraries and the music service. "Fairer Funding" means headteachers have to become Chief Executives rather than concentrating on the task of learning for learning's sake.
Further education, universities and adult education are all suffering from increased numbers of students without appropriate increases in funding. College chiefs spend all their time chasing "challenge funding opportunities", which means they compete with one another for slices of a cake whose recipe is changed regularly, only no-one knows when or why, let alone how.
"New Labour" introduced tuition fees and abolished grants for university education. Young people now have to take out a debt of at least £15,000 to go to university, more if they go on to train as teachers, and much more if they want to become a doctor or a vet. Not even the Tories tried to do what "New Labour" has done, and they did it as soon as they became the Government four years ago in the hope we would have forgotten about when the next election happened. This cynical behaviour is typical of "New Labour".
End the transport chaos
John Prescott promised us an "integrated transport system" - what a joke! The railway network is a disaster; the roads overcrowded and buses a privatised nightmare. Prescott has the nerve to say that transport has improved under "New Labour" and that £billions of investment capital are "on their way". If it's like the health and education investment, then we can whistle for it. The Socialist Alliance would renationalise the railways and buses, and put them under the control of the workers and passengers - people who don't have two chauffeur-driven Jags.
Protect the environment
We are facing a series of environmental catastrophes. Foot and Mouth, like BSE, salmonella and e-coli, are all consequences of, and worsened by, intensive factory farming. Genetically modified food is something NOBODY wants except Tony Blair's boss friends, so that is why we are having GM trials in East Yorkshire, trials that hardly anyone including most farmers, actually want. Our environment is precious, and yet we are squandering it. We have to take the utilities like water, electricity and gas back into public ownership and control. Since water was privatised hundreds of thousands of poor families have been cut off - a twenty-fold increase. Imagine trying to cope without water to flush the toilet or bath the kids, while the fat cats of Yorkshire Water make huge profits and pay themselves massive salaries.
Equality
The Socialist Alliance stands for equality and a society where women, gay men and lesbians, the old, the disabled, ethnic minorities can live without the fear of discrimination, prejudice and violence. A society where police harassment will be a thing of the past. A society where everyone can fulfil their full potential.
Democracy
In the Socialist Alliance we believe that democracy and civil liberties must be protected. "New Labour" has cut back Legal Aid and is proposing to abolish jury trials for many offences. Tony Blair is very willing to change Government policy if you are Bernie Ecclestone with a million quid to spare, but he's deaf to ordinary people. Here in Hull the "New Labour" City Council is proposing an elected mayor on a massive salary on top of the elitist Cabinet, whose members earn more than 99% of their constituents. "New Labour" has done nothing to curb the powers of un-elected quangos; instead they have replaced the Tory quango groupies with "New Labour" groupies. People in Hull are supposed to be "notorious" for not bothering to vote in elections - if there is no choice between the parties, and all they do is perpetuate Tory policies, then SO WHAT! The Socialist Alliance seeks to challenge all this by giving people a real alternative. We offer people the chance to elect an MP who will not betray his constituents by taking a string of City of London directorships, or use Parliament as a means of going on lots of overseas junkets on full pay and lucrative expenses. The Socialist Alliance MP would be directly accountable to the people of Hull North and not in it for personal gain.

 

MAKING HULL A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE

The Socialist Alliance believes that we cannot tackle many of the real problems faced by working-class people in Hull, or anywhere else, without taking on the powerful vested interests which own and control our society. However, there are practical things which can be done to make Hull a better place to live and below we set out some of the policies and improvements which a Socialist Alliance MP would press for locally if elected.
Transport
We need new investment in Hull's awful public transport system and more regulation of bus services to ensure that operators provide a service when we need it - giving everyone in Hull (and from outside the city) cheap and reliable access to the city centre. We also need transport to be integrated with other policies - for example; rejuvenating the city centre and other local shopping areas might call for especially cheap or even free public transport to encourage people to use shops in Hull rather than driving to huge supermarkets and retail parks outside Hull.
We say:

Planning and Housing

The City Council must use planning and housing policies to stop the decline of our city. Dispersing families and communities around Hull has been a disaster and led to some areas where there is little or no community feeling - with a consequent rise in alienation and anti-social behaviour by children and young people. Meanwhile, the steady drop in population and the closure of local shops and small businesses means we risk ending up with a city where big supermarket chains control all the food prices, the city centre is a place no-one wants to visit except for a drunken pub-crawl and estates are dotted with even more empty and derelict flats and houses. This process must be reversed.
We say:

Waste and re-cycling

Carting household rubbish from all over the region into Hull in huge lorries and burning it here is dangerous to local people and extremely wasteful. We want measures (eg. an end to over-packaging and so-called "disposable containers") to reduce the amount of waste - and comprehensive rubbish sorting and re-cycling schemes which will not only give us a cleaner environment but also create more jobs locally.
We say:

Education
Hull schools do not come bottom of the league tables because we are stupider than people elsewhere in the country, but because Hull is a poor city and many of those with money and the ability to choose schools boycott Hull and send their kids elsewhere. Education needs long-term investment, but it also needs a political will to fight for resources to give Hull's children and students a better deal.
We say:

Roger Smith - your Socialist Alliance Candidate

Roger Smith is 47, disabled, and is a teacher in the Adult Education Service who works on Bransholme teaching Basic Skills. He is based at the Coleford Primary School site, yet another one of the schools Hull City Council has decided (in secret) to close. He is secretary of his union branch - the National Association of Teachers in Further & Higher Education, and he represents his union on the TUC National Disabled Workers Forum. He has worked in Hull since 1989, and apart from this ambition to represent the people of Hull North at Parliament, has no plans to leave the area. Roger is interested in cricket - he is a member of Yorkshire County Cricket Club, jazz, history and organic gardening. He has two cats.

For up-to-date information about Hull & East Yorkshire Socialist Alliance click here.