Protesters Return to the Streets and Experts Predict More Than a Million People Will Fall into Absolute Poverty.

 

On Saturday 2^nd April trades unionists and campaigners for social and economic justice will take to the streets for a third national day of action.

 

Protests will take place in towns and cities around the country organized by the People’s Assembly, including Birmingham, Liverpool, and Sheffield. There will also be a protest outside Downing Street [2]

 

Responding to the Spring statement made by chancellor Rishi Sunak the Michael Burke of the People’s Assembly said that due to the cost-of-living crisis ‘living standards will fall by the largest amount on record over the next 12 months, going back 80 years. The fall in real wages, after inflation, will also be the worst since the Napoleonic era [1]

 

The impact would, he said, he felt by working people who, thanks to inflation ‘lower real wages, including public sector wages the government directly controls. So will anyone on a state pension, or all those struggling on benefits’. Adding that benefits would only rise by ‘3.1% in April. That is literally half the current rate of inflation and about a third of the official forecast for later this year’.

 

Activists from North Staffs Trades Council, the Staffordshire branch of the People’s Assembly and political parties will be holding a protest in Hanley town centre as part of the day of action.

 

The protests will highlight the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, something campaigners had hoped the chancellor would address in his Spring Statement.

 

Although some measures were put in place to support households struggling to make ends meet, including providing extra funding for local authorities to help people struggling to pay their council tax, the support available does not address the extent of the crisis.

 

Following the Spring statement, the Resolution Foundation warned that due to a combination of rising inflation, higher energy bills and the planned hike in National Insurance payments 1.3 million people are at risk of falling into absolute poverty.

 

They also warned that families will see their incomes fall on average by 4% (£1,100), with the lowest paid seeing a fall of 6%.

 

Chief Executive Torsten Bell said ‘“The decision not to target support at those hardest hit by rising prices will leave low-and-middle income households painfully exposed, with 1.3 million people, including half a million children, set to fall below the poverty line this coming year’ [3].

 

Going on to say that the chancellor had ‘prioritised rebuilding his tax-cutting credentials over supporting the low-to-middle income households who will be hardest hit from the surging cost of living, while also leaving himself fiscal flexibility in the years ahead. Whether that will be sustainable in the face of huge income falls to come remains to be seen’.

 

The Hanley protest will take place at the blue clock outside the Potteries Centre at 1pm, details of speakers will be announced later.

Event details and map available at:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1008300056560504/?acontext=%7B%22ref%22%3A%2252%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22[%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22share_link%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22share_link%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%7B%5C%22invite_link_id%5C%22%3A456092226307908%7D%7D]%22%7D

[1] https://thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/workers-and-the-poor-are-paying-for-the-tory-crisis/

[2] https://thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/

[3] https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/press-releases/33284/

 

Councillors Need the Power to Deliver if Local Democracy is to be Meaningful.

 

On 5^th May voters across the country will go to the polls to elect their local council, electing members to sit on 21 unitary authorities, 33 metropolitan boroughs, 66 non-metropolitan boroughs and 22 London councils [1].

 

Newcastle-under-Lyme will be one of the councils holding an election with seats up for grabs from Audley to Whitmore [2].

 

As they go into the elections research published by the Electoral Reform Society (ERS) shows that two thirds of councillors do not feel they have sufficient power to properly represent their constituents.

 

In an article published on the ERS website Acting Head of Communications Jon Narcross writes that councillors are in the ‘front-line of our democracy’ and deal with the ‘bread and butter’ issues that most impact people’s lives.

 

He adds that ‘for too long our local democracy has suffered at the hands of an over-centralised Westminster system where the ‘centre-knows-best’ mentality has left local democracy to wither – and councillors without the power to represent the needs of their local community’ [3].

 

The research conducted as part of the Democracy Made in England report written for the ERS was based on interviews with 800 local representatives from across England.

 

The researchers found that two thirds of the councillors interviewed (68%) felt they did not have the powers they needed to represent their community. Concerns were also expressed that key decisions about ‘levelling up’ were being taken in Westminster with local people having only limited input.

 

Data included in the report shows that 70% of councillors questioned believed decisions should be made in partnership between local and national government, with 65% saying that more should be done to involve communities in decisions taken about their area.

 

Jon Narcross writes that there needs to be a radical rebalancing of power in favour of local communities. At present the UK is one of the most centralised and any reform will require changing the outdated first pas the post electoral system and the creation of an elected second chamber with enhanced representation for ‘the UK’s nations, regions and localities’.

 

Adding that ‘only when our local communities and those that serve them have the powers, they need can we begin to address England’s democratic deficit’.

 

Local government after being battered by a decade of austerity and then having the pandemic deliver the sucker punch that landed is gasping on the canvas is undeniably in a poor state. Elected representatives have seen their role shrink down to that of having to endless limit the expectations of the people they have to try and convince they can change the world come election time, an unenviable and impossible task.

 

If the deep seated injustices afflicting most of the towns and cities that used to comprise Labour’s ‘red wall’ and turned Tory in 2019 in such numbers then decision making has to be collaborative or fail. Westminster driving them through hoops after crumbs every few years will only breed resentment and disengagement from politics. A vicious circle that makes the job of councillors at the sharp end harder still.

 

This has to be aligned with a genuine willingness on the part of councils to devolve power down to communities. The Civic Centre can be just as insular and distrustful of we the people as the Westminster village.

 

A prime example being the curious capers of Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Councils, where full council meetings are cancelled because there isn’t enough business to make holding them worthwhile and consultations are ‘spun’ to prevent the public from expressing views that might be inconvenient.

 

Anyone who has followed the battle to stop green spaces around the town being covered in concrete or observed the parlous state of the local market, to cite just two examples, knows there is no shortage of business to put before the council. What is lacking is a commitment to democratic engagement on the part of the leadership, along with a big dollop of humility.

 

Prising the dead hand of Westminster off some of the levers of power can only ever be a good thing. Unless it is immediately replaced by the grubby one of a council leadership that has got too big for its boots.

 

[1] https://www.local.gov.uk/about/our-meetings-and-leadership/political-composition/local-government-elections

[2] https://www.newcastle-staffs.gov.uk/elections-registration-1/local-government-elections-2022

[3] https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/for-local-democracy-to-flourish-our-representatives-need-the-power-to-deliver/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=ers-email&utm_campaign=blog-roundup&utm_content=Blog+Round+Up+12+March+-+Winner+Send

 

A Second Weekend of Protests Announced as the War in Ukraine Escalates.

 

The Stop the War Coalition and The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament have called a second day of action to protest against the war in Ukraine for Saturday 12^th March.

 

In London’s Trafalgar Square thousands of people gathered to hear speakers including former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Stop the War Coalition convenor Lindsey German.

 

Protests took place in towns and cities around the UK including Manchester, Birmingham, and Glasgow.

 

A stop the War event held in Hanley organized by Ukraine Solidarity North Staffs and sponsored by South Cheshire and North Staffordshire CND, NORSCARF and North Staffs Green Party attracted more than sixty people and collected money and personal care items to be donated to people in the war zone.

 

In a statement published in their website CND said “We condemn the Russian military aggression against Ukraine. There is no justification for war.
The bombing must stop immediately. What is needed, is a comprehensive ceasefire, the withdrawal of all troops and a return to the negotiating table”.

 

Local anti-racism campaign group NORSCARF will also be sponsoring the Hanley event and providing a speaker.

 

They go on to warn that the presence of nuclear weapons in the region and threats regarding their possible use made by Russian president Vladimir Putin presents a serious threat to world peace.

 

The week since the last protest action has seen the war in Ukraine escalate significantly with civilians fleeing towns across the country as invading Russian troops attempt to progress their stalled advance.

 

Thousands of refugees have crossed into neighbouring countries including Poland, the UK government continues to face criticism for moving too slowly when it comes to issuing visas and for making the process of claiming asylum too bureaucratic.

 

A spokesperson Ukraine Solidarity North Staffs said: ‘the situation in Ukraine is getting worse by the day and there is a real risk of a humanitarian disaster as neighbouring countries struggle to cope with the flow of refugees’.

 

Adding that ‘the government needs to speed up and simplify the process for granting visas to people fleeing the war’.

 

A second event sponsored by Ukraine Solidarity North Staffs, North Staffs Green Party and SCANSCND will be held on Saturday 12^th March at the Blue Clock on Upper Market Square in Hanley ST1 1NS, between 12:00 & 13:30pm.

 

Regular updates about the event will be posted on the Ukraine Solidarity North Staffs Facebook Page:https://www.facebook.com/groups/ukrainesolidaritynorthstaffordshire