Broken Britain – A Genuine Picture?

Sometimes when reading the letters pages of the local press, one can be given a rather depressing and nihilistic view of the world. Often, the same narrow band of correspondents are pushing an intolerant view of life, choosing to focus upon that which divides society rather than what brings us together.

Other times, those with a particular axe to grind will seek to make political capital out of isolated national tragedies far from Shrewsbury. A recent instance is David Cameron’s ‘Broken Britain’ claims following the child violence case in South Yorkshire.

Personally I prefer to concentrate on the facts, and recognise that not all was well in the good old days. For example the number of violent deaths among children in England and Wales fell by almost 40% in the past 30 years, or nearly 50% when taking into account growth in the child population, according to the recent report by Bournemouth University.

Improvements in social care systems, along with a greater focus on child poverty, had helped lower the death rate. Thirty years ago England and Wales were the third or fourth highest child killers in the western world, but we’re now fourth lowest.

These national tragedies are terrible and one violent death of a child is too many but this research clearly proves the way to protect children’s lives is to invest in our social care systems, fight child poverty and support those families who need it.

To consider cutting initiatives such as Labour’s Sure Start scheme, which provides health, education, parenting and employment services to pre-school children and parents, is in my opinion, bordering on the cruel.

I hope our Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski will confirm that he will back our four Shrewsbury Sure Start centres in Monkmoor, Crowmoor, Harlescott and Meole Brace, and not permit any cuts in their funding laid out nationally by his own party.

Fighters and Believers (Video)

David Cameron’s Families Manifesto Sham

The Conservatives launched their draft manifesto on families recently and there is much that does not bode well for the majority of the community.

Ed Balls MP, Labour’s Families Secretary responding to the Conservatives’ draft families manifesto today said:

“David Cameron’s families manifesto is more telling for what it doesn’t say.

“It confirms that under the Tories Sure Start would be cut back from being a universal service for all families, simply to one for the poorest. But there is nothing in the Tory manifesto about their plans to take away child tax credits and child trust funds for families on modest and middle incomes. Nor is there anything about supporting fathers or boosting the rights of grandparents, which our Green Paper sets out clearly today.

“And as we heard from David Willetts this morning, the Tories still cannot say what they would do on marriage tax breaks or working tax credits for couples and they still cannot say how they’d pay for it. This flies in the face of George Osborne’s pledge that the Conservatives would not make any promises of unfunded tax cuts.

“Once again David Cameron has airbrushed out all the details he doesn’t want people to see.”

• The Tories’ slick PR conceals the threat they pose to families on middle and modest incomes.
• They would remove access to SureStart for families on modest incomes.
• They would cut child tax credits from families on £31,000 a year.
• They would cut child trust funds from families on just over £16,000 a year.

Parents need policies not platitudes from David Cameron

Dawn Primarolo MP, Labour’s Children and Families Minister said:

“Parents need policies not platitudes from David Cameron. Families in Britain don’t just want warm words, they deserve to know exactly what David Cameron would do to support them.

“David Cameron has refused to protect funding for schools or Sure Start over the next three years. Instead he would cut £200m each year from Sure Start – a fifth of its budget – and take support away for families on modest and middle incomes. By contrast, Labour are determined to help all families and have already opened over 3,000 Sure Start Children Centres across the country.

“David Cameron still can’t explain how he would pay for a marriage tax allowance and even though research today shows tax credits play a vital role in cutting child poverty, David Cameron is set on cutting back this essential support.”