What sort of Hull do Labour want?


An open letter to Diana Johnson MP (Labour), Hull North.
Dear Diana,
You say “You’ve got to ask, what’s the Government got against Hull?”
 
Indeed. But I also ask what has the Labour Party got against Hull. The way Labour voted (effectively) for the bedroom tax yet attend campaigns against (and now say they probably won’t repeal it) and for the removal of the right of civil servants to strike are a betrayal of the working class – your core supporters.
 
Where is the lesser bedroomed social housing for people to move to in Hull; where are the jobs and fair pay to get people out of poverty? How can people declare their dissatisfaction with their terms and conditions of employment if they are denied their basic human right to withdraw their labour (or else be slaves)?
How can anyone live and be healthy in this country when there are no jobs for most people seeking work and unemployment benefit is not enough to live on (especially since your party clearly supports them being placed in further poverty if they live in what the government decides is too big a house)?
 
Why aren’t the Hull 3 supported and encouraged by their Party for having the courage to represent their constituents and try to save the jobs of council workers? Instead they are suspended from the Labour group? What message does that send to voters and anyone who wants to be a part of a democratic society?
 
The government is targetting the poorest in society and using welfare cuts to indirectly fund tax cuts to millionaires. Do Labour believe the working class and the most vulnerable in society are responsible for the excesses and subsequent collapse of the neo-liberal capitalist system and should be punished financially? With these attacks comes further poverty and unemployment – and with that effects on their health too. Mental health illnesses, alcoholism and stress (which leads to other health issues) are caused by unemployment and poverty and all that go with it, making it harder for people to contribute an active, positive role in society and find / compete for work again).
 
Why is the Labour Party pandering to right wingers in this country and targeting immigrants as the people to blame for our plight? Is it because Labour wants these reactionaries to vote for them?
 
Do the negatives I raise above amount to the type of place you want Hull to be? So I ask again – what has the Labour Party got against Hull?
  
I am also disappointed to have heard first hand at last night’s Save our NHS meeting in Hull last night that Labour MPs have no intension of repealing the Health and Social Care Act. Whilst I welcome your email yesterday stating that you and the Labour Party will try to stop the privatisation hidden within the Act, nothing but the full repeal of the Act, together with the removal of internal markets – and the other points as voted for at Congress – will do. This is otherwise a betrayal of those who voted at congress to make this a priority in the new manifesto by the Labour MPs, who surely now, along with the neo-liberals in Progress, are a completely separate, distant entity to mainstream Labour voters and an even further place from the Labour Party which founded the NHS in 1946. I hope that it isn’t too late to turn this around, but I am very worried for the NHS now.
 
I would be interested to hear what mandate you have from your constituents – myself included along with the other people you represent (and as you probably don’t need reminding) will have the option to not vote for you in 2015 – to take this view that Labour should not follow through what was voted for at Congress – the democratic voice of the Labour party this year. That and the other points I raise above. The current parliamentary system is flawed in that MPs represent their constituents, but are not representative of them. How many of your constituents would vote they way you have in parliament?
 
I look forward to your responses to each of the points I raise.
 

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