The gap between the richest and poorest region in the UK is the biggest in Europe

To download the full pdf, click here

Explaining the data

These figures are taken from data compiled by Eurostat, the data agency of the European Union. Although we have only shown figures for a selection of countries commonly compared with the UK in terms of equality and economic success, there is no other country in the whole of the EU where the richest region is nearly 5 times as rich as the poorest. The currency used by Eurostat is the ‘Purchasing Power Standard’, an economic measurement that accounts for differences in the value of different currencies, as well as the different costs in different areas.  Full data is available fromhttp://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/tgm/table.do?tab=table&init=1&language=en&pcode=tgs00005&plugin=1   

Visit Inequality Briefing

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Poorest regions in the UK are poorer than anywhere in Northern Europe

To download the full pdf, click here

Explaining the data

This data was produced by Eurostat, the data agency of the European Union. They measured GDP per head in regions across the EU, taking into account the different prices in different regions. The full data is available from http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_PUBLIC/1-27022014-AP/EN/1-27022014-AP-EN.PDF. We have classed the countries listed above as ‘Northern Europe’ because they are our nearest geographical neighbours and are commonly considered to have similar levels of prosperity as the UK (unlike countries in Southern Europe or the former Soviet Bloc). As members of the EU, Eurostat provides comparable data for each of these countries.

Visit Inequality Briefing

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Race equality activists and campaigners demand better political leadership on issues such as race equality and immigration.

Open letter

In an unprecedented move race equality activists and campaigners have written to each of the main party leaders to demand better political leadership on issues such as race equality and immigration.

Tackling race inequality has all but fallen off the political agenda and the Immigration debate can only be characterised as a race to the bottom of a dirty barrel. The signatories also lament the silent, self-imposed toothless Equality and Human Rights Commission. Please feel free to join the debate and put your name to the list of signatories. To add your name email: razia63@hotmail.co.uk

See also:

http://blackactivistsrisingagainstcuts.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/press-release-open-letter-about-racism.html

http://www.obv.org.uk/news-blogs/uk-political-leaders-don-t-shame-us

http://www.migrantsrights.org.uk/news/2014/race-equality-organisations-call-party-leaders-raise-tone-public-discussion

Dear Mr. Cameron, Mr Miliband, and Mr Clegg,

We are proud to live in a diverse Britain. Our society is more vibrant, dynamic and creative: our lives and values are richer for it. It is the reason behind London’s commercial success and why we secured the 2012 Olympics.

How quickly pride turns to shame.

We are now deeply worried about race relations, the rising tide of Islamophobia and anti-immigrant sentiment, which are fuelled by the open disdain shown by many politicians for policies which promote a more equal and inclusive society. We are ashamed of:-

• ‘Go home’ immigration vans
• the vilification of migrant workers
• the persistent linking of Muslim communities with violent extremism
• the ‘British’ values agenda
• institutional tolerance of celebrity racism
• the refusal of political leaders to challenge hostile attitudes to particular sections of the black and other minority ethnic communities.

The reins on racist behaviour have been loosened: anti-immigrant and Islamophobic fervour, propagated by certain sections of the media and some politicians are in danger of unwittingly – and at times wittingly - inciting racial hatred. It is now open season for racists.

There is an Equality and Human Rights Commission, but it is silent, weak, aloof and ineffective. There is a Government Equalities Office but it has no vision for an inclusive society beyond women on boards. There are political leaders but no leadership.

This toxic environment is damaging British society and, potentially, its international reputation. We urge you to take immediate action to avoid serious harm to community relations by:

• a commitment not to use the politics of ‘difference’ to marginalise communities
• the release of the GEO Programme Fund to projects which promote good relations
• a manifesto commitment to implementing a race and good relations strategy
• restoring the power to promote good relations to the Equality and Human Rights Commission and ensuring that the EHRC uses its powers effectively.

Above all, we ask you not to choke the voice of reason and tolerance.

And, in case you think we do not matter, remember that the ethnic minority vote matters in key marginal constituencies.

Yours sincerely,

Organisations:

Zita Holbourne Co-Founder, BARAC

Sado Jirde, Director, Black South West Network

Belfast Migrant Centre

Tony Lindsay Project Manager, CHESS

Serah Kimuyu, Advice and Support Officer, Central Scotland Regional Equality Council (CSREC)

Professor Nira Yuval Davis, Director, The Centre for Research on Migration Refugees and Belonging, University of East London

Sarah Soyei, Head of Partnerships, EqualiTeach

Karen Chouhan Founder and Director Equanomics UK

Sameena Choudry Founder, Equitable Education

Chris Whitwell Director, Friends, Families and Travellers

Kamaljeet Jandu, National Officer, GMB

Robin Richardson Director, Insted Consultancy

Liz Fekete Executive Director, Institute of Race Relations

Ratna Lachman Director JUST West Yorkshire

Peter Williams, Chair, Kingsgate Community Centre

Don Flynn, Director, Migrant Rights Network

Suresh Grover Founder and Director,The Monitoring Group

Patrick Yu, Director, Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities,

Paul Crofts, Vice Chair, Northamptonshire Rights and Equality Council

Janie Codona MBE One Voice 4 Travellers Ltd

Simon Woolley, Director, Operation Black Vote

Andy Gregg, Chief Executive, Race On The Agenda

Omar Khan, Director, The Runnymede Trust

Peter Herbert, Chair, The Society of Black Lawyers

Joy Warmington, CEO, Birmingham Race Action Partnership

Individuals:

Olu Alake

Mohammed Aziz

Maud Blair

Ralph Braunholtz

Liz Brooker

Barbara Cohen

Dr. Tony Cotton

Dr. Jacqui Cousins

Lindsay Edkins

Angela Crum Ewing

Alison Graham

John Haywood

Ibrahim Hashi Jama

Makbool Javaid

Saleema Karim

Jane Lane

Harmesh Lakhanpaul OBE

Esther Maynard,

Mahalia France Mir

Rehana Minhas

Sarah McMurchie

Leander Neckles

Graham O’Neill

Brenda Parkes

Phil Pavey

Constantia Pennie

Professor Andy Plikington

Anthony Robinson

Pamela Strangman

Professor Sally Tomlinson

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The Wellingborough Diggers of 1650: A tribute to Mischief-making on a grand scale

The Wellingborough Diggers:

A Tribute to Mischief-making on a Grand Scale

I would like dedicate this short article to Les Parsons. Les is responsible for undertaking research in the Digger movement in general and the Wellingborough Diggers in particular. Much of what I am about to say is as a result of this work. But Les is also a local political campaigner whom I deeply respect and admire. Without Les I would have probably remained unaware of the Diggers.

I have called it “a tribute to mischief-making on a grand scale” because the contribution of the Diggers cannot be underestimated as we wrestle with opposing the gross and disgusting inequalities of wealth and income across the globe that is there for all to see and developing a vision of a different kind of society in the future. The Diggers dreamt of a new type of world and that dream is still with us today, albeit the language in which the dream is described may have changed over the passage of time. I have used the term mischief, because this is the word used to describe the Diggers at the time. A contemporary letter of April 15^th 1649 (1650)[1], from the Government of the day (Council of State) to “ … Mr. Pentlow, Justice of Peace for County Northampton” said:

“We approve your proceedings with the Levellers in those parts, and doubt not you are sensible of the mischief these designs tend to, and of the necessity to proceed effectively against them. If the laws in force against those who intrude upon other men’s properties, and that forbid and direct the punishing of all riotous assemblies and seditious and tumultuous meetings, be put in execution, there will not want means to preserve the public peace against attempts of this sort of people”.

In particular I draw your attention to then words “… mischief these designs tend to, and of the necessity to proceed effectively against them.” What were the Digger’s designs and actions that were so threatening that “… there will not want means to preserve the public peace”?

In a unique “Declaration of the Grounds and Reasons” issued by the Wellingborough Diggers in 1649 (1650), we have an opportunity to hear their own voice across the centuries:

Their actions were very simple:

• “(We) have begun and give consent to dig up, manure and sow corn upon the Commons and Waste Ground called Bareshanks, belonging to the people of Wellinborrow by those that have subscribed and hundreds more that give consent”

Why were they taking this action?

• “We are in Wellinborrow in one parish of 1169 persons that receive alms… our trading is decayed; our wives and children cry for bread; our lives are a burden to us, divers of us having 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 in family, and we cannot get bread for them by our labour. Rich men’s hearts are hardened; they will not give us if we beg at their doors. If we steal, the law will end our lives. Divers of the poor are starved to death already; and it were better for us that are living to die by the Sword than by the famine …”

How did they justify their action – what underpinned the philosophy or set of ideas that encouraged them?

• “We find (in the word of God) that God made the earth for the use and comfort of all mankind, and sat him in it to till and dress it…
• God never gave to any sort of people that they should have it all to themselves and shut out the rest …
• We find that no creature that ever God made was deprived of the benefit of the Earth, but mankind … it is nothing but covetousness, pride and hardness of heart that hath caused man so far to degenerate.
• That in the last day the oppressor and proud man shall cease and God will restore the waste places of the Earth to the use and comfort of man, and that none shall hurt or destroy in all His Holy Mountain.
• We have great encouragement from two righteous Acts, which parliament of England has set forth, the one against kingly power and the other to make England a free Common-wealth”

Within a few weeks (we do not know for sure how long it lasted) the Digger enterprise in Wellingborough had been brought to an end by the forces of “law and order” - unleashed by the nice Mr. Pentlow, Justice of the Peace, on instructions from the Government of Cromwell. The Diggers’ leaders were arrested, taken to Northampton, and charged with riot and affray. After this nothing is known of what happened to them.

I don’t think it was so much what the Diggers did that rattled the ruling class of the day (is sowing seed on common land so threatening?), so much as the ideas that the declaration promoted and was spreading throughout the country. Are there resonances here of how the Occupy Movement and UK-Uncut and other movements against injustice around the world are being treated today?

The Digger movement was reflective of the times - the flourishing of democracy (albeit limited to men of property). This was also the time when the monarchy was ended, in January 1649, with the beheading of Charles I.

Within the ranks of the Cromwellian New Model Army there was the Leveller movement with its call for wider political democracy (“the poorest that lives hath as true a right to give a vote as well as the richest and greatest”), and it was time of flourishing debate and discussion on the future society that people wanted to see where demands for political democracy went hand in and with demands for economic democracy through the common ownership of land. The writings of Gerrard Winstanley especially spring to mind – the spiritual leader of the Digger movement.

All this amounted to a vision of an alternative society without exploitation, without private ownership of land, respect for the environment, and a society of equals, without “Kingly power” and a Common-wealth for all. Such ideas had to be smashed, and smashed quickly, and they were!

But smashing the movements of that time – the Levellers, the Diggers - was easier than smashing these new ideas that were emerging and these ideas have resonated throughout our history right up to the 21^st century. We owe a tremendous debt to those “ragged band” of Diggers (that Leon Rosselson refers to in his famous ballad) and we have a duty to keep this vision alive, and to struggle against the injustices of today, as the Diggers did in the 17^th Century.

Paul Crofts

The Diggers – a brief history

This information is taken from Wikipedia. Footnotes are mine.

The year 1649 was a time of great social unrest in England. The Parliamentarians had won the First English Civil War but failed to negotiate a constitutional settlement with the defeated King Charles I. When members of Parliament and the Grandees in the New Model Army were faced with Charles' perceived duplicity, they tried and executed him.

Government through the King's Privy Council was replaced with a new body called the Council of State, which due to fundamental disagreements within a weakened Parliament was dominated by the Army. Many people were active in politics, suggesting alternative forms of government to replace the old order. Royalists wished to place King Charles II on the throne; men like Oliver Cromwell wished to govern with a plutocratic Parliament voted in by an electorate based on property, similar to that which was enfranchised before the civil war; agitators called Levellers, influenced by the writings of John Lilburne, wanted parliamentary government based on an electorate of every male head of a household; Fifth Monarchy Men advocated a theocracy; and the Diggers, led by Winstanley, advocated a more radical solution.

Gerrard Winstanley and 14 others published a pamphlet[2] in which they called themselves the True Levellers to distinguish their ideas from those of the Levellers. Once they put their idea into practice and started to cultivate common land, they became known as "Diggers" by both opponents and supporters. The Diggers' beliefs were informed by the Winstanley's writings which envisioned an ecological interrelationship between humans and nature, acknowledging the inherent connections between people and their surroundings[3].   Winstanley declared that "true freedom lies where a man receives his nourishment and preservation, and that is in the use of the earth".

An undercurrent of political thought which has run through English society for many generations and resurfaced from time to time (for example, the Peasants' Revolt in 1381) was present in some of the political factions of the 17th century, including those who formed the Diggers, and held the common belief that England had become subjugated by the "Norman Yoke." This legend offered an explanation that at one time a golden Era had existed in England before the Norman Conquest in 1066. From the conquest on, the Diggers argued, the "common people of England" had been robbed of their birthrights and exploited by a foreign ruling class.

St. George's Hill, Weybridge, Surrey

The Council of State received a letter in April 1649 reporting that several individuals had begun to plant vegetables in common land on Saint George's Hill, Weybridge near Cobham,   Surrey at a time when food prices reached an all-time high. Sanders reported that they had invited "all to come in and help them, and promise them meat, drink, and clothes." They intended to pull down all enclosures and cause the local populace to come and work with them. They claimed that their number would be several thousand within ten days. "It is feared they have some design in hand." In the same month, the Diggers issued their most famous pamphlet and manifesto, called "The True Levellers Standard Advanced".

At the behest of the local landowners, the commander of the New Model Army, Sir Thomas Fairfax, duly arrived with his troops and interviewed Winstanley and another prominent member of the Diggers, William Everard. Everard suspected that the Diggers were in serious trouble and soon left the group. Fairfax, meanwhile, having concluded that Diggers were doing no harm, advised the local landowners to use the courts.

Winstanley remained and continued to write about the treatment they received. The harassment from the Lord of the Manor, Francis Drake (not the famous Francis Drake, who had died more than 50 years before), was both deliberate and systematic: he organised gangs in an attack on the Diggers, including numerous beatings and an arson attack on one of the communal houses. Following a court case, in which the Diggers were forbidden to speak in their own defence, they were found guilty of being Ranters, a radical sect associated with liberal sexuality (though in fact Winstanley had reprimanded Ranter Laurence Clarkson for his sexual practices). Having lost the court case, if they had not left the land, then the army could have been used to enforce the law and evict them; so they abandoned St George's Hill in August 1649, much to the relief of the local freeholders.

Wellingborough, Northamptonshire

There was another community of Diggers close to Wellingborough in Northamptonshire. In March 1649, the community published a declaration which started:

A Declaration of the Grounds and Reasons why we the Poor Inhabitants of the Town of Wellingborrow, in the County of Northampton, have begun and give consent to dig up, manure and sow Corn upon the Common, and waste ground, called Bareshanke[4] belonging to the Inhabitants of Wellinborrow, by those that have Subscribed and hundreds more that give Consent....

This colony was probably founded as a result of contact with the Surrey Diggers. In late March 1649, four emissaries from the Surrey colony were arrested in Buckinghamshire bearing a letter signed by the Surrey Diggers including Gerrard Winstanley and Robert Coster inciting people to start Digger colonies and to provide money for the Surrey Diggers. According to the newspaper A Perfect Diurnall the emissaries had travelled a circuit through the counties of Surrey, Middlesex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Huntingdonshire and Northamptonshire before being apprehended.

On April 15, 1649, the Council of State ordered Mr Pentlow, a justice of the peace for Northamptonshire to proceed against 'the Levellers in those parts' and to have them tried at the next Quarter Session. The Iver Diggers recorded that, nine of the Wellingborough Diggers were arrested and imprisoned in Northampton jail and although no charges could be proved against them the justice refused to release them.

Captain William Thompson, the leader of the failed "Banbury mutiny" of Levellers (most were killed in the churchyard in Burford whilst trying to escape) was killed - in a skirmish on his way to join the Digger community in Wellingborough - by soldiers loyal to Oliver Cromwell in May 1649.

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[1] Note that there is often confusion around dates due to a change in the calendar at this time. It is sometimes difficult to know if event took place in 1649 or 1650. I have changed some of the dates from the Wikipedia entry - that the “The Diggers – Brief History” (see below) is drawn from - to, hopefully, make the dates more consistent.

[2] The New Law Of Righteousness (January 26, 1649), Gerrard Winstanley

[3] The Diggers have also been described as the first British “communists” and “socialists” because they also sought an egalitarian society, challenged the privilege and wealth accruing from land ownership, and opposed “kingly power”. They said in the Wellingborough Digger Declaration: “God made the Earth for use and comfort of all mankind, and let him in to till and dress it, and said, that in the sweat of his brow he should eat his bread; and also we find that, that God never gave it to any sort of people, that they should have it all to themselves, and shut out all the rest, but he saith, The Earth hath he given to all the children of men, which is everyman”

[4] Bareshanke is a piece of land on the left-hand side of the road coming from Wellingborough (from the Park Farm Industrial Estate past the “Mad Mile”) at the junction where it meets the Sywell to Little Harrowden Road.



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A Tribute to Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger and Woodie Guthrie 1950

You know, this language that we speak

Is part German, part Latin and part Greek,

With some Celtic and Arabic all in the heap,

Well amended by the man in the street.

Choctaw gave us the word ‘okay’,

‘Vamoose’ is a word from Mexico way,

And all this is a hint, I suspect,

Of what comes next.

Chorus: I think that this whole world,

I think that this whole wide world,

Soon, mama, my whole world,

Soon gonna be got mixed up.

I like Polish sausage, I like Spanish rice;

Pizza pie is also nice.

Corn and beans from the Indians here,

Washed down by some German beer.

Marco Polo travelled by camel and pony,

Brought to Italy the first macaroni;

And you and I, as well as we’re able,

Put it all on the table.

(Chorus)

There were no redheaded Irishmen

Before the Vikings landed in Ireland;

How many Romans had dark curly hair

Before they brought slaves from Africa?

No race of man is completely pure,

Nor is any man’s mind, and that’s for sure;

The winds mix up the dust of every land,

And so will man.

(Chorus)

This doesn’t mean we must all be the same,

We’ll have different faces and different names;

Long live many different kinds of races,

And it’s difference of opinion that makes horse races.

Just remember the rule about rules, brother:

‘What’s right with one is wrong with another’;

And take a tip from La Belle France,

Vive la différence!

(Chorus)

Pete Seeger

*****

Is the UK Poverty Free?

Download the full pdf here.

Explaining the data

Here we have used data from the Office of National Statistics report ONS Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK and EU, 2005-2011. They estimate that in 2011 5.1% of the population of the UK were experiencing severe material deprivation, this includes being unable to feed or clothe their families or buy necessities. The data relates to 2011 and is the most up-to-date research.

Visit Inequality Briefing

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Unite Divided Families: public meeting

Where: Victoria Centre, Palk Road, Wellingborough, NN8 1HT

When: Tuesday, September 24th 2013

Time: 7.00 pm

Due to serious injustices in the immigration rules many families are divided (if a non-British partner is aboard) or are threatened with being divided (if their non-British partner is in the UK). This meeting will bring those affected who live in Northamptonshire together, to support one another, and to campaign to change the immigration rules so families can be united. National speaker from BritCits (https://www.facebook.com/britcits) will be attending.

Please inform others who may be interested.

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Wellingborough showing of film Spirit of '45 this Sunday

There will be a special showing of Ken Loach's film Spirit of '45, followed by discussion.

This Sunday, May 19th at 7.00 pm in the Rising Sun pub, corner of Cannon Street/Mill Road

This has been organised by Independent Socialists in Wellingborough in conjunction with Left Unity

ALL WELCOME

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Anti-Racism in Social Work Practice: New book now out

Anti-Racism in Social Work Practice is a new book which I have have had the privilege of contributing a chapter to (on 'Critical Race Theory and exploring 'whiteness'). The book was published in April 2013 by Critical Publishing  edited by Angie Bartoli. All the contributors are either based in the Social Work Division at the University of Northampton or have historically been linked to it (as I was when I was the Equality and Diversity Advisor at the university for seven years until 2012).

The publishers describe the books in the following way:

Anti-racism has a long history within the profession of social work and its education. Despite an agenda within higher education which promotes internationalization and practice which recognises diversity, little has been written to address the question of why black African students have a different experience from others on their social work educational journey.  

This book is based upon the authors’ experience as educators and their own research about and with black students’ experience of racism and ‘otherness’ within social work practice and education. Radical and honest in nature, it re-visits anti-racism within social work practice and education from a student focused and informed perspective based on lived experience and conversations. 

This book will be of interest to all social work students, educators and policy makers with an interest in anti-racism and diversity. It includes practical models and tried and tested tools to help the reader work through these issues.

The chapter headings in the book and the authors of each chapter are as follows:

Introduction. Angie Bartoli

1. Backlash blues: racialisation and citizenship. Bernadette Curran

2. Anti-racist social work education. Sukhwinder Singh

3. Developing Cultural Competence. Prospera Tedam

4. Padare: a meeting around a tree. Angie Bartoli

5. White women listening. Sue Kennedy

6. Critical Race Theory and exploring 'whiteness'. Paul Crofts

7. View from the workplace: practitioners speak out. Charity Chukwuemeka

Conclusion: a forward looking journey. Angie Bartoli and Prospera Tedum

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Successful anti-bedroom tax protest in Wellingborough

To view all photos photos from the anti-bedroom tax protests in Wellingborough yesterday go HERE


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Is the debate about immigration harming the UK? An Immigrant’s perspective?

I must say that over recent weeks I have started to become a tad angry. Is this a sign of growing age combined with my gender (grumpy old man syndrome?)[1] or something else? I hope it’s something else...

But I really DO think that the current “debate” about immigration is getting out of hand and it can and will do serious damage to the UK’s reputation aboard and to our own sense of who we are and our place in the world.

Sometimes I try to put myself into the skin of someone wanting to come to the UK.... such as an Indian or African, European (or indeed anyone from abroad really... Bulgaria, Romania, Germany...). Perhaps I am a business-person, student or tourist. Should I think twice about coming to Britain? Perhaps there are more welcoming places to go to. Should I really “do business” with this country?

An “immigrant’s” story? It seems that really quite a lot or people (including some of your senior politicians) really don’t want me around – or at least that’s the general message I get. And you can get quite angry and emotional about it (I have seen your BBC Questiontime programme when immigration comes up for “discussion”).
 Could it be the case that you really just want my money, or the investment that I might bring to the UK, but really you don’t want my kind of people to actually come, live, or stay for anything more than a couple of days?
 All this talk about immigrant “scroungers” worries me. After all at some point I might fall on hard times (despite being ok currently). Or I might want to live and stay somewhere (would I be depriving some “native” person of a home?).There is such a shortage of housing I hear and its getting more and more expensive - but I’m not sure I caused this, did I?
 Or I might become ill and need to use your health service. Or am I perhaps someone who actually works in your health service, as a doctor or nurse from overseas? Do you really want me here? Do you really want “my sort of people”, or do you just want me to sort out your staff shortage problems (and your heart condition), accept your crap working conditions and exploitative low pay and then quietly disappear “back home”... for ever, and never come back!
 Look, I know I speak with a bit of an accent – I cannot really help this, not actually being British born and breed you see. But is it really true that you cannot understand me, or are you just being lazy? I have spoken and studied English virtually all my life, but it is my second language. Do you have a second language? Do you know what it’s like trying to communicate in a second language all the time? Do you really resent the fact that I am in your country and just tolerate my presence for your own ends but don’t want to listen to me or hear what I am saying?
 Should I worry that just walking down the street is seen a provocation to you, simply because I am here and look and speak, well, foreign. I understand that even some people born in the UK get abused or attacked because they look “foreign” (or not quite “English” enough) so what chance do I stand?
 Would I be alright if I were rich? After all I am not one of those really poor foreigners who have simply come to work, to escape poverty; or are seeking to escape persecution. I have something to bring to Britain, don’t I? Money! They have nothing to offer – they only take! But hold on a second, is this right? Have poor immigrants to Britain only ever taken?. Have they never put anything back? Or have they perhaps put more “back” than they have "taken"?
 I hear a few stories about Britain’s history (and indeed other countries as well) being the history of immigration. Is this true? Did I hear that England has been populated over the centuries by Saxons, Celts, Romans, Jutes, Jewish people, Muslims, Hindus, Huguenots, Irish, Indians, Bangladeshis, people from Africa, the Caribbean, Europe.... Did all these immigrants contribute nothing to the success of your society or economy? Did they all just take? I suspect not; but I also suspect you don't really care about the truth if it doesn't fit with your bigotry, prejudice and arrogance.
 I understand that to become a British citizen nowadays you have to do a British history test. Does this include the history of immigrants into Britain and the contribution that “people like me” have made? Or are you just interested in Kings and Queens – although I understand these stories can be quite nice. I have even heard of your Queen Elizabeth I – didn’t she approve of slavery, invade my country and encourage the first immigrants to other people’s countries? Weren't some of your Kings and Queens originally foreign... perhaps like me!?
 I think you British (or at least some of you) need to grow up and realise that Britain, England, UK (whatever you think you are!) is part of the world; there is only one world and that world is changing rapidly. I know this can be a bit hard to take and understand, but that's not really my problem is it? People are now moving around the world in their millions (by the way, most don’t come to Britain you know?) and some are going to come to Britain, just as some of you are going to live aboard. That's just the way it it these days.
 I think you need to start to see us “foreigners” and immigrants to your country not as a threat, but an opportunity and as neighbours. After all if you don’t like me as your world neighbour, there isn’t, as yet, another planet that you can move to!
 I would like to be your neighbour, your friend, your colleague, part of your family even... but do you want me?

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[1] Look don’t contact me at this point about age prejudice. I am aware that this “grumpy old man” stuff IS age/gender prejudice, right! But I do think that as I age I am becoming more intolerant of intolerance and my anger levels rise!

************

Public Meeting: What future for the welfare state

Thursday February 28^th

2013 @ 7.30pm

Victoria Centre, Palk Road

Wellingborough NN8 1HT

Speakers:

Wilkie Wilkinson

Social Worker and UNISON shop steward

(personal capacity)

Disabled People Against Cuts (invited)

Public & Civil Services Union

(Department for Works and Pensions Branch)

(invited)

Stop attacks on the poorest

and vulnerable

Defend our welfare safety-net

STOP the Government:

·       Attacking the Disabled

Cutting Disability Living Allowance will take away

£2 billion from disabled people

·       Attacking Families

The “bedroom tax” takes 14% from the housing benefit of 660,000 families deemed to have one bedroom too many.

Council tax benefit is being abolished,

and discretionary responsibility is being passed to local councils already coping with cuts

·       Attacking the Young

Reducing housing benefit from the under 25s will condemn thousands of vulnerable young people to homelessness,

and is denounced by homeless charities

·       Sowing Division and hatred

The Government tries to set employed against unemployed, poor against the event poorer

Benefit claimants are branded “shirkers,”

but most claimants are in work but paid lousy wages

·       Cutting our Local Services

County Council cuts have hit libraries, preventive services, adult social care, the youth offending service, foster care, trading standards, fire and rescue, Police, early years, meals on wheels, education services and many more.

Council employees face unprecedented attacks on

pay, conditions and pensions.

COME AND LEARN MORE ABOUT THESE ATTACKS AND THE FIGHT AGAINST THEM

DON’T LET THEM GET AWAY WITH IT!!

An event organised by

Wellingborough Labour Party

and Independent Socialists in Wellingborough

For more information ring: 078 72 83 64 63

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