Maire, you will probably not bother to read this, but if you do first let me put it into context, I read the FT and the Observer as well as the right wing broadsheets and also Hansard so I did not arrive at my decision to vote Labour just from reading the Guardian.I am supporting the Labour Party for this election, I am not however a member of the Labour Party. I am supporting for a number of reasons, some of which I have set out below. I feel very strongly about the lack of truly affordable housing, in all sectors social, privately rented and owned. Housing rents in the social sector were set at what was affordable for say a bus driver or local authority low skilled worker, but no longer. Not only is there a criminal shortage of affordable housing in real terms, the Conservative Party have no intention of building any social housing, see Gavin Barwell 3rd June. The 2017 Housing and Planning Act shortly to be introduced does nothing to alleviate housing problems and in some areas makes them worse.The lack of real investment in the health service, this is in their people, compare pay rises for MPs over the last seven years to those of nurses, as well as facilities and medical services. The selling of parts of the NHS like the plasma bank (PRUK), not only in a very, very poor deal for the tax payer but also because of the risks associated with contaminated blood (HIV, Creutzfeldt-Jakob) under for-profit conditions. I abhor the privatisation of the services as in allowing companies such as Virgin Care to make profits out of people’s pain, and then sue the government when they are not awarded more contracts. And if you think getting an appointment with a GP or consultant is difficult now you should speak to those forced to use Virgin Care. My third major area of concern is education, and I am fiercely opposed to grammar schools and yes I am ex grammar school girl. The money being used for grammar schools would be much better used to help all pupils across the board regardless of abilities.According to the Sunday Times Rich List there are now more billionaires in Britain than ever before. We should welcome their achievements and contribution to our economy. But surely a successful economy should not be measured by the presence of billionaires, but by the absence of poverty and inequality: 4 million children live in poverty and more than 120,000 of those do not even have a place to call home – so somewhere in the government’s economic calculations there is a serious flaw, or rather a deliberate mistake. From 2009 to 2015 the riches assets have increased to £258bn a rise of 112% and have gone up similarly since. I will not go into detail about tax avoidance measures used by the rich, but not available to nurses, teachers and train drivers, if you want some examples get back to me.The majority of our newspapers are owned by the Murdoch Group, Barclay Brothers, Lord Rothermere, Richard Desmond and the Lebedevs all billionaires whose interest it is to keep the Conservatives in power, with their low tax incentives for the very rich. One of the first things Theresa May did when she took office was to fly (secretly) to New York for a meeting with Robert Maxwell who was quoted as saying pre Brexit 'When I go into Downing Street they do what I say; when I go to Brussels they take no notice.' So you may wonder why his papers are so anti the EU? I could give you many more examples of the inequalities brought about by this Conservative Government.
Libby Kemp ● 3251d