30 March 2011
As we are having a Labour Page at the moment, time to add this latest release from them on the Port Privatisation Plan....
PORT OF DOVER PRIVATISATION
- the referendum
Statement from the Dover & Deal Labour Party:
The result of the referendum reinforces what we’ve known for years - that the vast majority of the people of Dover strongly oppose the privatisation of the port.
Labour would welcome the port becoming a co-operative venture, but we are not persuaded that the People’s Port proposal will result in a genuine co-op and we do not believe that sufficient details have been revealed to support the viability and the practicality of the bid. Also, we are not aware of any real safeguards to ensure the future success of the port and prevent its re-sale to inappropriate owners.
We believe the Conservative Government is likely to ignore the wishes of local people and sell Dover to the highest bidder using the Harbour Board model but to placate local people and the Tory MP – watch out for the Government’s preferred privatisation bid being embellished by the addition of a few local representatives on to the Board and then falsely portraying the sale as a Big Society People’s Port.
The People’s Port campaign has provided Mr Elphicke with a fig leaf to hide his embarrassment that it was his Tory friends who brought in the Port Privatisation Act in the first place and now it’s his own Tory Government that’s pressing ahead with the sale of the port.
What ever choice the Government makes the overriding imperative is that the port provides more direct benefit for the community, attracts sufficient funds to increase capacity, supports the regeneration of Dover and continues to recruit and employ local people. ends
* * *
The Tory/LibDem Budget is a further blow to the people of Dover, Deal, and East Kent..
Say Labour!
Commenting on the Budget the former MP for Dover & Deal, Gwyn Prosser said: “George Osborne’s reckless policies to cut too deep and too fast are hurting families here in Dover & Deal and across East Kent and it comes as a further blow following the shocking news of thousands of local job losses resulting from the closure of Pfizers.
In this Budget the Tories have confirmed the banks will get a tax cut this year while thousands of families in East Kent will see their child benefit frozen and will pay an average extra £450 in VAT.
But the elderly get hammered as well...
Labour’s Winter Fuel Allowances, that Cameron promised NOT to axe, will be up to £100 less this year.
(but don’t tell Clegg, he thinks they are being increased)
And in addition, families whose total earning are as little as £26,000 are set to lose their tax credits next year – another broken Tory promise.
As Ed Milliband said, while the Tory Lib Dem plan is definitely hurting.. all the signs are that it’s not working either. The VAT rise and cuts which go too deep and too fast are driving up unemployment again and the independent budget watchdog says inflation will be higher and the economy will grow more slowly this year and next.
That’s why borrowing will actually be higher after this Budget than before. So these reckless plans will make it much harder to get the deficit down. It doesn’t make sense.”
Ed Balls MP, Labour’s shadow chancellor, said:
“These cuts are too deep and too fast. Labour would be halving the deficit steadily over four years – not trying to cut it further and faster than any other major economy in the world.
“There have got to be some tough choices to get the deficit down too. But you can’t get the deficit down if the economy isn’t growing strongly and you’re throwing hundreds of thousands of people out of work. What we really need is a plan for jobs and growth to help people in East Kent and help get the deficit down and I will be campaigning together Labour Councillors in Kent for that in Westminster and urging the government to change course.” ENDS
Picture shows our former MP Gwyn Prosser in battling mood on TV a year or two back.
