Tell me why I should continue to support Labour

By Just A. Punter

UPDATE: 14:56 – Cabinet Office Minister Liam Byrne has just responded to this post.

LabourList received this post in an email from a reader last week. The writer wishes to remain anonymous.

I am a fairly mature person of fairly mature age. I was until recently a Labour voter, member and activist. I would go out in the freezing cold putting up with abuse after abuse because of the colour of my rosette. I gave up my membership when at our CLP meeting, which are normally held in people’s houses because so few members are interested, it was changed to a community centre one night.

When I arrived, the room had about 20 odd people there. A big change from the normal 4 or 5. Later, I found out why. When the voting started all these people started putting up their hands to vote. I asked someone why, when they were not members, were they allowed to vote, I was told just to keep my mouth shut.

The next morning I cancelled my direct debit. Interestingly one person who was organising that meeting is mentioned in your “A List” down the right hand side.

Now, I lived through the 80s. I spent all my money for a while, following the Red Wedge tour. I was just thinking to myself a few weeks ago, who would play a Red Wedge show today? I still cannot think of one artiste who would.

I now have this huge problem with a general election about a year off. Do I go against everything I hated in the 80s and 90s as did my parents and grandparents and vote Conservative, do I not vote or do I vote for an independent?

There are an awful lot of Cabinet members, senior party members and glitterati who write for this blog, I would like to test them and ask them to answer this post and tell me why I should vote for Labour.

Unfortunately, a few years ago I had to give up my job because I had both a disabled parent and sibling. Both had finally gotten to the stage where if someone didn’t care for them they would end up in a residential establishment.

This is something neither of them wanted. A few years previous, I had taken the steps of redesigning the lower level of my house because I knew that my parent was going downhill. I did it at my own expense to make it completely disabled accessable including bedrooms and bathrooms. This was the right thing to do and luckily I had the finances to do it.

Now, through no fault of my own, I had stopped earning and was looking after two people very close to me and respecting their wishes. I foolishly thought that as I was saving the country the cost of looking after my disabled relatives (around £474 per week each), there would be help for me under a Labour government.

Thankfully there was – £50 per week carers allowance as long as I could prove that I worked 30 hours per week in my carer’s role. Thankfully, because as a carer, sometimes that role takes up 24 hours in a day never mind a week, I was able to claim that money, and have done so since my carer’s position started.

Unfortunately, if you are caring for two disabled persons then that doesn’t mean that carers allowance is paid twice. I was entitled to nothing else because fortunately, I had never believed the then Chancellor that there would be no more boom and bust. I had saved my money so that I could give my two toddler children some of the things that I never got when I was growing up – unfortunately, I was truthful when I asked for help so there were no more ‘handouts’ for me, although I was saving the taxpayer about a thousand pounds a week.

Over a couple of years the money was frittered away on foolish things like mortgage, council tax, food, utility bills, TV licence and a little on childcare when it was helpful to get rid of the children for an afternoon when my parent had a week of sickness and diarrhea and we spent a lot of time changing beds, cleaning chairs, cleaning floors and doing washing.

Eventually when I had spent all my own money saving the taxpayer, (actually I was really only doing it because I love my parent and sibling – the taxpayer didn’t come into it) I managed to get to the level of poverty to claim Income Support. With the Income Support came mortgage relief. When I bought my house, I had saved quite a bit and only required a small mortgage and I only took it over ten years. By the time I qualified for mortgage relief there was very little left on the mortgage and that is what I got interest on. In all it worked out at about £38 per month and my mortgage is around £368. I also got council tax relief and child tax credit which brought my income up to just under £180 per week for me, my wife and my two small children and I also get Child Benefit of about £30 per week. My outgoings are mortgage, utility bills, water bills, food, clothes (with two small children, that is not cheap). Now the small savings I was left with when Income Support kicked in is down to about £1,105 and with the next 3 mortgage payments that will be pretty well gone and I could be facing eviction.

There are some bright sides. Unfortunately for me and my family, but fortunately for my finances my parent died last year. With help, they were able to have a fairly dignified funeral and I am happy about that. I now get the same money from the government but I only have my sibling to look after. The 75-100 hours I was doing for the £50 carers allowance has dropped down to around 50-60 hours. Luckily, I am making around £1 per hour which is an inflation busting 100% increase from the 50p I was making. The other bright side is I am still saving the taxpayer way over £200 per week.

I now call on Ed Miliband, Keith Vaz, Liam Byrne, Ed Balls, Douglas Alexander, Hazel Blears, Yvette Cooper, Peter Mandelson, Harriet Harman, John Prescott, James Purnell, Alastair Campbell and Peter Hain for answers. You have all ‘written’ for this blog and so read it. Tell me why I should vote Labour at the next election. Tell me what you have done for someone in my position and I am not alone – there are at least tens of thousands of us.

What I have read over the past few weeks about expenses does not play well in Harriet’s “Court of Public Opinion”. I could have given the money I had to my small children and then claimed Income Support from the beginning of my nightmare, that would have been within the rules but I was not playing by MPs’ rules. I was playing using the rules of that “Court of Public Opinion”.

I don’t care that Nigel Griffiths takes a bit on the side. I do care that he lied about it, used the Palace of Westminster as a sex studio and went to court to stop us finding out. I understand that Jacqui Smith might need one TV to watch the news but I fail to understand why she should charge the taxpayer for two. I fail to see why she should charge for two washing machines because she needs them to carry out her job as an MP. When my washing machine breaks down I will either have to find someone to fix it for nothing or start washing clothes by hand. I would also request that she sends me her old bath plug because I am sure I could do something with it to re-use it in case mine ever gets broken.

I don’t cost the taxpayer one penny – I support the taxpayer and as far as I can see, a decade’s long commitment to the Labour party has cost me dearly.

So Labour politicians, I throw down the gauntlet. Tell me why I should continue my support for your Party – you have been in power for 12 years.

Unlike other authors on this blog, I will come in and answer the comments.