On Thursday 4th October, with just 2 days notice, over 200 people squeezed into the Copper Beech Club in Baildon to listen to Jeremy Corbyn talk about how things will be different under Labour. Here are some of the things he said.
Labour offers something different
Our Party of over 500,000 members is all about people understanding the community in which they live, understanding the joys and difficulties that all communities face, and above all understanding what kind of world we can live in. Labour offers something different. In the general election last year we offered a manifesto – a transformative agenda about redistribution of power and wealth in our society and about giving real hope to people. The economics and politics of austerity since 2010 have driven over 400,000 more children into poverty, increased the number of homeless people by a huge number, depressed wages , cut public sector jobs, made access to social care much more difficult, made the mental health crisis much worse, and hugely reduced opportunities for young people. Austerity was a political choice, we now live in a more unequal society than ever before.
On education
We need a National Education Service. We need high quality pre-school provision to be available to all children. We need proper funding for schools so that headteachers don’t have to decide every summer which subjects their school will have to drop, which teachers they will have to lose.
Labour will introduce a Pupil Arts Premium, so that every child in every school in every part of the UK gets the chance to learn a musical instrument.
Labour will reduce the competition between schools, reduce the obsession with league tables, focus much more on the whole child, and support all of the children to achieve their very best.
We will support those who want to go onto university, end fees and bring back maintenance grants, but we will also bring in real equality of esteem between vocational and academic qualifications. Society needs engineers, plumbers, electricians, doctors and nurses – all of these.
On internationalism
I want to lead a government whose priorities on the world stage are environmental protection, democracy, peace, justice and human rights.
On standing up for the many
Our job is to stand up for those who are having a really tough time, to create a society that does genuinely care for all, to build those houses that will provide people with somewhere decent to live in the long term, to protect our environment, and above all to build community.
Jeremy Corbyn was welcomed to Baildon by Shipley’s next Labour MP – Jo Pike, who has already started her campaign to unseat Philip Davies. To find out more about how you can help, contact Jo or email shipleylaboursecretary@gmail.com.
October 2018