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On December 12, UK general elections will be held — a referendum on progressive change v. continued Tory-led neoliberal harshness, along with whether most Brits still support leaving the EU.
Labor’s Jeremy Corbyn called next month’s elections “a once in a generation chance to build a country for the many, not the few.”
On Friday, London’s Telegraph said Tories lead Labor “by more than 10 points” — based on a Savanta ComRes poll conducted on November 18 and 19.
It shows Tories lead Labor by a 42 – 31% margin, Lib Dems with 15% support, the Brexit Party with 5%.
On Tuesday, Reuters reported a “dead heat” in a YouGov snap poll after Corbyn and Tory Prime Minister Boris Johnson debated Tuesday on national television.
A second Channel 4 debate scheduled for Sunday was cancelled after Johnson refused to participate, producer Louisa Compton, saying:
“Gutted we’ve had to cancel a planned Leaders debate on Channel 4 for this Sunday. Jeremy Corbyn had agreed to take part but, after many weeks of intense discussion, we were unable to secure agreement from Boris Johnson’s team.”
As of now, Channel 4 will host a December 8 debate, featuring “representatives” of seven major parties taking questions from an audience of undecided voters — except about Brexit.
It’s unclear if Johnson will participate in further debates. On Wednesday, Corbyn discussed his “manifesto of hope” at Birmingham City University, explaining the following:
His plan is all about reversing years of neoliberal harshness.
“Over the next three weeks, (Tories and others supporting their anti-populist agenda) are going to tell you that everything in this manifesto is impossible,” adding:
“Because they don’t want real change. Why would they? The system is working just fine for them. It’s rigged in their favor. But it’s not working for you.”
“If your wages never seem to go, up and your bills never seem to go down, if your public services only seem to get worse, despite the heroic efforts of those who work in them, then it’s not working for you.”
That’s why many Brits gave up on politics, saying: “They’re all the same.”
“Not anymore,” Corbyn stressed. “The billionaires and the super-rich, the tax dodgers, the bad bosses and the big polluters – they own the Conservative Party. But they don’t own us.”
Corbyn’s “Labor Party Manifesto 2019” calls for radical “real change” from the neoliberal status quo, saying:
December 12 elections “will shape our country for a generation. It is your opportunity to transform our country, so that it works not just for a few, but for all of us. It is a chance to deliver…real (progressive) change Britain needs.”
It calls for hiking taxes by 82.9 billion pounds ($106.6 billion at the current exchange rate) — the increase paid for by Britain’s super-rich, corporations, and taxing capital gains and dividends at income tax rates, added revenues to go for the following:
1. increased National Health Service spending
2. free higher education tuition
3. funding foster homes for disabled children
4. re-opening SureStart Centers to “giv(e) children the best possible start in life” by offering childcare, early education, health and family support, along with community outreach and development
5. free broadband for all UK residents by 2030
6. replacing the House of Lords with a Senate as an elected body — a political change
7. pro-peace and stability foreign policy — a shift from supporting endless wars
The manifesto allocates newly raised revenues as follows:
1. 5.6 billion for SureStart and aiding disabled children in foster homes
2. 5.5 billion for free meals for primary-grade students and related spending
3. 4.7 billion for skills and lifelong learning
4. 13.6 billion to abolish higher education tuition
5. 6.9 billion for the National Health Service
6. 10.8 billion for free personal and social-related care
7. 7. 9 billion to scrap the hugely unpopular bedroom tax, increase bereavement support payments, an allowance for jobseekers, greater maternity and paternity rights pay, restoration of pension credits and housing benefits, along with increasing pension benefits for UK expats
8. 2.6 billion to reduce TV license and broadband fees
9. 6.1 billion for adult social care and aiding the homeless
10. 5.3 billion for increased public sector pay
11. 10.3 billion for increased public spending in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales
12. 2.5 billion for the national youth service, peace fund, increased firefighter pay, and justice reform
“How can any government claim it cares about our country when it cares so little about (ordinary) people who live here,” said Corbyn.
He hopes his manifesto for progressive change will help Labor defeat Tories on December 12 and make him prime minister.
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Award-winning author Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected]. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)
His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”
http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
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