Dear David Pinto-Duschinsky,
I read your letter to Liz Kendall with interest, the so called get Britain working group.
The response online has really been something:
Who is the chair of the group?
Who are its members?
To whom is it accountable?
Will it consider the needs of people with long-term psychiatric problems, such as schizophrenia, who may not be able to work?
I also saw a question in reply to your social media (Elon twitter)
post: How many (what proportion of) disabled members of staff does your
backbench group of MPs employ?
I read from Exeter Green Party that you are refusing to tax the
super-rich: is this true? If so I would urge you to listen to the
compass group of Labour campaigners urging the Parliamentary Labour
Party to stop trying to appeal to the far right Reform UK Ltd. and to
appeal to green party voters instead: The Green party came 2nd in many
seats, and have as many seats as Reform UK Ltd..
Following yesterday's backing of scapegoating of disabled people for the
failings of the DWP, there have been calls for you to be voted out at
the next general election. Looking at the letter itself, you've got
Labour's mission wrong. The Labour Party was built and put into power
in order to give a voice to the working class. If you take for instance
your own selection that is a pattern that Labour has seen in every
selection: a workers representative beaten by a middle-class party
electorate in favour of a professional or non-blue-collar person as
prospective parliamentary candidate. That is Labour failing at its
mission, failing to back those living in social housing or council
housing. Those colleagues that look after these estates and do the work
such as pest control technicians are being pushed down and oppressed by
a manager class: the boards of directors of these social housing
associations. If I believed you were any better that a Conservative MP I
would urge you to meet with SHAC - the social housing action committee -
to try and resolve the dispute at Livv, which I understand has just
failed at ACAS. It's every day workers like these, or like bus drivers,
who politicians should stand with, to offer something better than other
parties.
I am justifiably angry: I myself was not in employment, education, or
training until I went back to school at the age of 25. The
opportunities I had then are being cut, while the starting salaries for
young people are not keeping up with the cost of living in Hendon. I
speak to people who are suffering from long covid who say that covid is
still happening and it is chronic in the working age population. You
could be doing a lot more to prevent this suffering. When the next
pandemic hits, our NHS and care sector should be prepared. It should
have more sick pay, sick leave for all, work-from-home as a right, and
proper health & safety precautions at work and on buses and tubes
such as good masks, ventilation, and staying at home when pupils or
staff are infectious. In the last few years inequality has massively
increased: The fact that the richest man in the world has lost hundreds
of billions and is still a billionaire shows that billionaires should
not exist. So why are you punishing disabled people (like Guardian
columnist Frances Ryan) for the sake of self-imposed fiscal rules and
what Labour calls the non-dom community?
I really expect better from you. the "get Britain working" slogan is
reminiscent of the lie from the darkest moment in European history, and
you have constituents with disabilities including mental health issues;
I've constantly asked you to listen to that and do better.
Yours sincerely,
Ben Samuel
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