We are Backing Rugby

We would like to thank every member, colleague, friend, activist, supporter and each Candidate for their commitment, hard work and passion in this election.

Our greatest thanks is extended to our many thousands of voters for your continual support, encouragement and belief in our long term success. All of our elected members are here to support and help all voters within the area of Rugby Borough Council.

We welcome two new members to the Labour Groupas a result of the elections, Rob McNally who will represent New Bilton and Howard Avis who topped the poll in Rokeby and Overslade.

We would also like to take the opportunity to thank the three Labour councillors who stood down this year – Don Edwards, Ray Kirby and Brian Whistance. All have served their community for a long time and will be missed.

After many years of neglect and inaction on Blackwood Avenue shops, it appeared that the council and owners might have finally agreed to do something. However, all that has happened is superficial – painting at the fronts of the parade, for example.

But if you look at the back of the shops, nothing has changed as this short video shows:

The local Labour candidates for Admirals and Cawston – Steve Birkett, Marie McNally and Alan Webb have been working on this, while the Tories on the Borough Council have relied on empty promises. Here’s Steve, outlining what Labour would do if elected on Thursday.

If you live in Admirals or care about the state of Blackwood Avenue, it’s time to send the useless Tory councillors a message on May 3rd: Vote them out.

Today Rugby Labour Party’s candidates in the Council elections fully endorse Labour Leader Ed Miliband’s five priorities for the Queen’s Speech, which he released today

Campaign Chair and Wolston and The Lawfords Candidate Paul Castle said:

“We in Rugby Labour are ‘Backing Rugby’ and that’s why today we endorse Ed Miliband’s 5 priorities for the Queen’s Speech.

“As Ed pointed out today, when Labour were in office two years ago, the economy was recovering strongly. Now thanks to this recession made in Downing Street, it has sunk into a double dip recession.

“Ed is right to point out that David Cameron and George Osborne, who even a Tory MP described as “two arrogant posh boys who show no remorse, no contrition and no passion to want to understand the lives of others”, have helped the bankers and given a tax cut to millionaires whilst imposing tax rises on pensioners, ordinary hard-working people, and even on pasties.

“Today Labour set out five key measures to offer practical ways to help people right now and get our economy moving again. In Rugby, we’re listening to people’s concerns, on the doorstep as we canvass, in the town centre during the last three weekends, through our petition against the closure of Birch Ward, and we have heard the community’s anger and concern about the policies being inflicted on them by the national Tory-led Government and the Tory-run Borough and County Council.

“The Budget and the NHS reforms in particular, have opened the Rugby community’s eyes to the truth about the Conservatives and their new-found bed-fellows the Lib Dems: under Tories and Lib Dems, we are certainly not ‘all in it together’.

“We need a government nationally and local councillors locally who are in touch with the needs of families and the vulnerable in this recession. It requires different choices and different priorities. It requires a Labour party that as Ed Miliband says, is “with you in tough times.”

Details of Ed Miliband’s announcement today can be viewed here:

Read more…

Shoppers expressed their deep concern and anger about the Government’s recent Budget to Rugby Labour campaigners who were conducting a street survey in the town centre last Saturday (14 April).

Labour members and candidates for the Council elections were in the town centre to listen to voters’ views on the Conservative and Lib Dem Budget delivered by George Osborne on 21 March. An overwhelming 86 per cent thought the Budget wasn’t fair, with only 6 per cent thinking it was fair.

The survey also found that 82 per cent were concerned about police cuts in Rugby and 80 per cent thought that the Government is damaging the future of young people. One man fought back tears explaining to Labour activists that he was concerned about his daughter’s prospects and was terrified about the future his grand-children will inherit. Over three quarters of respondents believe that the Government isn’t being fair to people nearing retirement or pensioners and in a worrying sign for the Conservatives, even some of their voters thought the Budget wasn’t fair and were troubled by cuts in Rugby.

The starkest finding was on threats to local health services. A staggering 96 per cent were concerned about cuts to services at St Cross Hospital. People reported that they appreciated Rugby Labour’s petition and high-profile campaign last winter to oppose the closure of Birch Ward (which collected 1,500 signatures).

Here is a selection of Rugby residents’ comments noted by Labour members in the town centre:

• “The Conservatives Council are ruining Rugby – it is slowly dying”
• “The Government is planning to close St Cross gradually and move it to Coventry”
• “The Conservatives and Lib Dems are damaging the future of families”
• One Lib Dem voter said: “The rich are getting richer, the poor getting poorer. Help give people a sense of self-worth”
• “We need a change”
• “Bus services are being cut after 7.15pm”
• “The Budget is giving £3bn to the rich”
• “The Government is dragging us back into the 18^th Century”
• “Do more for pensioners”
• “We are going backwards instead of forward”

Chair of Campaigns for Rugby Labour, Paul Castle said:

“We expected people to be hostile to a Budget which was so badly executed that even Tory MPs are campaigning against it. But we were moved by the level of people’s upset at the unfairness being inflicted on ordinary people by this Tory and Lib Dem Government.

“The results speak for themselves. This isn’t Labour propaganda – we were listening and this is the community speaking. Local Conservative and Lib Dem council candidates must now explain to the people of Rugby why it is that the wealthiest few have their taxes cut while hard-working families and pensioners suffer from Budget measures.

“Local Tories and Lib Dems cannot pull the wool over people’s eyes any longer. They are the local representatives of a shambolic, out-of-touch Government of millionaires, who aren’t interested and don’t understand the concerns of average earners and the vulnerable.

“Rugby deserves better and only Labour will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the community, as we did over the threat to St Cross Hospital last winter. We’re ready to listen to the concerns of the community and work with them to deliver a fairer, more dynamic future for our borough. That’s why our campaign slogan is “We’re backing Rugby”.

Read more…

What happens if you don’t vote? The Conservatives get in.

Local candidate and chair of Rugby Labour, Alan Webb: 

“This time of year I spend a lot of time talking to voters and it can be an eye-opener as to some of the things they tell me. Particularly those who prefer to be non-voters. That’s a luxury we all have in a free democracy. The freedom not to vote.

Here are some of the things they tell me:

•  All politicians are the same so it makes no difference whoever gets elected
• All politicians are only doing it for their own ends
• All politicians are corrupt
• All politicians tell lies

Please tick any or all of these if you agree, but, before you do can I tell you a few facts?

In local elections, more than half of all voters on the electoral role don’t vote. They may be voters who tick one or more of the above boxes. Indeed a sizeable chunk of potential voters don’t even register to vote. They may even be away from town on polling day and not take advantage of being able to vote by post.

About a quarter of all voters who do vote certainly don’t agree. These voters vote Tory. They vote Tory as it is their duty and regardless of who their candidate is.

The rest of us make a choice between all the candidates.

Is it any wonder then that the Tory party – a party who represent the richest 5% of people in this country is the party in power for 75% of the time?

Is it any wonder then that a market town like Rugby has a council made up of more than 50% Tory councillors who make the decisions on behalf of all voters – even at a time when we have a Tory/Lib Dem coalition government and a county council also with Tory overall control?

Then again it doesn’t matter because it makes no difference. Or does it? I rather think it does.

In the 2012 election, all Rugby councillors will have to justify earning your vote, but not if you don’t use it – they don’t have to justify their actions at all.

It’s time to do something about it. Go out and actually cast your vote against the Tories. That means go out and vote Labour.

But I would say that, wouldn’t I? I’m a politician.”

Alan Webb is Chairman of Rugby Constituency Labour Party

The argument in Westminster about the Government’s NHS Bill may have ended but Labour’s fight for the NHS on the ground is beginning.

Labour will today launch an ‘NHS pledge’ – a five-point practical attempt to limit the damage of the NHS reorganisation. Labour Councillors will act as patient champions and the last line of defence for Warwickshire’s NHS, calling on local health leaders to:

1. Protect NHS founding values
2. Prevent postcode lotteries
3. Guard against longer waits
4. Promote collaboration over competition
5. Put patients before profits

James Shera Labour’s Rugby Group Leader said:

“Warwickshire’s NHS is coming under sustained attack from David Cameron. I fear for the future of Rugby’s St. Cross Hospital. The Tory-led Government’s NHS re-organisation is already causing real harm to patients and is wasting £31,892,686 in our area. Longer waits for operations and chaos in A&E has returned, operations and treatments restricted as the postcode lottery gets worse and thousands of nursing jobs are axed.

Read more…

A letter from John Slinger, one of our Hillmorton Candidates, contrasting Lib Dem rhetoric with what Rugby and the country actually needs

Sir,

A cursory glance at the Rugby Liberal Democrats’ website shows just how out of touch this party has become since it entered its Faustian Pact to form the Coalition Government. The main tag-line on the site is ‘Campaigning for a fresh start’. I couldn’t agree more.

We need a fresh start locally on the policies of the Borough and County Councils run by their Coalition partners, the Tories. We need a fresh start on cuts to our police, which are contributing to the worrying recent increase in crime; a fresh start on cuts to vital services which are penalising the vulnerable members of our community, damaging local services and leaving our streets dirtier. We need a fresh start on the threats to local health services at Hospital of St Cross.

Read more…

From today’s Advertiser: Chancellor George Osborne’s Budget ‘bad for Rugby’, says business pundit:

John Barr who runs TaxAssist Accountants in Rugby said: “We knew there was very little scope for the Chancellor, but this was not a Budget for sole traders and small firms across Rugby who are the backbone of the local community.

“The cut in corporation tax to 24 per cent only applies to firms with profits of over £300,000. The majority of small businesses will have nowhere near that figure, but there is no cut in the 20 per cent rate they pay.”

The headline Corporation Tax cut will not help most companies and businesses in Rugby or in the UK, but they will face a hike in business rates of 5.6%. A nationwide economic recovery will need to come from small to medium sized companies, not just rely on helping the largest companies and richest earners.

Labour Lord Steve Bassam kicked off the Rugby Labour elections campaign on Friday 19th when he visited Rugby market for a quick tour of the town centre and meeting local shoppers.

Lord Bassam in Rugby town centre

Steve is Labour’s Chief  Whip in the House of Lords, former Home Office Minister, and ex-Leader of Brighton Council so knows the local government scene extremely well.

Lord Bassam said, “It was a great opportunity to meet Rugby residents and talk about the Budget – especially the real shock that at such a difficult time, the government has chosen to fund tax cuts for the rich by taking it away from our pensioners.”

Letter to the local press from Rob McNally:

The Liberal Democrat-Conservative coalition government consistently tell us that cuts (not growth or investment) are essential to dealing with the deficit. As April 2012 approaches many people in Rugby ranging from hard working families to the young and elderly are likely to be hit hard. In contrast, nationally Liberal Democrats and Conservatives are planning to reward the wealthiest through projected tax cuts, cheap credit, banker’s bonuses and corporate tax concessions. Many of the people who got us into this mess are asked to act responsibly with our cash to kick-start the recovery. The assumption is that business always knows best and will act in the right way to provide jobs and opportunity for all.

Read more…