UK Labor Party Election Campaign Launch

Richard Mellor

I don't know this woman with the working class accent, but a friend of mine who brought it to my attention said she was an actor in a British show that was popular when I was young and and still running apparently. It was called Coronation Street. This was in Manchester on May 9th.

Her name is Julie Hesmondhalgh.

Some friends were asking me about this manifesto, thee campaign the Labor Party is fighting on in the election. It will be released next week apparently, but some of it was leaked. Here is a summary from the Guardian:

• Respect the Brexit referendum result and give a meaningful vote on any deal to parliament. EU citizens living in the UK would have their rights guaranteed unilaterally. Theresa May’s Brexit white paper would be replaced with a plan that aims to retain the benefits of the customs union and single market.
• Bring parts of the energy industry into public ownership and introduce a local, socially owned energy firm in every area. Also introduce an “immediate emergency price cap” to make sure dual fuel bills stay below £1,000 a year.
• Nationalise the railways.
• Phase out tuition fees.
• Make more funds available for childcare and social care.
• Retain the Trident nuclear deterrent. A sentence from earlier drafts saying that a prime minister should be “extremely cautious” about using a weapon that would kill “millions of innocent civilians” has been removed.
• Place “peace, universal rights and international law” at the heart of foreign policy, while committing to spend 2% of GDP on defence, as required by Nato.
• Make zero-hours contracts illegal.
• Build 100,000 new council houses per year.
• Complete HS2 from London to Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester and Scotland.
• Borrow £250bn to invest in infrastructure but stick to the fiscal credibility rule to balance day-to-day spending. Also raise taxes for people earning more than £80,000 and reverse corporation and inheritance-tax cuts.
• Insulate homes of disabled veterans for free.
• Extend the right to abortion to Northern Ireland.
• Oppose a second Scottish referendum.
• Lower the voting age to 16.
• Employ 1,000 more border guards.
• End the badger cull, keep the fox-hunting ban and support a ban on wild animals in circuses, as well as protecting bees by banning neonicotinoids.
• Extend the Freedom of Information Act to private companies running public services.
• Review universal credit cuts with a view to reversing them.
• Recognise the benefit that immigrants have brought but introduce fair rules and reasonable management, working with employers that need to recruit from abroad but deterring exploitation.