Campaigning starts early as Labour MP lends support in Swindon

12:20pm Friday 11th January 2013 in News

showing support Labour’s shadow communities secretary Hilary Benn MP (centre left) visits Swindon to support Coun Mark Dempsey Buy this photo » showing support Labour’s shadow communities secretary Hilary Benn MP (centre left) visits Swindon to support Coun Mark Dempsey

LABOUR fired the opening shots in the battle for the North Swindon parliamentary seat when shadow cabinet minister, Hilary Benn, visited Abbey Meads to support candidate Mark Dempsey.

North Swindon is one of the 106 battleground seats announced this week where Labour will be focusing its efforts to secure a working majority in Government at the next General Election.

Yesterday the MP, shadow secretary of state for communities and local government, met Coun Dempsey and other Labour activists outside Abbey Meads Primary School to speak to families about the effects they are feeling from the national spending cuts.

Mr Benn said: “North Swindon is important for us because we’re fighting hard to win here.

“We want to win the people’s trust and confidence and get a Labour Government elected. It’s about persuading people that what the Government is doing is wrong, it’s unfair and it’s not working.”

Coun Dempsey said hard-working families were finding life financially harder while millionaires were getting tax cut.

“The support from Westminster is brilliant,” he said.

“It’s great to have Hilary here. We’re already campaigning hard in North Swindon and with a clear vision for the future of Swindon on issues that people care about.”

Comments(19)

The Real Librarian says...
12:57pm Fri 11 Jan 13

More lies from the party of lies.

Point 1. Cuts are being made to address Labour's 13 years of incontinent overspending.

Point 2. Labour, if in power, would be cutting too. Just as much as the coalition.

Point 3. The cuts arent enough.

there’s a formula doing the rounds on the internet that was originally designed to help Americans understand their own ‘fiscal cliff’.It relates the U.S. Federal Government finances to a typical household budget. I’ve adapted it to Britain, using data for 2011-2012, the last full financial year available.The figures come from the BBC and Guardian websites, so no one can accuse me of being biased. 
UK tax revenues £550,600,000,000
Spending £694,890,000,000
New borrowing £117,500,000,000
Outstanding debt £1,312,100,000,000
Spending cuts £11,000,000,000

ow take off seven zeros and pretend it’s a household budget.
Annual family income £55,060
Annual family spending £69,489
New debt on credit card £11,750
Outstanding credit card balance £131,210
Family spending cuts £1,100
Still think those cuts are ‘savage’?

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keyboardcapers says...
1:25pm Fri 11 Jan 13

The Labour party had every opportunity to do all the things that they now claim that they would do if they got back into power - but they didn’t do any of those things and as a result they lost power.

In fact they left the incoming coalition with an enormous national debt which has been the cause of the limitations in what they have been able to achieve in the past couple of years.

If they come clean and admit to all of Mr Brown and his cohorts failings as a first step to beginning to rebuild trust in the Labour party’s philosophy then they may have a chance.

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StillPav says...
1:38pm Fri 11 Jan 13

Excellent analogy The Real Librarian.

Just to re-iterate, "New debt on credit card £11,750" this is PER YEAR every year.

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Tim Newroman says...
1:44pm Fri 11 Jan 13

The 'ordinary, hard working families' that are currently 'paying the price for failure' are doing so because of the abysmal policies of the Blair and Brown Labour governments.

There's really no point going over the lengthy list of things they got so badly wrong, because those who don't realise and accept the failures are the type who will always vote Labour regardless of the disastrous state they always leave the nation in.

The most worrying thing is that the Labour party still don't appear to realise that they spent all the money and borrowed us into massive debt in order to, barely, keep things afloat when they were in office.

Due to their social engineering, uncontrolled immigration and the enslaving of the nation to benefits, the way democracy works means that Labour are guaranteed to win the next general election.

When they do, it will be the final demise of this country. Our credit rating will drop, interest repayments will increase and nobody will lend to us. There will be nothing to pay for our out of control welfare bill and the salaries of our massive public sector. We will, in effect, become the new Greece.

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house on the hill says...
2:46pm Fri 11 Jan 13

Ultimately all as useless as each other in reality. Cant see it getting better anytime soon.

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peatmoor pirate says...
3:35pm Fri 11 Jan 13

The Real Librarian wrote:
More lies from the party of lies.

Point 1. Cuts are being made to address Labour's 13 years of incontinent overspending.

Point 2. Labour, if in power, would be cutting too. Just as much as the coalition.

Point 3. The cuts arent enough.

there’s a formula doing the rounds on the internet that was originally designed to help Americans understand their own ‘fiscal cliff’.It relates the U.S. Federal Government finances to a typical household budget. I’ve adapted it to Britain, using data for 2011-2012, the last full financial year available.The figures come from the BBC and Guardian websites, so no one can accuse me of being biased. 
UK tax revenues £550,600,000,000
Spending £694,890,000,000
New borrowing £117,500,000,000
Outstanding debt £1,312,100,000,000
Spending cuts £11,000,000,000

ow take off seven zeros and pretend it’s a household budget.
Annual family income £55,060
Annual family spending £69,489
New debt on credit card £11,750
Outstanding credit card balance £131,210
Family spending cuts £1,100
Still think those cuts are ‘savage’?
Scary stuff but it does put the reality of the situation into clearer sight. The trouble with Labour is they oppose every cut but do not say where the money should come from. I'd have more sympathy for them if they were advocating true socialism and a fundamental change/revolution but as far as I can tell their answer is higher taxes and or more national debt which will become increasingly expensive to borrow making the problem worse and worse until we are in the situation of Greece or Spain etc.
Depressing isn't it.

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Tim Newroman says...
6:33pm Fri 11 Jan 13

house on the hill wrote:
Ultimately all as useless as each other in reality. Cant see it getting better anytime soon.
To some extent, yes. However, the big problem is that we've not actually seen a proper alternative to Labour.

The coalition has meant that the Lib Dems - who virtually nobody supports anymore - have been able to block and water down anything worthwhile so we've ended up with something not very far removed from what the hopeless Labour party would do.

There are chinks and glimmers of hope, but it's happening too slowly and is all too wishy-washy.

Which is a shame, as Labour will be back in government in a little over 2 years.

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LordAshOfTheBrake says...
8:26pm Fri 11 Jan 13

I saw the American version of the formula going around a few months ago before the US elections. It puts how little politicians care about debt into perspective. All sides are only really interested in getting 4 more years. I think most western countries are in the same position.

One of the other big changes to happen under the Labour governments was to pull so many people into the benefits trap, to make them believe they were entitled. Changing mentality is virtually impossible. You only have to look at some of the comments on the child benefit changes to realise that. Whilst the implementation of it should have been fairer (household rather than individual etc); it doesn't change the fact that households on 50k plus shouldn't really need the money. Yes, its nice to have, but need! Many people were claiming it would ruin their lives and make drastic changes to their lifestyles.... Really! Perhaps they need to review their spending.

Its quite amusing to see Labour making claims about this and that; how things should have been done when they has over 10 years in power and simply spent more and more during good times and bad to the point where the levels of debt are simply incomprehensible!

Perspective has been lost across the board.

I'm in agreement with Tim, I also think Labour will get a massive victory in the next election.

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Empty Car Park says...
7:05am Sat 12 Jan 13

Things certainly need to change

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Tim Newroman says...
9:02am Sat 12 Jan 13

Empty Car Park wrote:
Things certainly need to change
But this is the problem, they can't change. Labour took the nation down a one-way street over their last period in office. As others have pointed out, once you create a situation where 53% of the country takes from the state more than they contribute (as is now the case in the UK), democracy means that only a party that keeps shovelling out the benefits can win a general election.

Couple this with uncontrolled immigration - where people who have contributed nothing gain immediate access to tens of thousands of pounds worth of benefits and free healthcare every year - and the situation is made even more dire.

The nation has no money. Pretending that 'making the bankers pay more' or 'getting Starbucks to pay more' is going to somehow change the situation is naive and laughable at best and just plain ignorant and cynical at worst.

It's over. We cannot afford our welfare bill anymore. It's easily the biggest element of the government's budget and it's growing ever larger (and will continue to). Wait until around 2 million Romanian and Bulgarians arrive here in December, oh dear.

If you think Labour will 'change' anything, you're sadly misguided. They had 3 terms in office that ended less than 3 year ago... and they're the ones that created the mess that we're now enduring. They won't 'change' anything at all, they will simply return to the failed policies that ruined the country.

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Empty Car Park says...
9:55am Sat 12 Jan 13

Change the record.
13 years of Labour Blah Blah Blah.

No point in just accepting the current situation

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Tim Newroman says...
11:20am Sat 12 Jan 13

Empty Car Park wrote:
Change the record.
13 years of Labour Blah Blah Blah.

No point in just accepting the current situation
'The current situation' that was, of course, created by the '13 years of Labour' that you seem very, very keen to try and deflect and distract people from remembering.

Why is that?

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RichardR1 says...
11:47am Sat 12 Jan 13

Reality is we have an electoral system that very few now vote in because the status quo never changes, however I think the changing dynamic of UK politics is showing people have had enough of Public School boy Government from both sides of the political spectrum.

The total stupidity of the welfare reforms, however needed, have shown how out of touch with reality politicians are. Child benefit is just one case in point, a couple can earn £98k and get it, but a single earner on £60k can't, how insane is that.

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Tim Newroman says...
12:00pm Sat 12 Jan 13


Child benefit is just one case in point, a couple can earn £98k and get it, but a single earner on £60k can't, how insane is that.

Actually, it's not as daft as it first appears. Apply a little thought and it's fairly easy to see why the policy does make sense.

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1 2 Could B says...
2:24pm Sat 12 Jan 13

I lost patience with the previous Labour administration at SBC

My wife and I are fully signed up Conservative members.

However, the money wasted by the present council cabinet has to stop.

Regretably I have to agree it's time for change

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Tim Newroman says...
3:08pm Sat 12 Jan 13

1 2 Could B wrote:
I lost patience with the previous Labour administration at SBC

My wife and I are fully signed up Conservative members.

However, the money wasted by the present council cabinet has to stop.

Regretably I have to agree it's time for change
You're agreeing with yourself, Empty Car Park? Hardly a surprise.

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house on the hill says...
4:28pm Sat 12 Jan 13

All these comments about "time to change" but change to what? Going back to Labour will just be same old same old, so no change at all. As I said earlier, ultimately they all mess it up whichever party is in charge, if they didnt then the other side would never get in.

The electiral system is actually a complete joke, Ok so we fet to vote once every 5 years, but one voted in the party in power can throw away the manifesto they were elected on and do what they want how is that democracy? How many people voted for a coalition? I think that would be none!

Most polititcians dont seem to know what they are doing and as Lord Ash said are actually more concerned about getting elected than actually diong anything to help the country. Most people dont bother to vote because there isnt a party worth votoing for!

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Still About says...
8:54pm Sat 12 Jan 13

Tim Newroman wrote:
1 2 Could B wrote:
I lost patience with the previous Labour administration at SBC

My wife and I are fully signed up Conservative members.

However, the money wasted by the present council cabinet has to stop.

Regretably I have to agree it's time for change
You're agreeing with yourself, Empty Car Park? Hardly a surprise.
Looks like Olive has a new login

Shame you can't get a new repertoire to go with it

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house on the hill says...
4:48pm Sun 13 Jan 13

!!!!RichardR1 says...
11:47am Sat 12 Jan 13

The total stupidity of the welfare reforms, however needed, have shown how out of touch with reality politicians are. Child benefit is just one case in point, a couple can earn £98k and get it, but a single earner on £60k can't, how insane is that.”"""

what is actually insane is that this has never been done before. People on that sort of money wont even notice the difference, it is a very small percentage of their income. Why are we paying benefits to those who clearly dont need it? Probably the same reason we continue to pay benefits to those who dont deserve it and have never contributed a penny to the economy of this county and have it as a lifestyle choice!

Reforms are needed but fair understandable ones that look after those in real need and never make it pay not to work by choice. If we dont our welfare bill (coupled with the idiotic immigration policy) will ultimately destroy us and we will join greece

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