GOSPORT LIBERAL
DEMOCRATS -
WORKING FOR YOU
ALL YEAR ROUND
DEMOCRATS -
ALL YEAR ROUND
Opinion from the Gosport Liberal Democrats
What do YOU think?
What are the key issues in Britain today? How are we going to tackle the key
challenges of the 21st century? What is the future for Gosport and local people?
Let us know your views! Contact us HERE
What are the key issues in Britain today? How are we going to tackle the key
challenges of the 21st century? What is the future for Gosport and local people?
Let us know your views! Contact us HERE
HOME I NEWS I VIGGERS I LOCAL ACTION I CAMPAIGNS I OPINION I FREE STUFF I CONTACT I LINKS
ALL YEAR ROUND!
e-libdems
Nick Clegg (left) with Shadow
Chancellor Vince Cable MP
Chancellor Vince Cable MP
What future for the NHS?
Superbugs. Waiting lists. A postcode lottery for vital drugs. What’s
wrong with the NHS? And what can we do about it?
The fact of the matter is that doctors and nurses – and patients – have lost control of our health service.
Too often decisions are taken to shut clinics, wards or entire hospitals, where nobody asked what local
people thought, or nobody listened to what they said following sham consultation. (Just think about
Haslar…).
Local people pay for the NHS, so we should shape how it is run – not Whitehall or unelected officials.
Local health boards should be elected and directly accountable to local people for their decisions.
With Britain’s ageing population, we need to plan how to guarantee care for elderly people. The
government should set up a fund specifically to cover the costs of personal care for those aged 65,
regardless of their ability to pay. We need to do away with the iniquity of charges for eye and dental
checks, and review the system of prescription charges.
Every citizen should have guaranteed access to a high standard of core healthcare entitlements within
maximum waiting times. To make sure that the NHS delivers, patients should have the right to receive
private treatment, paid for by the NHS, if the waiting time is not met.
The Government needs to be stopped from meddling in the NHS. Letting staff get on with their jobs will
lead to shorter waiting times, cleaner hospitals and more personalised care.
There should be more emphasis on helping people to stay healthy, and tackling inequalities that
contribute to poor health. People should have easy access to the information and opportunities to make
healthy choices, for example through clearer food and alcohol labelling. A national health policy should
include policies to tackle wider problems contributing to health inequality such as poverty, poor housing
and poor environment.
The dental care crisis also needs urgent attention. The government should act to create incentives for
dentists to treat patients in the greatest need. The performance of our dentists should be monitored to
ensure that standards are kept high.
Britain’s National Health Service used to be the envy of the world. We need to act to ensure it
doesn’t become a laughing stock – and to restore its standing, and standards.
Can we make Britain’s streets safe?
Britain isn’t safe enough. Our prisons
are bursting, town centres can be
no-go areas at night, and we have
real problems with drugs and alcohol.
Victims have little say in how offenders should pay for their crimes. The police are bogged down in red
tape for the police, and prisoners don’t compensate their victims.
How can we cut crime, tackle reoffending, and put the ‘justice’ back into the criminal justice system?
We should start by putting another 10,000 police officers on the street (paid for by scrapping the
ludicrous ID card scheme). Police forces should be made accountable to elected authorities which are
able to defend local priorities, set budgets and vary taxes where necessary.
Local communities should have the power to tackle minor cases of anti-social behaviour through new
community panels where offenders have to make amends to victims and communities through visible
community sentences.
We need to make prison work for victims. Prison sentences should include compulsory rehabilitation,
training and paid work in prison, including a scheme in which a proportion of money earned will be paid
into a common fund for victims. Prison-based work schemes should be expanded to provide previous
offenders with realistic alternatives to crime, easing the pressure on the prison service and on the
British tax payer.
Resources should be allocated to new secure mental health and drug treatment centres.
To help root out gun crime, Britain needs a 24–hour border force incorporating immigration, customs and
police at all UK ports to stop the influx of guns onto our streets. Local authorities and police should be
given real power to tackle gun and gang crime locally.
We need firm but fair policies on immigration and refugees. The UK needs an integrated border police
force bringing back entry and exit controls to monitor movement in and out of Britain. Running
immigration and asylum services fairly and efficiently will help ensure that all migrants pay their way
through taxes, and cut the number who work illegally or who turn to crime.
It’s time to make Britain’s streets safe again. It’s time to tackle the real issues, and implement
policies that will actually work.
We need to make pensions
and benefits FAIRER
The current pension system is unfair - the basic state pension is
too low and it discriminates against women and carers who take
time out of work. Over two million pensioners live in poverty in the
UK today and 2 out of 3 of pensioners are forced to claim benefits
to make ends meet. We need to immediately restore the earnings
link to the state pension so that pensioners share in the growing
wealth of the nation.
People looking for work should be helped to get and keep jobs that can give them a decent standard of
living, and we need to ensure that no-one already in work lives in poverty. The Tax Credits system needs
to be reformed in order to end the unpredictability of the system which has left millions of families
struggling to make repayments for the Government's mistakes.
The “New Deal” puts too many people on unnecessary or ineffective employment schemes rather than
into real jobs. Jobseekers should get the package of support they need to get back into sustainable
employment.
Severely disabled people of working age should receive help with their fuel bills by giving them the same
£200 a year Winter Fuel Payment that pensioners receive.
Over 5 million households live in fuel poverty. If we are to improve the lives of the poorest in society, we
must reduce fuel costs by improving energy efficiency. This will also play a major role in reducing the
UK’s carbon dioxide emissions. Home insulation should be subsidised in order to cut heating costs.
Energy utility companies should be stopped from penalising the poor – we need to end differential
pricing and increasing social tariffs.
Reform of the pensions and benefits system is long overdue. With the growing economic crisis,
it is imperative the government acts now to protect the most vulnerable members of society.
Superbugs. Waiting lists. A postcode lottery for vital drugs. What’s
wrong with the NHS? And what can we do about it?
The fact of the matter is that doctors and nurses – and patients – have lost control of our health service.
Too often decisions are taken to shut clinics, wards or entire hospitals, where nobody asked what local
people thought, or nobody listened to what they said following sham consultation. (Just think about
Haslar…).
Local people pay for the NHS, so we should shape how it is run – not Whitehall or unelected officials.
Local health boards should be elected and directly accountable to local people for their decisions.
With Britain’s ageing population, we need to plan how to guarantee care for elderly people. The
government should set up a fund specifically to cover the costs of personal care for those aged 65,
regardless of their ability to pay. We need to do away with the iniquity of charges for eye and dental
checks, and review the system of prescription charges.
Every citizen should have guaranteed access to a high standard of core healthcare entitlements within
maximum waiting times. To make sure that the NHS delivers, patients should have the right to receive
private treatment, paid for by the NHS, if the waiting time is not met.
The Government needs to be stopped from meddling in the NHS. Letting staff get on with their jobs will
lead to shorter waiting times, cleaner hospitals and more personalised care.
There should be more emphasis on helping people to stay healthy, and tackling inequalities that
contribute to poor health. People should have easy access to the information and opportunities to make
healthy choices, for example through clearer food and alcohol labelling. A national health policy should
include policies to tackle wider problems contributing to health inequality such as poverty, poor housing
and poor environment.
The dental care crisis also needs urgent attention. The government should act to create incentives for
dentists to treat patients in the greatest need. The performance of our dentists should be monitored to
ensure that standards are kept high.
Britain’s National Health Service used to be the envy of the world. We need to act to ensure it
doesn’t become a laughing stock – and to restore its standing, and standards.
Can we make Britain’s streets safe?
Britain isn’t safe enough. Our prisons
are bursting, town centres can be
no-
Victims have little say in how offenders should pay for their crimes. The police are bogged down in red
tape for the police, and prisoners don’t compensate their victims.
How can we cut crime, tackle reoffending, and put the ‘justice’ back into the criminal justice system?
We should start by putting another 10,000 police officers on the street (paid for by scrapping the
ludicrous ID card scheme). Police forces should be made accountable to elected authorities which are
able to defend local priorities, set budgets and vary taxes where necessary.
Local communities should have the power to tackle minor cases of anti-
community sentences.
We need to make prison work for victims. Prison sentences should include compulsory rehabilitation,
training and paid work in prison, including a scheme in which a proportion of money earned will be paid
into a common fund for victims. Prison-
British tax payer.
Resources should be allocated to new secure mental health and drug treatment centres.
To help root out gun crime, Britain needs a 24–hour border force incorporating immigration, customs and
police at all UK ports to stop the influx of guns onto our streets. Local authorities and police should be
given real power to tackle gun and gang crime locally.
We need firm but fair policies on immigration and refugees. The UK needs an integrated border police
force bringing back entry and exit controls to monitor movement in and out of Britain. Running
immigration and asylum services fairly and efficiently will help ensure that all migrants pay their way
through taxes, and cut the number who work illegally or who turn to crime.
It’s time to make Britain’s streets safe again. It’s time to tackle the real issues, and implement
policies that will actually work.
We need to make pensions
and benefits FAIRER
The current pension system is unfair -
time out of work. Over two million pensioners live in poverty in the
UK today and 2 out of 3 of pensioners are forced to claim benefits
to make ends meet. We need to immediately restore the earnings
link to the state pension so that pensioners share in the growing
wealth of the nation.
People looking for work should be helped to get and keep jobs that can give them a decent standard of
living, and we need to ensure that no-
struggling to make repayments for the Government's mistakes.
The “New Deal” puts too many people on unnecessary or ineffective employment schemes rather than
into real jobs. Jobseekers should get the package of support they need to get back into sustainable
employment.
Severely disabled people of working age should receive help with their fuel bills by giving them the same
£200 a year Winter Fuel Payment that pensioners receive.
Over 5 million households live in fuel poverty. If we are to improve the lives of the poorest in society, we
must reduce fuel costs by improving energy efficiency. This will also play a major role in reducing the
UK’s carbon dioxide emissions. Home insulation should be subsidised in order to cut heating costs.
Energy utility companies should be stopped from penalising the poor – we need to end differential
pricing and increasing social tariffs.
Reform of the pensions and benefits system is long overdue. With the growing economic crisis,
it is imperative the government acts now to protect the most vulnerable members of society.
Britain only invaded Iraq because MPs
voted for it. Liberal Democrat MPs were
unanimous in their opposition to this
Intervention.
Five years on, over 170 British servicemen &
women have been killed in Iraq, along with
hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians.
IRAQ: Hold Them to Account
