What I would like to see in the UK after May 6
Some priorities…
A redistribution of wealth to alleviate poverty and ensure a programme of improvement in essential services
Vigorous action to avoid exposing this and future generations to the environmental ravages of climate change
Increased but well managed investment in the NHS to ensure equal access and quality care
Addressing inequalities includes making care of the elderly a key priority. Winter fuel payments, free bus passes, TV licences, and pension credits must be acknowledged as significant achievements and must not be abandoned
A new emphasis in foreign policy on disarmament and tackling world poverty through fair trade
Immigration policy based on the recognition of human dignity and its inalienable rights within a legal framework.
So how will I vote?
My constituency ,Battersea, has the smallest Labour majority in the country. I shall be casting my ‘progressive vote’ for the re-election of our hard-working and uncorrupted Labour MP, Martin Linton in the hope that the country as a whole will vote in favour of a Labour/Lib Dem coalition as the government most likely to be sensitive to our interdependence and mutual responsibility for one another’s dignity- the common good.
(In formulating my thoughts, I have been guided by history, and the very helpful analysis by Jonathan Tulloch of the pledges made by the three main parties and their consideration in the context of Catholic social teaching in this week’s issue of The Tablet.)
Jimmy, you missed out the liberals attitude to penal policy, education, and reform of our electoral system which I think gives them the edge over labour: Less prisons and smaller class sizes, and the end of the big parties being able to gerrymander their majorities by shifting electoral boundaries when they are in power.