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| Welcome to the Rayleigh & Wickford Constituency Labour Party Website Following their review of parliamentary representation in Essex, the boundary commission for England has made significant alterations to existing constituencies to allow for the increase in parliamentary seats in the county to increase by one. The existing Rayleigh seat has been altered as a consequence of these changes. This website is designed so you the members can add your own local news and issues via the Contact Us section.
&  message from Gordon Brown Real help now. Real hope for the future.
I wanted to take this opportunity to set out our plans for 2009. The coming year won't be easy, but I am determined that this Labour government will be the rock of stability and fairness on which you can depend.
In 2008, the scale and speed of the global financial crisis was at times, almost overwhelming. I know that people felt bewildered and sometimes frightened. That is why the response had to be swift and decisive and why we acted so quickly to get money, into the banks. Not from any desire to finance bankers, but because if we didn't it would have put at risk that which is most important to you and me - your jobs, your homes, your savings, your standard of living.
I understand that families need real help now. Doing nothing is not an alternative. So we are increasing child benefit from January 1st to £20 per week and helping 22 million basic rate taxpayers with a £145 tax cut. Added to that, the cut in VAT this year will knock around £275 off the average family household bill.
To those worried about jobs, we will take every action we c an . For those worried about their homes, let me tell you that ordinary homeowners should not be the first to pay the price of financial failures - I am determined to help people trying their best to pay their mortgages to stay in their own homes.
And in 2009 - 100 years since the first Old Age Pensioners Act was introduced - we will ensure that pensioners are not left behind as they were in previous recessions:
- 12.5 million pensioners will benefit from a £60 rise, on top of the £10 Christmas bonus;
- the basic state pension will also rise by £4.55 per week;
- the Pension Credit will rise to £130 a week.
All of this follows the one-off increase in the Winter Fuel Allowance this winter of up to £400 for the over 80s.
That's what we mean by real help now, when you need it.
It is also important that we understand that amid the threats and the global risks there are also great opportunities for Britain. We must not just plan for tomorrow. Our task over the next twelve months is to build tomorrow today.
Alongside the economic challenge, in 2009 our tasks will be to meet the challenges of security and the environment. I believe we can do it if we act in partnership but not if we retreat into isolation. That's why I am looking forward to working with President Elect Obama to tackle climate change at the Copenhagen summit and, in April, when the leaders of the world's largest economies will come to London as part of the G20 meeting, I am determined that we work together to meet the challenges that face us all.
I am confident that we can steer Britain safely into the future. First, because I am confident in the innate strength, and decency of the British people. Second, because Britain as a country has faced down many even greater challenges than those before us today. And third, because this government has set challenges before and met them. I believe that we will eventually look back on the winter of 2008 and 2009 as another great global challenge that was thrown our way, and that Britain met because we had the right values, the right policies, the right character to meet them.
I believe this is the best country in the world. And I believe the British people will show exactly what they are made of in 2009 - as we build tomorrow today.
Gordon Brown
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40 things that make you proud to be Labour - Labour won the General Election in May 2005 with one of the biggest majorities in our history, and one of the biggest government majorities since the war.
- This generation of Labour supporters has seen our party in office for longer than any previous generation.
- The economy is providing more jobs than ever before. We have conquered youth unemployment.
- There are 2.5 million more people in work.
- We have the only European economy to avoid a recession in the last ten years.
We have the lowest interest rates since the 1970s. - The national minimum wage rises to £5.35 in October 2006. The Tories said it would cost one million jobs. It didn't.
- We've extended maternity leave to 26 weeks.
- Dads get paternity leave of 2 weeks for the first time.
- Everyone now has the legal right to four week’s paid holiday.
- We've introduced statutory rights for union recognition.Part-time workers have the same rights as full-time workers thanks to Labour.
- Over 1.6 million child trust fund accounts have been started by parents and friends of children who will benefit when they are 18.
- One million children have been lifted out of poverty since 1997.
- Over 400,000 children are being helped in over 500 Sure Start centres.
- British children have had the best ever GCSE and A level results; we've got over 36,000 more teachers and over 150,000 more teaching assistants in our schools.
- Average spending per pupil up by £1,420 in real terms.
- Pensioners aged over 75 get a free TV licence.
- Three and a half million pensioner households benefit. The Tories opposed it.
- Labour reduced VAT on fuel to 5 per cent. The Tories wanted it to be 17.5 per cent.
- Everyone over 60 can have a free eye test. The Tories scrapped free eye tests.
- By 2010, 70 per cent of women will be entitled to a full basic state pension, compared to 30 per cent now.
- There are more police on our streets than ever before, up 14,000 since 1997, and crime is falling overall, down 35 per cent.
- That means four million fewer victims of crime than under the Tories.
- With Labour, Britain will meet its Kyoto targets by reducing greenhouse gas emissions by nearly a quarter by 2010.
- By 2008, investment in the National Health Service will have trebled since 1997. The NHS is treating more people, with the lowest waiting lists, than ever before. And the overall NHS deficit is coming down.
- There are 85,000 more nurses and 32,000 more doctors in the NHS than in 1997.
- We're investing £1 billion in new hospital buildings for St Barts and the Royal London Hospitals, as part of our hospital building programme which has seen 132 new hospitals built or on the way.
- Under the Tories, only one new hospital was built.
- Cancer death rates down by 14 per cent, saving 43,000 lives under Labour.
- We're spending more than ever on international aid and development. It was falling under the Tories.
- We introduced Civil Partnerships, and hundreds of couples have tied the knot. We also scrapped Section 28.
- Under Labour we've seen the first Black Cabinet Ministers, and the largest number of BME Labour MPs. The Tories have two.
- Over 417,000 miners or their families have had compensation for industrial diseases.
- Free entry to museums has led to five million extra visits.
- The Good Friday Agreement has meant longer periods of peace and fewer deaths in Northern Ireland than for decades.
- Labour's London Mayor introduced the congestion charge to reduce traffic in the capital. It works.
- We've scrapped the majority of hereditary peers in the House of Lords, and we will continue to modernise the second chamber.
- We've seen a revival of our great cities, with Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, Belfast, Newcastle, Cardiff and the rest enjoying booming local economies, and lively culture and nightlife.
- Under the Tories, our cities were synonymous with unemployment and decline.
- Gift aid was worth £625 million to charities last year, thanks to Labour's budget.
- We will introduce a smoking ban in all enclosed spaces including pubs, restaurants and offices.
- We banned fox hunting. David Cameron spoke up for fox hunting in his maiden speech. The Tories want to re-introduce it.
- The Olympics are coming in 2012, bringing investment, jobs and pride to Britain.
This site is designed and run for the Rayleigh & Wickford CLP by Trevor Whitehead | |
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