Wednesday 12 May 2010

My views on the Election & LibDem/Con Alliance

So what has the outcome of the election, hung parliament and subsequent LibDem/Conservative coalition got to do with living with HIV.
Everything is the answer 
Because with HIV government policies I believe will directly affect my life,and the lives of many other vulnerable, poor disabled , ill people especially in the area of Health care and social and other services, social care,  benefits,  Disability Living Allowance in particular and in so many other areas

I might as well post what I have written elsewhere as an explanation of my views:

I lived through the Thatcher years and the Labour government before that and through the hung parliament in between, as I am now 57

As a young person who left school at 15- in 1968 from then through most of my 20s I did unskilled labour until I went to 'night school ' and studied and eventually qualified as a teacher/youth worker I experienced low paid, often  manual work in very poor conditions in the 1970s
I then worked in the public sector as a professional youth and community worker worker from 1977 to 1986 in inner city London, both for the Local  Authority and then for a grant supported charity. Then in Cornwall from 1986 for Cornwall County Youth service, working with children from low income families and Cornwall as a very poor and rural Community was left reeling from the Thatcher years, even if you had a job etc living in Cornwall you suffered from poor services etc - we still do.

And so in London and Cornwall I saw first hand the devastation to lives that Thatcher policies caused to those of low incomes and to communities.

Yet at the same time there were those making a financial 'killing' out of it - hence the term Yuppies etc .

So if you were among the privileged who befitted financially under Maggie Thatchers  rule you probably never saw - and perhaps did not care?

............. what it was doing to those who were living on the knife edge of poverty or below to whom just a few pounds a week and loss of services made a huge difference to the vulnerable.

In my 20s I also lived through the civil unrest and strikes in London that preceded MT government, that led to piles of rubbish higher than our houses infested with rats, the 3 day week, power cuts, the dead not being buried etc - which to be fair started in a Labour reign but was made worse by a hung parliament as far as I recall.

Which led to the dawn of new Labour.

I was actually lucky - or not lucky as I worked very hard - to always have a job and while not a high earner I was always waged during all theses times and so while I saw what dire situations people were in as I worked throughout - even managed to keep my job during the 3 day week as a young person in my 20s - so I was also I guess privileged,

But I was never blind!

So if I look into the past governments I have directly experienced, New Labour did better in terms of the welfare of ordinary people and the disadvantaged than any. There is always room for improvement and I did not like what happened re the Iraq war and other things - but then the Cons would almost certainly have taken us into that war anyway -

But I dread a return of a Conservative gov far more than a Labour - I was hopping against all logic and hope for Lib Dems and am disappointed as I felt that LD combined with Lab might be a winning team to get it right

i.e get the balance that has up to this point been missing in our polarized party politics type governments.

Now all I can hope for is the presence of LibDems moderates what I know a Conservative government is capable of doing to the welfare of the vulnerable, disabled and poor

A group that I due to life events I now sadly now belong

So now I am not only going to see what happens first hand as a Youth and Community Worker. 
Now as a disabled person with a horrible virus called HIV  which affects my ability to work, I will experience what this government brings directly, and I find it very scary.

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