Youth Unemployment Hits Million Mark. Jarrow Youth March

Cliff Dixon said:

Good evening John. I would be interested to hear your answers to my previous questions regarding the funding of Scottish students and the lack of funding of English students, which are as yet unanswered. You have prided yourself on campaigning for the oppressed and discriminated against during your political career, but have not commented on this blatant discrimination against the English, despite being MP for an English constituency.You have stated that we are the sixth richest country in the world, so can afford free education for our citizens - So why do Scottish MP’s have this luxury for their students and we don’t have it for ours?You have already said you are against tuition fees, yet we have them due to legislation passed during 13 years of Labour party government.You were also lucky enough to benefit from a grammar school education, yet whilst in power your party denied the same education to bright working class children, instead throwing them on the lottery of the comprehensive system.
We now truly have a two tier system, where those who can afford to pay can have their children educated at the best schools, whilst those who can’t are denied the opportunity that yourself and your working class colleagues in the Labour party benefitted from. We even had the grotesque situation where Diane Abbott told her constituents that state schools were brilliant, but had her own children educated at private school outside her own constituency.
I truly despair of our once excellent state education system. We are looking at 30% increases in class sizes at primary school brought on by mass immigration that was never planned for, then the secondary schools push children towards whatever subjects will get the best grades to push them up the rankings table rather than those that will equip the children for a life beyond education in the workplace. Finally, we have university - Tony Blair wanted 50% of all of our young people to go to them, placing unnecessary strain on funding and ruining the status of the degree in the outside world.I regularly speak with students who despair of getting a job in their chosen field when they leave Uni, because there is an uneven balance towards the subjects that attain better ‘pass’ grades for schools.
Our children are the future of our country, and thirty years of ‘trendy’ teaching and Labour introduced ‘league tables’ have destroyed that future.
With this in mind, how would you change things to benefit the Jarrow marchers you are supporting?

March 24, 2011 at 0:13

John McDonnell said:

Bryan,
First of all, I live and have lived in Hayes for nearly 40 years so don’t try that one. I live in Townfield ward, the most deprived ward in the area. Secondly, you have fallen for every con that the system uses to divide working people against one another. There is enough money in this country to ensure that everyone has a decent job, a good and affordable home,free education and good quality public services. The issue is how those resources are distributed and used. If we had a fair tax system, stopped the tax evasion and avoidance by corporations that is costing this country £150 billion a year in lost income, we could afford most of these things and put people back to work. In work people need basic trade union rights to protect them and give them a say at work over their future. Have a look at the websitesof the Labour Representation Committee and the Left Economics Advisory Panel before your next rant. And please watch your language on this site as many school children and other students refer to the site for their class studies on local issues and civics. Cheers.

March 23, 2011 at 10:55

Bryan Tomlinson said:

Dear John, I’m with Cliff on this one. I’m disgusted that you put your personal ideology before the needs of your constituents. You’re not a student anymore and you need to stop worrying about the rest of the world’s poor and look at the millions of people struggling in England. I voted Labour at 2 elections as i believed they were the workers party. THEY’VE DONE MORE DAMAGE TO BRITISH WORKERS THAN THATCHER EVER DID AND THE UNIONS SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES TOO!!
When you cry your crocodile tears for the young unemployed think of this equation. During Labour’s years in power they encouraged 4 million legal workers and up to 2 million illegal workers (who really know’s, could be double)to come to England. Now we have 2 to 3 million unemployed and 2 to 3 million that are on sickness or incapacity benefits which pay more not to work.Under 17s can’t sign on so add them too.
John, your job is safe for ever. The Labour vote in Hayes is now only those who rely on Labour’s welfare dependency culture and the new cheap foreign workers that have arrived. Must be over 20,000 in total so well done you. 
The Labour Party will not get my vote and i will always remind people of the damage that Labour do to working people. Milliband is the product of Marxist millionaire parents. I know his politics, high up in Primnrose Hill looking down on us poor people scratching around for a living. Expecting us to be ever thankful for low wages or meagre benefits. How very Oliver! If we’re not thankful enough, the rich will cast us on the scrapheap and use them nice cheaper foreign folk instead.
England is changing John. People like Cliff and myself are being heard and now only dopey northerners believe Labour’s self serving bullshit. The BBC has allowed me to speak on 5Live to 3 million listeners and that gives courage to others that care about our great country.The contempt that Labour have for English workers is now no secret so you better pull your finger out before you and your ghetto are left behind.
  I live in Hayes do you?  Thanks, Bryan

March 23, 2011 at 9:48

Cliff Dixon said:

John - You support the democratic right of Wales & Scotland to determine their own education policies, and say that you wish England had done the same. The difference is that both these countries have their own assemblies/parliaments who vote on these issues - England does not. We have a ‘British’ parliament, with Scots, Welsh and Irish MP’s who vote on English issues, whilst the devolved nations vote on their own arrangements and receive subsidy from England to support their decisions, whilst we have no say in this.The House of Lords reported in 2009 that the devolved nations receive £49 billion of English taxpayers money every year to support their spending policies, yet the English have no say in this - Hence the free prescriptions, top up fees and elderly care in all parts of the UK except England!
Your comments about foreign workers overlook the basic tenets of what is currently wrong in this country - Foreign workers live 7 or 8 to a house to save money, and then are exploited by the management to undercut the indigenous workers who can’t afford to do the jobs at these rates and pay the taxes levied by the state. How can an English family man pay £1500 per month in rent and taxes to survive (As there is no council housing left, and you can’t get a mortgage on a 3 bed house in Hayes from scratch if you are earning less than £60k per year) and compete against an immigrant splitting the same bills with no family commitments 6 ways? The immigrant gets exploited and the Englishman gets undercut. That is why there are so many on the dole, it is not due to laziness, and your much vaunted trade unions are demonstrating on behalf of your political party who have exacerbated the problem.

March 22, 2011 at 22:36

John McDonnell said:

I opposed tuition fees under both New Labour and this Government. We are the 6th richest country in the world and can afford to send our children on to higher education without fees. I support the democratic right of Wales and Scotland to determine their own education policies and just wish Englnad had followed the same policies. I also support the right of workers to travel the world to work to improve their lot just as so many of the population of this country have done for generations but I also believe that employers should not be allowed to exploit any worker by using other workers to undercut wages. That is why I support trade union rights and the development of free collective bargaining so that all workers are protected by the establishment and enforcement of collective wage agreements.

March 22, 2011 at 12:35

Cliff Dixon said:

John - I too, as stepfather to 2 teenage children, am very concerned about their ability to gain employment. My 17 year old stepson is classed as a ‘NEET’, and now sees the Connexions service in Uxbridge which is assisting him in trying to find employment axed under the cuts. However, I am in a bit of a quandary over your support for the march based on what your party has done whilst in government over the past 13 years before the coalition came in as follows -
1 - The Labour Party introduced tuition fees for students in England.

2 - The Labour party effectively ended the UK by their devolution policies - Policies which have now led to young people in England being charged £9k per year in university top up fees, whilst their counterparts in Scotland pay nothing, and the Welsh and Ulster students pay significantly less.

3 - Labour opened the door to mass immigration, to the extent that we now have Eastern Europeans coming in to England and taking the jobs that our school leavers used to do to build experience on their CV’s to move on. This is not the fault of the immigrants, but the fault of the government who have overseen employers taking on cheap labour at the expense of local communities to bolster their profit sheets. This was all done on the watch of the political party that you are a member of, and continues under the ConDem coalition.

Your thoughts on this please?

March 20, 2011 at 17:23