“Are we the baddies?”

I’ve written before about the Labour Party’s sheer hypocrisy and crocodile tears, how they say one thing in public but do something completely different.

I was reminded of this again reading the article in the Daily Post from Ken Skates AM and Susan Elan Jones MP regarding an increase in discretionary housing payments because people couldn’t afford to pay the rent.

But this takes the biscuit: (Ken Skates, Labour AM, says:) “The savage cuts made by the Tory-led UK Government through its crippling austerity programme are really hurting people here in Clwyd South and across Wales”.

Reading this you’d think that his party were against austerity. But they’re not. His party would continue with the Tories austerity programme.

Ed Miliband:

So when George Osborne stands up next week and announces his cuts in day-to-day spending, we won’t be able to promise now to reverse them

Ed Balls, Shadow Chancellor:

We will be cutting departmental spending in 2015-16 and not raising it, with no more borrowing to cover day-to-day spending

I know many Labour Party members and supporters, and, the ones I know at least, are generally nice people, wanting to see a better, fairer society. The gap is between them and their leaders, it seems. This is not the first time that Ken Skates and Susan Elan Jones have made similar utterances of empathy with those that are suffering due to austerity. It’s as if they are too naïve to realise that they are senior members of a party that’s part of the problem! They keep thinking that the Tories are the baddies, while they’re the caped crusaders, without realising that there’s no difference between them.

When I mentioned this to a good friend yesterday he sniggered and said it reminded him of a brilliant sketch by Mitchell and Webb, the Nazi Sketch. He’s absolutely right. Have a look, and you’ll immediately see what he means:

Here’s my letter to the paper in reply:

Dear Editor

It’s a terrible indictment of the Westminster Government that Wrexham Council has seen a 2,000% rise in the number of residents seeking financial support to pay their rent (Daily Post, 26.08.2014). The UK is the fifth-largest economy in the world and is one of only a handful of countries who can afford to be a member of the nuclear arsenal club. Yet we can’t afford to secure decent housing for those in need.

What makes the story even more galling is that Ken Skates, Labour AM, says: “The savage cuts made by the Tory-led UK Government through its crippling austerity programme are really hurting people here in Clwyd South and across Wales”.

The duplicity of the Labour Party knows no bounds. Miliband and Balls have publicly stated that a Labour Government would continue with the Tories austerity agenda if elected next year. Make no mistake, under Labour, the cuts would continue and we would see more people seeking Discretionary Housing Payments and assistance from Foodbanks.

The lesson? Don’t believe a Labour politician. They will say one thing to win votes and do something very different when back in power. In truth, there’s hardly a fag paper between Labour and the Conservatives, and they will always put their own interests first. Vote Labour, get Tory.

Plaid Cymru rejects austerity; it is a deliberate Government policy that has made rich people richer and the vast majority of us worse off. Both Tory and Labour have bought into this.

There is an alternative to this reactionary agenda. Plaid Cymru’s priority is investing in people and communities, not in Weapons of Mass Destruction or White Elephant projects such as HS2 to benefit a few multi-millionaires.

Sincerely