For two weeks Leeds for Change members voted for the top questions they wanted to ask candidates and the public in the run up to this year’s general election. Some of the questions came really close, but these are the issues you most want to raise in 2015.
A really massive thank you to everyone who proposed questions, got people voting, took part in the Thunderclap and of course – voted!
This really is just the beginning. Now we’ve got these brilliant ten questions we can start creating resources to get them out there in the world, and start getting candidates to answer them! If you’d like to ask the candidates in your area to take part in the Fair Ten Challenge, get in touch at info@leedstidal.org and we’ll let you know soon how to do it.
1. Keep The NHS Public (75%)
The draft NHS Reinstatement Bill would reinstate the government’s legal duty to provide the NHS in England, abolish competition, abolish the purchaser-provider split, re-establish public bodies and public accountability and restrict the role of commercial companies. If you are elected as an MP would you, like David Owen, support Allyson Pollock and Peter Broderick’s draft NHS Reinstatement Bill and help to get it included in the first Queen’s Speech after the election?
2. Vote Against TTIP (72%)
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and its sister treaties the Canada Europe Trade Agreement (CETA) and the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) are a direct threat to democratic accountability, workers rights, public services and our much needed food safety and environmental standards. Will you vote against these treaties, regardless of whether ISDS protections are removed and public services explicitly exempt from the deals?
3. Fair Asylum Decisions (71%)
25% of negative decisions on asylum claims are overturned at appeal, suggesting a flawed process of initial decision making. Recent changes also mean access to legal aid after an initial refusal becomes severely limited, and people can be left destitute, detained, or even forcibly removed if they are not able to submit their right to appeal within a strict time frame. Would you be prepared to contact the Home Secretary to push for improved decision making within the asylum system, so that fair decisions are made the first time?
4. Trident Replacement (69%)
The largest public spending decision of the next Parliament will be whether to replace Trident, a nuclear weapons system with the power to kill millions of civilians and whose use has been declared internationally illegal. The £100 billion of public money could instead quadruple UK investment in renewable energy, resolve the current funding crisis in our NHS or abolish student tuition fees for the next 30 years. The vote will be held next year. If elected as MP, will you be voting against Trident replacement?
5. Climate Change (69%)
Climate Change is the biggest threat facing our society. It will generate flooding and loss of land, food and water shortages, disease, massive displacement of people and war. It is caused primarily by human activity. Will you commit to creating a carbon neutral Britain by 2050 and commit to legislation with a mandatory pro rata shift each year towards the achievement of this goal?
6. Housing And Rents (67%)
The chronic shortage of social housing combined with soaring private sector rents and swingeing cuts and sanctions to benefits are resulting in soaring rates of homelessness. Will you fight to establish rent controls and guarantee benefit levels adequate to cover housing costs; force absentee landlords to either let or sell their empty homes to councils; prevent the sell-off of social housing to the private sector; and invest in a massive publicly-funded programme to increase the stock of affordable and well-constructed social housing?
7. Robin Hood Tax (66%)
A ‘Robin Hood Tax’ of 0.05% on speculative banking transactions would raise hundreds of billions of pounds around the world. This could be used to tackle the damaging affects of climate change and help to alleviate poverty in the UK and abroad. Will you pro-actively support the introduction of the Robin Hood Tax, including in any future votes in Parliament and by signing any relevant Early Day Motions that are tabled?
8. Benefit Sanctions (66%)
The inhumane regime of sanctions against claimants of JSA and in the Work-Related Activities Group of ESA is causing misery and hardship to huge numbers of the country’s poorest. Sanctioning is also contributing to the burgeoning problem of in-work poverty, by forcing jobseekers to accept low pay and poor conditions of employment. Will you fight to outlaw the removal of benefits from the unemployed, sick and disabled, and to reverse the encroachment of sanctions-backed conditionality into in-work benefits through Universal Credit?
9. Fracking Ban (63%)
Fracking (and other forms of extreme energy extraction such as Coal Bed Methane and Underground Coal Gasification) threatens to pollute our water supplies, poison our soil and wreck our countryside. We should not be seeking to extract and burn more fossil fuels but replace them with renewable energy, otherwise climate change will destroy us. Will you fight vigorously against fracking and vote to ban it?
10. Arms Embargo Against Israel (60%)
During the 2014 onslaught against Gaza, 2,192 Palestinians were killed including 519 children. Many of these deaths were made possible by arms and components produced in the UK. In the 6 months preceding the offensive the UK issued £7 million of arms export licenses to Israel. In addition, arms imports from Israel support the continual development of the Israeli arms industry. Will you take action to implement a two-way arms embargo against Israel until it ends human rights violations and complies with international law?
