Greater Manchester Respect

The battle for our public services has begun. The new ConDem government has pledged to impose devastating cuts on public spending. The plans to reduce the deficit will be accelerated, with the burden falling on public spending rather than increased taxes for the better off.

Already, more than £6 billion of cuts have been announced with more to follow in the next four months as the coalition government builds its confidence. The economic crisis in the Eurozone and its effect on the British banking system is fuelling the increased pace of public service cutbacks.

The programme of the new government amounts to one of the most severe attacks in British history on public services, jobs and the living standards of working people and the poor. To minimise resistance and to strengthen itself, the government plans to rewrite the rules to force further coalition government in the event of failure rather than calling a new general election (the 55% rule). Cameron aims to reduce the number of MPs in a move that is widely believed will cost Labour up to 40 seats. The coalition has also pledged to ‘pursue a detailed agreement on limiting donations and reforming party funding in order to remove big money from politics’.

Starts 7.30pm @ Basement Meeting Room, Saffron Restaurant, 107 Cheetham Hill Rd

Manchester Respect would like to welcome all those who participated in the election campaign to the meeting to take part in the post-election discussion and debate.

What next for Respect? What lessons are there to learn? What did we do well? Can we build a genuinely progressive alliance? What does the future hold for politics in Britain?

For many years, the Liberal Party and then the Lib-Dems were known by working class people as 'yellow Tories.' They were rightly distrusted as a party that could always be relied to side with the rich against the poor, with big business against trade unions. Yet, Labour's failures and, above all, Blair's wars abroad allowed the Lib-Dems to pose as a progressive alternative. On 11th May 2010 the Lib-Dems returned to type, ushering the Tory government so feared by working people.