Labour party gains momentum

On June 8, Thursday, Britain will go to the polls. The leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, who started his campaign at the beginning of the last month as a "not winnable" candidate in the eyes of the corporate media, has emerged as the front-runner for the Prime Minister's post as campaigning comes to a close. Corbyn's election manifesto for a New Britain has attracted the common Britishers, and despite the endless slanders against him by the Conservative Party leaders and the media close to them, opinion polls are showing significant surge by the Labour Party.

Jeremy Corbyn, the self-declared socialist, has emerged as the darling of the masses and in the last few days, he has addressed widely attended meetings getting a massive response. In comparison, the Conservative Party campaign has turned clueless, and the Prime Minister Theresa May is failing to respond to the points raised in the Labour's manifesto. In the last week of the campaign, the Conservatives have been outmanoeuvred by the Labour onslaught, and in desperation, they are only focusing on security as a result of recent terror attacks and claiming that the Labour cannot be trusted for that.

In a recent interview with the London-based daily Morning Star, the Labour's PM candidate Jeremy Corbyn made his position clear on terror attacks by placing the issue in historical perspective. According to him, many experts in Britain's intelligence and security services have pointed to the connections between wars the British govt has fought in other countries and terrorism at home. The assessment in no way reduces the guilt of those who attack our children. Those terrorists will forever be reviled and held to account for their actions, he said.

Elaborating, Corbyn says that an informed understanding of the causes of terrorism is an essential part of an effective response that will protect the security of the people. His frank view is that the war on terror is simply not working and there is need to look for a smarter way to reduce the threat from countries that produce threat and nurture terrorism.

As regards the Conservative Party charge that the people are not safe under him, Corbyn said that ensuring the safety of our communities demands adequately resourced action across many fronts. It means upholding and enforcing our rights, promoting community relations, supporting our emergency services, tackling and preventing crime, and protecting us from danger, including threats of terror and violence. Only a Labour government will meet these challenges. As mentioned in the manifesto, Labour will recruit 10,000 more police officers, 3,000 extra firefighters, as well as additional prison officers and border guards."

Labour will also legislate to ensure safe staffing levels in the NHS, including for our ambulance services. Labour will also increase staffing levels at the security and intelligence agencies to better ensure our collective safety.

Defending the Labour stand on public utilities, the Labour leader said, public utilities like water and energy have been given away, often to foreign companies and state-run firms. Profits have gone to the shareholders, while the prices we pay, have increased and the quality of service has often deteriorated. Enough is enough of this rip-off.

"Compare your experience of services run by and in the interests of the public – like our NHS, police, and armed services – and the privatised rail, energy, water, and bus services. Remember when recruitment for the Olympics was outsourced to G4S, which was paid millions of our money for it and then bodged the job? The armed services had to step in and sort it out. Labour will take back control of what belongs to us – so we, the many, not the few, can benefit.''

According to Corbyn, this will be a sound investment for the British people because privatisation has failed. Many countries around the world have public ownership of their utilities, and they run better than they do in Britain. The privatised water companies have paid out £18 billion ($23 billion USD) in dividends to private shareholders in the last ten years. In the last year, the privatised water companies paid out 1,000 times more in dividends to private shareholders than they paid in corporation tax.

Under Labour's plans, the British people, not private shareholders, would benefit from the sector's profits. Water bills have risen 40 per cent above inflation since privatisation. With this investment, we can reduce water bills by around £100 ($129 USD) per year per household, the equivalent of a 25 percent reduction. Overall, the estimate is that bills could fall by £220 ($283 USD) a year across energy and water under our plans, he said.

As regards his socialist credentials, Corbyn said, "I have always stood up for what I believe in – the principles of equality, peace, and social justice. This is what keeps me going and is exactly what I'll do as Prime Minister."

He defended the National Health Service by saying that "every family in Britain has relied on NHS at some stage in their life. It is the most civilised thing about our country. I am so proud of it and will always defend it and preserve its core founding principles.

The Conservatives are failing our health service, which has been pushed into financial crisis and soaring deficits. Patients are facing longer waits, with hospitals overcrowded, understaffed, and threatened with closure. Labour will stand up for our NHS. We will always make sure the NHS has the funding it needs and will join up services from home to hospital with an appropriately integrated health and social care service. Labour created the NHS to care for us all, and now it's time to care for the NHS.

The choice is stark: a properly funded NHS under Labour or accelerating NHS privatisation and underfunding under the Tories", Corbyn mentioned.

In conclusion, the Labour leader said "this election is about the kind of country we want Britain to be. The choice is between Labour's plan to transform Britain for the many, not the few and a Conservative Party that has held people back and put the wealthy first. On June 8, let's vote to move forward in the interests of the many."