Due to a whip in Parliament, David was not able to address the Haringey TUC meeting on public sector pensions on Tuesday 9 November 2011.
However, he issued the following statement to be read out:
I’m sorry I couldn’t be here tonight, but I would like to offer some words of support. The actions you are taking on 30th November bear testament to the widespread discontent felt across the country right now. The Tories and Lib Dems have promised, for over a year, to lift Britain out of the recession, but instead they have taken unemployment to a 17 year high. We have more unemployed people in Northumberland Park than in the Prime Minister’s backyard, his constituency of Witney – is this why he does nothing to tackle to tackle unemployment? Do the Tories care about the rest of the country?
At the same time as forcing tens of thousands of people out of work, the government have now launched an attack on public sector pensions! Nurses, teachers, careworkers - you are all vital to our communities. You form the backbone to our country and you have all been abandoned by government ministers like Lynne Featherstone who are forcing more and more people into poverty. Chancellor George Osborne has labelled the strikes of 30th November ‘deeply irresponsible’. Well I ask where does his responsibility to the British people lie? Does he genuinely believe that nurses and teachers are the irresponsible ones? Where is the support that both those in and out of work are so in need of right now?
With each day the government takes more and more away from people in Haringey and offers less and less in return. Enough is enough.
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