Maiden speech to Council July 2012

 Maiden speech to Sheffield Council July 2012

Thank you Lord Mayor, Un-accustomed as I  am to Maidens, as this is my Maiden speech I’d like to start by thanking the people of Walkley for giving me a mandate to represent them on this Council. I’d also like to thank the hills of Walkley, all the exercise delivering leaflets has returned my body to that of a svelte 21 year old.

Encyclopaedia Britannica says ‘A welfare state is a concept of government in which the state plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of its citizens.’

Today’s welfare state started to emerge with under the LIBERAL PRIME MINISTER Herbert Asquith,

A Liberal Prime Minister? That won’t happen again.

I’ve spoken too many of my electorate about cuts in the welfare state and they are worried and concerned about how they will be affected.

Gideon, Dave and Nick say it's all the fault of the last Government, or the Greeks, or the Icelanders or maybe the Italian football team, or well anyone except them.  

I know one group of people who could do something but won't, The Lib Dems, who won't act for the people because they might upset their Tory Puppet masters.

In his attack on welfare and those who claim it, Cameron spoke of a “welfare gap” between those on benefits and those struggling to survive outside the benefits system. Cameron talks of the “something for nothing” generation, “sitting at home”, where it “pays not to work”, the reality is of families – often desperate to work – living well below the poverty line.

We must stand up for our community, they elected us to represent their views, they expect and need us to advocate for their rights, to fight to make Sheffield a fairer and more equitable City and country where everyone in society contributes and when they need assistance it’s there for them.

 We have children in Sheffield who come from families who don’t have enough money to feed and clothe them, we have parents who rely on free school meals to ensure their children are fed, we have elderly people who go without food so that they can heat their homes.

It’s obvious that cuts in benefits will directly affect the ability of people to house, cloth and feed themselves.

What do Gideon, Dave and Nick know about our families in Sheffield who need financial support? 

I challenge them to spend the summer recess with their families living in a council flats in Upperthorpe with no other means of support than the minimum wage and benefits. Perhaps they might gain a sense of real life is for many people of this City.

This Government is made up of a front bench of shinny seemingly compassionate Tories, force feeding the mewling puking LibDem babies a diet of right wing propaganda they regurgitate as coalition propaganda. Behind them are the slavering, vicious bloodthirsty backbenchers, who have no conception or idea of what life is really like for people struggling on a minimum wage, facing cuts in benefit.

On behalf of my voters, on behalf of the people of Sheffield I say to you LibDems go back to your Tory boy Nick and his masters and tell them the people of Sheffield say NO to benefit cuts.