“When UNISON speaks, I know that we don’t just hear the voice of a political organisation but of ordinary people – 1.3 million working people.”
That’s what Barnsley MP and shadow justice minister Dan Jarvis told UNISON’s community seminar and conference in Bradford this afternoon, as het hanked the union for its work for ordinary people.
A former major in the Parachute Regiment, he told delegates that his parents, a probation officer and a teacher, “taught me the ethos of public service … and that’s why I joined the army and stayed through some awful times”.
Mr Jarvis stressed that the “stakes at this coming election are very high.
“It’s a world that offers immense promise and potential, but also has great demands,” he added. Globalisation presents working people with real challenges.
And “Britain is the only country in the G7 where inequality is on the rise,” with many having to turn to food banks to survive.
“The ‘Big Society’ has proved to be a crude joke as the government has pulled back and the voluntary sector has been left to pick up the pieces.”
Mr Jarvis looked back to the 70th anniversary of the 1945 Labour government – a government that gave the war-battered nation ways to move beyond the social conditions that had preceded it, creating, for instance, the National Health Service.
And in a Q&A session, he urged people to ask themselves themselves what the NHS would be like in 2020 if the general election in May produces a majority Conservative government.
Mr Jarvis addressed the need to rebuild relationships between the public and politicians, saying that politicians need to behave honestly, but also need to accept and be honest that they cadn’t solve everything from behind a desk in Westminster.
And he said that Labour’s task is “to protect the people from forces beyond their control.
“Britain succeeds when it works for everyone – not just a few at the top.”
