Dear Harriet,
You haven't come back to my last email and I understand you haven't come back to any within this series of 'one voice', in excess of 40 emails now over as many days.
Is the number too high for you? Would it make any difference to know that the number of emails I'm getting from Labour runs to about three a day at the moment, often more? Never mind that I'm not replying to these, I know that is not the point of them, but we are looking for a reply. This isn't just promotional spam but rather a plea from and on behalf of people whose lives are being ripped apart by Tory policy, that your party is doing nothing to attempt to block.
How are we to trust that you are on the side of the electorate when you won't even respond to the very direct, specific complaints of your own party members? Who exactly are you in opposition for? Who are you representing?
These emails are not designed to slam Labour – it's a genuine request of the party to act on its supposed principles and fight against a pro-wealth, anti-poverty, unjust Tory rule. You are in the best position to do this and what most supporters feel you morally should be doing; I don't believe that Labour voters have swung that much to the right that our views are the minority.
When these emails are ignored it all feels rather hopeless, really.
I do hope that one day you will listen and respond.
Monday, 20 July 2015
Thursday, 16 July 2015
Email #43 (Guest Email #2)
Dear Harriet,
For once I am grateful for my perennial disorganisation, as I meant to cancel my Labour party membership ages ago. I even thought I had done so. But the emails (ever-growing at the moment) that arrive in my inbox tell me otherwise. I'm pleased to have retained my membership this summer for one simple reason – voting on its leadership candidacy.
For a party that has turned its back on its left-wing roots for some time now it's refreshing to see a genuinely left-wing proposition with policies that traditional Labour supporters can get behind. As it stands I will still cancel my membership after the leadership has been decided but I would consider a return if Jeremy Corbyn wins and (crucially) is able to put his ideology in to action.
I didn't vote for Labour in the general election because you are not a left-wing party. You weren't even a consideration, really. It was a toss up between the Greens and the SNP – though I am Scottish by family I'm English through birth and have only moved to Scotland recently. They were my options because they were the only parties available to me whose politics I agree with.
It seems to me that Labour are leaning on the 80s and early 90s as guidance following the election defeat, much supported by a predominantly right-wing press - that more central and right-wing policies are needed to have any chance of getting in to power the next time round. It's a shame really, isn't it, that power supercedes what a party purports to stand for (in this instance, supposedly equality and a fair society over supporting greed and wealth)? But such is the thinking of the modern day career politician, I suppose.
The landscape though, Harriet, I feel is different now. Because there are alternatives to Labour for the left-leaning of us, aren't there? Bowing down to the nasty party is just not going to work this time. It's going to alienate your supporters even more so and send them elsewhere. I don't believe there are enough swaying voters for that to be your route in to power – there are more (I could say better, reluctantly, but they will be better for those whose ideology matches) right-wing parties to choose from now, too. Those who don't know too much about the differences and will pick based on the leader, Rupert Murdoch's opinion, what name they prefer on the day...? I'm not sure they'll be enough for you, either. Your strategy seems to ignore the welcome shift from binary politics, and it will be to your detriment.
Because you are alienating a massive portion of left-wing supporters who are horrified by the deepening chasm between rich and poor, who will not stand by and watch while families are pushed further in to poverty while the wealthy and corporations get tax breaks, and who will not watch the welfare state getting destroyed in favour of money and greed. The left does have a voice, and it's getting louder, and it's getting angrier.
I voted for the Green Party in the general election in the end. I really like the SNPs, in their conviction and their strong, authentic leadership and, of course, their progressive and fair policies. However I felt the Green vote was a louder left vote. It made my vote only about that; about being a voice against the disgusting policies that hold forte in Westminster currently.
My one Green vote didn't change the make up of Westminster, but numbers do matter alongside results – growth starts somewhere, and to this end my number matters. Meanwhile the SNP result was another gain; while they aren't a possibility for UK voters outside Scotland they at least demonstrate that a left-wing party can gain popularity and political clout.
So consider all of this, Harriet, while you forget that an opposition party is there to oppose. Where the meagre UKIP support in the election had you running to the treacherous, spiky right hills. Where this and exploitative, trashy television programmes have you believing the majority of the populace really want a society that punishes foreigners and the vulnerable. Consider it, if you must, in numbers - in voters who are walking away from you all the time. In the people that make up the rallies, in the people emailing you and other Labour MPs, imploring you to act morally.
Consider what that means for Labour power, if morality and integrity have already left you.
I don't believe the Tories won the election because society wants what they are draconially and with ever-greater expedience forcing upon us. I believe Labour lost it because you didn't stand up to anything and you didn't stand for anything.
Consider that, please.
For once I am grateful for my perennial disorganisation, as I meant to cancel my Labour party membership ages ago. I even thought I had done so. But the emails (ever-growing at the moment) that arrive in my inbox tell me otherwise. I'm pleased to have retained my membership this summer for one simple reason – voting on its leadership candidacy.
For a party that has turned its back on its left-wing roots for some time now it's refreshing to see a genuinely left-wing proposition with policies that traditional Labour supporters can get behind. As it stands I will still cancel my membership after the leadership has been decided but I would consider a return if Jeremy Corbyn wins and (crucially) is able to put his ideology in to action.
I didn't vote for Labour in the general election because you are not a left-wing party. You weren't even a consideration, really. It was a toss up between the Greens and the SNP – though I am Scottish by family I'm English through birth and have only moved to Scotland recently. They were my options because they were the only parties available to me whose politics I agree with.
It seems to me that Labour are leaning on the 80s and early 90s as guidance following the election defeat, much supported by a predominantly right-wing press - that more central and right-wing policies are needed to have any chance of getting in to power the next time round. It's a shame really, isn't it, that power supercedes what a party purports to stand for (in this instance, supposedly equality and a fair society over supporting greed and wealth)? But such is the thinking of the modern day career politician, I suppose.
The landscape though, Harriet, I feel is different now. Because there are alternatives to Labour for the left-leaning of us, aren't there? Bowing down to the nasty party is just not going to work this time. It's going to alienate your supporters even more so and send them elsewhere. I don't believe there are enough swaying voters for that to be your route in to power – there are more (I could say better, reluctantly, but they will be better for those whose ideology matches) right-wing parties to choose from now, too. Those who don't know too much about the differences and will pick based on the leader, Rupert Murdoch's opinion, what name they prefer on the day...? I'm not sure they'll be enough for you, either. Your strategy seems to ignore the welcome shift from binary politics, and it will be to your detriment.
Because you are alienating a massive portion of left-wing supporters who are horrified by the deepening chasm between rich and poor, who will not stand by and watch while families are pushed further in to poverty while the wealthy and corporations get tax breaks, and who will not watch the welfare state getting destroyed in favour of money and greed. The left does have a voice, and it's getting louder, and it's getting angrier.
I voted for the Green Party in the general election in the end. I really like the SNPs, in their conviction and their strong, authentic leadership and, of course, their progressive and fair policies. However I felt the Green vote was a louder left vote. It made my vote only about that; about being a voice against the disgusting policies that hold forte in Westminster currently.
My one Green vote didn't change the make up of Westminster, but numbers do matter alongside results – growth starts somewhere, and to this end my number matters. Meanwhile the SNP result was another gain; while they aren't a possibility for UK voters outside Scotland they at least demonstrate that a left-wing party can gain popularity and political clout.
So consider all of this, Harriet, while you forget that an opposition party is there to oppose. Where the meagre UKIP support in the election had you running to the treacherous, spiky right hills. Where this and exploitative, trashy television programmes have you believing the majority of the populace really want a society that punishes foreigners and the vulnerable. Consider it, if you must, in numbers - in voters who are walking away from you all the time. In the people that make up the rallies, in the people emailing you and other Labour MPs, imploring you to act morally.
Consider what that means for Labour power, if morality and integrity have already left you.
I don't believe the Tories won the election because society wants what they are draconially and with ever-greater expedience forcing upon us. I believe Labour lost it because you didn't stand up to anything and you didn't stand for anything.
Consider that, please.
Wednesday, 15 July 2015
Email #42
Dear Harriet
Today was a very trying day. I knew it was doomed from the start. Which is about the time I finally made it to bed last night when I finished work (because sometimes my 16 hours are not regular people hours and because Im working flat out in those 16 hours to drive my business to be as successful as it can be, because I am ambitious and driven not just because the threat of the HMRC looms over me) only to be awoken about 2 hours later by "he who never sleeps" AKA my teenage son with aspergers.
No one can fully appreciate what it is like trying to care for a sleep deprived teenage boy with aspergers when they themselves are an adult with aspergers and bipolar disorder and just as sleep deprived, unless they are actually in that situation themselves. It is exhausting. And when I say exhausting I literally mean in every way possible for every fibre of the human body and psyche.
I then spent the next two hours awake despite the mirtazapine. And unless you have experienced it no one can fully appreciate what it is like trying to function like a normal human being when you have had a medication and the sleep pattern it induces interrupted like that.
I therefore spent the whole of today feeling a way that can only be described as like being really dizzy while also very intoxicated and on a cross channel ferry, intersperced with moments of feeling like being on a lift that is plummeting to the ground. And thats how I had to work today, and with clients not just in my own office.
And that was just the physical affect.
It also affected my mood, resulting in an argument with my sister at the train station this morning, during which she threw the documents my son had dumped, in his own sleep-deprived temper on the back seat, at me: I informed her she could get a taxi to the school if she wasnt going to behave like a grown up.
You see when you are dealing with adverse side effects of medication its all to easy to allow yourself to succumb to the pressure and stress you feel of every day living. And effectively that is exactly what my sister and I are both doing.
A person can only remain strong for so long under so much pressure, and we each feel the weight of the world on our shoulders. Its hardly surprising though is it? Following the budget, the one you are so eager to stand by rather than oppose, we are on tenter hooks, neither of us knowing entirely where the metaphorical axe will fall.
It is not an easy way to live by any stretch of the imagination.
I am a strong person. I have had to be, no matter what I've faced. And although I have shared a lot of my experiences during this campaign I have not shared even a 10th of what I have had to shoulder. But a person can only remain strong for so long. That is why I am reliant on anti depressants for sleep, that is why I am so reliant on my job to keep me sane.
Yet if the incumbent government gets its way, which it seems it is to do because you are so "laissez faire" in your approach to "opposition" that borders on treachery to your own party, I may be forced to give up my job. You have no idea how catastrophic that would be for me. We are not just talking about my livelihood, we are talking about my mental health. I already suffered one breakdown after changing careers and giving up my teaching dream, I honestly do not think I could come out the other side of another breakdown.
Football is everything to me, beyond what joy motherhood provides me. And no matter whether it makes me huge profits I am good at what I do, and that is just as important as whether or not I am profitable. I know I am good at what I do because I am constantly sought by other clubs and every bit of work I have has been through word of mouth; I have a good and strong reputation. I didnt actually know until last night how strong that reputation is, when a players sibling told me how highly my club value me. You have no idea what that means. It goes far beyond validation or simple job statisfaction. To take that away from me isnt just about making a financial cut, its taking away a piece of me, because I have put my heart and soul into everything I do. I do not want to give up.
And yet a man in a suit with a calculator may just force me to do that. So yes, these are testing times.
And ultimately that is why I have opened up this campaign. This is no longer ONE voice, this is many voices, because as I told you right from the start, this isnt just me and how the policies of the incumbent government affect me and my family, this is about how policies are affecting EVERY family in this nation.
How can you say you are for a fairer society for all, and yet condemn by capitulation an entire nation to the suffering that will be the result of these cuts? How can you betray the legacy of Labour so openly?
The gap between the rich and the poor is ever widening and your failure to oppose will widen it further.
For the sake of my family and every family you need to start listening to our voices and those of the MPs who fill the benches around you in the commons.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum, social justice campaigner, immigrant, proletarian, CND supporter, #endausteritynow campaigner, someone with nothing better to do than wait for a plumber, cost cutting football medic, Catholic, one voice speaking up, someone seriously questioning their membership, angry social commentator, frustrated activist, grieving friend, betrayed party member
Today was a very trying day. I knew it was doomed from the start. Which is about the time I finally made it to bed last night when I finished work (because sometimes my 16 hours are not regular people hours and because Im working flat out in those 16 hours to drive my business to be as successful as it can be, because I am ambitious and driven not just because the threat of the HMRC looms over me) only to be awoken about 2 hours later by "he who never sleeps" AKA my teenage son with aspergers.
No one can fully appreciate what it is like trying to care for a sleep deprived teenage boy with aspergers when they themselves are an adult with aspergers and bipolar disorder and just as sleep deprived, unless they are actually in that situation themselves. It is exhausting. And when I say exhausting I literally mean in every way possible for every fibre of the human body and psyche.
I then spent the next two hours awake despite the mirtazapine. And unless you have experienced it no one can fully appreciate what it is like trying to function like a normal human being when you have had a medication and the sleep pattern it induces interrupted like that.
I therefore spent the whole of today feeling a way that can only be described as like being really dizzy while also very intoxicated and on a cross channel ferry, intersperced with moments of feeling like being on a lift that is plummeting to the ground. And thats how I had to work today, and with clients not just in my own office.
And that was just the physical affect.
It also affected my mood, resulting in an argument with my sister at the train station this morning, during which she threw the documents my son had dumped, in his own sleep-deprived temper on the back seat, at me: I informed her she could get a taxi to the school if she wasnt going to behave like a grown up.
You see when you are dealing with adverse side effects of medication its all to easy to allow yourself to succumb to the pressure and stress you feel of every day living. And effectively that is exactly what my sister and I are both doing.
A person can only remain strong for so long under so much pressure, and we each feel the weight of the world on our shoulders. Its hardly surprising though is it? Following the budget, the one you are so eager to stand by rather than oppose, we are on tenter hooks, neither of us knowing entirely where the metaphorical axe will fall.
It is not an easy way to live by any stretch of the imagination.
I am a strong person. I have had to be, no matter what I've faced. And although I have shared a lot of my experiences during this campaign I have not shared even a 10th of what I have had to shoulder. But a person can only remain strong for so long. That is why I am reliant on anti depressants for sleep, that is why I am so reliant on my job to keep me sane.
Yet if the incumbent government gets its way, which it seems it is to do because you are so "laissez faire" in your approach to "opposition" that borders on treachery to your own party, I may be forced to give up my job. You have no idea how catastrophic that would be for me. We are not just talking about my livelihood, we are talking about my mental health. I already suffered one breakdown after changing careers and giving up my teaching dream, I honestly do not think I could come out the other side of another breakdown.
Football is everything to me, beyond what joy motherhood provides me. And no matter whether it makes me huge profits I am good at what I do, and that is just as important as whether or not I am profitable. I know I am good at what I do because I am constantly sought by other clubs and every bit of work I have has been through word of mouth; I have a good and strong reputation. I didnt actually know until last night how strong that reputation is, when a players sibling told me how highly my club value me. You have no idea what that means. It goes far beyond validation or simple job statisfaction. To take that away from me isnt just about making a financial cut, its taking away a piece of me, because I have put my heart and soul into everything I do. I do not want to give up.
And yet a man in a suit with a calculator may just force me to do that. So yes, these are testing times.
And ultimately that is why I have opened up this campaign. This is no longer ONE voice, this is many voices, because as I told you right from the start, this isnt just me and how the policies of the incumbent government affect me and my family, this is about how policies are affecting EVERY family in this nation.
How can you say you are for a fairer society for all, and yet condemn by capitulation an entire nation to the suffering that will be the result of these cuts? How can you betray the legacy of Labour so openly?
The gap between the rich and the poor is ever widening and your failure to oppose will widen it further.
For the sake of my family and every family you need to start listening to our voices and those of the MPs who fill the benches around you in the commons.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum, social justice campaigner, immigrant, proletarian, CND supporter, #endausteritynow campaigner, someone with nothing better to do than wait for a plumber, cost cutting football medic, Catholic, one voice speaking up, someone seriously questioning their membership, angry social commentator, frustrated activist, grieving friend, betrayed party member
Tuesday, 14 July 2015
Email #41 (Guest Collaborator)
Dear Ms Harman,
Thank you for taking the trouble to represent us an MP.
Although I am not the actual socialist mum, I am writing this in her support as both being a mother and a socialist are full time jobs, and don’t always leave time for correspondence. However I am a mother, and my political leanings are far to the left, so I am acting in solidarity with one of my many sisters and writing to you about your political leanings.
You have been a politician for some time now, and have seen your party move ever further to the right, until now they are just behind the Tories. This is an interesting strategy and leaves me wondering whose votes you are aiming to get.
It is your economic strategy that worries me most though. Economics is a relatively new science, and as such goes through rapid and frequent changes. Perhaps this why Labour’s strategy is a little behind. You do not have to be a progressive economist to believe that austerity is not good for large economies. In both the short and long term it stifles growth, leaving business and the public disillusioned and poorer in varying degrees. Why do you not oppose this structure? I am left with the conclusion that you do not care or you do not understand.
Then it comes to health. It is well known that large events and health are connected. There is always a surge in heart attacks after earthquakes and economic crashes. But health and the economy are connected in more subtle and insidious ways. Poverty leads to poor nutrition and obesity, it is associated with higher incidences of smoking, drug use and child abuse. Our NHS is working very hard to deal with natural effects of the entire population simply being alive all at once. It isn’t prepared to deal with the physical and emotional effects of austerity.
I would ask Ms Harman, re-read the figures. Ask real economists. Look at what has happen to countries practising even the mild form of austerity considered here. Make policy based on as much fact as you can find.
Make policy based not your political leanings, but what is actually best for the country.
Yours sincerely
Catherine Safdar
Thank you for taking the trouble to represent us an MP.
Although I am not the actual socialist mum, I am writing this in her support as both being a mother and a socialist are full time jobs, and don’t always leave time for correspondence. However I am a mother, and my political leanings are far to the left, so I am acting in solidarity with one of my many sisters and writing to you about your political leanings.
You have been a politician for some time now, and have seen your party move ever further to the right, until now they are just behind the Tories. This is an interesting strategy and leaves me wondering whose votes you are aiming to get.
It is your economic strategy that worries me most though. Economics is a relatively new science, and as such goes through rapid and frequent changes. Perhaps this why Labour’s strategy is a little behind. You do not have to be a progressive economist to believe that austerity is not good for large economies. In both the short and long term it stifles growth, leaving business and the public disillusioned and poorer in varying degrees. Why do you not oppose this structure? I am left with the conclusion that you do not care or you do not understand.
Then it comes to health. It is well known that large events and health are connected. There is always a surge in heart attacks after earthquakes and economic crashes. But health and the economy are connected in more subtle and insidious ways. Poverty leads to poor nutrition and obesity, it is associated with higher incidences of smoking, drug use and child abuse. Our NHS is working very hard to deal with natural effects of the entire population simply being alive all at once. It isn’t prepared to deal with the physical and emotional effects of austerity.
I would ask Ms Harman, re-read the figures. Ask real economists. Look at what has happen to countries practising even the mild form of austerity considered here. Make policy based on as much fact as you can find.
Make policy based not your political leanings, but what is actually best for the country.
Yours sincerely
Catherine Safdar
One voice collaboration
Writing these emails is harder than you might think so I have enlisted help. From today this is opened up to other to add their voices to mine. If you would like to become involved in the Email A Day Campaign please email me at socialistmum@gmail.com
Solidarity comrades x
Solidarity comrades x
Monday, 13 July 2015
Email #40
Dear Harriet
Missing Sundays is becoming a habit for me. You will forgive me though as I was hit by a wave of depression and grief yesterday that hit me like a ten ton truck. Saturday night someone from my social circle who I had lost touch with when I moved took his own life.
Depression is now the number 1 killer of men under the age of 50 with 90% of suicides linked to depression. Its alarming that this is the case. Well it is to me anyway.
Im finding it hard to write to you in the way I had begun, with hope that I could make a change as one voice because you had promised to listen. Im not sure who you are listening to right now but its not me, its not 3 of our leadership candidates and its certainly not the Labour party members, the students, the disabled or the mentally ill, or anyone with more than 2 children.
You have turned your back on us all, and at the time that we need you most. I wanted to hurl a dictionary at my own television when you spoke after the budget was announced because you seem to have misplaced yours. When you find it you might care to look up the word opposition. I feel you have forgotten what the word means. How you can stand there and say you will not vote against the cuts that will cripple our nation is beyond me. You are out of tune with the thinking of the party and that is more alarming to me than anything else.
It is depressing enough knowing that the country is setting out to destroy itself from the inside out without you casually stepping aside to let Osbourne achieve what he is setting out to do.
I am seriously questioning my membership. Our only hope is Jeremy Corbyn because unlike you he hasnt turned his back on us. We are never to get out of the poverty that traps so many of us with a budget that is set to increase childhood poverty. We expect that from conservatives who are ideologically opposed to any form of state support. But Labour is supposed to be the opposite of that; its supposed to be compassionate, its supposed to be rooted in the idea that those who need support can have that support, so that no one lives in destitution. And yet that is what you resign a nation to with your staggering indifference.
I despair at humanity sometimes, I really do.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum, social justice campaigner, immigrant, proletarian, CND supporter, #endausteritynow campaigner, someone with nothing better to do than wait for a plumber, cost cutting football medic, Catholic, one voice speaking up, someone seriously questioning their membership, angry social commentator, frustrated activist, grieving friend
Missing Sundays is becoming a habit for me. You will forgive me though as I was hit by a wave of depression and grief yesterday that hit me like a ten ton truck. Saturday night someone from my social circle who I had lost touch with when I moved took his own life.
Depression is now the number 1 killer of men under the age of 50 with 90% of suicides linked to depression. Its alarming that this is the case. Well it is to me anyway.
Im finding it hard to write to you in the way I had begun, with hope that I could make a change as one voice because you had promised to listen. Im not sure who you are listening to right now but its not me, its not 3 of our leadership candidates and its certainly not the Labour party members, the students, the disabled or the mentally ill, or anyone with more than 2 children.
You have turned your back on us all, and at the time that we need you most. I wanted to hurl a dictionary at my own television when you spoke after the budget was announced because you seem to have misplaced yours. When you find it you might care to look up the word opposition. I feel you have forgotten what the word means. How you can stand there and say you will not vote against the cuts that will cripple our nation is beyond me. You are out of tune with the thinking of the party and that is more alarming to me than anything else.
It is depressing enough knowing that the country is setting out to destroy itself from the inside out without you casually stepping aside to let Osbourne achieve what he is setting out to do.
I am seriously questioning my membership. Our only hope is Jeremy Corbyn because unlike you he hasnt turned his back on us. We are never to get out of the poverty that traps so many of us with a budget that is set to increase childhood poverty. We expect that from conservatives who are ideologically opposed to any form of state support. But Labour is supposed to be the opposite of that; its supposed to be compassionate, its supposed to be rooted in the idea that those who need support can have that support, so that no one lives in destitution. And yet that is what you resign a nation to with your staggering indifference.
I despair at humanity sometimes, I really do.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum, social justice campaigner, immigrant, proletarian, CND supporter, #endausteritynow campaigner, someone with nothing better to do than wait for a plumber, cost cutting football medic, Catholic, one voice speaking up, someone seriously questioning their membership, angry social commentator, frustrated activist, grieving friend
Saturday, 11 July 2015
Email #39
Dear Harriet
The first rule in activism of any kind is to look after yourself. I need to listen to this rule. I'm tired. I'm worn out and worn down. So tonight's email will be brief. Because I am no good to anyone if I do not look after myself.
Loving my job doesn't take away the fact that I am still depressed. It doesn't take away from the fact that what triggers my depression the most is fear of what lies ahead.
Post budget we are all driven by this fear and people seek guidance and reassurance and understanding of simply how we will be affected in our day to day lives. The BBC have an online calculator that allows people to see from a very basic perspective of how better or worse they will be under the changes brought by the budget..according to which I will be no better or worse off than I am now. In one respect this helps calm me however it's simplistic and fails to recognise that I'm only just scrapping by and that once the tax credit people start combing through my business they will decide it's unviable and I will be forced to give up a job I love that keeps me sane.
i might not be a millionaire but I contribute to the economy and I support other businesses I have to obtain stuff from. My contribution and that of other small ventures like mine all add up to a business model that is profitable that may well go under without the contributions small businesses like mine make.
Short sighted economics seems to be the policy all round.
Sometimes I wonder why I bother. Attempting to engage a Tory lite Labour is seemingly pointless as you seem to agree with how the poor and vulnerable are treated. I despair at such behavior and lament the world my children are growing up in.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum, social justice campaigner, immigrant, proletarian, CND supporter, #endausteritynow campaigner, someone with nothing better to do than wait for a plumber, cost cutting football medic, Catholic, one voice speaking up, someone seriously questioning their membership, angry social commentator, frustrated activist
The first rule in activism of any kind is to look after yourself. I need to listen to this rule. I'm tired. I'm worn out and worn down. So tonight's email will be brief. Because I am no good to anyone if I do not look after myself.
Loving my job doesn't take away the fact that I am still depressed. It doesn't take away from the fact that what triggers my depression the most is fear of what lies ahead.
Post budget we are all driven by this fear and people seek guidance and reassurance and understanding of simply how we will be affected in our day to day lives. The BBC have an online calculator that allows people to see from a very basic perspective of how better or worse they will be under the changes brought by the budget..according to which I will be no better or worse off than I am now. In one respect this helps calm me however it's simplistic and fails to recognise that I'm only just scrapping by and that once the tax credit people start combing through my business they will decide it's unviable and I will be forced to give up a job I love that keeps me sane.
i might not be a millionaire but I contribute to the economy and I support other businesses I have to obtain stuff from. My contribution and that of other small ventures like mine all add up to a business model that is profitable that may well go under without the contributions small businesses like mine make.
Short sighted economics seems to be the policy all round.
Sometimes I wonder why I bother. Attempting to engage a Tory lite Labour is seemingly pointless as you seem to agree with how the poor and vulnerable are treated. I despair at such behavior and lament the world my children are growing up in.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum, social justice campaigner, immigrant, proletarian, CND supporter, #endausteritynow campaigner, someone with nothing better to do than wait for a plumber, cost cutting football medic, Catholic, one voice speaking up, someone seriously questioning their membership, angry social commentator, frustrated activist
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