Email #14

Dear Harriet,

I am extremely tired today from the 70 mile round trip to check my elderly uncle was ok.  You see he has heart failure and needs a new hip. Ok if we are honest he probably needs two new hips.  He was supposed to call me on Thursday and he didnt.  Hes suffered two heart attacks brought on by taccicardia so me and my sister wanted to check he was ok.

When we got to his flat which is on a hill in the area of the North Downs, we saw that he is still waiting for proper access to his home.  You see, it has two steps which take him the 24 inches from his front door to ground level, and these are not easily negotiable for a mobile person, never mind a disabled person who uses two crutches to get about, even indoors.  He has added another step constructed of two slabs, but these could easily slip causing him a nasty accident.  I dont like these steps.  Apparently he cant have a ramp because someone else might trip...... unfortunately his LA dont seem to realise that there isnt just a possibility of litigation from the public but from my uncle too.

The flat is freezing, even in June.  Not just because it clearly has no insulation and was poorly built (these flats were hastily and cheaply built for the NHS for student nurses for the local hospital) but because my uncle cannot afford to heat it.

He is 67 and suffers from heart failure: he should not be sitting in the cold.  Me and my sister and our kids sat there shivering, but my uncle says he is used to it and doesnt feel it so much. Not in June anyway.  Only in winter, and mostly when it snows.  When it does threaten to snow, I always ring him and demand that at the first flurry he come and stay with me.  Partly because he doesnt have the money for heating but mostly because of the steps.  If he tries to get out in bad weather he risks a nasty accident.  And he knows this.  So if the weather is bad, he doesnt go out.

I live 35 miles away, so its not easy for me to call on him if the roads are treacherous.  And the roads between me and him can get quite bad during the winter if the weather is nasty.  When I lived in the next village I remember one occasion not being able to get my children to school because the roads were so bad that cars were smashing into each other in my road.  It just wasnt worth the risk.  Luckily my uncle has a friend who is able to call on him.  She and her husband run a local restaurant so at least they can bring him hot food if its really bad.

Not every elderly or disabled person is this lucky.  Too many of our elderly and disabled citizens are facing fuel poverty.  Not just in the winter, but in the summer.  Because the weather seems to have forgotten the saying "flaming June" and even so gas is needed to heat water.  And its not just the elderly and disabled who are facing fuel poverty, ordinary people are too- it just has a far more profound impact on the elderly and disabled.  Around 20,000 people die from fuel poverty each year. This year this figure is set to raise to 40,000-the highest figure in 15 years.

This is completely unacceptable.  And no, putting on an extra jumper wont stop this.  This is the effect of austerity.

This is why we need Labour to speak up and speak out for those facing fuel poverty and speak up and speak out against austerity.  This is ultimately why we need Jeremy Corbyn.  We need the remaining MPs who have yet to nominate someone for the Labour leadership to nominate Jeremy Corbyn.  And if he doesnt have 35 nominations, the party MUST listen to the overwhelming support he has from "grassroots" members.

You said you were opening up the vote to members because you recognised the need to listen. PLEASE listen to this if nothing else; the support he has amongst the Labour members far exceeds that of any other candidate.  This is who we want.  This is who should be elected.  This is who WOULD be elected in 2020.  Listen to us.  Listen to Scotland.  No, In fact LEARN from Scotland. SNP did not get all those seats because Scotland's voters are nationalist.  They got all those seats because Scotlands voters are socialists.   The areas that Labour took seats were areas where people have always voted Labour because they are the areas hit hardest by austerity and the areas that have suffered because of the way the Conservatives treated our industries and their workers.  All of this should tell you that in the face of growing fascism, Labour MUST be a voice of socialism.

Find a way for him to be on the ballot.  It isnt about having a debate, it is about having a voice of socialism, a voice who is joined with ours and speaks for us.

Yesterday the Labour MP Sarah Champion told me MPs are paid to listen.  I wish every MP saw it as she does.  She has listened to us, and she has nominated Jeremy Corbyn because she can see that is the will of the party members.

Please, urge the remaining MPs to listen to us too.

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.