Email #17

Dear Harriet

One of the places we visited yesterday was the Royal National Lifeboat Institute Lifeboat station.  It is situated within easy launch onto the fastest tidal river in the UK.  This river is well known in the area to be quite dangerous when the tide is coming in and the river is flowing out which causes strong undercurrents.  Many times the coastguard has called upon the volunteers at the lifeboat station to rescue people and dogs that have fallen in the river.

It has also called upon these volunteers to be on standby when a troubled and vulnerable person has climbed over the bridge with the intention of jumping into the river.

Sadly this is the only solution for many people who are facing hardship or who have been subjected to the inhumane treatment of ATOS.

I find this appalling.

Often these people have been failed by other services, simply because of the cuts to those services.

With increased threats to cut welfare and mental health services, this can only mean an increase in the number of people who feel they have no other course of action.

Labour MUST speak up against these cuts because otherwise the consequences for vulnerable people are going to be drastic if not fatal.

We need an end to austerity; we need an end to these cuts.

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