Friday 13 September 2013

Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury from WCA member

My Lord Archbishop.

As someone who wished to see John of York who I believe to be a man of the people, become Archbishop of Canterbury I have kept my own council about your good self as I know little to nothing about you.

It is with great pleasure that I note your stand against Pay-Day Loans and your intention to combat them commercially by promoting the Credit Unions. A group of us on our estate are exploring the possibilities of forming a credit union so it was encouraging to hear you promoting them. I was also impressed by your commonsense comment that Pay-Day Loans fill a void left by the normal financial institutions when many families find themselves on hard times

My wife and I who are lucky enough to own our home live on an estate that is 60% social housing, the official figure for child poverty on the estate is 1 in 4 but with the introduction of the so called bedroom tax and the hardship that this is causing I feel that the figure is now 1 in 3, so there is a ready market for Pay-Day Loans, Logbook loans and loan sharks.

The only long term answer to this problem is full time employment that pays a living wage of £8-50 per hour to replace the miserly minimum wage of under £6-50 per hour which is a disgrace and needs to be supplemented by benefits to allow people to survive. Some will say that £8-50 per hour is far too high but a 40 hour week at that rate would gross £17,600 per annum which is only half the average wage.

We the working class need a spokesperson to speak for us with authority to bang the drum of condemnation in the House of Lords to be a thorn in the side of government. I hope that you will be that person.

Yours

Peter

Home Counties Coordinator

Working Class Action

Warrington bombing linked to Red Action

2 September 2013 Last updated at 00:49 BST

Twenty years after the Warrington bombings, Inside Out investigates why the case has never been solved.

A bomb, which was placed in a litter bin in the busy Bridge Street shopping area, injured 56 people and killed two children - Johnathan Ball and Tim Parry.

Inside Out investigates and asks if the security services were looking in the right places, at the right times and at the right people.

The programme examines whether there is a possible link between the attack and a now defunct group called Red Action, an ultra-left wing anti-fascist group, which had members in Liverpool, Manchester and London.

Professor Richard English, a leading authority on the IRA, also responds to the theory that Red Action may have been involved.

Inside Out is broadcast on Monday, 2 September at 19:30 BST on BBC One North West and nationwide on the iPlayer for seven days thereafter.

Source: BBC News