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National disgrace: Oxford IWCA attacks New Labour’s record

20 December 2004

A letter from the IWCA to the Oxford Mail points out that according to the National Office of Statistics the gap between rich and poor is not only increasing, but most scandalously of all, the life expectancy of the poorest in society is falling behind that of their richer counterparts.

SIR - City councillor Claire Kent, from the Independent Working Class Association, writes of her surprise and shock at the unwillingness of New Labour councillors to debate the real issues that affect us all in Oxford (Oxford Mail, December 8). Recent information provided by homeless charities and the Office of National Statistics goes a long way towards explaining why.

We learned last week that there are twice as many homeless households today as there were when Labour came to power in 1997, yet locally, as Ms Kent pointed out, New Labour attempts, bizarrely, to pin this nationally disgraceful state of affairs on the IWCA.

The Office of National Statistics provided proof not only that the gap between rich and poor is increasing, but most scandalously of all, that the life expectancy of the poorest in society is falling behind that of their richer counterparts.

Add all this to the fact that a recent authoritative report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) about international education standards included nothing from the UK, due to our failure to provide adequate information (amid speculation that it was withheld to hide a catastrophic decline in comparison to international standards), and we can see that New Labour's battle cries such as ‘education, education, education!’ have rung somewhat hollow.

New Labour’s boast that it was able to hit the ground running after gaining power in 1997 can be seen for what it really was - business as usual, carrying on from 18 years of Conservative rule.