A friend of mine, Michael Thompson, has championed the cause for senior citizens for many years now. He has recently
raised an e- petition calling for All elderly people should receive residential care free, via the State, and a much higher
basic State pension free of means testing. He wishes to encourage the younger generations to support the old, to promote
understanding between all age groups, and to raise awareness of how low and outdated the state pension is! He has several
powerful videos on youtube.
Michael lives in Brixham and stood as an independent
in the Totnes constiuency at the 2005 General Election garnering 199 votes. Recently his mother died and it was her wish
that Michael stands again for the causes he believes in. With the money she left him to fund his campaign, Michael is
fighting again for a seat, however this time he intends to stand for Torbay as he believes
he will be able to represent the views of a higher proportion of the electorate than in the comparatively wealthy Totnes
constituency
So Michael goes into the next election as an experienced candidate with a strong track record. I'm
sure many people would like to know he is standing as many will identify with the issues he is campaigning on and will be
interested in his desire to carry out his mother's wishes and the reasons for his decision to represent a different
constituency this time
“”As you know I am standing as an Independent for Torbay at the next
general election taking on Liberal Democrat, Adrian Sanders.
Young people today have nothing. They have neither security on the job front, a decent
minimum wage, somewhere affordable to live, and their prospects for their old age is the same as it is for the majority
of Britain’s elderly people today, ie hardship, poverty, and homelessness due to the lack of social housing in this
country, and the demise of the State pension, plus the expense and insecurity of the private pension.
Britain needs social housing throughout our country for people who cannot afford
to buy, which was the intention of council houses years ago.
The reason for our housing crisis today, and indeed the shortage of social council housing in general
in this country and region, is because the last Tory Government stopped building council houses in the 80’s and 90’s.
What Britain needs is a universal social housing
policy initiated by central Government, because there will always be young people wanting a secure home to rent somewhere
in this country, and at any time.
We
must get our young people out of the financial trap of the means tested high rent private sector.
I know that with this country’s real wealth we can afford a decent State
pension for our elderly people, and nobody, young, or old, should be without secure housing in this day and age, particularly
in a country that reports to live by a set of civilised values.
The State pension must be substantially increased for today’s and tomorrow’s pensioners,
and directly linked to increases in national prosperity. There should be no means testing of pensioners for miserly
handouts, after paying into the system all their working lives.
This generation should also be exempt from paying income tax on their savings and income,
because they have also already paid their share of income tax throughout a working life.
We must also end the lottery of Community Care for the elder.
Council tax should be abolished because it is an unjust, unfair tax, because council
tax is not based on “ability to pay”, British workers pay the lowest income tax rates in Western Europe, which
is why “local” taxes have increased by stealth since the 80’s.
To return to a cohesive society, we must place emphasis on the National Insurance
scheme to uphold financial security in retirement for today, and in the future for our young people.
Also our young students should not have to fund their own education, particularly
as Britain and the British will benefit from our University educated students in years to come””
