Maidstone Weald Labour Party

From: Harriet Harman
Subject: Your party's commitment to equality
To:
Date: Monday, 27 April, 2009, 6:49 PM

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I’m writing to let you know about the Equality Bill which we have published today. We promised in our 2005 Manifesto that we would have an Equality Bill. So this is keeping an election promise.

The Bill – which will be debated in Parliament next month – has 5 main points. It will:

* introduce a groundbreaking new law to help narrow the gap between rich and poor;
* shine a light on the hidden pay unfairness against women at work;
* end the last lawful discrimination which is against older people;
* allow employers – if they want to – to make their workforce more diverse by choosing for example a woman or black person who was equally suitable for the job; and
* require public authorities – like councils – to use their purchasing power to drive equality when buying goods and services fr om the private sector.

It was Labour governments that introduced the Race Relations Act, the Equal Pay Act, the Sex Discrimination Act, new legal rights for disabled people and changed the law to allow gay and lesbian “civil partnerships”. Labour governments always stand up for equality. When the Tories were in government they did nothing to press forward on equality – instead they brought in the notorious homophobic “clause 28”.

The new Equality Bill will provide a strong legal framework. It will become law – after being debated by Parliament – in about autumn 2010. But to put flesh on the bones and to make these new measures work in practice we need a Labour government. This is an important law and it’s another good reason to keep Labour in government.

Many party members, trade unionists and others have campaigned for all the things that are in the Bill. I hope that you will feel proud of it.

Best wishes,

Harriet

P.S. Please forward this email on to 5 of your friends who care about fighting inequality. You can find more information about the Equality Bill at www.equalities.gov.uk

Your Kent County Council Candidates
Bruce Heald
Bruce was born in Derbyshire in 1965, educated at the Lees Brook School in Derby and
gained an honours degree in Chemistry at St. Catherine's College, Oxford University.
He became an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Management
Accountants in 1992. He has worked as a Financial Controller for Zahid Tractor, a
company dealing with heavy equipment, principally Caterpillar, in the Middle East.
Bruce has been an active member of the Labour Party for many years and lives in the
ward. He is the current Treasurer of Maidstone & The Weald Labour Party and has
been the Chairman of Fant & Bridge Labour Party for many years before he left to work
in the Middle East. Bruce is also the Treasurer of Fant & Bridge LP.
His hobbies are reading, travelling and sport, especially football and rugby.
If elected, Bruce will be an excellent representative for Maidstone Central.

Marianna Poliszczuk

Marianna lives in the Ward and has a grown up family. She is a local campaigner and fully involved in the community. She takes particular pride in her work as a local church youth leader and as a volunteer with offender families and the homeless. She has an abiding interest in the welfare of young people through her involvement on the Canterbury Trustee Board of the Mothers’ Union. She is chair of Labour West Branch and keen supporter of Fair Trade. She lives and works in Allington and runs her own educational support computer business and is promoter for Maidstone Jazz Weekend.

She says about Local Labour – “We want every resident to have an affordable home, good roads and pavements, better recycling, safe streets and excellent education for our children”.

see the MAIDSTONE LABOUR TEAM www.kentlabourgroup.org.uk

Labels: county election

If the Conservatives can’t deliver decent services, why would you want more of them on the County Council?

Vote labour candidates to represent MAIDSTONE
YOUR VOICE - YOUR VOTE on 4th June 2009
we will have local candidates standing
MAIDSTONE CENTRAL, SOUTH, SOUTH EAST, NORTH EAST.
MAIDSTONE RURAL SOUTH, RURAL EAST, RURAL NORTH.

visit: kentlabour.org.uk

Labels: county election

Labels: hard working labour