Dan Coad

We’re at a dangerous moment in our country - where refugees are being blamed for all society's problems. While the super-rich, who really caused these problems, are busy taking more and more wealth from working class people. For 40 years, the ideas launched by Thatcher - cuts, deregulation and privatisation - have meant attack after attack on working-class living standards. The last decade and a half of austerity made things even worse. Instead of holding the billionaire class to account - those who have stolen the wealth created by ordinary people - Farage and his allies are scapegoating refugees and are being cheered on by our billionaire-owned media. But hatred and division won’t build a single council house. It won’t put a penny more into the NHS. It won’t deliver higher wages. In fact, Farage and his mates voted against stronger workers’ rights in Parliament recently. They want the NHS replaced with a private system. The only thing this politics of distraction, hatred and division achieves is to protect our rigged economic system - so that the super-rich can keep getting richer, while everyone else is left worse off. Let's be clear: the cause of the problems in our society is the tiny elite hoarding the vast majority of our country’s wealth. Refugees fleeing war and persecution are not to blame for collapsing living standards, falling wages, or bringing our NHS to its knees. So instead of this 'divide and rule', let's unite and build a country that really serves the 99% - not the super-rich. Let's impose a wealth tax on the ultra-rich, let's build huge numbers of council houses, let's bring water and energy back into public ownership and let's kick the profiteers out of our NHS. That's how we can build a better future for ordinary people.