Stuart Smith

The Plain Speaking of the Working Class. My take on why political communication no longer connects. open.substack.com/pub/stuart…

I lived in Leytonstone when on dialysis, as did Nurses, cleaners and many others I knew working in local hospitals and in London. The rent there now is around £1500 for a 1 bed flat. Labour does not see the working class workers on low wages and what those rents are doing to them and its a disgrace.

It seems pretty obvious they will use welfare and disability before a Dec election. Fair enough address costs, but ignoring housing support cost as part of welfare cost, is a disgrace from a Labour government. You don't help people by just looking at data sets, you also need to look at the bigger picture of what we need outside of the NHS, so we can help ourselves.

Here's what my character Timothy thought of his Conservatives chums and the budget. 😉 #Budget

My character Timothy is now available in the ElevenLabs library. He is an awfully nice posh man, who is quintessentially British.

What saddens me about this is its the same as last year, no lessons have been learnt. Labour have a large mandate and an opportunity to turn back what happened for decades. They talk about the last 40 years, but don't deliver. With fair rents and council housing as a stepping stone to home ownership again, it will do two things. 1. Help the working class on low wages have more disposable income and stop the reliance on food banks. More money to spend on goods and services. 2. Help the younger generation who wish to leave home and find a way themselves. That will help them build up the resilience and become independent. It saddens me to say this, but Labour has completely failed the working class in my view. Its as if they think they no longer exist. Yet they are all around them, quietly getting on with the jobs so many if us did, wondering what happened to the Labour party.

Really saddens me when exercise or the gym is seen as a magic bullet. You don't built up resilience and independence in the gym, its comes from life experiences. Many will be stuck at home, unable to leave and get a flat, because private rents are too high. Nowhere near enough focus on housing and private rents for them. They need what we had so we could build up that resilience. Many will get all the exercise they need from work, which will in turn build independence and help them long term.

What clear message is that exactly? I have no idea what the Labour party stands for. No large numbers on council houses. No tackling high private rents and keeping right to buy. The only thing that is clear, is that Labour no longer see the working class.

This is so cool, would love to do this

Has anyone used Grok voice? Just joined for a month to get access and wondered if people use it? Just trying some new things.

You cannot simply rely on a GP though. How is eating too much and getting fat a medical condition? I ate too much because of sugar addiction and food was my comfort. That for me is what you need to deal with, why? Why I am eating so much and why am I carrying this much weight. You have to help yourself as well where you can.

All this will do is widen the poverty gap. Why Labour are wrong to focus on home ownership like the did under Blair. Of course most will want to own a home, no issue with that. But all jobs are important and Labour are ignoring the working class who rent. Why fair rent and council housing is so important for those on a low wage.

Many of us have talked about modular homes due to construction costs and worker shortages. But its like they think everything will be fine and ignore the problems. They are doing nowhere near enough, just spinning build numbers as the highest for years. They can say that because so few were built. In reality its 7000 a year over 10 years.

A lot of speculation about who is the next James Bond. Personally my pick is Aaron Taylor-Johnson. We may and I emphasis maybe seeing them divert people to other actors and I may well be wrong. But I have been convinced for some time now. For me he just fits.

Go back 25 years you could take a job for £5 an hour and pay the rent and live within your means. No top ups, no UC or tax credits. But many now seem to be suggesting min wage is to blame. I would argue its the changes that have happened around housing, private rents, buy to let market. People can no longer do what we did, largely because of rental costs.

Leicester has always been a hard place to grow up in. But because we had fair rents we could help ourselves That is also true when we become parents and face challenges. Focusing on data and not listening to a wider perspective is only skirting around the issue.

Andy Burnham when he took office, rightly talked about the last 40 yrs. But it seems Labour are going to ignore what happened and ignore why many can't take the jobs. Its really basic stuff, fair rent and a basic wage that helped turn our lives around after a difficult time. But instead of looking at private rents and replacing the council houses they sold off., so people can live within their means. They are going to blame the younger generation, who can no longer do what we did. Take any job as a stepping stone to something else.

The scenes in France sadly do not surprise me. Whilst the protests probably got hijacked, the underlying cause has been ignored for a long time. Cost of living is becoming an issue in many countries, here too. Where people can't afford the basics, like rent and bills. Its a dangerous situation that has been coming for some time in my view.

This for me is where Labour ignore what happened. Yes they are right to mention Tories being against the min wage. But wrong to ignore what Blair did, selling off council houses and ignoring what worked for us. Min wage & fair rent, living within our means. Now the poor suffer