Miliband promises to restore trust

LABOUR leader Ed Miliband yesterday insisted his biggest fear over next week’s local elections was voters giving up on politics.

Mr Miliband promised to fight apathy between now and polling day and to win back voters’ trust by only making promises that he can keep.

Every seat on North Yorkshire County Council is up for grabs as well as the elected Doncaster mayoralty when voters go to the polls on May 2.

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Standing on a wooden pallet, Mr Miliband told shoppers at the market in the Lancashire town of Chorley that he was offering a “different vision” for the future of the country.

“How has Britain come through its toughest times? Always by coming together as a country, not dividing as a country.

“The Government want to say that the problem with Britain is that there a few bad people who are letting down a good government.

“I disagree. I think there are good people in Britain who have been let down by an appalling government. That is the truth about this country.

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“What I will present to you and keep fighting for in the next two years is a different vision, a One Nation vision of Britain where we come together as a country. We do what we have done at our historically successful moments, what we did in the Second World War, what we did after the war, we joined together as a country, we worked together and we get out of the mess we are in.”

The election campaigning followed Labour’s announcement that it is setting up an independent commission to examine how health and social care can be integrated.

Mr Miliband has warned of a multi-billion pound black hole in NHS funding to meet the care needs of an ageing population unless there is reform. Labour’s plans promise more care will be provided directly in people’s homes, a greater focus on prevention and better co-ordination between different branches of the system.

The Doncaster North MP said: “If we can bring together the way the health service works with the way social care works we can make a huge change in the care we give to elderly people.

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“How many people here know of elderly people who end up in hospital when they don’t really need to be in hospital? They are only in hospital because they have nowhere else to go.

“Let’s have health and social care working together so it keeps elderly people out of hospital and saves the health service money.”

The commission will be led by former Department of Health specialist Sir John Oldham.

Sir John said patients wanted health and social care services to act as one team. “That’s where we need to get to but to do it – look rigorously from a patient’s eye view point and secondly no major structural change,” he added.

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“The NHS is sick and tired of having structural change and we must avoid that.”

Meanwhile launching its local election campaign in Skipton yesterday, the Green Party announced it will be fielding 25 candidates in the North Yorkshire County Council elections, almost double the number of four years ago.

Its campaign will focus on protecting children’s services, improving safety on the county’s streets and supporting local businesses.

Shaun Lowry, Green Party candidate in the Harrogate Saltergate division, said: “Local bus services are a particular issue for the residents of my division.

“I am campaigning hard to protect vital bus services. Good public transport is vital for supporting small businesses which are the bedrock of a strong local economy.”