Revised 14th December 2009

Sure Start was introduced by our Labour Government.  

The Children's Centre where Sure Start is based. A great Seacombe asset under a Labour Government.

Brought in to ameliorate and remedy more than a decade of under 5s neglect, following the dark years of the Thatcher/Major Conservative governments, Sure Start has been of immense benefit to children and young families all over the country; nowhere more than in Seacombe.

The Tory attitude to children’s welfare was demonstrated by Mrs Thatcher when as Education Minister she notoriously ended the daily milk allowance given to all children under a previous  Labour Government.  Older readers will recall the widespread children’s slogan at the time: ‘Tory Thatcher, milk snatcher.’

Should David Cameron ever lead a government in this country then measures already revealed as Tory policy in their publication ‘Helping new families’ would demonstrate their cynicism. They intend to cut £200 million a year from Children’s Centres to spend elsewhere.    This they describe as ‘helping’ families as though by attaching the positive term ‘helping’ to a savage cut they will in some way win over the public mind.   

Their planned funding reduction would cause many Sure Start centres to close at a time when their leader has declared that they will give enormous tax cuts to the millionaires such as the bankers and financiers who led the world to economic collapse.  There are 14 millionaires in Cameron’s shadow cabinet.

As many as four of Labour’s Sure Start Centres could be lost on Wirral. 

But why should the truth get in the way of Tory propaganda?  A Wallasey Tory Councillor (who should know better)  has raised a motion to Council fancifully alleging that the Council intends to introduce huge cuts to Sure Start. It’s not true and she knows it’s not true.

 Here is the truth:

• No Sure Start Centre has had any funding reduced – and the Tory lady knows that very well.
• No future Sure Start plans are threatened in any way -  and the Tory lady knows that very well.
• The Labour Government provided full year funding for the second phase of Sure Start – and the Tory lady knows that very well.
• Funding left over from the previous year has not been taken away but has been used precisely to fund activites for under 5s – and the Tory lady knows that very well.
• These additional activities for under 5s will also attract Sure Start funding – and the Tory lady knows that very well.
• Savings have occured because the Council was able to use outstanding Sure Start grant for activities that would have otherwise had to be funded by taking resources from other areas – and the Tory lady knows that very well.

Labour created it. Labour will protect it. Would you ever trust the Tories with it?

Can it be that what the Tory lady has grasped best of all is that smoke screens are needed by her Party because the reality is so utterly different? 

According to this absurd Tory logic their way of  ‘helping’  families is to support them in the way a rope supports a hanging man.

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