Jenny Sutton for Tottenham - questions answered - breast cancer

I have received hundreds of email asking for my position on many varied issues. I am posting some of them on HoL. You can see more at my campaign website, www.jennysutton4tottenham.com. xJenny

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Dear Ms Sutton,

I’m contacting you as you are one of my parliamentary candidates in my constituency because I would like you to support the Stop Women Dying campaign by becoming a Breast Cancer Ambassador, if elected. 

This means that you would take action for people affected by breast cancer in our constituency and do what you can to help to put an end to women dying from this disease. For example, by raising the issue of breast cancer with our local health bodies or attending events in Parliament or in our constituency.  

Becoming an ambassador is so important because there’s so much more that we need to do to beat breast cancer. It is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the UK and each year around 18 women will die from secondary breast cancer in our constituency alone, this is when breast cancer has spread from the breast to other parts of the body, that’s 12,000 women in the UK. I want to see more action taken so that we can overcome this disease sooner. 

Breast Cancer Campaign and Breakthrough Breast Cancer are uniting this spring to become the leading national breast cancer charity, and they would be happy to help you to take action nationally and locally to tackle breast cancer. 

Becoming a Breast Cancer Ambassador is easy, just email campaigns@breastcancercampaign.org and let them know that you would be happy to become a Breast Cancer Ambassador. 

I would very much appreciate your support and it would be great to know if you do decide to become an Ambassador.

Yours sincerely

Xxxx xxxxxxx

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Dear Xxx,

Thank you for your email. I lost my mother to breast cancer many years ago when she was in her 50s, so this is an issue close to my heart. I feel strongly that if as much money were spent on developing treatments for disease as is spent on developing weapons, cosmetics and medical procedures to delay the natural process of ageing, a cure for cancer could have been formulated years ago. But at the moment medical treatments are valued by their profitability rather than their contribution to health and well-being. In my view, drug companies should be nationalised, and all medicine should be publicly funded and publicly provided. Profit should have no place in healthcare.

Historically the NHS has been one of the most important gains made by working class people in Britain. We need a massive campaign to stop it being destroyed. Since Blair’s Labour government opened the door to private providers, vast profits are being made out of healthcare. But we face a crisis with 5500 fewer NHS nurses than in 2010, and the lowest doctor to population ratio in the EU. In the last 5 years, 1 million people have had to sell their homes to pay for elderly care. Mental health patients are being held in police cells because beds have been cut. In Tottenham it is becoming harder and harder to get a GP appointment, especially for those who don’t have access to IT or who have basic language and literacy skills.

Haringey needs St Ann’s Hospital
Shamefully, a couple of weeks ago Haringey Council’s planning sub committee voted in favour of selling off two thirds of St Ann’s hospital site to private housing developers, who will make a fortune building houses local people can’t afford. Their argument was that they need the money pay for better mental health services – but this is our NHS land they are selling, and we need the land for improved local healthcare services!
If I hadn’t been in bed with a really nasty chest infection, I would have been at the HaNSAH (Haringey Needs St Ann’s Hospital) lobby of the council  – but I will continue to be part of the campaign against the sell-off of NHS land, and for it to be used instead for a hospital with an A&E and walk-in centre. I was on the picket line at St Ann’s supporting health workers in their recent strike actions, and will be there in support when they take such action again.

No to TTIP
Unlike the three major parties, TUSC is completely opposed to the Transatlantic and Trade Investment Partnership, TTIP, which aims to further open up our public services (particularly the NHS) to be privatised and run in the interests of profit. One clause, the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), allows companies to sue governments for “interfering” with their profits: in the UK TTIP could be used to scare future governments off “reverse privatisation” of NHS services with the prospect of multi-billion pound lawsuits.

TUSC opposes all privatisation of public services. We resolutely oppose TTIP now, and would continue to do so if elected. TUSC MPs would help mobilise opposition to TTIP, both through raising awareness but also supporting protests, demonstrations and strikes which can force positive change. We believe TTIP is yet another example of how we need to change the type of society we live in – which is run in the interests of the 1% not the 99%. 

There is an alternative
If the Tories win the election they will accelerate the destruction of the NHS. Labour has said it will repeal the Tories Health and Social Care Act, but it has not pledged to reverse privatization. TUSC campaigns for all the profiteers to be kicked out of the NHS. We demand an end to Profit From Illness (PFI) and for the massive debts it has created to be written off. We oppose all cuts, closures and job losses in the NHS.

We also go further, calling for the expansion of the NHS with free and accessible dental and optical care for all and the abolition of the prescription charges. We call for nationalisation of the pharmaceutical industry, the pharmacy chains and medical supply industry and integrate them into a democratically controlled NHS.

We demand a minimum of at least £10 per hour and a 35-hour week for all health workers, 20% of whom are so low-paid that they have to have a second job to make ends meet! We also campaign for a democratic socialist society where poverty – the biggest killer and the greatest cause of ill-health – could become a problem of the past.

For this to happen, it is not enough just to wish it, or have nice sounding policies. we can only take on big business interests with a dramatic shift in the balance of power between the haves and the have-nots. For this we need strong unions and a strong left. To give confidence to the movement from below, we need left-wing MPs who are not career politicians, but can raise the concerns of ordinary people.

I’ve lived and worked in Tottenham for over 25 years. My children went to Tottenham schools.  This is my community and I’m here to stay.

I am the chair of the UCU teachers’ union at CONEL College where I’ve been teaching for 22 years. I’ve fought against cuts and redundancies, for workers’ rights and for a living wage for the cleaners

I’ve organised against local cuts and to help save St Ann’s Hospital

I’ve campaigned against illegal wars and for the rights of the Palestinian and Kurdish peoples
I’ve campaigned against police racism and marched with the families of Cynthia Jarrett, Joy Gardner, Roger Sylvester and Mark Duggan

I’ve challenged deportations and defended the rights of refugees and migrants

I am standing in this election to show that we don’t have to accept the inevitably of cuts, and that our side can organise to win. 

The Tories openly champion the privileged few. But thirteen years of Labour government gave us illegal war, the privatisation and outsourcing of public services, tuition fees and a massive growth in inequality.  We can demand better. 
For most of this century a third party vote was seen as wasted, but the 2015 election is different. No party looks set to achieve a majority, and small parties are getting heard. We need voices on the left in Parliament who can speak up for ordinary people whose futures are being trashed. The general election is our chance to say enough is enough. For the future of our families, our community and our planet, we can choose now to put people before profit and public services before corporate greed.

Regards,
Jenny