The working class is mistakenly seen as just an urban or industrial phenomenon but agricultural workers were once at the very forefront of social change in our country. Workers in the service sectors are just as vital as workers in the industrial sector. We have to accept that the UK has become a largely service economy. This is not likely to be reversible.
We are nevertheless committed to the strengthening of all socially responsible industrial development. We will support techno-innovation of all types to help rebuild our industrial base and contemporary technologies do not require this development to be concentrated in cities. We will support the services sector along exactly the same lines. Above all, we will encourage the further unionisation of the services economy and the regulation of the gig economy to ensure increased worker choice and security. We will create the regulatory structures that ensure that exploitation comes to an end and personal choice maximised.
Our approach to the countryside is one of respect and wider public access. Land-holding in the United Kingdom is rarely investigated as a problem in its own right. We will require demonstrable proof that all land held in the UK is being used for socially productive purposes – agricultural production, housing or infrastructural development, shared heritage, natural wilderness or parkland with easy access for workers and their families and so forth. We commit to the preservation of national parks and woodlands as well as meadows and other ecological treasures on this basis of full public access. Closed lands in excess of reasonable family or productive requirement will come under review for directed use and public access if they are left idle.
Every proposal in this Manifesto will apply equally to workers in our small towns. The character of the small town community and the distinctive ‘village’ neighbourhoods in our urban areas will be preserved under the Workers Party of Britain but there will be no place for NIMBYs when it comes to the need for more social housing and social infrastructure. Grandstanding projects of dubious value to meet liberal political needs will come to an end and be replaced by investment in clean water, efficient sewage, working roads, safe access for women and the disadvantaged and local specialist retail. There will be no neglect of small town or rural infrastructural needs. The import of identity politics into our small towns will no longer be financed by rates.
Special attention will be given to the rights and working conditions of farm, forestry, fishing and related workers including migrant workers employed on a seasonal basis. We will encourage more local and national food production through tax incentives and will consider a negative VAT rate on unprocessed natural foods and their priority supply to our schools, care homes and hospitals. We will support our fishing fleets. We will also crack down on the cruelty of factory farming and the import of foodstuffs that do not meet our ethical standards in regard to processing. We will encourage the farming community to conserve renewable natural resources and participate in educational projects for urban workers.
Julie Lowe 