JOHN LISTER
Socialist Alliance Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Oxford East. (www.oxfordsocialists.org.uk)
Press Release
Embargo: Not for publication before 00.01 Friday Feb 23
Socialist challenge to Countryside ‘Alliance of rural rich’
The Socialist Alliance today invaded the wide open spaces, challenging the Countryside Alliance’s bogus claims to speak for ordinary people in rural areas.
John Lister, the Socialist Alliance candidate challenging Treasury Secretary Andrew Smith in Oxford East, said:
"While the rural rich and their hangers-on whinge about the threat to fox hunting, they ignore the real problems faced by working class people in rural areas. There is a real crisis in the countryside, a crisis driven by agribusiness, the banks and the supermarkets.
"It’s a myth that our society is divided between urban and rural people. The real division is between the wealthy minority and the majority who rely on public services. Workers in the countryside, like workers in the inner city, need a higher minimum wage and stronger trade unions."
At the general election, the Socialist Alliance platform of policies will include:
* Big grants for small farmers to switch to organic production
* Incentives for more small farmers to form cooperatives to share and reduce costs
* Incentives to avoid importing or transporting food that can be grown locally
* A turnover tax on multinational agribusiness and supermarkets
* Prosecute - and nationalise - the feed manufacturers at the root of the BSE crisis
* Investment in cheap, efficient and widespread publicly-owned rural transport - bus and rail
* Investment in active and diverse rural communities - including community facilities, youth clubs, primary schools, and environmental projects.
"The Socialist Alliance is addressing the real problems facing the majority of people who live in the countryside," said Mr Lister. "The Countryside Alliance represents the small wealthy elite. They are part of the problem, not the solution."
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