Hello Nick
We were members of your party, at one stage I was asked to stand for a local seat.
I resigned recently because of the route the coalition was following: not so much the existence but the lack of a voice, of any real distinctive Lib Dem opinion.
I wrote to you, to my AM (which I was sad about as she is wonderful). I never had a reply although it was maybe three months ago. I am very disappointed and have since joined Labour because although they are far from perfect at least I can be part of a rebirth rather than a slow death, and maybe help create something to be proud of.
I am one of the many whose income has and will continue to drop under this government. My Dh has been made redundant; I am a carer and our HB has been cut. My sons have invisible disabilities that mean passing a DLA assessment will be harder, as per the worries voiced to you by the National Autistic Society. I am working towards retraining as a Social Worker (now just over a year away) and wondering if there will be any LA jobs left for me to apply to. My Husband has started his own business as well as studying and finds there are no business advisors about who can help, those who supply him are going under and those who buy from him are begging for discounts he can't give because they have no money either.
You are Mr Cameron say that the deficit is a first priority but do your realise that there are real vulnerable lives attached to these cuts? Real honest people who are working with very fibre towards honourable, self supporting goals that seem to slip further away? I don't watch the news any more, it scares me. I don?t sleep much either, tbh.
The deficit is a priority: there are others, including supporting those who never can themselves (such as one of my sons) and those who have hit hard times but trying to move forwards, because the unemployed don?t pay tax, they have lower health and employment outcomes for their families, they cost. Those who can manage to find solutions on the other hand pay taxes, take control, have a future beyond state dependency and state provided elderly care.
Ultimately, one day I will die and my son will need there to be a functioning state able to provide a social worker, support. I honestly do not believe any longer that it will be there.
So a question please: if deficit reduction as fast as possible (and I think too fast but let's agree too differ) is a number one in your priority list, where do we, as a family trying to tackle quite adverse conditions head on, come? As a number out of ten please (1 being highest). And was it really worth all those years of paying NI, tax, etc to be hailed as a burden? (don't worry, don?t need an answer to the latter- already know it. Yes, but for my sanity not the label of societal drain).
TIA