A response to 4 policy questions from 38 degrees

1) Do you pledge to crack down on tax dodging?
A study commissioned by the PCS found that £120 billion+ is avoided, evaded or simply not collected each year, most of it from big business and the super-rich. This is money that could be used for vital services. TUSC would be in favour of cracking down on tax dodging. We think that this can only be done effectively by taking control of the banks by bringing them into common ownership, something that is TUC policy but is only supported by one party in the election.

2) Do you commit to increase NHS funding?
The starting point for TUSC is always what do people need? It is clear that the NHS needs an increase in funding to enable it to meet Bevan's 3 principles at its founding: that the NHS should be free at the point of use  accessible to all and that decisions should be made on the basis of common need not cost. A good start would be to write off the PFI debts that succeeding Tory and Labour governments have saddled us with.

3) Do you commit to stop NHS privatisation?
Not only would TUSC oppose all future privatisation in the NHS, we are in favour of reversing all privatisation to date and cancelling PFI, which is a millstone around the neck of the NHS.
Labour has promised to repeal the Health and Social Care Act but they still see a role for private providers in the NHS, as shown by discussions they've had about the acceptable level of profit to be made in healthcare.

4) Do you commit to stop TTIP?
TUSC rejects all secret treaties. TTIP threatens to open up all our public services to privatisation and represents a huge transfer of power from elected governments to big corporations. TTIP can't be tinkered with or the NHS excluded from it, as other parties would have us believe. This threat to public services and democracy has to be rejected completely.

Ronnie Job,
TUSC candidate, Swansea West

No to TTIP! Response to 38 degrees question

I'm getting questions from 38 degrees members about my attitude to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. I am absolutely opposed to TTIP and delighted that there is a growing awareness of the dangers it represents.

TTIP opens up all public services to the threat of privatisation, not just health services, which is why I think it has been a weakness in much of the campaigning around the issue to concentrate only on removing health services. In any case, as you correctly point out, the NHS will still be at risk no matter what exclusions governments claim to have secured.

The Trades Unionist and Socialist Coalition is fundamentally opposed to privatisation and is in favour of bringing privatised services, such as transport, energy, communications into democratic public ownership, along with the banks.

TTIP would be a serious obstacle to carrying any of that out. It is a threat to democracy; it is a shift in power from elected governments to giant corporations.

TUSC calls and campaigns for a rejection of TTIP.

Ronnie Job, TUSC PPC Swansea West

You can find out more about the position the TUSC steering committee has taken on opposing TTIP at

TUSC BACKS 38 DEGREES CAMPAIGN NO TO TTIP TAX THE RICH AND SAVE OUR NHS http://www.tusc.org.uk/17075/12-03-2015/tusc-backs-38-degrees-campaign-no-to-ttip-tax-the-rich-and-save-our-nhs

Mayfair Loophole. Close the tax gap. Nationalise the banks.

I've been sent a number of e-mails by people via 38 degrees asking how if I was the elected MP for Swansea West, I would have voted on the amendment to the Finance Bill to close the so-called 'Mayfair' loophole. This allows private equity holders to pay less tax and has been estimated to cost the UK treasury up to £700 million a year.

I am in favour of all measures aimed at more progressive taxation including closing down loopholes that benefit only the rich. However it has to be pointed out that £700 million a year would represent only the very tip of a massive iceberg.

Research commissioned by PCS union has shown that over an estimated £120 billion a year is list to the treasury through avoided, evaded and simply uncollected tax; most of it from giant corporations and super wealthy individuals.

This is wealth that could be used to fund essential services, which are being slashed and to lower the amount of tax those of us without Swiss bank accounts pay on essentials like food, clothing At the same time the Con-Dem Government has axed the jobs of civil servants responsible for collecting tax ensuring their rich friends get away with paying even less.

In order to close the tax gap we need to reverse the cuts in civil service jobs and if we are serious about closing the sort of loopholes that the super rich use with impunity, we need to take the banks and the finance houses into democratic, public ownership.

Nationalisation of the banks is official TUC policy. The Trades Unionist and Socialist Coalition are the only party committed to acting on it.