Labour candidates Naz Sarkar and Anneliese Dodds have welcomed the party's manifesto, launched by Gordon Brown today, as positive and forward-looking and addressing the real issues that matter to people in Reading and across the country.
Naz says "Almost everyone I speak to agrees that rebuilding our economy is key and only Labour has plans to create more skilled jobs, to provide apprenticeships, and to modernize our railway system, provide broadband access for all and set up a Green Investment Bank to help nurture sustainable technology. With Reading Council leading the way with apprenticeships, the plans to upgrade Reading station, and our high level of IT usage, Reading can play a leading part in these developments and benefit from them.
"Reading," he adds, "already has a first-rate hospital and hugely-improved schools, and we want a Government pledged to keep them that way and drive up standards in the rest, and to bring in a National Care Service which will build on Reading's commitment to the elderly. That's a Labour Government.
Anneliese adds: "Martin Salter and I launched a programme to reform Parliament as soon as the expenses scandal broke, and I am delighted to see the priority given in this manifesto to restoring trust in politics, with a right for people to recall MPs who let them down, a referendum on moving to the alternative vote for the House of Commons, a referendum on a democratic Second Chamber to replace the House of Lords and a vote on reducing the voting age to 16. We can't do business as usual, but that's what you would get with the Tories as Lord Ashcroft shows. Labour is offering a fresh start and that's what this country needs."
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