“OUR society should work for everyone…”, “putting fairness at the heart of the agenda...” Great words from Theresa May, but should we believe them? 
The Conservatives do not have a good track record.
David Cameron’s claim that his government would be the “greenest ever” resulted in killing off the budding solar industry. 
If society is really going to work for everyone, with fairness at the heart of the agenda, these are the things we should expect:
n More funding for HMRC so tax evasion is tackled more seriously. At the moment we spend more going after benefit cheats (who have almost no money) rather than large corporations and tycoons evading taxes.
n Ensuring any international trade deals will not cause a ‘race to the bottom’ with workers’ rights or environmental protection.
‘Free trade’ must involve pushing up standards abroad, not reducing them at home.
n Enabling local councils to build affordable housing by allowing them to borrow money.
n Bringing in regulations to make private renting fairer for the tenant, whose home it is.
n Making a fair, level playing field for energy providers and applying the ‘polluter pays’ principle to companies whose activities cause climate change or other pollution.
(At the moment local people can reject planning for renewable energy, but when it comes to fracking, central government can overrule local people’s wishes and force it on them.)
n Funding local councils enough to provide good care for the elderly and those with disabilities (this will actually save money, as the NHS will consequently see fewer elderly people blocking hospital beds).
n Accepting that most people who are on benefits are not scroungers, but people who have genuinely fallen on hard times. 
n Treat all people on benefits with dignity and respect, always erring on the side of the claimant in the first instance, and genuinely help people into meaningful employment rather than pushing them into the first unsuitable zero-hours-contract that comes along. 
(This will benefit the economy by increasing productivity.)
n Reversing cuts to inheritance tax.
n Making sure universal credit will increase, not reduce, the benefits for the most vulnerable in society.
n Stopping quantitative easing (QE) and starting ‘QE for the people’: Don’t print money to support financial markets (which just keeps rich people rich), but print money and give it to citizens or spend it on infrastructure projects (to benefit the whole economy).
n Stopping absolutely any policies which contribute to xenophobia. For example, the policy of naming and shaming companies who employ foreigners. 
Any psychologist will agree it is natural for humans to look for a scapegoat if things aren’t going well.
But this is not the path a fair society should take – and something the government should take an extremely strong lead on by explaining that the true cause of much hardship over the past ten years has been nothing to do with immigration, but was due to the world financial crisis. 
Good British values mean standing up for the truth, and not descending to populist hokum.
I hope that Mrs May’s government will act to support her fine aspirations, but I fear the opposite.
I’ll stay on the case.
EMMA DAWNAY
Chair/co-ordinator
Devizes Green Party
Wexcombe
Marlborough