Follow us on Facebook

August 27 2011
Wythenshawe MP, Paul Goggins says the Prime Minister's call to boost families in the wake of the UK riots "rings hollow" as the town faces savage cuts.

Mr Goggins made the comments at a recent visit to a local Sure Start children's centre which is facing cuts.

And he said he also disagreed with Prime Minister David Cameron's view that the riots were a result of a broken society in Britain

Prime Minister David Cameron, who coined the phrase Broken Britain while in opposition said he now believed some parts of Britain's society were not just broken but sick following disturbances in London, Manchester and other English cities.

In Wythenshawe about 40 police officers in riot gear with batons drawn were involved in skirmishes with youths aged between 12 and 15 but there was no serious damage.

Mr Goggins commented: “I support the Prime Minister in his desire to provide effective support to the most challenging families, but they are the minority. For the majority of parents life remains tough but they continue to uphold decent standards and make real efforts to teach their children right from wrong.

“And the Prime Minister’s remarks about the need for a nationwide family intervention programme ring rather hollow when local Sure Start and Home Start centres in my constituency are having their budgets cut.

“We have to get to the bottom of what possessed some people to riot but it is vital that this challenge is faced with a sense of realism. For most families life is tough but not broken. Government Ministers should be listening hard and not jumping to false assumptions.

“We need to reflect on how the riots were policed and the perpetrators should be punished severely. But to leap from that to a claim that our society is broken is worrying and betrays a lack of understanding about the way that most families are getting on with their lives in very difficult times."

Other Manchester MPs have highlighted cuts and social deprivation as factors contributing to the rioting. Gorton MP Gerald Kaufman, said: "If this government implements bigoted policies of social exclusion – deliberate creation of unemployment, ending of education maintenance allowance, dumping of Sure Start, attacks on social housing tenancies et al – then … those excluded may turn to other ways of being noticed."

Parents in Wythenshawe are calling on Manchester Council to maintain funding for the city's 36 Sure Start children's centres after councillors said they could no longer afford to run them because of cuts imposed on them by the government.

The council is consulting on whether the centres can be funded through partnerships with voluntary groups and charities although campaigners fear services could be slashed if the council cuts its links.