Sinn Fein criticised for grandstanding on cuts

Written by Paddy Meehan, Socialist Party Spokesperson Wednesday, 08 September 2010 10:09

Sinn Fein has come under heavy criticism for refusing to rule out cuts. Socialist Party spokesperson Paddy Meehan said " Sinn Fein are grandstanding on the issue of cuts. Sinn Fein claims they are opposed to “British” Tory cuts but they have stated they are prepared to implement them after the Comprehensive Spending Review is announced.

"As far as working class people are concerned, whether cuts are labelled British or Irish, makes not a blind bit of difference. The hypocrisy of Assembly politicians protesting against cuts is breathtaking. All the parties in the Executive have introduced cuts for the past three years which has led to a crisis in our health service and other vital services. The only difference is they call them “efficiency savings”.

"Workers and communities must resist the cuts. The Socialist Party gives its full backing to the recently established Stop the Cuts Alliance which unites workers, trade unionist and community activists to link up resistance to the cuts. We say if anybody is to pay for the economic crisis, it should be the wealthy bankers, financial speculators and big business who are the ones responsible for the recession. It is reprehensible that the bankers who have been bailed out to the tune of billions of taxpayers money continue to get big bonuses while major cuts are on the cards for working class people."