By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982
LabourList readers have voted the National Minimum Wage as Labour's biggest achievement over the last 12 years of government, in a poll conducted with IPPR ahead of its fringe event at conference next week.
The minimum wage received twice as many votes as the next most popular Labour achievement.
Speaking about the polls - which were conducted to take grassroots voices to the conference fringe - Carey Oppenheim, IPPR's co-director, told Politics.co.uk:
"The aim is to try and open up the debate beyond the four walls of the conference. This is only the beginning but I think it's a recognition that the way that conferences have operated in the past is just too closed."
The full results of the poll were:
National Minimum Wage: 37%
NHS improvements: 18%
Other public service improvements: 12%
Peace in Northern Ireland: 8%
Efforts on poverty eradication: 8%
Tax credits: 6%
Other: 11%
IPPR asked for the views of 50 LabourList readers, who volunteered to take part in the poll last week. More results will appear here over the coming days.
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I think it rather depends on the Sure Start location & management.
It's now effectively been rolled out to places that don't need them.
We have had a co-operative pre-school group here for 40 years, managed by the parents. Sure Start being imposed by the council pretty well torpedoed this last year. The compromise since reached is that they can share the same facilities, so that the pre-school isn't competing against a local authority entity which can ignore costs such as staff, and accommodation rental.
The reason for this compromise was that the villagers were also being asked to raise money to provide a childrens centre within the primary school to house the Sure Start.
So for those mothers who don't work around here, mainly middle class, as the others need to work, there is a free council funded service they didn't ask for and don't need.
Conversely in Town, in the areas that need it it we have Sure Starts located on the opposite side of main roads, without crossing points, for those who might benefit, but don't turn up to receive hectoring and condescending advice rammed in their direction.
My wife often turned up to provide a childrens music service at these places and there was nobody there except a couple of members of staff. Other locations were fine, but some were just in the wrong place being run by the wrong people.
Sure Start is a good idea, but that in itself does not make it proof against imbecilic implementation.
The minimum wage wasn't such a bad idea,however many employers now use it as the benchmark,and the low wage earners become clients of the state by getting handouts (working family's tax credit). So,in a perverse way,it probably is your greatest achievement.Great result after 12 years with a huge majority and oceans of taxmoney.
Great about minium wage, but has everyone forgotten Sure Start? Investing in early years support of the quality of Sure Start makes the biggest difference to the lives of children and families of anything we have done in government. Maybe all Labour Listers dont have children. Sure Start transforms people's lives and of course all the evidence shows good investment in early years and family support prevents the problems of social exclusion later in life.
And the Tories plan to scrap it - good reason for sticking with Labour on its own.
Bill
Its ok am sure there will be another time
ricki
http://www.labourlist.org/ippr-unique-experiment-take-your-voices-conference-survey
100% agree , The min wage was the best thing ( apart from kicking the torys out ).
would have loved to have voted
ricki