§ Mr. MAXTONI have been requested by certain of my constituents to ask the leave of the House to present a petition signed by 53,000 church workers of the City of Glasgow against the Means Test.
To the honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.The humble petition of the undersigned members of churches of all denominations in Glasgow sheweth:
- (1) That the Means Test as applied by the Government to large numbers of men and women of this city is operating in an extremely harsh manner by depriving them of unemployment benefit.
- (2) It is proving destructive of family life, driving sons and daughters from the homes of their parents? and disturbing those filial relationships which have been the characteristics of Christian households.
- (3) Numbers are finding it less and less possible to meet the rent charges of their landlords and the rent courts are crowded with people under threat of being rendered homeless.
- (4) Those responsible for law and order complain of the increase of crimes against property.
- (5) Those whose special care is the health of the people mark with misgiving signs of malnutrition, particularly among children.
- (6) While those concerned with the spiritual welfare of the people fear the moral deterioration that must ensue.
Your petitioners therefore humbly pray that your Honourable House will suspend without delay the operation of an Act which is devastating in its effect upon the lives and well-being of the British people.And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.