§ Mr. MikardoI beg to ask leave to present a further petition from many of my constituents, which states: To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled.
The Humble Petition of UK Residents Sheweth:—
that the changes in Rate Support Grant made by Her Majesty's Government have seriously damaged the capacity of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets to care for those of its citizens who are disadvantaged by reason of age, infirmity, physical and mental illness and handicaps, unemployment, poverty, dependence and inadequate housing, particularly as the total number of those disadvantaged citizens in the Borough, as elsewhere, has grown substantially as a result of the policies pursued by Her Majesty's Government since 1979;
that this decline has aggravated, and continues to aggravate, the progressive rundown of an already deprived area, and places particular burdens on its women;
that this difficult, indeed sometimes desperate, situation is further worsened by the threat to the continued existence of the Greater London Council and therefore to the funding of a number of voluntary organisations on whom many people in the Borough increasingly depend;
that many of the members of ethnic minority groups who constitute a large part of the Borough's population are specially disadvantaged by the unfairness of nationality and immigration legislation and regulations and by the inadequacy of the legislation on racial discrimination;
and that young people are threatened with the rundown or closure of some training facilities in the Borough.
Wherefore your Petitioners pray that your Honourable House will demand that Her Majesty's Government will reverse its present policy designed to make the rich richer and the poor poorer, and ensure that adequate funds are available to the local authorities in deprived inner-city areas to halt their decline and move them up to higher standards.
And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray, etc.
To lie upon the Table.