Release funds to boost health care
THE Covid-19 outbreak poses a real and significant threat to the people of Wales, a country with a large elderly population and the highest poverty rate in the UK.
Our approach to fighting the pandemic must be one that prioritises saving lives and protecting the vulnerable above the needs of the market and the financial sector.
This must first and foremost involve effective measures to stop the virus spreading as well as a programme of aggressive testing and contact tracing, as called for by the head of the World Health Organisation.
Immediate funds must be released by the UK Government to build emergency health care facilities and provisions.
Private hospital and hotel beds should be requisitioned to meet soaring need and thousands of extra care and health workers hired.
Childcare arrangements must be made for front-line workers.
We call for full universal redundancy and sick pay.
As the fifth richest c country in the world, the UK has the ability to take bold action. But where powers are devolved, and if necessary, Welsh Government must be prepared to step in.
The economy was f fundamentally reo organised in the Second World War and we must do the same again now to tackle the Covid-19 p pandemic.
To fund such a p programme, sweeping measures such as a 20% windfall tax on the top 1% of earners, and a d diversion away from military spending on arms, should be adopted to release billions in order to deal with the crisis.
All signed in a personal capacity: