I WOULD like to give a heartfelt thank you to Brighton and Hove Council.

I remember when the NHS began, my mum, carrying my baby sister, and my eldest sister and myself walking on either side of her up the hill to the clinic in

Morley Street and there was a fine mist of rain.

We had moved to the newly built Coldean Estate after the war ended and my baby sister was the first baby born on the estate.

We were promised then that the NHS would look after us, regardless of income or status, "from cradle to grave". The Conservatives strongly opposed the idea on the grounds that it would "cost too much" and we've all seen how that thinking has worked out.

I live in assisted housing provided by the council for which I am eternally grateful, and there are carers on hand 24/7. But instead of this care being

provided by the NHS, it is provided by carers employed by a private company - one of many that have flourished under years of Tory misrule and cuts to

every layer of society that has any meaning to "ordinary people" who weren't born to millionaire parents and have no idea what it feels like to know that you either forego heating or food to keep a roof over your head.

The carers come from all corners of the world, and are working on zero hours contracts, which in reality means for the most part, working double shifts in order to earn sufficient to live on.

They are under valued, under paid and exhausted most of the time. The council cannot pay more to these care companies because of Tory cuts to local governments.

Footballers are earning up to and sometimes above £3.5 million a year, great to watch but these carers do their best to make our last years comfortable and to make us feel valued and cherished, and have to rely on benefits to prop up their meagre wages. They are so exhausted on a daily basis yet they turn up for work day after day.

In one case, a married carer from Albania takes home around £1,200 a month net. She and her husband live in a one-bedroom bedsit with a 15-year-old son and two growing girls and her rent is £1,200 per month!

Back in the Sixties, Labour introduced rent caps and properties had to be fit for purpose.Then Thatcher introduced the right to buy and stated that rent caps did not work and removed all the safeties that Labour had imposed.

All of the services that used to cost a fraction of what they do now, have now been privatised and cost many times more. I remember when you could

travel from one side of Brighton to the other side of Hove on the then council-owned bus service for a few pence. "Privatisation will drive down prices" was the Tories boast. In what world does a community-owned service cost more than a privately owned business? Business only exists to make a profit.

All of our service industries have now become private businesses and we are poorer for it.

When are these wonderful people, men and women, who look after we elderly going to get their just deserts and earn properly paid wages with proper

benefits like sick pay, and pensions? When is social care going to be recognised for the value it has and the workers paid a decent living wage

without having to work a double shift just to get by? It is an obscenity that this uncaring, greedy, selfish Government that has pulled the wool over the eyes of too many people for far too long should remain in power.

Keith Herriott

Albion Street

Brighton