Forthcoming British Election

[Jeevan]

WJKK

WJKF

Dear fellow British Sikhs with whats look like an election year I am curious what are the voting intentions are of the Sikhs.

Overwhelmingly British Sikhs vote Labour but as a Sikh I feel the Labour Party for far too long taken our votes for granted. I feel the Labour Government has let the Sikhs down in the following areas:-

1) Introduction of Student Fees (affected Sikhs & Hindus the most because as an ethnic group we are have the largest percentage that go on to University).

2) The failure to introduce positive discrimation. Sikhs vastly under represented in the Public Sector (NHS, Police, Armed Forces) Directorships, Media, Sports, Politics. etc.

3) Not enough pressure on the Indian Goverment to improve Human Rights.

4) Discrimanation in the work place in regards to promotion, training, time of work off work due to family problems. I have lost count the amount of times other Sikhs have told me and experiencing it for myself the amount of times I have been passed over for promotions, pay awards and this is from Sikhs who are University graduates, have a better command of English than the English. I worked in a NHS Trust for a number of years where they would rather recruit Managers from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa etc rather than recruit your British born Univeristy educated Sikhs. With an elderly relative living with me I find it next to impossible to take time off work to look after ther. As a Sikh I have a duty to look after my elders which brings me in to conflict with my employers. When a relation dies and we as Sikhs take time off to visit the deceased family, my employers just do not comprehend why we need to go t

o pay our respects or attend funerals?

5) The Metropolitan Police failure to investigate the murder of Ricky Reel (Sikh student murdered by suspected racists) and bring about a successful prosecution.

Please respond back to what you think are the issues for a Sikh living in Great Britain today.

[JagXJ]

vwihgurU jI kw Kwlsw!

vwihgurU jI kI &iqh!!

I totally agree with you, Labour has lost its touch.

[DhadiMania]

i guess i will be the only tory boy here?

anyway, my reasons that i hate labour is this...

1. all this human rights stuff has made aaj kal di british jails crammed with tv's, playstations and everything and anything a kid could possibly want. this money could be spent elsewhere.

2. under the tories, there were alot of cleaners, today it is less than 55,000 under the labour and now you hve all the hospitals diseased with MRSA.

3. bobbies on the beat, how many of them do you see catching criminals aaj? 20% of criminals are captured, a year. whilst the 80% can roam free.

4. lighter jail sentances. i remember a story, some asylum seeker runs over a two year old kid, kills him, and the judge never gave him life. what does 15 monthes sound to you guys? tories will not free the spaces but rathermore, they will make ships, where these prisoners can go to.

5. well theres the UKIP (UK independance party) who want to get away from the european union. i think thats good, its all this human rights that this country cant have the death penalty when it should.

ok back to tories.

6. taxes will be halfed under tories.

ok reasons why not to support the lib dems...

1. the army will be cut down, and britain is under terroist threats. and with the army just having light equipment, will this nation not be under threat?

2. more asylum seekers will pour (tories will clamp down they say).

3. more beauracrats at whitehall whilst tories will cut them down. they want to spend more money painting and decorating other MP's offices. £300 a roll for wallpaper. that money could be used on the ailing school system.

so i say

people

VOTE TORY!

oh and to rsingh, koi naa, another two more years and i will vote tories.

MICHEAL HOWARD ZINDABAD

[Guest rsingh]

I refuse to read all that, all im saying is, i dont trust Gordon brown and his chums. and I dont trust conservatives. I say lets give Lib Dems a try

and can u even vote, well thats thankfully one less tory vote

[H4RPAL]

No way to "vote for Lib Dems"- The Lib Dems are a pathetic excuse for a party with absolutely fluid commitments taht shift wherever neccesarry in a despertae attempt to gather votes. They have no policies, and yet have all policies if neccesarry- and IO thought Wahegurui was the ultimate paradox ( ie formless, yet resides in all, and is thus present in every form). The only thing I know about the LIB DEMS is that you can trust them EVEN less than the other parties. They are a joke- at the moment they are really trying hard to get the ethinic vote ( I.e. the Iraq stance to pick up Muslim votes), I say it would be absolutely foolish to fall for such nonsense.

[Jeevan]

WJKK

WJKF

To add further to my points from earlier:-

1) If grants were cut say and say it hurt the Jewish community the most the government would be accused as 'holocaust deniers'.

2) The old boys network consisting of white, middle class, oxbridge educated needs to be dismantled with government legislation. Sikhs are good enough to be doctors, business people but not good enough to be Directors, etc?

3) In 2001/2002 when the Indian and Pakistan lined up over a million troops on the LoC in Kashmir after the attack on the Indian Parliament, the Labour goverment talked about the importance of peace to both countries whilst selling militarily hardware to both nations. Then in 2003 the Labour government goes to war in Iraq over WMDs. Where is the evidence over WMDs now? The Labour goverment are fully aware of the GOI Human Rights abuses but cannot affford to let this get in the way of billion £ defence orders.

4) The MacPherson report of 1999 on the London Metropolitan Police stated the force suffered and I quote 'insistutionilised racism'. To this day the Police have not managed a successful prosecution for Blair Peach' murder (Southall 1979, school teacher on anti-racism march), Stephen Lawrence murdered 9standing outside bus stop) 1993, Ricky Reel (on the way home from a night out) murdered 1997. These are just the obvious cases the Met has failed to bring people to account. We as Sikhs pay the same amount of tax as our white counterparts so we expect the same level of service as when a white person is murdered.