AROUND 250 people will attend today’s People’s Assembly conference at Friends House, Euston, meeting against a background of growing political and social upheaval and facing with government on the defensive on two major issues.  

We see headlines about the NHS and social care being at breaking point, of children going hungry and being refused free school meals, of millions of people — often those with health and disability issues — freezing because they cannot afford to heat their homes. We cannot allow this to continue. 

Inequality is greater than it has been for over a century in Britain and the past months have seen a growing confidence, with increasing numbers of workers going on strike in order to defend their living standards and to protect our public services from the ravages of profiteering and privatisation.