Political manifestos

Read four political manifestos to practise and improve your reading skills.

Do the preparation task first. Then read the text and do the exercises.

Preparation

Reading text

A – Rufus Loredo

Westwend is a changing town. People come to Westwend to build a better and more prosperous future for themselves and their family.

As your representative I pledge to:

fight to improve public schooling for our children
work to ensure that Westwend is connected more effectively: both its transport and digital connections
listen to each and every citizen's problems and help them overcome them.

Westwend needs someone who represents all of our communities and not only the wealthy, who puts people before politics and who keeps their promises.

Let me be that person.

B – Lona Williams

My goal is to restore full services at our local hospital and create free parking for visitors. I pledge to provide better care for the elderly and the most vulnerable in our town.

I will create jobs in Westwend by reducing taxes and red tape. Together we will help families overcome the high cost of living by tackling job insecurity and extending free childcare for working parents.

I will fight for our services and to keep our streets safe.

I will support our rural communities and local businesses.

My priority is people. My priority is you.

C – Jamar Repaci

My first goal is to press for a minimum wage of £10 by next year, and ban zero-hours contracts, which contribute greatly to job insecurity. I will join the fight to scrap highly prohibitive university tuition fees. A good education and a good job should be available to all the citizens of Westwend.

Our planet is in a moment of crisis, and Westwend can play its part. I am committed to investment in renewable energy and will provide tax credits to small businesses that engage in green practices. I will also fight to protect the wildlands around Westwend.

I will fight for fairness in government. I will work to protect our planet.

D – Cliff Slater

I pledge to be a full-time, unsponsored representative for the communities of Westwend. I will give you straight answers to your questions, without using jargon or meaningless statistics. I will maintain a full-time office and hold regular open-door sessions with the people of Westwend.

I promise to promote Westwend as a beacon for business and tourism. I will seek to reduce the unnecessary restrictions government places on people and companies. I will campaign for a more simple and transparent tax system for all.

The time of empty promises is over. Let's bring change to our town. Change for the better.

Task 1

MultipleChoice_MjMyNjQ=.xml

Task 2

Matching_MjMyNjU=.xml

Discussion

What would you put in a manifesto for your town?

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Language level

C1 - Advanced

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I would like to commit two things more education and health. In my country ( India) as everyone knows that there is no hope for growth and development . Education and health quality is very low level in India. I want to do improve these things greatly. In India one thing I see that law and order is very weak and challenging situations. Corruption is very dangerous in my country.

Well, I believe, being a politician is not for everyone, and I am one of that person who wouldn't like to be a representor :) However, I'd like to be an assistant or somebody who somehow helps people in achieving big goals. Kind of a consultant, I guess. In my consultant's manifesto I'd write something like this: I will do all my best to help you with your big plans even if these plans are bigger than I am.

In my manifesto, I could write things like. The history shows the this was the first city to run a ferry in our country we were prosperous and many people around the country were interested in invest and come to our precious city. but now we have one of the highest rates in unemployment and informality. our recent graduates just want to finish their studies to leave the city, we need to bring hope again to our people. As your representative, I pledge you to. Establish relationships with our neighbor country to carry out international commerce. Build a train that gives us access to the coast only two hours of travel, creating a port to export our products. Creating thousands of new employees and bringing prosperity to our city. Also, make deepest changes in the public transport system and improving the university quality. The change is possible.

I would put in my manifesto commit to providing comfort and relaxation facilities for them. also, I promise to have sessions with them about their problems and defend their rights.

Hello! Excuse me, but I don't understand why in the sentence: "listen to each and every citizen's problems" the words "each" and "every" are followed by a plural noun (problems). Could you explain to me, please? Thank you.

Hi Jorgelina,

Actually here, each and every describes citizen (not problems). It might be clearer to see if we rephrase it like this: listen to the problems of each and every citizen.

Does that make sense?

Best wishes,

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team

Thank you!!

In the manifesto for my town, i would include my pledge to represent their interests and providing necessary basic amenities in fostering economic growth and development considering all stakeholders of the economy.