27 April 2011
In Britain, the main political parties, who are also dominant locally, have given us:
Business as usual - in St Helens and across the country - can no longer be a credible option. On every front - social, economic, political and environmental - the main parties have failed to deliver in the past and stored up trouble for the future.
In Cameron's country, if you are healthy and wealthy all may be well for you. But if you are vulnerable, if you need help from others, if you're already struggling to get by, then life under the Tories will become even more painful.
Up and down the land we're seeing vital public services - services for the old, the young, the vulnerable - ConDemned.
Cuts that hurt the poorest hardest (£28million this year in St Helens, still a very deprived borough despite years of Labour MPs and Labour government) are morally wrong; more so when huge corporations out there are making £billions in profit but paying only minimum tax and wealthy directors avoid paying income tax through ‘legitimate' dodges.
Put aside talk of debt (we've been in debt for donkey's years and ours is still lower than some other major economies) and be sure about one thing: these cuts are politically motivated and ideologically driven. To Labour, who staggeringly presided over a widening of the gap between rich and poor in our society, there's a lesson here from the Tories and their Lib Dem colleagues: "you might have wasted your time in power, but we won't."
The Greens will fight them every step of the way.
Local politicians have to start putting St Helens first - not the bankers, not the party machine and the donors, but the people they are supposed to serve.
Greens will do that. We'll aim to be the true opposition in this town and in the country.
We don't go into politics because we want to climb some greasy pole; we get involved because we want to put something back into our local communities.
And we don't depend on big business or the unions to fund our work; we rely on ourselves. Greens are principled, independent - and on the side of St Helens.
Our policies have never been more urgently needed, because the main parties have shown themselves time and time again to be fundamentally out of tune with the people they claim to represent.
Not so long ago, the Liberal Democrats claimed to represent those of us who believe education is a public benefit and pledged not to increase tuition fees. Millions of people trusted them. Now they can't.
People trusted the Lib Dems because that thought they would stand up for public services. They haven't. Greens will.
And what kind of opposition to this Tory-led government does Labour offer? The fact is that Labour introduced many of the very policies the coalition is now pursuing to their logical conclusion: tuition fees; Royal Mail sell-off; Post Office closures and NHS privatisation.
Labour's legacy is one of disastrous PFI schemes, tuition fees, ID cards, the Afghan and Iraq wars, the MPs expenses scandal, lax financial regulation and, incredibly, a widening of the gap between rich and poor.
And to hear our Labour MPs bemoaning the uncertainty around St Helens and Whiston hospitals you'd think they'd need a trip to the doctors themselves to cure their amnesia. After all, it was their party who created the crisis by adding £60billion to the nation's debt through the PFI schemes that created such new developments. Now the party's over and the likes of St Helens & Knowsley NHS Trust are saddled with gigantic debts - debts they are now struggling to pay.
Labour is not a credible alternative.
The Green Party can be. Across the country Green councillors are making a genuine difference. And they can make a difference here in St Helens too.
The Green Party is the real party of progress, justice and fairness. We are the ones standing up against the callous cuts and showing that there are alternatives; that there are ways to save vital services, create many more jobs, and take positive steps towards low carbon economies.
Local residents say they want safer, stronger, greener communities - places where children can enjoy healthy childhoods, develop their talents and achieve something in life.
They also want - and desperately need - a modern economy which offers them, and their children, a wide range of secure and sustainable job opportunities.
And we all surely value our health and want to reduce the disparities and inequalities which exist across St Helens.
The Green Party is the right party to meet these challenges. While others try to revive former glories and fight old battles, the Green Party stands out as the party of the present - and the future.
From Germany to Japan, from Australia to England, the Green Party is emerging as a force to be reckoned with - the party with local answers to global problems such as economic collapse and climate change.
For all kinds of reasons, many people don't vote at local elections - and that's the way the main parties seem to like it. It's time we proved them wrong.
Voters in West Park, Rainford, Eccleston and Windle have the chance to vote Green on 5th May and show the main parties that they care about their communities and that they will no longer be taken for granted.
We oppose the market-driven agenda in the NHS, and say patients and community care come before privatisation and profit.
Greens will fight for a fair deal for those needing health care by opposing cuts, closures and privatisation and by demanding a full programme of locally accessible services.
Greens believe in keeping the health service free - we would abolish prescription charges, re-introduce free eye tests and ensure NHS chiropody is widely available. Greens will also fight to restore free dental care and provide everyone with the choice of an NHS dentist.
And the free social care that's available to the elderly in Scotland would be available in St Helens too. We'll put dignity, not debt, at the heart of social care - and more support for carers.
Standing up
for public services
Against the onslaught of cuts, we'll work alongside individuals, local
communities, charities and trade unions alike to fight back.
Unlike Labour, we never wanted these cuts. We want properly funded, quality public services which are accessible to everyone, regardless of income. It's not a question of creating choice - it's about delivering basic standards.
It's not just young people who are feeling the pain. People of all ages will be affected by huge cuts to social services, with the elderly and disabled hit hardest by cuts to care and welfare budgets.
Across the country, local authorities are cutting care budgets, shutting day centres, and closing care homes. They're removing support for people with learning difficulties, mental health issues and physical needs.
These cuts are morally wrong and they're also financially short-sighted. Many of these services save more money than they cost by preventing people's health from getting worse. The loss of these care services will place great strain on the NHS and unpaid carers who are already struggling to cope.
The Green Party says protect care services. We would provide more support to carers and ensure that vulnerable people in our society are treated with dignity because it's morally and financially the right thing to do.
These cuts are not only socially devastating, they are economically illiterate. The way to tackle the deficit is not to throw out of work half a million public sector workers, with a knock-on effect of a similar number in the private sector.
This government - and the last - has acted completely irresponsibly. First they failed to regulate the bankers with catastrophic consequences; then they forced us tax-payers to bail them out. And now those same bankers are allowed to deny other businesses the credit they desperately needed to survive and thrive.
It's been a rotten deal all round - and we are the losers. The gap between rich and poor has never been wider and continues to grow.
The Green Party will fight for a fair financial deal for community banks, credit unions and mutuals - and for the people and businesses who need their support to survive the current economic hardship.
It's also unfair that irresponsible bankers continue to ‘earn' extortionate salaries and bonuses while hundreds of people in St Helens still earn less than the minimum wage.
We want a High Pay Commission to ensure bankers and other highly paid executives in the private and public sectors are not rewarded for their failure - and we are not penalised for it.
At the other end of the scale, Greens will fight for a National Minimum Wage of 60% of net national average earnings (currently this would mean a minimum wage of £8.10 per hour) and the introduction of a 'Living Wage' will help ensure low paid workers earn enough to provide for themselves and their families.
Our aim is to eradicate poverty in St Helens for good.
But while top bankers continue to pocket your money in the form of unearned bonuses, unemployment is climbing with public services, factories, firms and farms forced to lay off more and more workers by the day, week and month.
Greens will fight for a fair, stable and sustainable economy. The immediate priority is creating an extra million jobs and training places, followed by a £44billion package of measures include workforce training, investment in renewable energy, public transport, insulation, social housing and waste management.
These jobs will provide our country with the vital 21st century infrastructure it needs, including an efficient public transport system, homes that are warm and cheaper to run and much lower energy costs for businesses.
Locally, our economy needs to be more resilient to outside factors. That means more locally-based economic activity, more companies that are locally-owned and run, and more goods and services being traded locally rather than money being sucked away by multi-national corporations.
We also want more jobs to be created locally in low-carbon industries, such as renewable energy, recycling, public transport, eco-housing and organic farming.
Local economic regeneration projects should include support and accommodation for small businesses, and the council and other public sector organisations should buy their food, services and goods as locally as possible.
Our position is this: the scale of public sector we are witnessing is not unavoidable, it's unnecessary.
Rather than risk a double-dip recession, to which towns like St Helens are extremely vulnerable, the economy should instead be rebalanced using additional tax revenues i.e. those best able to pay to foot the bill should do so. We are, apparently, all in this together.
And because we are all in this together, those with more responsibility than others for this crisis, and those who benefited greatly from the boom that preceded it, should pay their way.
Only the Green Party went into the last election with a costed plan to tackle the deficit without decimating public services and destroying jobs. That's because the way to tackle the deficit is to create jobs, to keep people's taxes coming into the Revenue - to keep them in work.
And one of the fastest job creation schemes imaginable would be our programme for a Green New Deal - a massive investment in renewables and energy efficiency, better home insulation for thousands of households across St Helens, tackling fuel poverty and creating new jobs.
The Conservatives say they want to cut waste - but the real waste is the billions of pounds lost through tax dodging that big companies like Vodafone drain from our economy every year.
We are for fair taxes, not unfair cuts. This means addressing the staggering scale of tax avoidance and evasion which, according to our ‘Finance for the Future' report, is perhaps as high as £100billion a year.
It also means applying the 50% tax rate to incomes above £100,000, abolishing the upper limit for national insurance contributions and raising capital gains tax to the recipient's highest income tax rate (while helping lower earners by reintroducing the 10% tax band).
The Green Party is the only party advocating the Tobin Tax (Robin Hood Tax): a tiny (0.05%) levy on all financial transactions which could raise up to £100 billion a year in the UK and wipe out the nation's deficit in just over 18 months.
And finally, we'll scrap government's outdated and irrelevant military procurement programme, saving £20billion on Trident in the short-term and billions more down the line.
The full range of Green Party tax proposals (including more efficient collection) would bring in an extra £60 billion a year, preventing the need for any cuts at all.
If these changes were fair they would target the financiers who wrought misery on our economy, not target children, the elderly and disabled; if these changes were fair they would cut bonuses for bankers, not respite care for unpaid carers; if these changes were fair they would shut down corporate tax avoidance not care services!
It's scandalous that local people who have worked hard all their lives should eventually be denied the pension they were promised, leaving many facing poverty and hardship.
The Green Party will fight for a fair deal for older people, ensuring all pensioners receive a basic non-means tested £170 a week and free social care and support - the measure of a decent society.
Green would mean free home insulation for all homes that need it, with priority for pensioners and those living in fuel poverty.
St Helens needs more long-term social housing - homes that are mixed in with private estates providing genuine choice. We say: build or develop low-carbon social homes to avert the housing crisis and make them available to everyone - not just people the government says should buy their own.
In St Helens there's a serious shortage of affordable and good quality housing to buy or rent. At the same time many home-owners are losing their properties in the recession and homelessness is still affecting thousands of people.
We'd like to see empty buildings back into use (for example through the council's use of Empty Dwelling Management Orders and new developments providing ‘affordable' homes, with housing co-operatives and community land trusts at the heart of it all.
As well as pushing for action to increase the supply of affordable housing, we'd like to see improved housing standards for everyone, including energy efficiency measures to reduce people's energy bills.
The Green Party will fight for a fair housing deal for all, making it easier for people to get on the property ladder, to protect home-owners and to eradicate homelessness for good. The Green deal includes:
We must also improve the local transport system. Our emphasis is on safety, sustainability and improving access to for all, not just mobility for some.
We'll look again at the town centre's one-way system with a view to re-opening the semi-redundant Chalon Way. And we would introduce a maximum speed of 20 mph in all residential areas, with a 10mph limit in new developments.
We'll make the case for more frequent, more affordable trains to Liverpool, Manchester and Wigan.
And St Helens urgently needs a network of dedicated footways and cycleways which link together and do not force pedestrians and cyclists to share with cars.
Our privatised rail network is characterised by overcrowding and cancellations, outdated rolling stock and some of the highest fares in Europe (if you can figure out the ticket arrangements).
But like the banks, they are privatised only up to the point where they need our cash! Last year, for example, we subsidised Chiltern Railways to the tune of £8million. Over £800k of that was pocketed by its top director. Nice work.
The Green Party would bring trains under public ownership to ensure we have a better service and lower fares - and by doing so we can provide a real alternative for people who want to leave their car at home.
Greens would also divert money currently being wasted on huge road projects (about £30bn) and put more of the UK's transport budget into public transport, especially local schemes for walking, cycling and bus-travel.
The Green Party would also spend £1.5billion subsidising existing public transport to make fares up to 10% cheaper and £30bn over the parliament on investing in a better system. This will have the effect of strengthening communities, promoting a greater appreciation of place, reducing crime, improving the health of the population, and reducing traffic fatalities. And it would also create 160,000 jobs.
Greens would like to see St Helens Council, and its partners, fully implement green travel plans for their workforce.
We'll push for more safe walking and cycling routes to schools and workplaces, and oppose any more out-of-town developments which will generate even more traffic.
And we'll support plans to set up a community car club with the aim of reducing car ownership (and fuel bills!) by providing affordable access to a shared pool of vehicles.
Every young person under the age of 18, and in full time education would also be entitled to off-peak free bus fares.
Young people are under attack from this government: the scrapping of education maintenance allowances; the introduction of tuition fees; rising unemployment; an end to apprenticeships.
They are also demonised for hanging around on our streets; in most cases they simply have nowhere else to go and activities for young people are being reduced across the country.
The Green Party will fight for a fair deal for young people and their parents by investing in their future. We will pledge to double spending on youth services, spending an extra £1bn a year so that local councils can provide a variety of activities that give young people fun and affordable things to do.
The Green Party's plan to fund 2000 Young People's Centres would create dedicated spaces for young people to meet and be creative. The centres would also offer access to information and specialist support for teenagers in difficulty.
St Helens Council has been making decent progress with recycling, but much more should be done to reduce the total amount of waste that we all produce.
We need to tackle excessive packaging, and make it easier for people to re-use and repair goods instead of chucking so much away.
We also need to create more local manufacturing jobs using recycled materials, and increase demand for recycled goods.
We'll continue to push for more ambitious recycling rates and encourage the council and other large organisations to purchase more reusable, recyclable and recycled products.
But we also need to take tough action against people who fly-tip and drop litter - these louts make our communities look a mess and quality of life suffers.
We've got the likes of Carr Mill and Sherdley Park on the outskirts of town, but more green spaces are needed in urban areas to provide opportunities for relaxing, playing, exercising and growing food.
Urban green spaces also provide important wildlife habitats and opportunities for people to learn about, and care about, nature.
We'd like to see more and better green spaces, including parks, allotments, sports facilities and play spaces, orchards, ‘fruity corners', community woodlands and wildflower meadows. These should be a key feature within major regeneration sites such as Triplex and City Road.
Climate change is the biggest threat facing all seven billion of us and, as the likes of Oxfam know only too well, it's already here. We see it in the depressing, ongoing extinction of species, and in the increasing numbers of climate refugees struggling to cope with environmental disasters such as floods, droughts and storms.
To limit the damage we need to:
Greens will challenge the council and its partners to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions arising from transport, heating, electricity, waste and purchasing.
We'd also like to see photovoltaic solar panels on social housing, providing free electricity for tenants and revenue for the council and housing associations.
Ofgem forecasts an energy crisis from 2015, as several existing coal and nuclear power plants reaching the end of the road. This gap is likely to be around a third of our current electricity supply.
The gap must be bridged, but nuclear is not the answer. Too many have been too quiet on this topic for too long. It's time to take a stand to protect people and preserve the planet. We say no to nuclear - as would the proponents of nuclear if it was ever suggested that nuclear power plants be sited near their homes, close to their kids.
Putting aside the substantial arguments around safety and risk, and the demonstrable and desperate need to cut carbon emissions, the fact is it could be 2025 before a new generation of nuclear power stations is generating enough wattage to fill that gap.
But the solutions to the energy gap (and climate change) are available here and now: vastly improved efficiency; cleaner use of fossil fuels; renewables and Scandanavian-style decentralised power stations.
By 2025 wind could be providing over a quarter of today's electricity demand and wave/tidal an additional 12.5%. That's twice the output of the proposed new nuclear programme and it also enables us to meet our EU Renewable Energy obligations.
Like the proposed nuclear programme, our timetable is challenging and will demand concerted government effort, but the mix we describe can deliver a low risk, low carbon energy future quicker, cheaper and more effectively than high risk nuclear.
Households across St Helens are wasting £thousands because they don't have adequate insulation. The Green Party will focus investment on energy efficiency, reducing fuel poverty and tackling climate change while creating employment and generating money for the local economy.
Most people have a range of opinions well beyond what a single party or candidate stands for, but the present first-past-the-post system means many people either compromise their beliefs - or simply don't bother voting at all.
Now, at last, there is an alternative.
AV is not the Green Party's preferred choice of parliamentary voting system and it's unlikely to win us any more seats - but it's much better and fairer than what we've got. The BNP are against it; the Tories are against it. Doesn't that speak volumes? And just think what the current system has delivered in St Helens down the years!
Under AV, our local MPs would have to aim to get more than 50% of the vote to be sure of winning i.e. they would have to listen to local opinion rather than secure a ‘job for life' on a fraction of support.
AV will give us more choice and therefore encourage more people to vote. And it will force MPs to work harder to earn - and keep - our support, rather than simply toe an appalling party line as they did on Iraq and MPs expenses reform to name but two.
AV keeps what works with our current system (constituency link), but eliminates many of its weaknesses (unfair, unrepresentative). Ranking candidates gives you more say - in who comes first and who comes last. If your favourite doesn't win, you can still have a say.
AV is as easy as 1,2,3...it's that simple. If someone wants to represent your community they need the votes of the majority of the community. That's what making every vote count really means.
We plan to ‘clean-up and green-up' borough-wide, with many more trees planted and quality green spaces close to village and town centres.
We'll enhance existing facilities such as Taylor Park, where boats will be brought back, and develop the Hotties and the Burgy Banks for wildlife, leisure and recreation, not more empty office space, concrete and glass.
We'll push for more of the allotments that are needed and across the borough, and for new developments to include green space for these and more playing fields too.
We'll demand tougher action on crime, grime and anti-social behaviour. Low-level offenders will be forced to make good their offence, and given a chance to put something back and show some sense of responsibility, rather than be pointlessly locked away before reoffending on release.
We'll also challenge the borough's binge drinking culture and encourage a more attractive, more diverse night-time economy.
From the very start, the present government has set its stall out to put young people last by:
Young people deserve better than that. They are the future of our society - and we can build stronger communities by supporting them all.
Youth services are under threat, but it makes no sense to cut them. They help vulnerable young people in need; they provide them specialist advice and support; they boost their skills and confidence; they help young people to find work or further education; and they help them to fulfil their potential in life.
By reducing crime, unemployment and teenage pregnancies, these services save much more money than they cost. And with so many cuts to youth services, it's little wonder that young people feel under attack.
This is the message behind these callous cuts: vulnerable young people being told that society doesn't care any more about their troubles; that they're on their own; their youth centres, places of refuge closed down, the doors of opportunity slammed in their faces.
Throw in rising tuition fees, threats to post-16 transport subsidies, the loss of the Educational Maintenance Allowance, the disappearance of graduate jobs, and ever-rising youth unemployment, almost every young person in the country will be affected by these cuts.
British governments tend to carry out foreign policy with little or no regard for what the British public think or want. They don't think people care what is done "in our name".
For the same reason, the main parties won't mention it in their manifestos. We will.
The Green Party will implement a truly ethical foreign policy, with real progress on international social justice and equitable sharing of the world's resources. We will work towards the trade policies of economic localisation as the only viable, long-term basis for peace and security.
The war in Iraq illustrated fundamental problems with current British foreign policy, which is increasingly driven by militarism, neo-conservative strategies for armed pre-emptive strikes and a misguided faith in the ‘special relationship' with the USA. The UK's continuing need to secure long-term oil and gas supplies only serves to exacerbate this process.
A Green government would not have gone to war in Iraq. Such an act was against international law and lacked the support of the UN. It was a profoundly misjudged act of foreign policy which has killed thousands, reduced Iraq to chaos, and left the UK dangerously exposed to global terrorism and divorced from our partners in the EU.
Greens want to rebuild our tattered international reputation and introduce a truly ethical foreign policy. This will be based on peaceful diplomacy (e.g. increased use of peacekeepers to help prevent conflict), arms reduction, nuclear disarmament, the reform of international bodies and the promotion of lasting common security through aid, fair trade, environmental sustainability and economic stability.
A UN asset freeze and total arms embargo should be just the first step, along with a commitment to investigate and punish all crimes under international law, with referral to the International Criminal Court as necessary.
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