Earlier  in February Labour, Conservative, Lib Dem and Independents councillors had voted to close the market and bring in a discount supermarket, with only the two Green Party  cabinet members voting to keep the market open.

Ian Chamberlain, who is standing for the Green Party in a key council bye-election in John O'Gaunt ward, said: “This is excellent news.. Green councillors have always supported the market and I am sure they will be working hard to make sure that there is a viable plan for it’s future success .”

The Council is currently tied into a 99 year lease after it sold the original market site in the 1990s . One plan suggested by the traders is to put all of the stalls onto the top floor and to let the bottom floor to a single trader. Proposals on the future of the market will be considered by the council at a special meeting to be held before the end of March.

Greens urge more Council action over BAE Woodford closure.

The Green Party in East Cheshire and Stockport is concerned at the loss of 630 jobs as a result of the closure of BAE Systems in Woodford.

John Knight of East Cheshire Green Party said: "In these days of economic uncertainty, this will be a particularly worrying time for those workers and their families.

"We call on Cheshire East & Stockport councils to work together on sourcing funds, and enticing employers, for projects which utilise the skills of the workforce for the benefit of the environment and local communities. These schemes could include the development, manufacture and installation of renewable energy systems, home & business insulation or public & sustainable transport systems.

"As to the future development of the Woodford site itself, we welcome Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council's announcement (1) that they are 'working with BAE Systems to identify ways to attract future investment' to the site, and that 'work is underway to properly plan its future regeneration and development'.  However, we are determined that the land and wildlife of the Green Belt must be protected.

"We would therefore be strongly opposed to the development of large-scale housing or retail projects, which would completely disrupt and drive away the curlews, lapwings, plovers, sandpipers, sandmartins, buzzards, herons, weasels, shrews, voles & moles that currently thrive on the site."

Staff were promised no redundancies as a result of the merger between City College and Mancat, yet this promise has been broken within the first year and more are threatened in the near future. Among those made redundant are University and College Union (UCU) branch secretary David Swanson, suggesting that the job cuts may have been politically motivated.

Green Party member and UCU environment rep Nigel Woodcock has had his facility-time revoked, as have all UCU reps at the College.

Educational provision is desperately needed in our communities at a time of recession and job losses. Forcing through redundancies and attacking trade unions while boasting of financial security is simply unacceptable.

Manchester Green Party is joining huge numbers of residents in the area in opposing the plans. A Facebook Group - "Save Chorlton Meadows" - has over 1200 members already and is growing by hundreds every day.

The chair of Manchester Green Party (and Chorlton resident) Brian Candeland said: "One of my sons formerly played for a local football team and I do understand the need for sports facilities for young people. However, I do not accept that there is an overall shortage in the Chorlton/Didsbury area which would justify this proposal. I know the meadows quite well. This is one of the main accesses to the Mersey Valley and the scheme would have a massive impact on the area. We call on the council to reject the plans."

For further information on the area see: Friends of Chorlton Meadows

Lancashire Care NHS Trust is currently consulting the public on 3 options:

Option 1: Refurbish the existing hospital at Ridge Lea (Lancaster)

Option 2: Close Ridge Lea in 2012 and send patients to Blackpool

Option 3: Close Ridge Lea and re-use existing buildings on Ashton Road.

Lancaster Green Cllr Chris Coates (pictured) said: "The NHS prefers Option 3, but concentrating more services on Ashton Road could make it easier for them to develop Royal Albert Fields later on. I will push for Option 1, and I urge residents to do the same."

For more info, see: www.lancashirecare.nhs.uk/consultations.php

The deadline for responses is 21 Sept.

A consultation event will take place at the Trust's Lancaster HQ (Moor Lane Mill) on Monday 7th Sept, 6-8pm.

Liverpool councillor John Coyne has written (18th July) to Warren Bradley, leader of Liverpool city council, asking him to open the question of how the city elects its councillors and how many we need to have. A new law - the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 - could allow Liverpool to move to all up elections once every four years and reduce the number of councillors, for example, from 90 to 75. Green Party canvassers have found that most voters do not even know that they have three councillors for each ward and almost never know who they actually are.

The council could also use the Sustainable Communities Act to ask central government to devolve the power to introduce a form of proportional representation (2 councillors from each ward, plus 15 additional members elected on a party list).

The proposed savings from these actions could save be up to £500 000 per year.

The Executive Board Meeting of July 31st (Item 7) discussed the Medium Term Financial Plan for the coming years. The need to save seriously on local government spending is clear in every paragraph. It only seems reasonable for the council itself to take on its share of the burden.

Leader of the Green Group Cllr John Coyne said: "We could make major savings for the taxpayer by moving away from annual local elections and have one election all up every four years. In the current recession, every penny counts and those savings could be used to protect public services and jobs. If we act now, we could also ask the government to let us use a proportional voting system for those elections so that every vote will count and help voters feel more engaged in local democracy."

The plan for the two forces to introduce water cannon was revealed yesterday in the Independent on Sunday (2).

Manchester Green Party secretary Gayle O'Donovan said today:

"This is a kind of policing associated with authoritarian regimes and dictatorships. We haven't had anything like this before in the UK, except during the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The law and order situation in Manchester is not remotely likenable to that. There is no justification whatsoever, and it would be an utter waste of precious police resources that could be far better used elsewhere."

She added: "It's ironic that the police are considering water cannon as an alternative to the 'kettling' of protestors - a tactic that has drawn almost universal disapproval and which may have caused the death of an innocent man at the G20 protests."

"Aggressive and confrontational"

Jenny Jones, a Green Party member of the London Assembly who sits on the Metropolitan Police Authority, told yesterday's Independent on Sunday: "There are other, more peaceful ways, to restrain rare violent protest... The police currently seem to confuse the word 'protester' with the word 'criminal' and go to police public order events in the wrong frame of mind - aggressive and confrontational."

Manchester Greens echoed Jenny Jones AM's sentiment. Gayle O'Donovan continued, "Recently we have seen video footage of British police officers beating innocent peaceful protestors with batons. We've seen film of police officers repeatedly using tasers on a man lying on the ground. This kind of incident is a national disgrace. Clearly there are too many police officers imbued with a macho, aggressive attitude that has no place in law enforcement in a decent society like Britain. Greater Manchester Police should be putting its efforts into reducing crime, not dreaming up ways of wasting money on gung-ho tactics reminiscent of 1960s South American dictatorships."

"Banana republic police tactics"

Ms O'Donovan criticised Tony Lloyd, Labour MP for Manchester Central, who was reported by the Independent on Sunday as saying he "would sooner have water cannons used rather than plastic bullets." Gayle O'Donovan responded, "It's not a question of one over-the-top tool or another - it's a question of reasonable policing in the sensible British tradition versus the tactics of the banana republic."

She concluded: "We need more police officers on the beat. We need our police service to be properly resourced and supported, in order to keep officers safe while they're reducing crime. But we certainly don't want to see British constabularies evolve into aggressive gendarmeries who look for a fight at every opportunity and think they need plastic bullets and water cannon."

--

Notes to Editors:

1. The proposals have been estimated at £5m for London and £1.2m for Greater Manchester. See www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/police-want-water-cannons-to-beat-back-city-rioters-1732194.html

2. Ibid.

Jill Perry said today "I truly believe that Copeland deserves a better future than the one offered by the two main parties - a growing patchwork of radioactivity from Keekle to Kirksanton. The Green Party has the vision to see a different future, a real Green New Deal (2) would work as well in Copeland as anywhere else."

(1) Jill is 52 years old, born in Loweswater, worked in local schools including St Benedicts, Whitehaven (9 years) and Wyndham Egremont (5 years part-time), married with two grown-up children.

(2) For details of the Green New Deal see www.greenparty.org.uk/policies/economy.html

Peter Cranie, who himself narrowly missed election, said tonight: "It's not good news for the Greens that we didn't win a North West seat, but it's a disaster for Britain that the BNP did.

"The BNP offers Britain nothing but hatred and disrespect.

"It wasn't immigrants who caused the recession, the credit crunch or the climate crisis, and the BNP have no solutions to any of these problems.

"We now have a big job to do, making sure the racists don't spread their poison into more locals councils, let alone the UK parliament.

"We need to expose this neo-fascist party for what it is. Yesterday thousands of people were on the beaches of Normandy celebrating the defeat of Nazism and honouring the millions who gave their lives in that struggle. They didn't die just so our own home-grown neo-fascists could take parliamentary seats."

He added: "Labour has a major responsibility for the BNP's success. Labour distributed leaflets claiming that only Labour could defeat the BNP. If only three thousand of those people had voted Green instead, the BNP leader would have been kept out."

Over 2,000 people were asked - regardless of the party they normally voted for - which party's politicians they thought were most likely to put their own financial interests before the interests of their country. Allowed to choose three parties, only 5% named the Greens as likely to put self-interest before the country's.

On the mistrust scale:

• Labour appeared to be the least trusted, with 45% of respondents naming Labour politicians as likely to put financial self-interest before their country.
• The Conservatives were almost as bad, with 40% naming them.
• Next were the BNP, the LibDems and UKIP on 20%, 16% and 15% respectively.

The new poll was released in the same week that campaign group Open Europe rated the Green Party's leader Caroline Lucas as the joint best British MEP on accountability, transparency and reform. The bottom nine places in the Open Europe survey were occupied by four Conservatives and five UKIP MEPs - with the tenth-worst British MEP slot being held jointly by UKIP leader Nigel Farage and an MEP each from Labour, the Conservatives and the LibDems.

Voter-intention polls show Greens are up, UKIP and BNP down

The Greens say that while there's much talk of an anti-sleaze protest vote going to the racist BNP, in fact the opinion polls are showing the Green Party to be a far more likely recipient of any protest vote.

• The ComRes poll of 17 May, commissioned by UKIP, put the Greens on 11% and the BNP on just 4%.
• The ComRes poll put the Greens on 13% across Northern England - easily enough for Green candidate Peter Cranie to defeat BNP leader Nick Griffin in the North West contest.
• The ComRes poll showed the Greens in third place in the South East, ready to return party leader Caroline Lucas MEP and scoop up a second seat for Brighton councillor Keith Taylor.
• The next day a YouGov poll commissioned by the Green Party suggested 34% would either definitely vote Green or would consider voting Green in the Euro-elections.
• And the Guardian/ICM poll of 22 May put the Greens on 9% - just behind UKIP (10%) but way ahead of the BNP (1%).

The Guardian/ICM poll showed a Green increase of 50% compared with the actual 2004 vote (up from 6% to 9%) while UKIP was down more than a third (from 16% to 10%) and the BNP vote was cut by about four-fifths (down from 5% to 1%).

The Greens point out that polls ahead of Euro-elections usually under-estimate the Green Party. In 1989 the Greens were showing in the polls at about 7-8% but their actual vote turned out to be 15%.

The Greens believe their million-jobs manifesto for tackling the recession and the climate crisis at the same time has probably struck a chord with a lot of people.

Note

1. Poll commissioned by the Green Party and conducted by YouGov. Fieldwork 13-15 May 2009. Sample size 2,111. The exact question was: "Regardless of the party you usually vote for, which party's politicians do you think are most likely to put their own financial interests ahead of the interests of the country? [Please tick up to three.]"

Of course there's the increasingly-expensive problem of waste; "after half a century we still don't know what to do with the radioactive waste, which we'll be dealing with for thousands of years," says Peter. But rather than risk getting bogged-down in arguments about whether nuclear is safe or not, he simply gets right down to the economics of the matter.

Peter explains: "Nuclear provides about four per cent of our energy. We could save several times that much just by improving energy-efficiency in homes and businesses. Reducing demand would cut people's fuel bills, and incidentally create tens of thousands of extra jobs".

The article explains that nuclear energy would not reduce emissions fast enough, but that wind, wave and solar energy would - and would also create new jobs "starting right now," not in ten or fifteen years' time after building new nuclear power stations. And, he says, renewables would generate not only clean, safe electricity, but more new jobs than could be created by Gordon Brown's nuclear dream: "Several times as many jobs per megawatt from clean renewables," he says.

The Green Party's 2009 Euro-election manifesto, titled "It's the economy, stupid," spells out policies that the Greens say would create over a million UK jobs within 2-3 years, including more than 100,000 in the North West - many of them in the renewable energy and energy-conservation industries.

http://www.greenparty.org.uk/assets/files/Elections/GreenPartyEuroManifesto2009.pdf

Invitations sent to the London Assembly have ended up in the hands of the BNP's only assembly member Richard Barnbrook. Although "plus-one" invitations are usually intended to imply spouse or partner, Barnbrook has apparently decided to bring his party leader.

Peter Cranie - the Green Party Euro-candidate who is head-to-head with BNP leader Nick Griffin in the North West England Euro-constituency, said today:

"I'm absolutely certain the Queen did not intend to invite blatant racists to Buckingham Palace."

Mr Cranie, who according to a recent ComRes poll is on course to defeat the BNP leader in the fight for the eighth and last North West England MEP seat, continued:

"The BNP's racism is deeply, deeply offensive to most British people."

"And as Head of the Commonwealth the Queen presides over a grouping of nations that remain together on a mutually-respectful basis - and the vast majority of people in Commonwealth countries would be outraged by the vicious racism at the heart of BNP policies."

He concluded:

"The BNP in no way represents what it is to be British in the 21st century."

With the expenses row in full flow, and UKIP considered unlikely to benefit from voters' anger at other parties' sleaze thanks to its own somewhat spotted record, the Greens are not ruling out a potential surge like that in 1989, when 2.2 million Britons voted Green in the European elections.

The Green Party's top North West candidate Peter Cranie said today: "Basically the expenses row has opened up space for us, but also I think our million-jobs manifesto has struck a chord with recession-hit families."

But even a much smaller swing from the big three could be enough to win new Green seats in the North West and several other regions, as well as holding the party's existing seats in London and the South East.

Green support in polls jumps from 6% to 11%

A voter-intention poll this week for the Sun newspaper put the Greens on 6% - compared with 7-8% in 1989 opinion polls, when the actual Green vote turned out to be 15%.

And in a poll commissioned by UKIP and published today, the Greens are showing on 11% nationally and 13% in the North West - enough to win seats in the North West and some other regions beyond the Greens' existing seats in London and South East.

Crucially, in the list election system used for Euro-elections, if the Greens finish ahead of the BNP, the racist party will be extremely unlikely to win any seats at all.

Greens determined to deny BNP leader a parliamentary seat

In the North West the Green campaign includes an especially strong element geared to keeping BNP leader Nick Griffin out of the European Parliament. In this region the big three parties are expected to take seven seats - and the eighth will almost certainly go, as usual, to the highest-polling of the smaller parties. So if the Greens finish ahead of the BNP, the Greens will take the eighth seat and Nick Griffin's electoral ambitions will be thwarted.

Peter Cranie commented:

"This 34% is the best indication we've ever had that people would consider voting Green.

"And the other poll showing us at 11% is extremely encouraging, not least because the Greens have always been underestimated in polls before Euro-elections. In 1989 we were showing at 7-8% but we got 15%. And we only need about 8% in some regions to win seats.

"We do expect that the current disenchantment with the big three parties will prompt more people to take a second look at the Greens. Our Euro-election broadcast has been very well received and we believe our million-jobs manifesto is going to strike a chord with a lot of people.

"When it comes down to it, we're the only party in this election that (a) isn't mired in sleaze and (b) is putting forward a positive vision."

He added: "There is still a lot of speculation about disillusioned Labour voters voting BNP as a protest. But I really can't see why left-of-centre voters would vote for the extremist far right.

"And it would be too ironic for UKIP to pick up votes off the back of other parties' sleaze."

Greens hit the mark with campaign themes

The poll also asked which issues the Green Party should focus on in its campaigning (2). The top two answers, both on 40%, were economy and environment/climate change - the two issues the Green Party had already selected to focus on for the local and European elections. The party's Euro-election manifesto was titled "It's the economy, stupid" - a tongue-in-cheek reference to US President's Bill Clinton's election-winning watchword and to the Greens' belief that only massive investment in green industries can tackle climate change.
 
Notes

1. Interestingly, the largest group who would consider switching were LibDem voters. It's far more common for the Greens to attract former Labour voters, who were the second largest group considering switching. Also interesting was the fact that around one-fifth of those considering switching were Conservative voters - the group normally the least likely to switch to Green.

2. The exact question about campaign themes was: "Thinking about the next twelve months which three or four of the following areas do you think the Green Party should make its priorities for campaigning? [Please tick up to four options.]"

3. The YouGov poll was commissioned by the Green Party. It surveyed 2,046 adults in Great Britain. The question regarding voting intentions was specifically about the Green Party.

A big vote for the Greens is the surest way to stop the BNP winning the seat. But if you don't want to vote Green, then voting for any party other than the BNP will help reduce Griffin's chance of being elected. If the BNP gets a low share of the vote, the Greens are likely to win the last seat and the BNP will walk away empty handed.

The BNP refuses to allow non-white people to be members and wants to pressure black people to leave the UK. As well as supporting a policy of de facto "ethnic cleansing," the BNP has fought previous general elections on a pledge to outlaw homosexuality.

It has described Aids as "nature taking revenge" on gay men. It opposed the repeal of Section 28 and the equalisation of the age of consent. BNP leader Nick Griffin has denounced homosexuality as a "behavioural deviancy" and attacked gay people for "flaunting their perversion." He also ridiculed homosexuals as "repulsive."

A more true reflection of the BNP's real agenda have been some its website postings. These have previously claimed such nonsense as: "Sexually-transmitted diseases are no joke. Thanks to them, the average life-expectancy of a gay man is now 40, compared to 71 for all men." (1) Suggesting that the "gay rights lobby target school children," the BNP has condemned and ridiculed LGBT History Month and has warned that it might reintroduce Section 28. (2)

Soon after the neo-Nazi bombing of a gay bar in Soho, London, in 1999, which killed three people and maimed dozens more, BNP leader Nick Griffin seemed to excuse and endorse the homophobic hatred that inspired the terrorist atrocity. He attacked lesbian and gay people for "flaunting their perversion" and said this showed why "so many ordinary people find these creatures so repulsive". (3)

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender voters - and their straight friends - should quiz all the Euro-candidates on gay rights, and on other issues like the economy, and then vote for those candidates with the most progressive and homo-friendly policies. It is important that we elect more pro-gay politicians, to help us secure stronger policies to tackle homophobic bullying and hate crimes.

With one-in-ten voters being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, the queer vote could influence the election result in the North-West. Our votes could help stop Nasty Nick and the BNP being elected.

--

Notes for Editors

(1) http://www.bnp.org.uk/articles/traditional_values.html
(2) http://www.bnp.org.uk/articles/lgbt_month.htm
(3) "Stranger things have happened," Nick Griffin, Spearhead (BNP magazine), June 1999.

Taking time out from a hectic region-wide campaign, Peter Cranie, said:

"Obviously all Greens sympathise with people who are made redundant. But restoring business-as-usual after the recession just isn't compatible with tackling climate change, and we need to tackle climate change to protect the long-term future of the economy.

"That's why the Green Party wants us to move away from jobs in high-polluting sectors, towards jobs in low-carbon sectors.

"As far as drivers are concerned we should be creating more jobs for train, tram and bus drivers, not more jobs for truck drivers. That would fit with the need to massively improve public transport, and move more of our freight by rail."

Put economy on "war footing" to tackle climate crisis and recession

Peter Cranie's words echoed those of party deputy leader Adrian Ramsay, who said:

"The Green Party is arguing that we need to put the economy on something like a war footing to tackle both the recession and the climate crisis in one go. The government needs to invest in re-training as well as in job-creation, and we can create huge numbers of jobs not just in transport but in the green energy sector (including manufacturing), in energy-saving industries, in green waste management, and various other sectors.

"In fact if all the policies in our Euro-election manifesto were implemented we'd quickly create over a million jobs."

According to BBC reports, figures to be released today are expected to show a dramatic fall in the number of heavy goods vehicles on the UK's roads - a drop of 7% In the last quarter of 2008 compared with the same period in 2007 - and early 2009 could see steeper falls, says the Department for Transport.

The BBC says the company Trafficmaster has recorded 18 consecutive months of decreases in average congestion on motorways and major roads across
England, compared with an average increase in every month between 2003 and mid-2007.

The Greens pointed out that reducing road traffic will have a number of economic benefits. These will include:

• A taxpayer saving in road maintenance costs.
• A reduction in the costs to UK businesses of traffic congestion.
• A reduction in the health costs of traffic-related pollution.
• A reduction in the economic costs associated with transport's contribution to climate change.

Competition between mobile phone companies is wasting almost 300 GWh a year due to duplication of telephone network equipment, says a new report from the Green Party.

According to the report, to be published in the coming week, the amount of energy currently wasted by the mobile phone networks each year would be enough to: 

• Keep the Blackpool Tramway going for 137 years. Or
• Meet the electricity needs of around 68,000 homes. Or
• Run almost a third of the London Underground for a year Or
• Light up the Blackpool Illuminations for three centuries. Or
• Power seven London Docklands Light Railways for a year. 

Mobile phone companies would be "better together" in a "super-network"

The report, Better Together, argues that mobile phone companies must cooperate to cut the industry's emissions as part of Britain's fight against climate change.

Peter Cranie, the Green Party's Euro-candidate for Blackpool and the rest of the North West region, commented today:

"If we're to tackle the climate crisis and still enjoy a high standard of living, we need to eliminate wastage like this whenever we can. Let's also make sure mobile networks pass on their savings to customers.

"It would be easy enough to make these savings. The government should simply require mobile phone operators to share facilities.

"The phone companies would save money, cut CO2 emissions and provide the same level of signal cover with fewer masts.

"In the short-term, operators could be required to share base stations at times of low demand."

"Ultimately they could build new shared infrastructure. They could cooperate on a ‘super-network'."

He concluded: "They might even think to pass their lower costs on to their customers."

The big three parties each claim that the D'Hondt regional list voting system used in UK Euro-elections  is such a "lottery" that supporting them is the best way to beat the BNP (2). But the Greens are pointing to the fact that statistically the big three usually take most of the seats, and the final seat in a region almost always goes to the highest-polling of the smaller parties (3).

In North West England - where the BNP leader hopes to force an entry to the European Parliament - the battle for fourth place, and for the crucial eighth and final seat, is between the Greens and the BNP.

Recession - "BNP stokes resentment, Greens offer solution"

While the BNP seeks to make political capital out of the economic insecurities heightened by the recession, says the Green Party, the Greens are offering the antidote to both poverty and extremism - by pushing for massive investment in new green industries, and showing how Britain can afford to pay for it.

The North West Green Party's election manifesto will offer policies that between them could create well over 100,000 jobs in the region that was the birthplace of the world's first industrial revolution.

Peter Cranie told the Independent: "A Green vote is a vote for jobs."

And he warned:

"In an environment of economic fear and insecurity, the seeds are being sown – racism and intolerance – by a party that in its constitution bars any person because of the colour of their skin and the home of their ancestors."

Racism is "blot on the face of our society" and BNP "a disgrace to Britain"

Peter, a 36-year-old father of a baby boy, who works for a parenting support charity on Merseyside and is the Green Party's national spokesperson on children, schools and families, added today:

"British society is stronger for its diversity.

"British cities like Liverpool and Manchester owe part of their greatness to the migrations that have occurred over the centuries.

"People who come to live here from other countries are our colleagues and neighbours and business partners - they're part of our communities, part of what we mean when we say 'us.'

"Racism is a blot on the face of our civilised, enlightened society and the BNP are a disgrace to Britain.

"Elected Greens have a track record of defending and creating jobs and supporting their community. The BNP, when they've got councillors elected, have done nothing for local people."

He concluded:

"The 4th of June 2009 will be a historic day for Britain. The politics of hope must triumph over the politics of hate."

Notes

1. "'Best way to beat the BNP is to vote Green': Respect candidate urges public to back rival at European elections," Andrew Grice, Political Editor, Independent 4.5.09, http://www.independent.co.uk:80/news/uk/politics/best-way-to-beat-the-bnp-is-to-vote-green-1678539.html.
2. Ibid.

Watch Peter on YouTube with Green MEPs Caroline Lucas and Jean Lambert: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbzjm8VrQks 

• Free basic dental care for all
• Proper access to NHS dental services, and,
• An end to fluoridation of our tap water

The Green party claims that nationally between 55 and 60 per cent of NHS practices are not taking on new NHS patients, that the percentage of children visiting NHS dentists has also fallen and the number of adults able to access such care is in decline.

According the World Health Organization: “Oral health is integral to general health” (2), yet in the UK access to dentistry is not free at the point of need and access to NHS dentists is poor and worsening. Not only are most patients required to pay for dental health care, good dental health requires regular check ups for most of a person’s life.

Even NHS dentists charging for care, which appears to break the fundamental principle of the NHS by not being free at the point of need. Principle 1 of the NHS Constitution  (3) states: “The NHS provides a comprehensive service, available to all” and Principle 2 says: “Access to NHS services is based on clinical need, not an individual’s ability to pay.”

Leading NW Green, and lead candidate in the Euro-elections, Peter Cranie said “NHS dentistry charges are a regressive tax, hitting the poor hardest and preventing many from getting dental care. A twice yearly check up costs £32.80 assuming that no other intervention is needed. If the NHS wanted to provide free dentistry to 75% of the population the total level of funding would need to increase from £2.6 billion to £3.9 billion a small price to pay.”

The Green Party views the use of fluoridated water to improve dental health as a “sticking plaster with side effects” (4) solution. Any benefit of fluoride has to be weighed against the increased risk of osteosarcoma and fluoridosis of the teeth, and importantly, mass medication probably breaches the European Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine.

Peter Cranie pointed out “The residents of West Cumbria have never been consulted about fluoridation, and even where the population is consulted, the result can be ignored, as in the recent decision by Southampton to fluoridate water supplies against widespread local opposition. It is much more important to tackle the underlying problems of dental health.”

--

Notes:

(1) www.greenparty.org.uk/assets/files
(2) http://www.whocollab.od.mah.se/expl/systemic.html
(3) http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGui
dance/DH_093419
(4) http://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/2009-02-27-fluoridation.html

Public consultation lasts just one month, and there is bound to be widespread concern as to whether any level of public response will change any decisions, compounded by the new national planning regime which will take decision making away from local communities and hand it over to the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) (2). Following the assessment period, sites that are "found to be suitable for the development of new nuclear power stations" will be listed in a draft Nuclear National Policy statement.

Peter Cranie, the Green Party's lead candidate for the Euro-elections in the NW said: "The Green Party has long campaigned against nuclear power due to its high cost and the unsolved problems with radioactive waste and risks of radioactive discharges. There also remains a small, but real risk of a catastrophic accident or terrorist attack, which could cause huge loss of life and result in large areas of Cumbria becoming uninhabitable."

He added: "New nuclear power stations should not be built on green field sites on the Cumbrian coast, and not at Sellafield either. Sellafield should devote itself to decommissioning and dealing with the radioactive waste already produced."

Peter Cranie said: "The Greens are also dismayed that concentration on nuclear power by the Labour Government will take available investment and infrastructure away from renewables. A new generation of nuclear power stations would use valuable coastal high-capacity connectors to the grid, connectors which would otherwise be used for offshore wind, wave and tidal, making it more likely that the UK will miss legal commitments on renewables for 2020. The North West Green Party is dismayed that the huge opportunity for jobs in renewables in this Region, especially in coastal areas, will be squandered, if the money goes to nuclear instead and the party will be writing to object to the proposed sites and encouraging many others to do the same."

The full list of nominated sites is

1. Bradwell, Essex, NDA
2. Braystones, Cumbria, RWE Npower
3. Dungeness, Kent, EDF Energy
4. Hartlepool, EDF Energy
5. Heysham, Lancashire, EDF Energy
6. Hinkley Point, Somerset, EDF Energy
7. Kirksanton, Cumbria, RWE Npower
8. Oldbury, Gloucestershire, the NDA and Eon
9. Sellafield, Cumbria, NDA
10. Sizewell, Suffolk, EDF Energy
11. Wylfa, North Wales, RWE Npower and the NDA

Notes

1. Details http://www.nuclearpowersiting.decc.gov.uk/. Nominated sites are at http://www.nuclearpowersiting.decc.gov.uk/nominations/. How to respond by 14th May: http://www.nuclearpowersiting.decc.gov.uk/yoursay/.

2. www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/oct/29/climatechange-greenbuilding.

Professor John Whitelegg, the party's Lancaster-based spokesperson on sustainable development, said today:

"Tokenism just won't wash. We need commitment to serious policies.

"It was always disingenuous to put a greenish tinge on the Budget. But with the climate crisis deepening, anything less than a solid commitment to a very low-carbon future is downright irresponsible.

"Britain needs massive investment in the whole emissions-reduction package - from green transport policies to green energy. That's the way to tackle the recession and the climate crisis in one go."

The Greens say Gordon Brown’s plans for electric cars are flawed for a variety of reasons:

• Electric cars are only as clean as the energy that powers them. In a Green economy electric cars will be recharged with wind, solar and tidal energy, rather than coal and nuclear power. To make sure of this, Gordon Brown must commit the government to stopping all further coal-fired power stations and investing massively in renewables.
• Brown needs to be bolder on the recharging network itself. Denmark (with around one-tenth of the UK's population) is already committed to 20,000 recharge points for a nationwide system of electric cars, with Israel, Portugal and Japan close behind. Britain is still at the tentative stage of a pilot programme, with Brown saying a few cities will have trials by the end of 2010 (1).
• A focus on electric vehicles doesn’t take into account our need to reduce traffic for reasons other than emissions. Low-carbon traffic congestion will still be traffic congestion and will still cost UK businesses billions every year.
• For Brown's and Darling's plans to be credible, ongoing road-building and road-widening projects must be scrapped as part of a serious effort at traffic reduction. Without this, short-term transport emissions will seriously undermine attempts to meet the necessary emissions targets. And the money saved from road-building could be put into low-emissions transport infrastructure.
• Similarly, they need to abandon projects like the third runway at Heathrow. The gains from a green industrial push will be negated if the government persists in the greatest expansion of aviation in a generation.
  
  

Note

1. See http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2008/2008-04-01-02.asp.