Buoyant Greens launch last big push

Green Party campaigners will be be pulling out all the stops this week, encouraged by the, 31st May 2009, Sunday Telegraph/ICM poll which puts the Greens on 11% - ahead of UKIP nationally for the first time this campaign.

With 11%, the Greens would expect to return two or three new MEPs, as well as holding their existing seats in London and the South East.

In the county elections, the Greens remain confident of gains in Norfolk and Lancashire, capitalising on the strength of city council Green groups in Norwich and Lancaster. But in the South West, Devon Greens may be about to bring off a surprise result, a party spokesperson said today.

A poll published in the Daily Express two weeks ago, commissioned by UKIP and conducted by ComRes, put the Greens on 16% in the South East (including Eastern region) - in third place ahead of both UKIP and the LibDems - but the Sunday Telegraph/ICM poll is the first of this campaign to put the Greens ahead of UKIP nationally.

Green politicians are "least likely to put self-interest before country" - new poll

A YouGov poll published on the 28th May 2009 suggests the British public trusts Green politicians far more than those of other parties.

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.

The survey also shows:

• 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.

Read the full report here.

Green Party MEPs rated best for animal rights voting record

In an analysis done by Protecting Animals in Democracy, the Green Party scored joint best amongst UK MEPs on animal rights.

Both Caroline Lucas (Green MEP for the South East) and Jean Lambert (Green MEP for London) received a score of +15 (only matched by Plaid Cymru's Jill Evans).

The analysis was based on recent votes on a new EU law on animal experiments. The votes took place recently (on 5 May 2009), and there were 15 votes taken into account for the analysis.

The Conservative Party scored the worst, with a score of -13.07.

UKIP was 2nd worst amongst political parties from England and Wales, at +1.38.

Labour MEPs scored +7.95, whilst Liberal Democrat MEPs averaged to +3.55.

The analysis cites Caroline Lucas as having "been especially active for animals and helps to table pro-animal laws. The Green group is now an influential force in the European Parliament, and UK Greens can rally their colleagues to help make a major difference for animals."

It also notes that the Euro-manifestos for Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives do not mention animal protection as an issue at all.

You can read the Green Party's full policy on animal protection here,

Green leader comes top in Open Europe's "premier league" MEP poll

Caroline Lucas MEP, leader of the Green Party, has been rated best British MEP on transparency, accountability, democracy and waste by campaign group Open Europe.

And Britain's Green Party MEPs were ranked above the groups of all other British parties.

Open Europe published a ranking of all 785 Members of the European Parliament, scoring their record on promoting transparency and reform in the European Union over the last five-year term.

Green Party News - 1 Million New Jobs

The Green Party wants to create 1 million new jobs renewable energy, home insulation, local agriculture and public transport.

If you're voting in the European Elections in the UK vote Green on the 4th of June.

Think Again Vote Green

For those Ex-Pats in Spain who are going to vote for the European elections in the UK - Think Again Vote Green.

Greens promise £165 a week state pension

The following article appears on the UK Green Party website.

Any such policy decision would be exceedingly welcome to the Expat pensioners here in Spain as those who have their UK state pension as their major source of income are suffering very badly with the current low interest rates paid on any savings and the low exchange rate of the £ to the €, a double whammy!

"On National Pensions Action Day (Monday 6 April), the Green Party announces its key election pledge for pensioners - a £165 a week non-means-tested citizens' pension for every pensioner in the UK.

The pledge will form part of the Green New Deal for Older People, which the Green Party will launch in the build-up to this year's elections (1).

Jean Lambert MEP, the Green Party's spokesperson on social affairs, said today:

"The Green Party today celebrates Pensions Action Day with possibly the best action a political party could take for British pensioners: a policy that would lift all our pensioners out of poverty."

The National Pensioners Convention (NPC) have been calling for a pension at or above the official poverty level, which is defined as 60% of median population earnings less housing costs.

For 2007/8 this would have meant a single person’s pension of £151 per week - compared to the actual full state pension of £90.70 and a pensions credits guarantee level of about £120 a week.

The NPC has recently pointed out that:
- Between 1997 and 2006, the number of British people living in severe poverty – defined as living on less than 40% of median population income – increased by 600,000.
- Last year the poorest quarter of UK pensioner households saw their incomes rise by less than 1%, well below inflation. The poorest single pensioners saw their real incomes drop by 4%.
- At least 15% of UK pensioners – over 1.5m older people – are living in persistent poverty (below 60% median population income for three out of the last four years).
- Pensioner poverty in the UK has risen in the last year by 300,000 - equivalent to 822 people a day - and now reaches 2.5m (1 in 4 older people). Two thirds of these pensioners are women.

Jean Lambert, who was elected in 1999 as London's Green MEP and now sits on the European Parliament's Inter-Group on Ageing, commented:

"If the other parties are unwilling to lift pensioners out of poverty, then it's clear pensioners will need to elect Greens to fight their corner. Voting Green is about building a better future - and that includes a secure economic future for older people."

Jean Lambert MEP will lead the Green Party delegation in support of the NPC demonstration in London. She will be joined by Darren Johnson AM, the Green Party's trade & industry spokesperson and its parliamentary candidate for Lewisham Deptford, and Cllr Romayne Phoenix of Lewisham Borough Council.

1. The full Green New Deal for Older People will explain how the UK can afford to lift all pensioners out of poverty.2"

UK Greens welcome court ruling for disabled firefighters

The following is an article from the Green Party of the Unitied Kingdom website.

How could firefighters who put their lives on the line to help others be treated in such a way by a supposedly carring government?

Green Party Disability Spokesperson Alan Wheatley said today: "I am delighted that the FBU has found support in the Appeal Court to overturn unfair Government rulings on the pension rights of disabled firefighters.[1]

"The Government's decision to withdraw redeployment and pension rights was grossly unfair but remarkably in keeping with its stance of riding roughshod over the employment and welfare rights of disabled people and disregarding our experience and training."

"The withdrawal of redeployment rights and pension prospects for firefighters who become disabled while in active service showed no consideration for the firefighters' contribution to society or residual capabilities."

By contrast, under the Government's welfare reform agenda, once disabled people become unemployed, as benefit claimants they would be required to make themselves available for any work not ruled out by their ill-health or impairments.[2] [3] [4]

The Court of Appeal overturned Government-imposed denial of the firefighters' rights. "As FBU General Secretary Matt Wrack has said, it is now up to Government to rewrite the guidance on firefighters' redeployment and pension rights," Mr Wheatley concluded.

--

NOTES

[1] http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=3872
[2] Alan Wheatley is Disability Spokesperson for the Green Party of England & Wales and its Trade Union Group.
[3] This Government signed up to the UN Convention on Rights of Disabled Persons in March 2007 but has so far failed to ratify the agreement. Instead, it has sought several opt-outs. It has also closed Remploy factories, shedding highly skilled workers as Remploy's corporate rebranding has been toward providing jobsearch supports instead. This has also destroyed workers' communities in the name of getting disabled workers more into mainstream employment.
[4] http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/2008/11/25/110092/johnson-and-purnell-back-plans-to-end-sick-note-culture.htm

Green conference to consider "zero-carbon by 2030" option

In a week when Britain's media has been reported yet more dire warnings of climate catastrophe and looming energy shortages, the Green Party's spring conference is to consider a motion calling for a zero-carbon economy by 2030.

Proposers of the motion will argue that Britain needs a wake-up call, as scientists' warnings get louder and more urgent.

A strong lobby of delegates at the Blackpool conference will argue that a zero-carbon target is achievable by 2030, provided the country's economy is put on something like a war footing, starting very soon.

They will cite studies such as the Centre for Alternative Technology's Zero Carbon Britain report, which spells out in considerable detail one set of policies to achieve the ambitious target.

The motion will be heard on Saturday, following party leader Caroline Lucas's speech in which she will say Gordon Brown's so-called Green New Deal is hopelessly inadequate.

The zero-carbon motion, which is expected to achieve a strong degree of support, envisages both massive use of existing technology and the urgent need for further technological developments:

"There should ... be a target of a minimum of 10% emissions reductions year on year for the first ten years, by which time emissions would have declined by 65%.

"By then, safe and effective mechanisms for reducing greenhouse has gas concentrations should have been developed, and percentage targets should be replaced by numerical ones to complete the reduction to zero."

Green Party - UK

Heathrow decision puts UK in breach of EU air quality guidelines

The UK Green Party said that the decision to allow Heathrow to build a third runway was indefensible and immediately put Britain in breach of European air quality guidelines.

Green Party leader Dr Caroline Lucas MEP said the announcement was "irresponsible, deceptive and environmentally disastrous."

Dr Lucas warned that the Transport Secretary's proposals for Heathrow would condemn the UK to an unsustainable future of significantly higher noise and air pollution - and to accelerating climate change. "Any government which, on the one hand pledges to make a significant reduction in greenhouse gases by 2020, and on the other gives the green light to the greatest expansion of aviation in a generation, is guilty of either the most shameless hypocrisy, or the most unforgivable ignorance and stupidity," she said.