Louis Stephen

The amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere has risen from 270 parts per million (ppm) CO2 in the 19th century to about 390ppm CO2 today. In the Conservative’s manifesto they aim to stabilise the greenhouse gases to about 550ppm CO2 by targeting an 80% reduction in emissions by 2050 (or about 2.5% per year).

However the Stern Report (which summarises the scientific consensus) says that at that level of greenhouse gases there is a 75–99% chance (that is, near certainty) of global warming exceeding 2°C. If that happens there is a high chance of runaway and disastrous climate change, costing us all more the longer we ignor the problem and fail to act.

We in the Green Party think it is both imprudent and immoral knowingly to accept that level of risk. We think we should aim to stabilise the level of CO2 in the atmosphere at a level just slightly below the present level (i.e. around 350ppm). The scientists agree with us. To achieve 350ppm industrialised countries with high emissions, like the UK, need to reduce their emissions with by 90% by 2030. That means an annual reduction of about 10% per year from now until 2030.

Ordinary people all over the world will be taking part in a Global Work Party event 10/10/10 this October to urge politicians and policy makers to act. For the sake of future generations we should be focussing on creating the infrastructure now (investment in railways, insulation, renewables) to cut carbon emissions; investment in human ingenuity and jobs.

The Green Party has major concerns with the Lib Dem / Conservative plans to repay the last governments’ massive debts.

The Republic of Ireland is about 12 months ahead of us in the economic cycle. They have made large public sector cuts which have caused a massive increase in unemployment that has actually been counter-productive due to lower tax receipts and increased welfare costs. The simple fact is that these Conservative cuts are ideologically driven.

The Green Party also rejects the Labour Party’s proposals that create a consumer led bubble that simultaneously increases personal debt and at
the same time sows the seeds for the next recession.

There is another way. Reinvest in our country’s infrastructure – invest in the railways, home insulation and renewable electricity generation to create a million new jobs and at the same time rebuild a sustainable and stable economy.

Just because the next General Election could be up to 5 years away it does not mean that we have to just sit back and take the new governments’s cuts. Do something: lobby your MP, join a union, support the many planned demonstrations planned when the cuts are announced in October. You could even join the Green Party!

So the legislation to enable more state funded Academy schools has been passed today (26th July).  Academy schools opt out of local government controls, so instead of being open to all, far more restrictive admissions policies can be devised. This encourages separation between those of various religious beliefs and those with none. Should our children not all be taught together for the sake of community cohesion?

In the General Election hustings I argued that we should be reducing not increasing religious control of our state schools. Last night Caroline Lucas MP also argued in the house of commons debate that ‘there will be no requirement on academies to teach evolution, and the Government do not even appear to have plans to prevent the teaching of creationism in academies.’

Our academic system needs to be based on science and facts. Morals and ethics quite rightly have a place in our schools to enable us to work and live together in harmony but we must resist the creeping rise in faith schools. I vigorously defend the freedom to religious belief without persecution but the right place for teaching these matters is in our mosques and churches.

It is expected that on Monday 14th June the government will announce more cuts in jobs and services in an attempt to redress the financial deficit.

Yet despite these cuts, in David Cameron’s words, being “unavoidably tough” and affecting “our whole way of life” we are continuing to waste around £100 billion on replacing our Trident nuclear missiles. We cannot continue to lecture countries such as Iran on the implications of their nuclear programme whilst proceeding blindly with our own – a move which would be both hypocritical and dangerous.

Moreover, nuclear weapons remain a costly distraction from the real security threats we face, like climate change. The billions being spent on Trident replacement could be much better spent on investing in developing the infrastructure we need for a zero carbon economy, as well as in protecting public services.

To use the money on a project that will make Britain and the world a far more dangerous place is politically irresponsible, morally bankrupt and economically obscene.

Effective from (06.00 am) Monday 24th May 2010 the Government has announced that with immediate effect it is withdrawing all future grants for energy saving micro-generation. This will save £43 million in the next 12 months but shows starkly that we are now getting what the people voted for – cuts in the investment in our low carbon future to avoid tax rises on those well able to pay for it. This is the start of a very long road. If you want to fight the cuts join me, join the Green Party and fight for a better future.

When someone has been a life long supporter of any party it takes a lot of courage to change your party allegiances. However I believe that Alex’s beliefs and values have not changed – simply that the party he once supported has changed from beneath him. For some time now the Lib Dems have been tracking to the Right in the hope of protecting seats in the home counties – clearly it did not work last week. The Green Party is a growing party, that although still small, offers the only true alternative to the main stream big three parties that seem to be offering the same things these days. In contrast the Green Party has positive policies to invest in improving our housing and railways, new technologies and creating a million new jobs. We believe in a fairer society with a living minimum wage of £8.10 per hour and decent non-means tested pension of £170 per week.

I welcome Alex with open arms to the Green Party – with his existing Councillor experience he will be a great asset to the local Green Party.

With our current voting system, some may be worrying if there is any point in voting Green. Here’s why I think it makes sense:

• The three main parties are all pretty much saying the same thing these days on health, education and things like troops in Afghanistan. Even on Trident – the Lib Dems although saying they would cancel the new Trident system have not made any commitment to scrap the existing system.
• The Green’s are the only party that have a fully costed manifesto – the next best of the main parties are the Lib Dems but they have only spelt out 29% of how they would half the public deficit. The Green Party have committed to fully protect jobs and services and raise the money through higher taxation of those most able to pay it – the sort of thing Labour use to be saying years ago and now abandoned.

Politics these days seems to be more about presentation and personalities than about policy and manifesto commitments. I believe the only wasted vote is a vote for a party you don’t believe in.

It seems the Lib Dems’ 10-point jump in the polls has been almost entirely attributable to Mr Clegg’s 90 minutes of prime-time television. He performed well. But could he have performed equally well had he not been confident in a set of policies he believes enjoy a good deal of public support?

The independent Vote for Policies, Not Personalities website (www.voteforpolicies.org.uk) has had over 150,000 people participate in its survey to ascertain which party?s policies they most support, without initially revealing which parties follow which policies. The Liberal Democrats are currently showing in second place, with just over 18%, ahead of Labour (17.6%) and the Conservatives (16.5%).

The Greens, however, are way ahead of them all, with well over 27% of respondents preferring Green Party policies.

The Green Party’s flagship policy of a £44 billion government investment programme, to create a million new jobs in the UK, funded by tax reforms that would leave 87% of Britons better off, is a policy well worth voting for. I think a high proportion of the electorate would vote for it, if the Green Party were given even a quarter of the airtime the big three parties get to explain their policies.

It is quite difficult to find the policies of all the different political parties in the 2010 General Election in an easily accessible form. The “big three” at times seem to be the only show in town – it is quite refreshing then to see a website that compares the 6 biggest parties policies and allows you to select your preferred policies – the program then gives you an indication of which party or parties most suit your preferences. If nothing else it is a bit of fun.
http://voteforpolicies.org.uk/

• 153 – size of the prison population in Britain expressed as inmates per 100,000 population. (the highest in Western Europe)
• £40,000 – the cost per inmate per year to keep them locked up.
• 40% – the typical re-offending rates once released from prison.
• 80,000 – the size of the prison population in England and Wales.

The Probation Service is an integral part of the Criminal Justice System. It supervises offenders who have been imprisoned and those given a community punishment instead of prison. According to its website, each year the service supervises 175,000 offenders. It assists magistrates and judges in their sentencing decisions through the provision of about 246,000 pre-sentence reports and 20,000 bail information reports. It supervises 8 million hours of unpaid work by offenders in local communities and provides supervision programmes designed to reduce re-offending. [1]

When there are less people to deal with an increasing workload, cracks are bound to show. This was illustrated horrifically by the murder of two French students in London by Dano Sonnex, who was being supervised by a newly qualified Probation Officer who had a caseload of 127 offenders — compared with an average of 37.7 cases per probation officer across London. [2]

It is well-known that in times of economic hardship crime tends to rise; therefore it would be financial madness to shrink an organisation that deals with people who have committed crime.

There are no quick fixes. I believe that we need to look at the causes of crime. We need to rebuild our communities. We need to give young people the skills, jobs and training they need. We need to solve the drugs problem that leads to all this crime. I don’t think we can afford to carry on like this.

[1] http://www.probation.homeoffice.gov.uk/output/page2.asp

[2] http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6433747.ece