Greens Deputy Leader conference speech

In his speech to the Green Party's autumn conference, Adrian Ramsay, deputy leader of The Green Party, will outline his party's plans to buy back hospitals that have been part of the Labour government's Private Finance Initiatives (PFIs).

Ramsay sees the government's creeping privitisation of the National Health Service as the cause of increasing inequalities in UK healthcare.

On top of the health costs of PFIs, Ramsay also points to the economic consequences of what he sees as a failed experiment:

"Funding new hospitals and schools through PFIs is like buying your house on a credit card instead of getting a mortgage."

In his second conference as Green Party Deputy, Ramsay will also take the opportunity to back up much of what the party leader, Caroline Lucas, sought to address in her speech to the Conference on Friday.

He will call for a fairer electoral system, a more transparent parliament, an elected upper house and for proper regulation of party funding.

"We need root and branch reform of our political system to make it more accountable to the public, so people can see how they can influence decision making."

Finally, Ramsay, the opposition leader on Norwich City Council, will emphasise the need for Green representation in parliament in order to fight against runaway climate change and "to offer real solutions to the major problems of our time."

Norwich Greens triple their vote in Norwich North

Green party campaigners were today celebrating their performance in the Norwich North by-election after more than tripling their vote, compared with the 2005 general election.

The result is the best performance ever for the Green Party in a Westminster by-election.

Rupert Read for the Green Party received 9.7% of the vote, up from 1,252 in 2005 to 3,350 today.

In comparison to 2005, the votes of Conservative, Labour and LibDem parties all went down. The Labour and LibDem vote also fell as a proportion of the turnout.

Adrian Ramsay, opposition leader on Norwich council, and the Green Party's deputy leader, said: "This was our best by-election result ever. Our best previous result was 7.4% in the Haltemprice and Howden/David Davis by-election. We started from a low base (2.7% in the 2005 general election), and we trebled our vote. On the ground, we had roughly £12,000 to spend, compared to the £100,000 that the Tories have apparently spent."

"Rupert Read ran a positive campaign, on issues such as the NHS, renewable energy, transport and living wages, and we are very pleased with the level of interest we've generated. With new members and supporters, we can now concentrate on Norwich South for the general election."

On the issue of the coming general election, Ramsay said that: "Norwich South will be different from Norwich North, since two-thirds of Norwich North was outside of Norwich City. The Greens have led local election vote share in Norwich for the last three years running, and we are the official opposition within Norwich City."

Rupert Read, the by-election candidate, added that: "The Norwich North campaign was done on a fraction of the budget of the large parties, some of which deluged residents with countless leaflets. We are pleased to have done so well without that kind of overkill."

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Full results, with % change from 2005:

Chloe Smith (C) 13,591 (39.54%, +6.29%)
Chris Ostrowski (Lab) 6,243 (18.16%, -26.70%)
April Pond (LD) 4,803 (13.97%, -2.22%)
Glenn Tingle (UKIP) 4,068 (11.83%, +9.45%)
Rupert Read (Green) 3,350 (9.74%, +7.08%)
Craig Murray (Honest) 953 (2.77%)
Robert West (BNP) 941 (2.74%)

2009 turnout: 45.76%, down -15.33% on 61.09% in 2005

Greens call for independent commission to monitor MPs expenses

In a letter to the Committee on Standards in Public Life, the Green Party's deputy leader, Adrian Ramsay, has called for an independent commission to oversee not only MPs expenses, but their whole professional conduct.

Adrian Ramsay wrote: "Self-regulation of Parliament has clearly failed. We need a regulator who can scrutinise the professional behaviour of MPs in the same way as doctors, lawyers or accountants are supervised, and make sure bad habits don't return in the future."

The Greens proposed other key reforms in the letter to the committee's chair, Sir Christopher Kelly:

- the starting-point for the new system should be the principle that MPs are subject to the same rules as anyone else, not only for taxation but in all respects

- rules on accommodation and other expenses would reflect those that apply to the Senior Civil Service

- MPs must be prevented from profiting from second homes

- it should be a criminal offence to knowingly overclaim expenses

Ramsay also pointed out that wider democratic reforms of Parliament are crucial, such as elections to the House of Lords and regulating and containing the lobbying power of big business over MPs.

Greens congratulate LibDems - and challenge Labour, Tories to join the anti-Trident club too

Responding to the Liberal Democrats' decision to oppose replacement of the Trident nuclear missile system, Green Party deputy leader Adrian Ramsay said today:

"We are delighted that the Liberal Democrats have made this decision, and we call on the government and the Conservative Party to follow.

"The LibDems have come a long way since they supported the original Trident, and Nick Clegg is to be congratulated for winning the argument within his party.

The Liberal Democrats have been prevaricating over Trident for some time. As recently as September 2008 the LibDems were talking about "A major reduction of [the UK's] nuclear arsenal by approximately 50%, retaining no more than 100 warheads, with each Trident submarine carrying no more than 24 warheads when on deterrence patrol," and "Announcing its willingness to renounce the Trident system and any successor by agreement at the 2010 Non-Proliferation Treaty review." (1)

And as recently as 30 March 2009, Lord Lee of Trafford, Liberal Democrat defence spokesperson, said that "the Trident nuclear system should be continued and maintained, and its operational life extended. The final decision of any successor system should be taken around 2014 when significant capital spend would begin to be incurred." (2).

Adrian Ramsay, offering the Green Party's congratulations to the Liberal Democrats, concluded:

"The Trident missile system was redundant before it was introduced, and it has wasted tens of billions of pounds that could have been much better spent. But it's a case of much better late than never. Now we very much hope that Labour and the Conservatives will follow the lead taken by the Greens and the Liberal Democrats."

[Green Mail] Greens make further progress in county elections

In yesterday's county elections the Green Party continued to make steady progress.

The party made its breakthrough onto four county councils - Cambridgeshire (1 seat), Devon, Gloucestershire and Suffolk.

In Norfolk the Greens held 2 seats and gained 5.

In Lancashire the party successfully defended 1 seat and gained a second. Lancaster Greens also held a city council seat in a by-election, and continue to hold 12 seats on the city council.

Unfortunately the Greens had effectively lost 4 seats before the campaign began, due to council reorganisation and boundary changes (in Eastern and North East regions). The only unexpected loss was 3 out of the 5 Green Party seats on Oxfordshire County Council.

**Greens gain most at Labour and LibDem expense**

The Green Party ended the campaign with 123 councillors on 42 councils, up from 119 on 41.

Of the Green Party's gains, 7 were from Labour, 2 from the LibDems and 1 from the Conservatives. This too continues a familiar pattern.

The party's steady progress in the 2009 elections was reflected in recruitment, with an 8.5% growth in membership during the six weeks of the campaign.

**Greens look forward to the general election**

The single most encouraging result was in Norfolk, where the Greens won more votes than any other party in both Norwich North and Norwich South parliamentary constituencies. This bodes well for the target constituency of Norwich South, which will be contested by Adrian Ramsay, the Green Party's deputy leader and currently leader of the opposition on Norwich City Council.

And in Lancashire, in the Lancaster and Fleetwood target constituency the Greens outpolled everyone except the Conservatives.

Green Party: Get Britain Working!

The Green Party launches today its campaign for the English local elections on the theme: Get Britain Working.

The launch comes in the week that a YouGov poll indicated that 34% of the public are considering voting Green in the Euro-elections - only days after a poll by ComRes in which 43% said they were likely to vote for one of the smaller parties. Both local and European elections will be held on 4th June.

Adrian Ramsay, deputy leader of the Green Party, said today: "The Green Party's local policies are intended to support our Green New Deal plan for a million low-carbon jobs to tackle the recession and the climate crisis at the same time."

"But when we say Get Britain Working we also mean get the nation's communities working in every respect. That includes making sure we have the services communities need, from the local post office and police station and local shops to an accessible health service, including a free NHS dentist."

"Some of these things require action at national level, but local councils should use whatever powers they have to protect and support local communities and foster the local economy."

He concluded: "The Greens are the only party offering a fresh alternative to all the sleaze and greed. But we're also the only party putting forward a positive vision for Britain and for our local communities. We hope people who are disillusioned with the bigger parties will consider voting Green not just as a protest, but because our councillors have a pretty good track record and our policies are what most people want."

On 4th June. the Greens will be fielding 781 candidates - up from less than 585 in the previous equivalent set of elections (1) - and are "quietly confident with regard to gains."

The Green Party currently has a total of 119 primary authority councillors - a number that increases steadily every year, and has trebled in the last decade - including strong, well-established council groups in places like Brighton, Lancaster, Norwich and Oxford.

The Green Party's key policies for the 2009 local elections are:

- Work to address the causes of crime and anti-social behaviour, including poverty, joblessness, poor housing and the lack of community facilities for young people.

- Prioritise sustainable job creation, with the main areas including home insulation, public transport infrastructure, renewable energy, local food production and/or farmers markets, and green waste management.

- Work to ensure all subcontracted council employees, such as school cleaners, are paid a Living Wage.

- Fight the closure of essential services in our communities, such as post offices, libraries and police stations.

- Oppose the further privatisation of services through contracting out, as this has led to a loss of accountability and reduced service quality.

- Oppose the privatisation by stealth of schools through the Academies and Trusts agenda.

- Work to introduce free school meals for all children.

- Improve the local economy by supporting small businesses and farms and by encouraging residents to support shops in their local community through 'buy local' campaigns.

- Invest in the upkeep of existing allotments, parks and green spaces, and make better use of under-utilised spaces near to where people live and work.

- Scrap new road-building to enable investment in public transport, cycling and walking, including safe school travel programmes.

Road haulage job-losses: no return to business-as-usual, says Green Party...

**...But new Green vision for a million jobs shows way out of recession**

Responding to today's news of a decline in the road haulage industry, the Green Party has said Britain must change direction to create more jobs in a lower-carbon economy.

Adrian Ramsay, Green Party deputy leader, said:

"While the Green Party sympathises with individuals made redundant, we need to be moving jobs away from high-polluting sectors into low-carbon sectors. 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.

"We need investment in rail freight alongside massive investment in public transport - so as far as drivers are concerned we should be creating more jobs for train, tram and bus drivers, not more jobs for truck drivers.

"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.

Britain urgently needs more Greens elected, says Ramsay

Britain needs the Green Party more than ever before, theparty's deputy leader Adrian Ramsay told the Blackpool conference this morning

The government's action on both the climate crisis and the recessionwas seriously flawed, he said - wasting time on dreams of new nuclear powerstations, which would create far too few jobs far too late to help tackle therecession, while also being too late to make the necessary difference inemissions-reduction. Massive investment in the full range of policies forgreening the economy would deliver far more jobs much faster, he said.

Mr Ramsay also stressed the party's determination to keeppushing a radical and ethical agenda on banking and public services. His declarationof the Green Party's support for the CWU campaign to keep the Royal Mail inpublic hands was greeted with loud applause.