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Greens react to proposals to scrap jury trials

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspeding 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government's support for Israel's Gaza genocide and the UK government and military's active participation in genocide.
UK Justice Secretary and formerly Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspeding 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide and the UK government and military’s active participation in genocide.
Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion Siân Berry. Image by Kelly Hill, Wikimedia CC BY-SA 4.0.
Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion Siân Berry. Image by Kelly Hill, Wikimedia CC BY-SA 4.0.

Reacting to proposals from the Justice Secretary, David Lammy, to massively restrict the right to a jury trial, Green MP Siân Berry said:

“This is yet another assault on our rights from an increasingly authoritarian government. This proposal would scrap a fundamental cornerstone of our justice system which has been in place for 800 years. 

“For David Lammy to describe the right to trial by jury as ‘not a right’ is a disgrace. The Government must fund our justice system properly – not make people pay for Labour and Conservative austerity with their fundamental rights. The Green Party will fight these proposals all the way.”

Continue ReadingGreens react to proposals to scrap jury trials

Green Party reacts to the Autumn Budget: Papering over the cracks

Green Party MP Adrian Ramsay. Wikipedia CC.
Green Party MP Adrian Ramsay. Wikipedia CC.

Reacting to the Autumn Budget statement delivered by the chancellor Rachel Reeves today, Green Party Treasury spokesperson, Adrian Ramsay MP, said: 

“Instead of delivering a transformational Budget to tax extreme wealth fairly and tackle the cost-of-living crisis, this Labour Government has once again chosen to paper over the cracks – with half-measures that won’t do enough to fix the deep-rooted problems in our economy that are keeping ordinary people in poverty while the super-rich get richer.

“The Chancellor spoke about asking everyone to make a contribution, but it is frankly inexcusable that she has made the political choice to squeeze households already struggling with the cost of essentials, whilst letting multimillionaires and billionaires off the hook. 

“It is indefensible that the Chancellor is cutting vital home insulation funding, one of the best ways to lower bills. 

“And whilst scrapping the cruel two-child benefit cap will be a huge relief to families across the country, it is unforgivable that it has taken 18 months for the Chancellor to acknowledge the terrible harm and distress this cap has caused to so many families. Far more action is needed to end the scandal of child poverty.”

Continue ReadingGreen Party reacts to the Autumn Budget: Papering over the cracks

Greens slam ‘ridiculous and costly plan’ for Heathrow

Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion Siân Berry. Image by Kelly Hill, Wikimedia CC BY-SA 4.0.
Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion Siân Berry. Image by Kelly Hill, Wikimedia CC BY-SA 4.0.

Responding to news that the government is backing Heathrow’s £49 billion proposal that will require the M25 to be moved, Green MP Siân Berry said:  

“This Government is so pathetically in the pocket of Heathrow bosses and the most wealthy frequent flyers, that it will support this ridiculous and costly plan for expansion, despite the miserable disruption it will cause to everyone else’s daily lives.

“These plans will trash our vital climate targets, and meanwhile cause misery on the roads, all for the benefit of the very richest people.

“This Labour Government must fix its twisted priorities, ditch the aviation obsession, and invest its effort instead in a real green future with high-paid green jobs, warmer homes, and cheaper bills.”

Continue ReadingGreens slam ‘ridiculous and costly plan’ for Heathrow

Campaigners warn of PFI 2.0 as government backs private funding for neighbourhood health centres

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/campaigners-warn-pfi-20-government-backs-private-funding-neighbourhood-health-centres

A registration form and a stethoscope at the Temple Fortune Health Centre GP Practice near Golders Green, London

A “PFI 2.0” will divert money away from patients and into shareholders’ pockets, campaigners warned today as the government announced plans to use private finance to fund new neighbourhood health centres.

The government has pledged to open 250 centres as part of an effort to shift outpatient care away from hospitals.

Officials say they will serve as “one-stop shops,” bringing together GPs, nurses, dentists and pharmacists under one roof.

Announcing the plans, Health Minister Karin Smyth warned that government funding “will only get us so far,” citing a £40 billion black hole in the NHS’s finances.

“We need to use every measure available to us, which is why we’re leveraging in private investment to construct some of these centres, making the most of all expertise and every tool at our disposal,” she said.

But campaigners have warned that the use of public-private partnerships could repeat the mistakes of disastrous PFI (private finance initiative) schemes, in which private firms financed the construction of hospitals, leaving taxpayers lumbered with high-interest repayments over the long term.

…

Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/campaigners-warn-pfi-20-government-backs-private-funding-neighbourhood-health-centres

Keir Starmer commits to play the caretaker role for Capitalism through the "hard times".
Keir Starmer commits to play the caretaker role for Capitalism through the “hard times”.
Continue ReadingCampaigners warn of PFI 2.0 as government backs private funding for neighbourhood health centres

Zarah Sultana: ‘We must fight, we must unite, we must win’

Original article republished from Socialist Worker

Zarah Sultana spoke to Socialist Worker ahead of the Your Party conference

‘Your Party must be explicitly socialist, anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist—and also as maximally democratic,’ she told Socialist Worker

Zarah Sultana issued a rallying call for the left to unite and fight ahead of the Your Party founding conference in Liverpool this weekend.

She told Socialist Worker, “Labour is plummeting in the polls because this government has failed the working class.

“It has failed to help people here at home—and it has alienated thousands if not millions by materially participating in the genocide in Gaza.

“Reform UK is exploiting that anger, but it’s just the establishment in disguise.

“Farage scapegoats migrants to distract from his neoliberal economic agenda.

“We have a duty to offer a real alternative. Your Party must be explicitly socialist, anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist—and also as maximally democratic.

“We must build a party robust enough to take on entrenched power and win.

“No more tinkering at the edges—we need to reconstruct our society from first principles. We need socialism.

“History will not forgive us if we fail to capitalise on this moment. The options are socialism or barbarism.

“We must fight, we must unite and we must win.”

Orcas discuss the formation of UK's new Socialist party and ask if the killer apes have finally come to their senses.
Orcas discuss the formation of UK’s new Socialist party and ask if the killer apes have finally come to their senses.
Continue ReadingZarah Sultana: ‘We must fight, we must unite, we must win’