Adrian Ramsay

Greens call for Drax subsidies to be shifted to home insulation scheme

Spread the love
Green Party Co-leader Adrian Ramsay. Wikipedia CC.
Green Party Co-leader Adrian Ramsay. Wikipedia CC.

Green MP and party co-leader Adrian Ramsay has urged the government to divert planned new subsidies for the privately owned wood-burning Drax power station to a national home insulation scheme. 

Adrian Ramsay said “Drax is a green energy scam, burning trees – some imported from ancient forests from as far away as Canada – subsidised by the taxpayer. 

“The billions of pounds worth of subsidies run out in 2027, but the government is expected to try to renew them next week, turning taxpayer money into profits for a private company, instead of using the money to fuel a green energy revolution. 

“Drax has benefitted from over £6 billion in subsidies since 2012 and neither taxpayers nor the environment can afford a penny more. 

“The money should be used to help fund a national scheme of home insulation that would cut people’s energy bills and help to reduce energy use. 

“Green MPs and Peers will be pressing the government to end this subsidy scandal and invest people’s money where it will make a real difference to them.” 

Continue ReadingGreens call for Drax subsidies to be shifted to home insulation scheme

Greens say local government reorganisation “steals power away from local people” 

Spread the love
Green Party Co-leader Adrian Ramsay. Wikipedia CC.
Green Party Co-leader Adrian Ramsay MP. Wikipedia CC.

Responding to measures contained within the government’s White Paper on English Devolution, Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay MP said: 

“Local democracy is in urgent need of reform but this White Paper does not deliver the real change our local councils need.  

“It steals power away from local people and risks making the real changes required harder to achieve, including building the homes we need, cleaning our rivers, reforming social care and greening our local economies. 

“We should trust local communities to make the right decisions on homes, food, energy, nature and adapting to the climate crisis.  

“Instead, these plans risk moving power away from local councils to huge remote super councils and regional mayors. 

“Devolution must mean real decentralisation of powers and funding so local councils can deliver the improvements to services that their communities need. 

“If we want warmer homes; affordable, reliable accessible public transport, and flood defences that are fit for purpose, we must invest in local democracy. 

“Without power devolved down so that decisions are made closest to where they have the greatest impact, people will grow ever more cynical about politics. 

“Our fragile democracy can’t afford that. 

“We will be pressing for local government to be kept local and made more democratic. 

Continue ReadingGreens say local government reorganisation “steals power away from local people” 

Greens respond to Labour’s economic plans

Spread the love
Green Party Co-leader Adrian Ramsay. Wikipedia CC.
Green Party Co-leader Adrian Ramsay. Wikipedia CC.

Reacting to Labour’s plans to chase narrow economic growth over other priorities, Adrian Ramsay said: 

“The transition to a green economy provides major opportunities which we must grasp – opportunities for warmer homes, lower bills and good new jobs. The Green Party would invest in the technologies we need to ensure a sustainable and secure future.

“But we would not be chasing growth for growth’s sake. We need to ensure our economy works in a way that safeguards our climate and enables nature to flourish.

“And we need to make sure the economy we are building is fairer as well as greener. 

“This is why we would secure the investment needed to restore our public services by asking the very richest in society to contribute more. Even modest changes to the tax system for the wealthy could make a big differences – and only the Green Party is pledging to do this.”

Continue ReadingGreens respond to Labour’s economic plans

Green Party reaction to Sunak’s ‘Be Very Afraid’ Policy Exchange speech

Spread the love
Green Party Co-leader Adrian Ramsay. Wikipedia CC.
Green Party Co-leader Adrian Ramsay. Wikipedia CC.

Responding to the prime minister’s ‘security’ speech at Policy Exchange, in which Rishi Sunak said “we must be prepared strategically, economically, with robust plans and greater national resilience, to meet this time of instability with strength, co-leader of the Green Party Adrian Ramsay said: 

“The prime minister’s speech on security failed to make a single mention of the threats posed by climate change in spite of the government’s own Climate Change Committee being clear that this is one of the biggest challenges of our generation. With land and sea temperature records being broken on an almost daily basis, this is an emergency.  

“Yet instead of announcing any new climate commitments, Sunak chose instead to vilify those pushing for climate action, accusing them of ideological zeal. He also trotted out the tired excuse for inaction, that the costs of achieving Net Zero were too great and would disrupt people’s lives. The reality is that the Conservatives’ decision to listen to the siren song of the fossil fuel industry means we are being left behind in the economic transition. 

“The Green Party understands that the cost of inaction on climate far outweighs the cost of action. We also know the huge disruption to people’s lives that climate breakdown will cause. That’s why Greens want to see investment in insulating homes and turbocharging renewable energy. These sorts of investments will bring down people’s energy bills, create thousands of new jobs and give us real energy security.” 

‘Desperate scaremongering from a Prime Minister that has run out of road’

Continue ReadingGreen Party reaction to Sunak’s ‘Be Very Afraid’ Policy Exchange speech

Green Party responds to Attitude survey on the NHS

Spread the love
Green Party Co-leader Adrian Ramsay. Wikipedia CC.
Green Party Co-leader Adrian Ramsay. Wikipedia CC.

Responding to a British Social Attitudes survey which finds public satisfaction with the NHS is at its lowest ever level, co-leader of the Green Party, Adrian Ramsay, said: 

The high levels of dissatisfaction with the NHS are a direct result of the Conservatives deliberately running down health services and using this as grounds for privatisation. I hear all the time from people struggling to get an appointment with their GP; unable to see an NHS dentist, while overstretched wards mean people are left in corridors and staff are overwhelmed.  

“Yet it is very clear that people overwhelmingly want the NHS to remain free at the point of use and available to all. They don’t share the Conservative or Labour appetite for creeping privatisation. 

“The public also unequivocally backs the NHS being funded by tax, with almost half believing taxes should rise so more can be spent on health services.  

“The Green Party has never had any truck with the profit motive in health care and believes in a fully publicly funded NHS. We can find the billions the NHS desperately needs to improve its services and to pay health workers properly. A tax on the super-rich billionaires and multi-millionaires can provide the funds needed to fix the NHS and so rekindle our love affair with our most cherished public service.”  

Continue ReadingGreen Party responds to Attitude survey on the NHS