Greens: State schools discriminated against by private schools' privileges

Adrian Ramsay, Green Party spokesperson on education has responded to Michael Gove's weekend structures on private schools:

Michael Gove suggests that state schools should try to perform as well as private schools. Has it never occurred to him that the reason why private schools often perform well is that they cream off many of the most privileged pupils, and then provide far more money per head for the education of them than state schools are able to?

Until the injustice is ended of resources being disproportionately directed to the education of the few, in institutions that have tax-privileges, then state schools will never have a level playing-field, and their pupils will always in practice be being discriminated against.

Greens: End PFI scam and stop privatisation of the NHS

Greens have called for urgent action to cure the NHS of cancerous PFI payments and have written to the Secretary of State for Health calling for action to ensure that health care provision is maintained rather than allowing hospitals to go into administration. The Greens are the only mainstream party to oppose PFI and to campaign to stop the privatisation of the NHS.

The revelation that the South London Healthcare NHS Trust is going into administration with debts incurred by its contracts under PFI (Private Finance Initiative) has come as no surprise to the Green Party. The Green Party has warned of the financial dangers of hospitals being built under PFI. The news that up to 30 other Trusts may be facing administration has prompted the call for action to prevent closures.

Adrian Ramsay, Green Party Deputy Leader, said: "It is time to cut out the cancerous PFI deals that are killing the NHS. While successive governments seem to find billions to bail out banks and to quantitatively ease the economy they seem utterly beholden to the companies that they now rent hospitals from having sold them off in the first place.

"The PFI deals were simply an accounting fix that put money in the pockets of big companies and locked the NHS into huge debt. The taxpayer will end up paying £63bn towards hospitals that cost £11bn to build. As hospital trusts go into administration we can expect to see health care provision drastically reduced. This is unacceptable and the Green Party has written to Andrew Lansley calling for a solution that protects services.

"It is surely time to end the PFI scam and let the NHS focus on providing care for patients, not profit for shareholders."

Doing less for those who have least

A striking phrase from  Adrian Ramsay (Deputy Green Party leader) in his speech this morning. He asked, "Does David Cameron mean, whenn he speaks about doing 'More for less' that we should be doing less for those who have least?"

This morning Peter Murry of Brent Green Party moved a motion calling for the Green Party to support the Campaign Against Climate Change pamphlet "One million green jobs" by encouraging sales of the publication and signatures for the petition. The motion was passed unanimously. Yesterday emergency resolutions were passed on the cuts in legal aid and support for the Justice for All campaign, and support for a Robin Hood Tax.

An emergency motion for later discussion has been drafted calling for elected Greens at all levels  of government to campaign  vigorously against the National Policy Planning Framework. The Framework gives priority to economic development in planning decisions at the expense of environmental and social issues. The Framework could threaten our precious open spaces such as the Welsh Harp and Fryent Country Park.