Greens protest: East Coast Mainline should stay in public hands - KINGS CROSS 11am

"The only people this decision will benefit are the shareholders at Virgin Trains and Stagecoach" says London Green Party Councillor Caroline Russell as the Green Party are set to take part in the national demonstration this Saturday against the privatisation of the East Coast railway service.

The Green Party will take part in a national demonstration this Saturday calling for the East Coast Mainline to remain in public hands and protected from privatisation.

East Coast Mainline has flourished under public ownership. Photograph courtesy of Roger Geach.

Mass protests have been organised the length and breadth of the East Coast route in response to the announcement made this Monday that the network, which has been in public ownership since 2009, is to be sold-off to Virgin Trains and Stagecoach.

This is despite the fact that, under public ownership, the network has outperformed all other railway lines and delivered the highest levels of customer service.

Pledging her party’s support for the protests, London Green Party Councillor and party spokesperson for local transport Caroline Russell said:

“It demonstrates just how ideologically committed to the selling-off of our vital public services this government is that it would take the best performing railway network out of the safety of public hands and throw it into the lion’s den of privatisation. The only people this decision will benefit are the shareholders at Virgin Trains and Stagecoach. Once again it is the public that will lose-out.

“The Green Party believes public services should be run for the benefit of the people that use them, not to make a profit for the minority who happen to own them. Only the Greens are committed to restoring the railways to public ownership and ensuring that passengers are provided with the transport service that they deserve at a price they can afford. That’s why I am proud to stand today with protesters up and down the country calling on the government to listen to their very simple message: don’t jeopardise a high quality public service just to turn a quick profit.”

The “Save the East Coast Mainline” demonstration in London takes place this Saturday 6^th December from 11am to 1pm outside King’s Cross Station.

No More Deaths from Fuel Poverty: Energy Rights Now!

A message from Fuel Poverty Action

On Friday November 28th,  the day the government reveals how many people died last year from the effects of fuel poverty, join Fuel Poverty Action and Reclaim the Power to demand 'No More Deaths from Fuel Poverty: Energy Rights Now!’

We'll be meeting outside the Institute of Directors, 116  Pall Mall at 11.30am before marching to Energy UK - the body who represent and defend the Big Six profiteers, for an inclusive and creative action.

The day will end with a tutorial on knowing your energy rights and how protecting yourself and your community from energy companies.

In 2012/2013 10,000 people died from fuel poverty, including thousands of people in London, and we are likely to learn that thousands more died last winter.

At the same time the Big Six energy companies made £3.7bn in profit – this is equal to £370,000 profit for every person who died.

Join us to express sadness, anger and solidarity with those who have suffered; and to point the finger at those responsible. We will end the day by empowering one another to fight for energy rights and energy justice.

We need affordable, sustainable and publicly and community owned energy. We don't need greedy profiteers represented by Energy UK.

If you have mobility needs, would like a buddy for the day or would like to enquire about us possibly subsidizing your travel fare for the day, please get in touch by email: fuelpovertyaction@gmail.com

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PETITION TO RE-NATIONALISE ELECTRICITYY AND GAS

Greens respond to Labour on railway nationalisation

 
A letter from 30 Labour PPCs to the Observer has been prominently featured today and has earnt top billing on the BBC news and current affairs programmes this morning. The letter calls on Ed Miliband to make public ownership of the railways a key part of Labour policy going into the general election.

Rupert Read the Green Party spokesperson for Transport issued the following response:

After many years of being in government, sitting and watching the privatised rail monopolies rake in huge profits, are Labour about to do something? Or at least "consider" doing something?

The Labour Party might finally be starting to catch up with the Green Party, on this key issue

The truth is that the British public have been down this road before with the Labour party and they have been let down time and again. You simply can't trust Labour to do what they say they are going to do."

Caroline Lucas MP has a bill in the House of Commons right now calling for exactly this. Labour had more than a decade in government to do something about this and they didn't lift a finger to help.

This is a flagship Green Party policy; Caroline Lucas has made it central to her agenda; the media really ought to report that Labour is hardly engaging in original thinking: simply stumbling falteringly toward something that voters can already plump for in unadulterated form by voting Green.

The letter from the Labour PPCs come as another poll shows the Greens overtaking the Liberal Democrats in the European Elections. The Green Party is on course to return its highest ever number of MEPs on May 22^nd.

Greens: Bring railways back into public ownership

This week saw another price hike in rail fares. With the UK already having the highest rail fares in Europe, The Green Party calls for the British railway system to be come back into public ownership.  It has been approximated that “£1.2 billion of public money is lost each year as a direct result of privatisation and fragmentation”

The Green Party has condemned the rail fare rise of an average of 6.2% announced yesterday.

Alan Francis, Green Party Transport Speaker, said:

We need to make rail travel more affordable, not less. Many people have had their wages frozen for several years. These fare rises will hit them hard. This fares increase makes rail travel even more unaffordable each year and pushes people back into cars on our already congested roads. Instead of an RPI+3% formula we should have a RPI-X% formula so that fares are reduced in real terms each year.

Rail privatisation and fragmentation has been bad for the railways and for passengers and has significantly increased costs. These higher costs, as much as £1bn per year, are paid by both passengers and taxpayers. We favour the railways being brought back into the public sector and more integration. This would reduce costs and so allow lower fares. Consequently we believe that as each TOC franchise ends it should be retained in the public sector, initially operated by the government-owned Directly Operated Railways. There would be no cost to the taxpayer.