BBC Continues Bias

BBC Look North from Newcastle continue to have debates from different constituencies that exclude Green Party candidates. In response to a complaint from me the BBC wrote:

We are filming "hot seats" for Look North in four of the region’s marginal constituencies and took the decision - based upon the BBC guidelines - to include UKIP candidates but not to include the Greens. This was based upon current levels of polling and past performance in recent elections. For example, UKIP won a North East seat in last year's European elections as well as coming second to Labour in both the Middlesbrough and South Shields by-elections."

On this basis, why do they include the Liberal Democrats? The Green Party got more votes and more seats than the Liberal Democrats in last year's European Elections, upon which they partially base their decision? The Green Party has more members than either the Liberal Democrats or UKIP and are standing in 90% of the seats in England & Wales.

In addition, their polling, for which no evidence was given and upon which they partially base their decision, will be affected by THEIR OWN DECISION NOT TO BROADCAST DETAILS OF GREEN CANDIDATES AND TO EXCLUDE GREEN CANDIDATES FROM BBC DEBATES!

What right do the BBC, a body paid for by you and me, have to decide who should be represented on their debates and who should be excluded? What price democracy, if the BBC can decide who is to be heard and who is not? In my constituency (Richmond (Yorks), there are two independents with strong followings, but under the BBC criteria they will never be heard. What right has a publicly owned broadcaster have to decide that?

The BBC should and will be challenged for their bias. This political bias is undermining democracy in this country and runs contrary to the BBC charter. Write to the BBC and complain! http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/complain-online/

Virgin on the Ridiculous!

I recently attended a patients' forum put on by the Richmondshire, Hambleton and Whitby Clinical Commissioning Group (RHWCCG), the very name of which indicates just how cumbersome this Tory monster has become.

The main aim of the forum appeared to be to get patients to volunteer to do the jobs previously done by paid NHS staff.

One of the CCGs other admissions was that the NHS budget was going to have to stretch to cover social care as well, something not publicised by the Con Dems when they foisted this unlooked for change in the NHS upon us. A NHS re-organisation was expressly excluded from the manifestos of both the Conservatives and the Lib Dems, so watch out for further nasty volte-faces if, (God forbid) we get another right wing coalition after the election. For me, this betrayal of Lib Dem promises on the NHS was probably worse than their notorious lie about abolishing tuition fees.

RHWCCG also announced that they had awarded Virgin Care a multi-million pound contract to supply Whitby Out of Hours and Community Care. This was after an 18 month procurement process that did not include any NHS run bid, but did cost hundreds of thousands of pounds (including costly legal advice). As part of their justification, the RHWCCG spokesperson said that Virgin had told the CCG that they would not make a profit in the first two years. Not surprising as Virgin Care appear to be avoiding tax by taking their profits offshore!

You may have read about this in the recent story in the Guardian newspaper (http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/mar/21/ow-lucrative--deals-go-to-firms-that-use-tax-havens), which detailed the tax arrangements of Virgin Care.

According to this article and a recent report from Unite the Union, Virgin care has a complicated structure of 13 intermediate holding companies between Virgin Care Limited and its ultimate parent company, Virgin Group Holdings Limited.

The company’s main offshore links are with the British Virgin Islands where its ultimate parent company is based. The way in which Virgin is structured, with multiple holding companies in locations that provide a high level of secrecy, means that it is very hard to get a clear view of the group’s finances.

These structures are wholly inappropriate for a company in receipt of hundreds of millions of pounds worth of public sector contracts in the National Health Service. Virgin Care Limited should urgently reform its corporate structures and tax arrangements or negotiate the speedy return of its NHS contract back to the RHWCCG.

RHWCCG should itself revisit any contracts with private companies indulging in tax avoidance measures. It should also look more closely at Virgin Care's chequered history.

In 2012 a NHS watchdog accused a Virgin Care urgent care centre of putting patients' health at risk by using receptionists with minimal medical training to assess how unwell arrivals were. http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/04/nhs-watchdog-virgin-care-croydon-hospital The Care Quality Commission (CQC) report criticised the operation of the urgent care centre at Croydon hospital in south London, which was run by Virgin Care.

If you agree that NHS contracts should not go to tax dodgers, then please sign a petition to tell Virgin Care to pay their taxes and protest against the continuing privatisation of the NHS! http://action.peoplesnhs.org/page/speakout/virgin-pay-your-tax?js=false

Tax on School Children

Leslie Rowe, the Green Party Parliamentary candidate for Richmond, attended the Richmondshire Area Committee today (Wednesday 18 March 2015), to protest at the proposal to increase a tax on kids. "This tax takes the form of charges for travel to school or college, which had been proposed to increase from £480 to £550 a year. Also proposed is a charge of £380 for primary-school children aged 8 to 11. Compare this with the situation in Tory grandee Boris Johnson's London, where children can travel free on public transport." A North Yorkshire County Council report to the meeting pointed out that the September 2014 increase to £480 had led to a "much-reduced" take-up of post-16 transport. Green candidate Leslie Rowe pointed out the environmental impact of the thousands more car journeys now being taken by parents unwilling to pay those exorbitant charges. "This has increased the County's carbon footprint at a time when we are obliged by international agreements to reduce it." "Teaching problems at various schools, including Richmond, have also led to an increase in after-school revision and extra-curricular activities, so pupils miss the scheduled bus home," commented Mr Rowe. "If forced to pay, pupils should have the option of paying only for the journeys they actually take, especially where buses are running with empty spaces, because of the already reduced take up." During his statement to the committee Leslie Rowe acknowledged the leadership of Councillor John Blackie on this issue. "Although John Blackie and I are opponents in the parliamentary election I acknowledge that he has led the fight against school-bus charges in the County Council in recent months and we are as one in our opposition to this discrimination against local children. The council should fulfil its statutory duty to undertake an Equality Impact Assessment as soon as possible." "Although the proposal to increase the post-16 charge to £550 has been shelved until after the general election you can be sure it will be reintroduced once the election is over. This tax on children's education has been forced on North Yorkshire by the Tory and Lib Dem coalition austerity measures. As the Conservatives regard the Richmond constituency as a safe Tory seat they think they can impose this tax on kids with impunity. They would not dare to introduce such charges in more marginal urban areas such as London. This is discrimination against rural communities and they should not be allowed to get away with it." Promoted by Leslie Rowe on behalf of Richmond Constituency Green Party, c/o 73 Richmond Road, Brompton on Swale, Richmond, DL10 7HF

Towards a Citizen’s Income

A Citizen’s Income is an unconditional, non-withdrawable income paid to every individual as a right of citizenship. The Green Party have called for the statutory minimum wage to be immediately lifted to Living Wage levels and for a £10 per hour minimum wage for all by 2020. But longer term our target is a Citizen’s Income. As a party committed to social justice, measures such as the Citizen’s Income that redistribute wealth are central to our economic policy. Our creaking welfare system gets ever more complex, yet it often fails to provide security to those who need it most. In the longer run, a fundamental reform is needed where most of the complicated benefits, means tests and qualifying contributions are swept away, and all citizens receive, as of right, a universal basic income, or ‘Citizen’s Income’. A commitment to introducing a Citizen’s Income in the long term will be part of the Green Party’s manifesto for the 2015 General Election. Citizen’s Income represents a major structural change to the welfare system and requires wide and thorough consultation and input from stakeholders. Our manifesto working group is currently working on figures as a basis for that consultation, which will be available by the time of the manifesto release in late March 2015.

Green Candidates Back NHS Reinstatement Bill

Leslie Rowe, the Green Party Parliamentary Candidate for Richmond (Yorks) and one hundred other Green Party candidates for the May General Election have given their clear support for the NHS Reinstatement Bill 2015 [1] and there is no sign of that support slowing down. This impressive wave of support reflects the Party’s core commitment to public services which are not privatised, but are true to their founding principles and can safely continue to be publicly owned for the future. Leslie Rowe commented: "The NHS is facing its biggest threat in sixty years, with the Tories and Lib Dem coalition championing the privatisation of the NHS through their Health and Social Care Act 2012. Another ConDem government will turn the NHS into nothing more than a logo for a privatised health service. The NHS Reinstatement Bill will reverse the privatisation process and protect the concept of a publicly funded, publicly provided health service." More candidates are adding their support all the time [you can see what the candidates in your area say here]. The NHS Reinstatement Bill frames a clear mechanism to protect the NHS against the damage of privatisation, in overturning key aspects of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 and earlier legislation that set the NHS in England on the road to fragmentation – often without public consultation, and nearly always without their full awareness. As such, it reflects Green Party policy towards the NHS and other public institutions which have been threatened by privatisation and now stand on the brink of collapse as successive governments sought to sell them off for ideological reasons, and despite growing evidence that there is no strong financial argument supporting the privatisation agenda [2]. Far from being yet another ‘top-down, centralised, re-structuring’, crucially the NHS Reinstatement Bill hands responsibility for provision of service back to the Secretary of State for Health, something the HSCA severed [3] – thereby effectively uncoupling ultimate responsibility for the NHS from Parliament. It also spells out how, if the NHS is to be saved, it must: • Reinstate the government’s duty to provide the NHS in England. • Re-establish NHS England as a special health authority. • Re-establish District Health Authorities, with Family Health Services Committees to administer arrangements with GPs, dentists and others. • Abolish marketised bodies such as NHS foundation trusts, as well as Monitor, the regulator of NHS foundation trusts and commercial companies [4]. • Allow commercial companies to provide services only if the NHS could not do so and otherwise patients would suffer [5]. • Abolish competition [2]. • Re-establish Community Health Councils to represent the interest of the public. • Stop licence conditions imposed by Monitor on NHS foundation trusts. These will reduce the number of services that they currently have to provide from April 2016: the end of the universal service. • Bring the terms and conditions of NHS staff back under the NHS Staff Council [6]. • Prohibit ratification of treaties like the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) without the approval of Parliament if they would cover the NHS [7]. Jillian Creasy is Health spokesperson for the Green Party, and prospective parliamentary candidate, Sheffield Central: “I fully support the NHS Reinstatement Bill. I qualified as a doctor in 1982. I have worked through the marketisation and privatisation of the Tory and Labour years and now the Coalition. Bringing in private providers does not only fragment services and leach money out of the public economy, it threatened the whole ethos of public service. Staff across the board have been forced to concentrate on prices and targets, instead of thinking about how to maximize the quality of care. Nothing short of complete reversal of privatisation will restore the NHS we know and love.” Professor Allyson Pollock worked with Peter Roderick, a lawyer, on the NHS Reinstatement Bill: “We’re delighted so many Green Party candidates have voiced their support. It’s encouraging to see candidates for a party which stands for responsible public ownership and an eye to the legacy we leave our descendants say they are behind us. Members of the public, parliamentary candidates, health professionals: all are coming forward to say enough is enough – and this Bill is the way back to a future health service we can be proud to think of protecting. Please, if you do nothing else before this election, ask your parliamentary candidates to say what they think of the NHS Reinstatement Bill and let us know.” Editors’ Notes [1] The Campaign for the NHS Reinstatement Bill is a non-partisan campaign and has a wide range of support across the political spectrum (http://www.nhsbill2015.org/our-supporters/ ). It encourages the public to contact prospective parliamentary candidates in their constituency, determine their views on the Reinstatement Bill, and gain their support for it wherever possible: http://www.nhsbill2015.org @nhsbill2015 The Campaign’s press officer is Alan Taman: 07870 757 309 healthjournos@gmail.com http://www.nhsbill2015.org/press-contact [2] The belief that ‘competition is always best’ does not work when applied to healthcare. A comprehensive and universal health service is best funded by public donation, which has been shown to be far more efficient overall than private-insurance healthcare models. [Lister, J. (2013) Health Policy Reform: global health versus private profit. Libri: Faringdon. [3] The HSCA has removed the Secretary of State for Health’s responsibility to provide as well as promote a universal, comprehensive health service in England. In effect, this has compromised parliament’s ultimate responsibility for the NHS. [Pollock, A. and Price, D. (2013) In NHS SOS, ed by Davis, J. and Tallis, R. Oneworld: London, 178-181.]The NHS Reinstatement Bill [http://www.nhsbill2015.org/the-bill] would restore this founding principle of the NHS, which has been undermined largely for ideological reasons and despite the evidence that inequalities in health are growing in the UK as a direct result of wider inequalities fostered by the same ideology [Dorling, D. (2013) Unequal Health: The scandal of our times. The Policy Press: London, Chapter 1]. [4] The Bill would ensure that any handover of employment for NHS staff from NHS FTs, CCGs and NHS trusts to the new NHS bodies was conducted with the full participation of Trade Unions and would require the Secretary of State for Health to make regulations setting out the terms and conditions of transfer. Overturning the current situation where long-established agreements with the workforce are being systematically overturned, to the detriment of many NHS staff. [5] The NHS has always used private firms, partnerships and individual traders to provide services it could not easily or as cost-effectively provide for itself, eg some legal services and construction of or repair to NHS buildings. What the NHS Reinstatement Bill does is end the current obligation on NHS services to use tendering to determine which organisation delivers front-line healthcare: this is pro-privatisation engineering and is an ongoing threat to the comprehensiveness of NHS care. [6] The Bill would ensure that any handover of employment for NHS staff from NHS FTs, CCGs and NHS trusts to the new NHS bodies was conducted with the full participation of Trade Unions and would require the Secretary of State for Health to make regulations setting out the terms and conditions of transfer. [7] The TTIP, if enacted as it stands currently, would make it very difficult for future governments to reverse the provision of healthcare by private organisations if they could show this would prove commercially damaging to them [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_Trade_and_Investment_Partnership ].

Leslie Rowe visit to Wensleydale School

As the Green Party’s general-election candidate for the Richmond constituency, I was impressed when I met pupils at Wensleydale School in Leyburn on Thursday 29th January 2015. A group of pupils from Years 7 to 11 questioned me on the Green party’s policies as part of the school’s ‘Lights, Camera, Parliament’ project. There were some excellent questions on dairy farming, electoral reform, the preponderence of public schoolboys in Parliament, nuclear power and my own personal campaigns. Notably, students were asking all candidates what they personally would do for the Richmond constituency, a question which I think William Hague, after twenty five years in the job, would find difficult to answer. After meeting the pupils, I commented: “They asked well-researched questions, followed up with supplementary questions and challenged my answers – just as voters should. The future of our democracy looks healthy in Wensleydale. I congratulate the school’s Headteacher, Graham Parker, and Charlie Barnett, the teacher who leads the project, on this innovative approach.” My visit to the school was just one event in my fact-finding tour of the constituency, which is chronicled on the Facebook page www.facebook.com/rcgreensyorks

Liberal Democrat NHS Betrayal

The Conservatives promised before the 2010 general election not to impose a top-down reorganisation of the NHS. What followed was one of the most fundamental NHS reorganisations yet envisaged, which generated especially widespread "opprobrium" (quote from Wikipedia). This Path to Privatisation was achieved with the active help and support of the Liberal Democrats and by building on the privatisation started under New Labour. (Remember the great PFI scandals?) Now more than a third of doctors on the new clinical commissioning groups have links with private health-care companies. The Liberal Democrats in government have become notorious for reneging on their manifesto promises. Whilst their disgraceful volte-face on both tuition fees and electoral reform are well known, it is their betrayal of the NHS that is most unforgiveable in my opinion. The Liberal Democrats pledged to "cut NHS centralised targets and bureaucracy" and improve waiting times (Lib Dem Manifesto 2010). We now know the exact opposite has happened, with Accident and Emergency departments across the country crumbling after the coalition government, including the Liberal Democrats, reduced their funding to just one third of what they need. NHS England (created as part of this mammoth reorganisation) reports that it missed its four-hour waiting-limit target by 2.4% for the last quarter of 2014. The money wasted on this reorganisation, along with direct cuts in the Accident and Emergency budget, has led to 133,000 people waiting more than four hours and NHS performance dropping to its worst level for a decade. Now here is a pledge that will not be broken. The Green Party will take the NHS back into public ownership and ensure it is adequately funded. This means an extra £8bn by 2020, funded in part by cancelling Trident. Here are some of the Green Party health policies: The Party will continue to support the principle that the NHS is a national service, free at the point of entry and fully funded by taxation. Opposition to third-way health reform, so we actively oppose and seek to reverse any public-service health-policy reforms that lead to: • a two- or multi-tier health service with uneven standards and service provision, • further disconnection of the service from public accountability – via local, regional or national government, • the undermining of a fully integrated NHS, publicly funded and committed to high-quality universal provision with free services at the point of use, or • creeping privatisation. What can you do to campaign to keep the NHS public? Join the national events in February 2015, which can be found easily on the Keep Our NHS Public website http://www.keepournhspublic.com/index.php. I also recommend you read NHS SOS, available from the publishers, One World. Proceeds from NHS SOS will go to Keep Our NHS Public. The May 2015 election will be vital in deciding the future of the NHS. NHS SOS shows that the Conservatives (supported by the Lib Dems) clearly wish to privatise the NHS, have already started the process and will continue to do so. They appear to be lining up their friends in private companies for lucrative contracts. The book also highlights Labour’s involvement in privatisation and the Private Finance Initiative. The Green Party is the clear choice if you want to keep the NHS public. “A free health service is a triumphant example of the superiority of the principles of collective action and public initiative against the commercial principle of profit and greed.” Aneurin Bevan, In Place of Fear.

A Quiet Revolution!

A happy New Year to all our readers! I hope that 2015 will be a good year for you all, a year of positive change! To help achieve this I am proud to have been selected by the Richmond Constituency Green Party as our Parliamentary candidate for 2015. I stood in 2005 and 2010, but this year sees a major change in the fortunes of the Richmond Green Party. Support for the Green Party has never been higher and in 2014 we doubled our membership. I believe that this takes us ahead of the Liberal Democrats. So what change is needed in 2015? I believe that what is needed for good and lasting change is nothing short of a revolution! A peaceful revolution, but a revolution all the same. If elected, Green MPs will call for a Constitutional conference as soon as possible after the election, to look at all aspects of democracy and public administration. For too long have we been governed by an elected dictatorship of public schoolboys, selected via a corrupt system ruled by money and privilege, where the wishes of local people are over-ruled by the vested interests that control all the old political parties. The Labour Party produced Tony Blair who took us into illegal wars and got rich from the aftermath of war. The Tory Party are ruled by a public school elite who ignore local talent and put up one millionaire after another as their candidate, none of whom can claim to have done one solid thing for the Richmond constituency. For instance, they claim to support the Friarage Hospital, but it is Tory legislation that is cutting NHS services and privatising the remainder. The Liberal Democrats just break their promises, like their written pledge to abolish tuition fees. The Green Party will campaign for a Constitutional Commission which will be required to draft a written constitution, oversee and arbitrate the process of decentralisation and take over the functions of the Boundary Commissions and the Electoral Commission. The Constitutional Commission would also be responsible for overseeing the appointment of an independent judiciary. The Commission must be accountable, representative, diverse, aware of practical requirements and grassroots concerns and be independent of Westminster. The Green Party will recommend to the Constitutional Commission that a gradual but complete decentralisation of powers be written into the Constitution; that the Constitution be based on agreed moral principles and that it fully guarantee political rights as well as wider human rights. North Yorkshire County Council is in the process of reducing services to a bare minimum, public transport and the library service being the latest victims of their cuts. In order for councils to be sufficiently legitimate and trustworthy to take on increased responsibility, large-scale electoral reform will be required, along with immediate legislation for citizens' rights. That electoral reform would guarantee that all citizens are represented in local and national government, not just the largest (or richest) minority. Parliament needs to be prepared to surrender many of its traditional powers, and actively assist in the process of decentralisation. To this end, Parliament has a number of key roles to play: first, to devolve functions to more local bodies; second, to lift its hold over councils and enable them to manage their own affairs and third, to work with the Constitutional Commission to meet demands from local Government to take on responsibility for resources and functions that are currently dealt with at too high a level by central Government and increasingly, the private sector. The Constitutional Commission will be responsible for keeping the boundaries and structures of local and regional government under review, taking account of the views of local authorities and residents. The aim should be to move towards structures that better reflect the ecology of the land and the character of local communities and that guarantee better democratic decision-making and the effective provision of public services. Any significant proposed changes to such structures would be subject to a referendum of all residents affected. The result of these policies will be to strip power from the political élite and give it back to local people. This is the revolution I want to see in 2015. If you are sick and tired of the corruption at the heart of Government, then please join the Green Party in calling for real change in 2015. Together we CAN BRING ABOUT A REAL REVOLUTION!

Establishment close ranks to scare Scotland

The former Tory Prime Minister, John Major, who got rich working on boards of arms companies and bailed out financial institutions after he left office, was wheeled out today on the BBCs "Today" programme. He had a long list of scare stories, from nuclear destruction of the UK, because we would have to abandon the totally useless "Trident" nuclear missile system to the UK losing its place on the UN security council and in the EU. He was not asked by the supine John Humphries, nor did he offer, any evidence for any of these far fetched claims. He also said, quite directly that the Scottish people were not intelligent enough to understand fully the implications of voting to free themselves from the imperial yoke of Westminster. He told a story of one Scot who told him not to worry, because even if the Scot voted "Yes" for independence, he would still support the Tories in the next general election. Major stated that the Scot did not understand that there would be no more UK general elections. It did not occur to Major that there will be general elections in Scotland after voting for independence. It showed how little faith John Major had in his own party in Scotland, by assuming that the Scottish Tories would not be fighting in those Scottish General Elections. Naturally Major brought out the big lie that Scotland did not have a currency, which could survive an independence vote. It really does show the desperation of the Unionist No campaign that at the 11th hour they are wheeling out yesterday's men like John Major and Gordon Brown to spread lies and innuendo to try to save the Westminster establishment, after the failure of Alistair Darling to keep a lid on Scottish aspirations. I personally welcome the desperate bid by the three Westminster clones, Cameron, Milliband and Clegg to woo the Scottish people today. It will give the Scottish people yet another opportunity to view the Westminster toffs who have corrupted democracy in the UK and celebrate that they now have the opportunity to be free themselves of the ruling Westminster clan at last. And hopefully us in England and Wales as well?

Vote for Scottish (& English) Independence.

Copy of a letter sent to newspapers last week, which suprisingly they ignored .... The British Prime Minister called on the British people to have a voice in the Scottish Independence debate and to ask the Scots to stay in the UK. I profoundly disagree: indeed I would very much urge the Scots to take this opportunity for freedom and vote for independence. For the same reason, I would ask the same for the people of Northumbria, the right for a vote for independence for the citizens of the North East and Yorkshire. Independence would mean the rejection of a modern British state which allows all the money and power to be retained in London and the South East, at the expense of Scotland and the North East of England alike. It is no coincidence that David Cameron has decided to rap himself in the Union Flag not in Scotland, but in his heartland in London. His cynical abuse of the Olympic ideal to expound his jingoism cannot mask the reality of the modern British state as a slave to multinational conglomerates, who have their British bases in London. The British Parliament is full of yes men in thrall to the London money markets, who profit at the expense of us taxpayers. UK policy since Thatcher has been to destroy manufacturing industry, mainly based in the North and pass everything to the multinational service companies based overseas and in London. Take for instance the £1bn contract awarded to Bombadier for London Cross Rail trains. (At a time when London is still refusing to upgrade the A1 north of Newcastle). Hailed as a great success for British manufacturing, this is, in fact a Canadian assembly plant in Derby, mainly putting together foreign components, which is the only survivor of train manufacturing in this country. Why? Because the Tory Government of the 1990s forced all the British train makers out of business by refusing to order any rolling stock for British trains for three years before privatisation. Both Tory and Labour are united in their cynical jingoism, with the support given by Labour MP Tessa Jowell to Cameron's use of the Olympic park because it reminded people "how it felt to be British". These are the same Labour & Tory MPs that voted for the war in Iraq: how did it feel to be British then? It is this selfish ideology of the monied classes that has destroyed jobs in Yorkshire and the North East. So I say to the people of Scotland, think with your heart as well as your head and seize this opportunity to break away from this southern elite and take power back into your own hands. Do not give in to the blackmail from the Westminster club of Tories, Labour & Lib Dems over a pound they do not own. And what is good for Scotland is also good for Yorkshire and the North East. After all, Yorkshire alone has a population greater than that of Scotland. Why should only the Scots have a right to a Parliament of its own? The UK is neither a democracy (with minority parties in power) nor does it have a divine right to exist. Power should lie with people and all people should have the right to decide their own fate, not to be dictated to by a little man wrapping himself in a Union Flag.

Faust & the Liberal Democrats

It is a long time since I wrote a blog. But the situation in this country has got so dire, I feel I must speak out once again. Take for instance the sad decline of the Liberal Democrats. As an ex-member of the Liberal Party, I remember fondly the earnest debates we had on nuclear disarmament, on climate change and global warming, on protecting a free health service and education system. Mighty debates that emphasised the quality of life, not its price. Contrast and compare the Liberal Democrats of today. Not one principle seems to be worthy of defence. On the contrary, Lib Dems appear to be falling over themselves in their eagerness to abandon whatever principles they may have once claimed in their manifesto. It started with the now infamous betrayal by Liberal Democrat MPs of their signed election pledge not to put up student tuition fees, indeed their solemn pledge to abandon tuition fees all together. After all what do student tuition fees achieve? The money still has to be found, but instead of straight forward government taxation, we now have a whole industry of get rich quick wide boys, saddling the next generation with a lifetime of debt that in many cases will never be paid off. It reminds me of the American folk song “Sixteen Tons” with the famous line, “another day older and deeper in debt”. Like the US coal industry of the 1930s, the conservative establishment, including now apparently, the Liberal Democrats, want to ensure the youth of Britain remain as wage slaves from the moment they enter the “Labour market”. Vince Cable says as much in his infamous U-turn speech of 15th July 2010 in Westminster, where he tries to justify the Lib Dem betrayal of their election promises. He said (& I quote) “You can’t measure in cash returns alone the transformation of the life opportunities of a working class child through a university education that raises their sights - and those of their children. Nonetheless, when students are faced with a bill, even one delayed, they will look to an economic return.” https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/a-new-era-for-universities"> As I said saddling the next generation with a lifetime of debt, so that they have no option but to become wage slaves, lackeys of the conservative establishment. And the Neo-Cons have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Unlike the generation who went to university at the same time as Vince Cable who looked out on the world and protested about injustice, such as in the Vietnam war; the modern student has to spend her or his time dealing with a cash flow crisis from the day they get accepted into university, forcing the focus inward to their own survival, instead of outward and the survival of our society. For make no bones about it, our society is fighting for survival against the onslaught of corrupt politicians, elected on false promises and led it seems by the former champions of individual liberty, the Liberal Democrats. Where were their principles when they agreed to abandon their decades old commitment to a fair electoral system (Single Transferable Vote or STV), which would have meant a parliament which represented the whole of society , not just the largest minority? Instead they were persuaded to put forward the discredited alternate vote system and then failed to campaign for even this change, apart from a few weeks of lack lustre debate. Where were Lib Dem principles when the Tories dropped the bombshell of wholesale privatisation of the NHS, a policy not even in the Conservative manifesto? Which has led to a system which has quadrupled the cost of administering the NHS, including an accountant for every clinical commissioning group, so that were previously there was just one Finance Director for the Primary Care Trust, there are now sixteen FDs, one for each of the CCGs. (Such is the shortage of Health Service accountants, they are also some of the highest paid in the country). Where were Lib Dem policies of local democracy, when schools are converted into Academies and taken out of Local Government control and put into the hands of big business? Where was the Lib Dem opposition to penalising disabled people and the less well off in society, when the Tories introduced their ridiculous bedroom tax? A policy akin to the 18th century window tax, when people bricked up their windows to avoid paying the tax. Today, we have legal battles to convert bedrooms into wheel chair storage areas or any other designation that is not a bedroom. Where were Liberal Democrat principles when usury loan companies like Wonga, charging exorbitant interest charges are allowed to prosper on the back of the poor, a situation in part created by the withdrawal of benefits and of this coalition’s tacit support for on-line betting? Where were Liberal Democrat principles and good sense when The Tories continued the discredited Private Finance Initiatives so favoured by Labour, which increased the costs of hospitals five fold and made even more profits for the discredited banks? Where were Liberal Democrat principles when the Bankers continued amassing their riches and to get off scot free from their theft of billions of pounds from the British taxpayer, after they were bailed out by dim witted politicians from all three Westminster parties? How many bankers have gone to jail so far? None and none will, even after this Coalition Government, (including the Liberal Democrats) quietly flog off the nationalised banks back to the bankers at a fraction of the cost it took to bail them out in the first place. The millions lost on the sale of Northern Rock to Virgin Money will be chicken feed in comparison. Nuclear power, nuclear weapons, fracking, the high speed rail link: the list of betrayed principles by the Lib Dems goes on and on, culminating this week with the indecent haste to flog off Royal Mail; despite the opposition of two thirds of the British public (as shown in a recent YouGov poll). The inevitable abandonment of universal postal services, with deliveries to thousands of rural locations being cut and higher than inflation price rises have elicited not a squeak of protest from the Liberal Democrat conference in Glasgow. Once Liberals were proud protesters, shouting loud and long about injustice. Now the only protest we hear is the rather feeble complaints of former Liberal Democrat minister, Sarah Teather MP, who has decided not to stand at the next general election rather than stand up to her party leadership. Clearly the only goal the Liberal Democrat parliamentary party now has is to remain in Government. It probably does not matter whether it is in coalition with the Tories or Labour, these two parties’ policies being so indistinguishable and the willingness of the Liberal Democrats to abandon their principles so blatant, that it is the only real goal left for all the Westminster Parties. So sadly, the Liberal Democrats have at last joined the establishment, making the Faustian bargain and paying the price of their very soul.

BBC Bias fails to mask undemocratic elections

Andrew Marr in his usual fawning style failed once again to challenge a blatant untruth spoken by the Tory chancellor George Osborne on Marr's BBC programme this morning (Sunday 6th May 2012). Osborne claimed that "more than half of the British people voted for Conservative or Liberal Democrat candidates in the local elections last Thursday." That is a blatant LIE.
From the BBC's own figures, 31% of votes cast were for the Tories and 16% for the LibDems. But then only 32% of the electorate voted. This means that actually only 15% (32% of 47%) of the electorate voted for the Coalition candidates, about one person in seven. But you also have to take account of all those people who are denied the vote. People under the age of 18 (who account for nearly a quarter of the population), prisoners, unregistered voters and people in long term institutions for instance. Taking this into account the ConDem vote accounts for less than one person in eight of the UK population.
The same hyperbole applies to Ed Milliband and his crowing Labour Party. Their share of the vote (38%) represents just 12% of voters. Taking into account the disenfranchised, less than one in ten of the UK population voted for New Labour in the local elections. This is hardly "winning back the voter's trust" as Ed Milliband declares.
Andrew Marr continues with the BBC Bias as he allows Osborne to talk about the "three political parties", as if no other political parties exist apart from the ConDems and Labour. Between them them parties garnered votes from less than a quarter of the population of Britain and yet they control more than 80% of local councils and dominate Westminster politics. This is in part due to the refusal of the BBC and other broadcasters to acknowledge that voters have the right to vote for whomsoever they choose and allow the ConDems and Labour to dominate political debate. At the last general election for instance, in my constituency (Richmond, North Yorkshire) the BBC made a prime time TV programme about the contest in Richmond and spoke to the Conservative, Lib Dem and Labour candidates, but did not even inform the one other candidate (from the Green Party) that the programme was being made. I should know. I was that Green candidate. My complaint to the BBC remains unanswered to this day.
It is not a democracy when the state broadcaster decides which politicians you can or cannot listen to. It is not a democracy when less than a quarter of the population decide who runs both national and local government.
So now it is time for you to do your bit. Are you fed up with all politicians, their corrupt ways and economy with the truth? Then do something about it. At your next election, do not vote Labour, Tory or Lib Dem. But rather than sit at home calling a pox on all their houses, go out and vote (if you can) for someone else. Be it Green, be it UKIP, English Democrat, SNP, Plaid Cymru or even a penguin, use your vote to help remove the corruption that is the British political establishment from our green and once pleasant land.

Real Electoral Reform

The English can learn from the Scots (& Welsh & Irish). If you want to get real change (or even independence) do not vote Conservative or Labour or Liberal Democrat. If you live in the Chilterns, you are really not obliged to vote Tory. You could form your own party to oppose the high speed rail link. If you banded together and opposed the Tories in their "safe" seats, just think how quickly you would change their minds?

If you are a member of Unite or another union, put up your own candidates, please stop fooling yourself that Labour represents anyone but themselves. Ed Milliband is just another Tony Blair (as is David Cameron), pandering to big business and the banks. All these politicians promised us the taxpayer would not lose by supporting the banks, so how come we have lost £20billion on Northern Rock alone?

And after the disgraceful betrayal of the Liberal Democrats on student fees, every University Student Union in the country should be putting forward their own candidates.

Everyone else should vote for anyone other than the old elected dictatorship of Labour, Liberal and Tory. Personally I think the finest political leader in the country is Caroline Lucas of the Green Party, but whatever you do, just don't vote for five more years of Nick Clegg!

The Prince or the Pauper?

The fawning attitude of the BBC and other media moguls to the Royalist  wedding in London is part of a continuing conspiracy amongst the ruling classes to deny democracy in the UK. This has been backed by the closing down of Facebook accounts and Websites of anyone critical of the Monarchy and police raids on over 50 social centres.

This wedding is not a dream, but a nightmare. The tightening of the grip of the powers that be, at the expense of democracy. Westminster politicians, except for a brave few, are too frightened to speak the truth about the elite who run our country. If they are so confident that the monarchy is so popular, why has the alternative never been offered to the British people?

We need an informed debate and a referendum to ask ALL the people of Britain whether they would prefer an elected head of state, rather than this continuing dicatorship by an unelected elite. Do we really want to be governed by a Hooray Henry whose best friend is Posh Spice? Do you really think it is a coincidence that the leaders of the coalition government are all public schoolboys?
We know that a large proportion of the cheering crowds at the wedding were foreign tourists, especially Americans, who got rid of their monarch almost 250 years ago. There were no protests because protests were banned, protest leaders detained and the voice of protest gagged by a subservient media, led by the BBC. Like the majority of people in the UK, I did not watch the wedding, but spent the day delivering local election leaflets, campaigning for a Yes vote to electoral reform and dreaming of the day when Britain will indeed become a democracy. Not an elected dictatorship, led by an unelected monarch.
The Prince or the Pauper? Vote for the paupers of this world and set yourself free!

News direct from Japan

From: DrumCircles@ yahoogroups. com [mailto:DrumCircles@ yahoogroups. com] On
Behalf Of Kaoru Sasaki
Sent: 02 April 2011 03:30
To: Yahoo! Int'l List
Subject: [DrumCircles] Another thing you can do for Japan

Hi list,

Thank you for your massages, prayers, drumming, donations,
holding charity events and so on.

More than three weeks have past, and things don't seem to be better,
unfortunately. The fiscal & school year begins on April 1, and
many people who evacuated from Tsunami/nuclear disaster area
have either moved for new places to settle or went back home.

Japan is almost like North Korea and the people are not provided
with truth. Information is very much controlled and you outside
Japan may have better information. You may think we always
have internet, but there are old people who don't use internet,
who have lost their PCs, who have PCs but the internet connection
is not available, and so on, especially at the Tsunami/nuclear- polluted
area.

As you know, Japan is one of the biggest seismic country.
Many earthquakes have been happening, before and especially
after the one on March 11. The big plates are stimulated
by the recent quakes, and many experts expect more to come.

There are 54 nuclear-power- related facilities, and the government
plans to build 14 more. They built the nuclear waste dumping
facility in Rokkasho, in the north, but it is almost full.

The real information is not available from either the government
or the power company, but there is already ongoing radiation leaks
which is polluting everything. We know it is MUCH more than
we are told it is.

You have rights to get more angry about Japan, because there is
no border in air and water. What Japan has done to its people
and to the world is a crime.

Japan has been traditionally VERY hard to change from inside.
Dr. Koide of Kyoto University, an anti-nuclear scholar, asked by
someone how we can stop nuclear power plants in Japan,
replied, "We have been trying for 40 years, and it has been
very difficult." Mediad oesn't function here either, because
many of the journalist who spoke out have been 'burried' in
all kinds of ways.

In many environmental movements, we as activists, often used
'external pressure' and asked our foreign friends for help.

Please contact the Japanese embassies in your area,
write to the Japanese government, Tokyo Electricity,
and so on to call for stopping and eventually abolishment
of Japan's nuclear power plants.

Tokyo Electricity http://www.tepco. co.jp/en/ index-e.html

Would it work? ... I don't know, because they may just
ignore your e-mails.

Tell your friends about the situation in Japan, contact
media or your government if you have connections.

Japan has already polluted the planet enough as of today,
and we have to avoid more nuclear-pollution by more
earthquakes to come.

Big earthquakes are said to come 100%. The problem is
no one knows if it will come today or 5, 10 years later.

We are doing our best to stop nuclear power plants here,
and we need your help. Please help!

Kaoru