Adrian Ramsay - Speech to Green Party Autumn Conference
Introduction
Good morning conference.
It's great to be here in Brighton and Hove.
Home of a growing and influential group of Green councillors.
And the place where Caroline is set to make history when she breaks through into Westminster at the General Election.
And boy do we need Greens in Westminster.
In recent months, the Labour Government has made promises on reform of Parliament, on regulating the banking sector and on tackling climate change.
But as we've come to expect from the old parties, words don't mean action.
Health
Take the NHS - which we Greens are proud to defend.
Gordon Brown may twitter his support for the NHS when it is dragged into the US healthcare debate.
But when it comes to the crunch, Brown is eager to farm out our health care to private providers.
And Labour's policies are starting to price some people out of essential health care.
A recent Green Party report on dentistry showed that half of dental practices are no longer taking NHS patients.
People are being forced to pay higher fees to go private - or go without a dentist altogether if they can't afford it.
This Government's creeping privatisation of our health service is resulting in wider inequalities in access to health care.
Gordon Brown's mismanagement of the NHS is costing us dear.
Under Labour's Private Finance Initiative, or PFI, our new schools and hospitals have cost much more than they should have done, and taxpayers' money is lining the pockets of private companies instead of improving our public services.
I was appalled when I learnt from a recent study by Chris Edwards, an economist at the University of East Anglia, that PFI is so bad that it would be cheaper for the Government to buy back PFI hospitals than to continue to pay through the nose leasing them.
The report showed that my local hospital, the Norfolk and Norwich, is costing £19m more every year under PFI than if it had been funded conventionally.
I wonder how many Norfolk residents realise that buying back our hospital would save £217m over the next 30 years.
How many local primary schools would that renovate?
How many nurses would it train?
How many students could we fund?
Funding new hospitals and schools through PFI is like buying your house on a credit card, rather than getting a mortgage.
Labour's record of buying our public services on tick has left us beholden to the private sector for decades to come.
That's why the Green Party is calling for an end to the costly PFIs and calling on the Government to buy back the rip-off PFI hospitals.
Through creeping privatisation Labour is breaking up our public services and betraying the founding principles of the NHS.
But we should not expect any better from the Conservatives.
Did you hear that Tory MEP's insulting remarks about the NHS on US TV? We know these are privately supported by an alarming number of Conservatives, who would dismantle the NHS completely given the chance.
Greens will keep the NHS public; with public money supporting valued public servants to provide a public service of the highest calibre.
Greens see beyond just treating symptoms; we want to see more emphasis on preventing illness and promoting a healthier society.
Take the swine flu pandemic.
Action to contain the disease and promptly treat sufferers is crucial.
But what thought has the Government given to the cause of this pandemic and the risks of the next?
Evidence points to this one starting in intensive pig factories in Mexico, where thousands of animals are crammed together in unnatural conditions.
We know that intensive factory farming incubates viruses enabling dangerous mutations to thrive.
The Green Party has long called for a move away from intensive farming in the UK and elsewhere, not just because of cruelty to animals, but because of the costs to the human health and the environment.
But this Government ignores long-term risk, favouring short-term profit.
Climate change
And it's not just on health where this Government takes this approach.
Over the summer, ahead of crucial global climate talks in Copenhagen this December, we have heard Labour promise to lead on reducing UK carbon emissions.
But this Government is failing to implement the policies that will bring about those reductions, failing to show the leadership that the world so desperately needs.
This Government has promised thousands of new jobs in green industries.
And yet last month it failed to prevent the closure of the UK's main wind turbine factory.
And the reason given for this closure?
A lack of demand for wind turbines in the UK.
With all the potential for creating clean energy from the sun, sea and wind in the British Isles, why are we lagging so far behind other European countries in renewable energy production?
Because the Government is failing to invest properly in these technologies to ensure the UK keeps up with the rest of Europe.
Instead of investing what's needed in renewables, this Government still plans new expensive nuclear power stations, leaving a legacy of radioactive waste for generations to come.
The Government could have delivered thousands of green jobs by investing in first rate public transport for the 21st century but instead it's propping up the car industry with its environmentally unsound scrappage scheme.
Labour simply doesn't understand the policies we need if the UK is to lead on global issues such as climate change and trade justice.
Along with Conservatives and LibDems, they are still blindly locked in to the mindset of the global free market and cheap energy from fossil fuels.
They cannot see that we must deal with the global issue of peak oil and localise our economy if we are to reduce energy use.
They choose to ignore the real human costs of the cheap imports that the west buys-in to feed consumer culture.
As Greens we understand that those cheap goods are manufactured at a cost of health and human rights; they are shipped at an environmental cost to future generations; they are traded at a cost to sustainable local economies at both ends; and they don't disappear when they are put in the bin.
We're told it's cheaper to buy new, but that's not true.
Products are not disposable; people are not disposable; the planet is not disposable.
The throw-away society has had it's day, it's time to throw it away.
When we say we want new jobs in green industries, we don't just mean the essential insulation and solar schemes that Greens are promoting up and down the country.
We also mean creating jobs in local food production and in supporting repair, re-use and recycling.
Let's hope the Government does learn some of these lessons in time for the Copenhagen negotiations.
The Greens are watching and we will hold Labour to account if their deeds don't match their words.
Government inconsistencies
But it's not just on climate change where this Government produces more hot air than real action.
This Government claims it values our civil liberties, whilst extending detention without charge and allowing the Police to retain the DNA of innocent people.
This Government claims it wants all young people to have access to higher education, yet continues to price people out through top-up fees.
This Government claims it wants to create a safer world, yet is pressing ahead with plans to replace the UK's nuclear weapons.
This Government claims it wants to re-regulate the banking sector, yet the bonuses are back for bankers and brokers and the lessons from the credit crunch have not yet been learnt.
It's no wonder that so many people feel betrayed by politicians when there are so many broken promises and so much complacency.
Democratic reform
A complacency that has also brought about the expenses fiasco.
Not every MP was abusing the expenses system.
But Labour, Conservative, LibDem, and nationalist parties have all had MPs caught up in the scandal.
Whether it be the Labour MP who claimed £16,000 towards his mortgage having "forgotten" he had already paid it off or the Tory MP who spent one thousand six hundred and forty five pounds of your money on a floating hut, for his ducks and with a LibDem MP spending over £1200 on mirrors, I think it's time that THEY took a long hard look at themselves.
It's no wonder that many people I speak to in Norwich South have totally lost faith in our Parliament.
It is vital to our democracy that swift and thorough action is taken to reform the expenses system.
MPs expenses must be managed and monitored by an independent body and not by themselves, as I made clear in my submission to the Committee on Standards in Public Life.
This is vital to restoring public faith in our Parliament.
But it won't be enough on its own.
We need root and branch reform of our political system to make it more accountable to the public, so people can see how they influence decision making.
As Caroline said yesterday, in our challenge to the other parties,
We must clean up political finance.
This means ending the corruption of big private donations and reforming state funding.
We must guarantee transparency.
This means a Freedom of Information law which bites and regulation of lobbying.
We must update our democracy.
This means an elected Upper House and a fairer proportionate voting system.
These are reforms that must be carried out to drag our democracy into the twenty-first century.
...and This needs Greens in Parliament.
Success in June and success in future
So, how are we doing?
This year, my experience, like that of others, was that the old parties stopped campaigning for the June elections in many areas.
As they were getting such a bad reception on the doorstep following the expenses scandal.
But where we actively campaigned on the ground the public were interested in speaking to us.
They wanted to hear about our proposals for a new approach to politics and about our Green policies.
People realised that we are interested in what they have to say and that our proposals are important and relevant to their everyday lives.
Our dedicated campaign in this year's elections brought many successes, and we should celebrate them.
Our national vote share up by 44% from the last Euros.
Jean Lambert and Caroline Lucas, our two wonderful MEPs, were re-elected with increased majorities.
New Green County Councillors were elected in Devon, in Lancashire, in Suffolk, in Gloucestershire, in Cambridgeshire and in Norfolk.
Greens came first in the Euro elections in Oxford, in Norwich and here in Brighton and Hove.
All promising signs for the General Election.
In the Brighton Pavilion and Norwich South constituencies we are now comfortably in first place on local and European votes.
We must keep up the hard work to ensure that support translates into the votes which will elect our first Green MPs.
I'd like to thank everyone who was involved in our recent election campaign - all your contributions are valuable, and as a party we must appreciate the hard work of our colleagues.
It is motivating to unite behind a common cause and know that your efforts are helping to create a better world.
I know many of you share my frustration that our increased vote share did not increase our share of MEPs.
But this is a time to build on the many positives from these elections.
At a time when memberships of other parties are in decline, we are a growing party.
People are looking for a party of fresh ideas at this time of political crisis.
During the Euro elections a thousand new members joined the Green Party.
I'm sure many are here today.
Welcome! Join us in the work of this great party. You've joined a party of principle.
A party that offers solutions to the major problems of our time.
A party that believes in leadership by example and in challenging complacency in politics.
Come join our campaigns on the ground.
Where we go and talk to the public about our message and show how elected Greens make a difference, we see the effect.
That's why we've had even more success since the June elections.
We have seen new Green Councillors elected in Scarborough in Totnes, and here in Hove, where Alex Phillips was elected as a Green Councillor with an impressive gain, from the Conservatives.
Closer to my home, we've seen a record result for Greens in a Parliamentary by-election in Norwich North, we quadrupled our vote share since the last General Election.
These are all great signs for the next year, where we have important local elections in London, Yorkshire and many other parts of the country and where we have a fantastic opportunity to make history, to breakthrough into Parliament and elect Green MPs.
We know that now, more than ever, Parliament needs a strong and principled Green voice.
This is in our grasp, but we must work for it together.
Ahead of the Norwich North by-election the support of people who came to help from around the country was inspiring and hugely motivating for our campaign.
I know that if activists from around the country come and support our campaigns in the target constituencies in Brighton, Norwich and Lewisham in the same way, we will make that breakthrough into Westminster.
With first past the post we will only make the breakthrough with targeting - but there's no doubt that the breakthrough will transform the prospects of Green candidates up and down the country.
Wherever you live, I know that you are focused on your own local campaigning.
I want to help more local parties elect Green Councillors.
But if activists from around the country visit a target constituency for just one or two days sometime this year, and again in the spring, it may well make the difference between us having Greens in the next Parliament or not.
I promise you will take home useful ideas to your local party.
Come General Election day you will be able to look back and see that you've helped to elect the first Green MPs.
Finish
Colleagues, you all played a part in our success on the 4th June.
All of us can play a part in electing more Greens
The time for action is now, and I look forward to working with all of you over the coming months to make history.
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