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Hull Green Party |
COMING UP | |
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Apr 2008 |
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Local Issues HULL GREEN PARTY - *iT's eLecTion TiMe!* Democracy - Civil Liberties - Biometrics for kids? ARCHIVE
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Iran Attack?? Cenotaph, Hull 5.00pm
Global Yorkshire & Humber Green Party Global Issues |
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PCS Humberside Committee
Many thanks for your recent letter on behalf
of the PCS union.
Thank you for your commitment to the
electoral process and also for being the only union in Hull and area
which, I am aware of, is polling candidates on policies.
To respond to your questions:
1. Do you support PCS's campaign for
fair pay for public servants?
Yes, the Green Party is committed to fair
pay for public servants. Last December's pay deal included a
decision to "award" a 0% pay increase for the coming year
to 120,000 workers. This possibly unprecedented move is unacceptable. We
note the lowest paid now have a pay rate only 24p above minimum wage! In
the London mayor elections, Sian Berry is campaigning on
a Green platform including a £7.20 rate for the minimum wage. See, http://www.sianformayor.org.uk/ .
We also noted the PCS's day of action earlier this year in Hull and
supported it.
2. Do you agree that it is unfair to
scapegoat public sector workers by claiming to do otherwise would
increase inflation?
Many factors influence inflation. Just
because a government can lay down the law, it is clearly unfair to
scapegoat public sector workers and claim that paying them more will
increase inflation. This is economic blackmail especially when the
opposite is true: rates of pay for bosses in big business have become
scandalously high and have significantly increased inequality in
Britain. This goes totally unchallenged, and worse, scrapping the
10% basic tax rate now sees large numbers of the poorest being taxed at
20% instead. A Green government would fulfil its responsibility to
tax on a truly proportionate basis
3. Do you think such (office) cuts
(leading to mail from Hull being transported back to Hull) can be justified
especially in view of their damaging impact upon the environment?
No, the Green Party supports keeping
benefits systems as completely as possible within local areas. This
provides local jobs and greater transparency, accountability and
ownership. Services should be fully and appropriately funded not increasingly
cut back with penny-pinching at the expense of local jobs or the
environment. Apart from the unnecessary pollution involved, keeping jobs
local keeps money in local areas too.
4. Where do you stand on cutting civil
and public service jobs?
The Green Party believes in high
quality public services. Instead, what we are seeing is a
tremendous ongoing attack on many aspects of public life. Our
present deeply flawed system needs precisely a particularly
well-staffed, well-trained workforce in benefits and other agencies
across the country to pick up the pieces for the vulnerable within
society. But what's happening? In Hull we have just lost 6 post offices;
this will hit the elderly and the vulnerable most. Now Hull's
Citizens Advice Bureau is down for takeover to be run by a private
business and by private solicitors but still paid for by money
from the public purse. These national moves by the Legal Services
Commission are yet another strand of the neoliberal agenda, in my
opinion, finding ways of shifting public money into private hands. The
overall results will be fewer people employed and fewer real needs met
as the drive for profit takes over. Similarly, the Green Party does not
support PFI nor PPP. initiatives. http://policy.greenparty.org.uk/policypointers/pppublicservices.pdf
5. Where do you stand on privatising
public services?
We stand firmly against the privatisation of public
services. This has, and is destined to, disempower people and indeed,
eventually, the state, in favour of big business, profit and increasing
centralisation of power in unaccountable hands. What do we pay our
taxes for? Public services should stay public.
With best wishes for your campaigns,
Martin J. Deane
Hull and area Green Party
Candidate, Avenue Ward
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