NEWS RELEASE – Patrick Harvie Calls On Council To Keep Accord Promise

GLASGOW GREEN PARTY RELEASE

For immediate release 31 March 2011

PATRICK HARVIE CALLS ON COUNCIL TO KEEP ACCORD PROMISE

Patrick Harvie, top Green candidate for Glasgow, today called on Glasgow City Council to provide immediate assurance that the vital services provided by the Accord Centre to learning disabled people will be protected.

Patrick Harvie said:

“Today’s protest shows the strength of feeling there is about the lifeline provided by the Accord Centre to learning disabled people and their families. Why should members of Glasgow’s learning disabled community pay the price for the Commonwealth Games now and right up to 2014?

“Major events like the Commonwealth Games all too often fail to deliver on promises made for long-term regeneration and community legacy. First, Margaret Jaconelli was displaced from her home and now the Accord Centre is to go, with no promise of a suitable replacement.

“Glasgow City Council promised £250,000 for a replacement for the Accord Centre and it must deliver. But just as importantly, the next Scottish Government must act decisively to raise revenue from those who can afford to pay, to protect Scotland from the Tory-Lib Dem axe.

“The UK Government is waging an ideological war on our public services, and vulnerable people who rely on centres like the Accord are the mounting casualties.”

NEWS RELEASE – Patrick Harvie Condemns Student Arrests

GLASGOW GREEN PARTY RELEASE

For immediate release 25 March 2011

PATRICK HARVIE CONDEMNS STUDENT ARRESTS

Patrick Harvie, Glasgow’s top Green candidate for Holyrood, condemned the arrests this week of Kate Connelly, Alice Coy and Aidan Turner following the attempted eviction of the Free Hetherington at Glasgow University on 22nd March. The Free Hetherington has been occupied by students since 1st February in protest at education cuts and in support of free tuition.

On Tuesday 22nd March, University mangagement attempted to evict the occupiers and escalated the situation dramatically by involving Strathclyde Police.  The day’s events concluded with the students’ re-occupation of the Free Hetherington, from which they had earlier been physically removed by police.

Patrick Harvie said:

“The arrests of Kate Connelly, Alice Coy and Aidan Turner, on trumped up charges including assaulting a police officer and breach of the peace are a shameful waste of police time, much like the farcical attempt to evict the Free Hetherington.

“These arrests amount to bullying and intimidation of peaceful protesters who are standing up for the kind of society they want to see, where education is a right and not a privilege. I call on the Procurator Fiscal to have the ridiculous charges against these students dropped immediately.”

Scottish Greens launch Holyrood election campaign

The Scottish Greens today launched their Holyrood 2011 election campaign and introduced their top eight candidates at a press conference and photo-call in Edinburgh. (1) The party also set out its three key campaign pledges: keeping tuition free, investing in public services through fairer taxation, and insulating every home in Scotland. (2)

The Greens will stand a list of candidates in each of the eight regions, and the Party is once again urging voters to “second vote green” throughout the campaign, including through social media. (3)

Eleanor Scott, the Party’s Co-convenor, said:

“Across Scotland, second votes will elect Green MSPs to Holyrood. Whoever you want as First Minister, the question is this: who should hold the balance of power? There are only two choices – either one of the Westminster coalition parties, or the Greens.

“In the last session every vote counted, and the Green MSPs helped abolish tuition fees, secured millions for community environmental projects, and won investment in marine renewables. If we are in that position again, our first priority will be to invest in public services, and to back this with fairer taxes on big business and the wealthiest. Unlike the other parties, each of which in turn has broken promises to students, we know where the money’s coming from to guarantee Scotland won’t return to tuition fees. We will also work to bring in a comprehensive free national insulation scheme at a cost of £100million a year, to cut bills, boost jobs and tackle climate change.”

Co-convenor Patrick Harvie added:

“This is a crucial election for Scotland, and it will answer some very important questions about this country’s future. Previous votes have taken place in easier times, when it could be said with a straight face that boom and bust was over, and where all the other parties endorsed an economy reliant on speculation and casino banking.

“Last time Scotland voted budgets were still rising, and the prospect of a Tory Government with an ideological cuts agenda was still far away. The debates were all about how that extra money should best be spent. It seems a long time ago.

“Now the question is this: do we need a Scottish Government prepared to stand up to that cuts agenda and ask big business and the richest to pay more, or should Holyrood simply be passing the cuts on? The other parties have no alternative to the cuts, and they want to wait either for the Calman powers or for independence. It’s a collective failure of will, of principle, and of the imagination. If we want to protect Scotland’s environment, public services and economy, we must act now, and only a second vote for the Greens will elect MSPs who are ready to do so from day one.”

Notes:

1. The following people are the Scottish Green Party’s top candidates.

- Central Scotland Region: Kirsten Robb
- Glasgow Region: Patrick Harvie
- Highlands and Islands Region: Eleanor Scott
- Lothian Region: Alison Johnstone
- Mid Scotland and Fife Region: Mark Ruskell
- North East Scotland Region: Martin Ford
- South Scotland Region: Alis Ballance
- West Scotland Region: Steen Parish

For more information on these candidates, and the full list of candidates in each of the eight Scottish Parliamentary regions, see: www.scottishgreens.org.uk/people/show/5

2. The Party’s three key campaign pledges are as follows:

- No fees ever – keep tuition free
Education benefits us all, not just students, and must be based on the ability to learn, not to pay.
For more information, see: www.scot.gr/nofees

- Fairer taxes – invest in public services
Only Greens are offering an alternative to the cuts to public services: investment built on revenue from big business and the better off.
For more information, see: www.scot.gr/fair

- Cut your bills – insulate every home
We would insulate every home for free, boost jobs and tackle climate change.
For more information, see: www.scot.gr/warm

3. The Greens

web: www.scot.gr
e-mail: info@scot.gr
twitter: @scotgp
facebook: www.scot.gr/fb

NEWS RELEASE – Greens slam Osborne’s budget

Scottish Greens dismissed George Osborne’s Budget today as brimful of the wrong economic medicine. His announcements prioritise tax cuts for business while the squeeze on the public sector continues, and while households continue to suffer following his earlier regressive hike in VAT.

The deferral of the Green Investment Bank’s borrowing powers until 2015 was also criticised by the Scottish Greens as another missed opportunity to stimulate green investment across the UK economy. The £500m of taxpayers’ money allocated to reverse the planned 1p increase in fuel duty is an expensive short-term measure that ignores the fact that the era of expensive oil is here to stay, and that this money should have been invested in sustainable public transport.

Patrick Harvie, co-convenor of the Scottish Greens, said:

“George Osborne made a giddy declaration today that Britain is ‘open for business’ – what this seems to mean is that profits must be hoarded by the rich and losses covered by the taxpayer, while public services are forced out onto the open market. This coalition government is firmly entrenched in Thatcher-era economics, and today brought no sign of respite for a Britain battered by cuts. Corporation tax is to be slashed while the rest of us keep coughing up for the deficit through VAT. Once again, it’s a giveaway budget but only for the rich in Osborne’s Britain.

“It’s also hugely disappointing to see the highly trailed Green Investment Bank on hold until 2015. In the meantime, the taxpayer already owns ‘public’ banks that should be making a green difference right now, yet one of these, RBS, continues to pour billions into climate-damaging coal projects. Despite the Tory spin about being ‘greenest government ever’, they remain content to let this dirty business go on.

“The knock-on effects of this Budget, compounding the misery already being felt in Scotland and around the UK as a result of the Tory-Lib Dem cuts agenda, are sure to have a decisive influence on the Scottish election campaign now underway. The Scottish Greens will offer the public a credible alternative, using progressive taxation to resist these cuts. Today’s latest abysmal lecture in Osbornonomics will win the Tories and Lib Dems few friends north of the border come May 5th.”

NEWS RELEASE – Attempted eviction at the Free Hetherington

Patrick Harvie, Glasgow’s Green MSP and Cllr Martha Wardrop today condemned the attempted eviction of students from Glasgow University’s Free Hetherington, formerly the Hetherington Research Club. The Free Hetherington has been occupied by students since1st February in protest at education cuts and in support of free tuition. Cllr Wardrop was in attendance at the attempted eviction.

Cllr Martha Wardrop said:

“Students occupying the Free Hetherington are taking part in a vital protest. I was disturbed to see police taking an active role in the attempted eviction, which served to inflame a volatile situation. I telephoned Principal Muscatelli’s office to convey my views and explain that heavy-handed eviction attempts will only worsen relations between university management and the student body. What is needed is a forum for calm discussion between the different parties and a recognition from university management that students and staff are rightly concerned about the future of higher education. They are not the enemy.”

Patrick Harvie MSP said:

“I whole-heartedly support the actions of Glasgow University students who have taken part in a peaceful occupation of the Free Hetherington. They have chosen to act in response to the Tory-led ideological cuts which is set to wreak immeasurable damage in every area of public services. The Free Hetherington is a democratic space and a centre of solidarity for resistance to the ideological cuts agenda coming from Westminster, meekly passed on to Scotland by the SNP Government.

“Glasgow should be proud of its citizens who choose to take peaceful action to demand protection for our education, our health services, our libraries, and every aspect of our lives that is under threat from this new drive to privatise.”

NEWS RELEASE – Salmond admits Forth Bridge will squeeze vital projects

At a press conference today First Minister Alex Salmond confirmed that the “huge” cost of the additional Forth Road Bridge, alongside the commitment to the new Southern General in Glasgow, would “leave little room for further projects”. (1)

Patrick Harvie MSP said:

“The SNP are getting ready to sign a multi-billion pound contract during the election because Alex Salmond wants to front up the most expensive photo-op this country will have ever seen, and to avoid the contract being scrutinised by Parliament. The reality is that the existing bridge can be repaired for a tiny fraction of the cost of this new project, and we now know exactly which services will pay the price. It is inexcusable of the SNP to press on with an additional bridge while handing on massive cuts to housing, education and energy efficiency, and leaving every community in Scotland without the funds to repair the potholed local roads which we all rely on every day of the week.

“We support the principle that Scottish Ministers should be able to borrow to invest, but we cannot accept the idea that generations of Scottish taxpayers should be saddled with the unnecessary burden this bridge would represent. A short delay, even to the summer, in awarding the contract would allow the work already underway on the existing bridge to be assessed, and for more preparatory work to be done on the repair option should that prove necessary.”

Notes

1. Transcript of his press conference provided by media:
“We have two spectacularly large projects which are in the process of being contracted at the moment, the Forth Crossing and the Southern General. Now there are many other capital projects but these are of a huge scale; the Southern General will be about £800 million and is like the M80 and M74 together, the Forth Crossing is £2 billion plus, nonetheless they are huge substantial projects, they will go ahead but the danger is unless the capital restrictions are relaxed that these substantial projects will leave little room for further projects.

“We are not doing nothing about it, the whole move to NPD is to allow to more room to develop in the capital budget but that in itself does not compensate for the cut in capital budget. I point you to further measures, immediate access to borrowing powers would allow us to address projects such as the Forth Crossing over a number of years and allow more scope in the next few years for further capital investment.”

NEWS RELEASE – Greens slam SNP reliance on carbon capture

Claims by SNP Ministers (1) that the North Sea could capture a century’s worth of carbon dioxide from Scotland’s power plants were today heavily criticised by the Green MSPs. The technology remains unproven, Greens note, and should only be considered an interim measure to reduce emissions from existing coal, oil and gas plants ahead of their early decommissioning. Research published last year concludes that “geologic sequestration of CO2 [is] a profoundly non-feasible option for the management of CO2 emissions”. (2) Coal remains exceptionally dirty to extract, with SNP Ministers having presided over a substantial increase in opencast extraction since 2007, while oil and gas prices will continue to rise over the longer term as reserves run down.

Patrick Harvie MSP said:

“Carbon capture and storage remains an unproven technology, yet to be demonstrated anywhere in the world, and research published last year suggests it “cannot be made feasible at any cost”. With such question marks over the whole idea, SNP Ministers should not be predicting job numbers drawn up on the back of a fag packet. Scotland’s renewable potential can meet our power needs almost six times over, and if we had a Government prepared to commit to that task, we could already be exporting the surplus to our neighbours. Large-scale carbon capture, even if it eventually works, risks becoming a poor excuse to keep dirty power plants running longer.

“By all means let’s continue the research to see if some of the pollution from existing plants can be captured, but above all we must not allow the prospect of CCS be used to justify new coal power stations, as the SNP Government has tried to do. Ministers would be well advised to get behind renewables instead. We know they work, we know they’re clean, and we know they’ll bring real jobs for the long term.”

Notes

1. See: www.scotland.gov.uk

2. From “Sequestering carbon dioxide in a closed underground volume”, C Ehlig-Economides, M Economides, from the Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, Vol 70, available on request.

NEWS RELEASE – questions remain on subway modernisation

Patrick Harvie, Glasgow’s Green MSP, today welcomed the announcement that Scottish Ministers plan to invest in the Glasgow subway, but noted that no timescale or level of funding had yet been committed to. The Greens support substantial investment in Scotland’ only underground system, which is the world’s third oldest network and in urgent need of maintenance and upgrading.

Patrick Harvie MSP said:

“This announcement comes very late from the SNP, without a sum attached or a timescale, and clear funding should have been allocated in this year’s Scottish Budget. Still, better late than never, and the next Scottish Government, whichever parties are involved in it, must surely now act quickly and work with SPT to put a proper plan in place.

“The Glasgow subway is much-loved and well-used, but it could be so much better. There are existing additional tunnels the taxpayer is paying to maintain which could be used to extend the network, the infrastructure and stations are creaking, and we need to see a proper Oyster-style smart card to across the public transport system. Those would have been Green priorities, not massive funding for dead-end motorways and an unnecessary additional Forth road bridge.”

NEWS RELEASE – SNP’s fuel duty debate misses the point

Greens will today vote against SNP proposals on fuel duty, which take no account of the impact of rising oil prices on petrol costs, fail to consider the costs to society and to individuals of policies which build dependence on the car, and which offer no long-term solutions.

The International Energy Agency’s Chief Economist today confirmed that “expensive oil is here to stay”, as current oil reserves decline both in output and quality: North Sea production has, for example, been in decline since 1999. This depletion guarantees a long-term upward price trend – when the SNP came to power the Brent Crude price was at $67 a barrel, but this week prices have reached nearly $117.

Patrick Harvie MSP said:

“It’s dishonest of the SNP to pretend that a tweak to petrol taxes is a decent response to the inexorable rise in oil prices. Taking a few pence off petrol now just delays the inevitable, perhaps by as little as a month. Rural communities in particular are trapped by inadequate bus and rail services, while SNP Ministers continue to divert ever more money from public transport into unnecessary motorway projects.

“This is just shameless electioneering, a misleading and superficial stunt masquerading as a solution. The SNP need to start looking at the long term, not just the next two months. That would mean a serious commitment to public transport, an end to the 1960s obsession with motorway-building, support for home-working, and investment in sufficient renewables to allow us to decarbonise private transport too.”