Just been out canvassing. An interesting experience since it was my first time – the candidate is excellent, like many green candidates and councillors around the country now.

 I saw many posters up and handed out several too. Fingers crossed this year will be a good year for the Green Party – we have a great opportunity to get active in local councils across the country.

 Sorry for just a short post but I’m completely knackered from a long day!

Houses for Nurses

An article in the independent today which I thought was worth commenting on states that Nurses can’t afford to buy houses in a staggering 99% of towns. With other ‘key workers’ (such as paramedics, firefighters, police officers and teachers) unable to afford houses in over two-thirds of towns in the UK.

Such low pay is a disgrace – it reflects a society that has little care for those who do essential jobs. Why, when city hotshots can get bonuses in the millions, can’t we pay our public sector workers a decent living wage? What is required is a wholesale change in the system to ensure that every person has a decent living wage (a ‘citizen’s income’ – as described in Green Party policy) and an end to big bonuses for fat-cats, who more often than not are making money by exploiting the people doing the real work. We need real redistributive taxes, to ensure a major redistribution of wealth throughout society.
Surely our nurses and teachers deserve better…

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I thought I’d also link here to an upload of ‘this revolution will not be televised’ from Google Videos. It is about an hour long, but well worth watching if you have a bit of time spare.

Abolish Healthcare Charges.

Third post today (admittedly the first one of the day was actually before I went to bed last night). I just wanted to highlight a petition on the Number 10 website asking for healthcare charges to be waived for students. It’d be a start, although I’d rather the charges were waived for everyone…

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/studenthealth/

Please sign it, and encourage your friends to sign it too!

The Rich have a right to live longer :)

A recent article published in the JRSM about who needs to pay for cancer care states that ‘a recent report suggests that we are heading for a £7 billion deficit in the NHS by 2011—and that’s not allowing for step changes in technology. That represents an income tax increase of two pence in the pound for all those at work unless we use some other payment mechanism’.

I suggest that we make that income tax increase at least 5 pence in the pound for the highest earners and give everyone a better health service. I have no problem with taxing: it is not the theft of money. It is a societal decision on how a certain proportion of people’s wealth should be spent so that everyone benefits.

The rest of the article goes on to describe how we can’t afford to pay for all the latest cancer treatments on the NHS and that people should be able to ‘top up’ care out of their own pockets. This is asking for the perverse state of affairs where an individual dies because she didn’t receive treatment which, had she been able to afford, would have saved her life.

Healthcare is a basic human right: not a choice for the rich few.

Elections 2007…

We’ve had such lovely weather this weekend that I feel truly refreshed. I have had a smashing weekend and hope everyone else has too! Onwards to Summer!

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Elections are happening all over the country (excluding London) on May 3rd. The Green Party looks set to make good gains on several local councils (I’m keeping an eye on Brighton&Hove and Norwich in particular), with more candidates than ever before, and is standing candidates for election to the Welsh Assembly.

In Scotland, our sister party is set to become part of a ruling coalition with the SNP: either in government or using the ‘confidence and supply’ model, where they’d provide stability for a minority government in return for support of key policies. Highlights of the policies for me include a bill which would block the use of scottish roads and seaways for transport of weapons of mass destructions. Their manifesto can be found here.

We differ from other parties in that we have a truly democratic structure, with each member as valuable as the next – bottom up, rather than top-down. With the Green Party, it is not a matter of ‘more of the same’. We are a modern and radical party, looking to the future with a vision of hope for our planet and its people.

I may end up posting several times on the issue of the upcoming elections as I get more excited during the build-up. I can’t help it :p

I include a video of Caroline Lucas speaking at the recent Anti-Trident Replacement/Stop War march which only came to my attention recently. It’s worth having a watch – I missed it when I was at the demo itself.

studentmedic

I planned to do a lot of activism this Easter, since it is the last time I will be ’settled’ until the Summer. Thanks to a mix of things happening all at once, it’s looking increasingly unlikely that I’ll do any. Fingers crossed I will get out with my local green party on a week night this coming week to leaflet.

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The Guardian has mentioned how a town in Wales has begun a transition to a post-oil economy. It’s an interesting article and worth reading. It is interesting how little power local communities have to change some things, but at least they are getting together to do what they can. Localization with a healthy amount of internationalism (via the sharing of ideas and knowledge – helpful cooperation instead of competition) is what is needed to counter the neo-liberal ideas of globalization currently pervasive throughout the media and society.

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A quick review around other blogs. GreenMan has posted up the latest bulletin from Keep Our NHS Public, including information of a possible future national demonstration in the works.  Stuart Jeffery has posted a link to a petition against NHS Privatization on Blair’s website – well worth signing! Derek Wall has posted details of his recent trip to see the Muslim Awards for excellence, which is well worth a read.

Green…

Back home from my placement where I’m having a really good time – the teaching quality has been superb so far, with lots of opportunity to do extra things: it’s opening my eyes. One of the things I am learning first hand is how bad rural public transport really is. How can we expect people to leave their cars if we don’t offer cheap and convenient alternatives?

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I read in the Guardian today (here) that Tesco is lobbying the competition commission to change it’s definition of local from 10-15 minutes driving time to 30 minutes. Despite all the shallow Greenwash, Tesco clearly doesn’t think about the environmental implications of it’s money-grabbing. Surely if we want sustainable, Green local economies our definition of local should not be based on driving time but a reasonable walking time or public transport time. 30 minutes sounds like a borderline-reasonable walking time to get to local facilities. Ideally, I’d like to think that in urban/suburban areas we could achieve a 10-15 minute walking time to local facilities: that’s the way to help people live more sustainable lives.

Walking is an extremely social activity: it gets people out of polluting cars, onto the streets where they can interact with each other. When people walk around instead of sitting in cars, neighbourhoods feel safer.  We all know that walking is good for our personal fitness too. Why government doesn’t do more to improve pedestrian access is a bit beyond me given the clear benefits.