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East Coast Main Line "An Opportunity for a New Era"
Latest News. Wed., July 01, 2009. 20:25.
East Coast Main Line taken into public ownership
Following this morning's announcement that the East Coast Main Line will be taken into temporary public ownership, the Scottish Greens urged the UK Government to go further and to start the reintegration of the whole network on a not-for-profit basis.
Patrick Harvie MSP said:
"I'd urge Lord Adonis, who appears to be the first Transport Minister for years to be genuinely pro-railway, to see this as an opportunity for a new era, not a short term burden for the public sector. A substantial public stake in the railways could lead to simpler ticketing, cheaper fares, and passengers' interests going to the top of the agenda.
"The privatisation and fragmentation of Britain's railways has never been popular, economic, or sustainable. This country has suffered through a sixteen-year experiment in market dogma, an experiment which has failed. Rail travel has a vital and growing role to play in tackling the rise of domestic flights, and a not-for-profit network will be far better placed to deliver. Labour have nothing to fear from doing the right thing here."
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Older News
- Tue., June 30, 2009. 20:20.
- Committee: Insulate Scotland to Meet 42% Target
- Key Green proposals endorsed.
- Several key Green proposals are endorsed by Holyrood's Economy, Energy & Tourism Committee in a landmark report published today. (1) The report is intended to show how the energy sector can help Scotland achieve the 42% carbon reduction target for 2020 set last week, and its proposals include: [full story]
- Wed., June 24, 2009. 20:10.
- Climate Change Bill : &Quot;now the Hard Work Begins"
- Passage of Climate Change Bill
- Today's passage of the Climate Change Bill was described by the Scottish Greens as the first key battle in Scotland's efforts to tackle climate change. On several issues, Parliament forced the SNP to go further, but the Bill remains flawed in several key areas, and major loopholes exist around the targets set in the Bill. [full story]
- Tue., June 23, 2009. 20:06.
- Climate Bill 'being Set Up to Fail'
- Cautious welcome to latest amendment
- Greens today cautiously welcomed the amendment late last night from Scottish Ministers to increase the interim 2020 target for emissions reductions to 42%. (1) This represents a significant improvement on the 34% originally proposed by the SNP, but still falls short of the 50% reduction that the up-to-date scientific evidence requires and which Greens insist should be introduced. A Green amendment for a 50% target will also be debated tomorrow. [full story]
- Mon., June 22, 2009. 20:05.
- Scottish Government Failing to Keep Children Safe
- Child Safety Week
- The Scottish Green Party marked the beginning of Child Safety Week (22-28 June 2009) (1) today by claiming that according to the most recent figures, there were 20 child deaths and 9,070 emergency hospital admissions of children due to unintentional injuries in 2007. This makes unintentional injury the most common cause of emergency hospital admissions for Scottish children and second only to cancers as a cause of death for Scottish children (2). [full story]
- Sun., June 21, 2009. 19:48.
- Snp's Climate Bill &Quot;a Threat to International Agreement"
- Ahead of Wednesday's crunch votes on the Scottish Government's Climate Change Bill, the Scottish Greens described the legislation as "weak and irresponsible".
- The party identified a Labour amendment to increase the 2020 emissions reduction target to 40% as the minimum change that would be required for the Bill to be supportable. [full story]
Forthcoming events
- Sat., October 31, 2009. – Sun., November 01, 2009.
- 2009 Scottish Green Party Autumn Conference & AGM
- 2009 Scottish Green Party Autumn Conference and AGM in Dumfries