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Green party adds voice to impeachment campaign -22nd Sep 2004

Blair must be held accountable for parliamentary deceit says Green MEP

THE GREEN Party has added its voice to MPs campaigning for Tony Blair to face impeachment for misleading parliament in the run-up to the Iraq war.

In a statement issued on the party's behalf today, its National Executive Committee said impeaching Tony Blair was the last resort left open to Parliament to remove from office a minister who failed to follow the constitutional convention of resigning in the face of evidence of serious misconduct.

The statement issued on behalf of the Green Party of England and Wales, said:

"The Green Party supports the call for parliament to impeach Tony Blair. Mr Blair misled the public about the alleged reasons for the attack on Iraq, and proceeded to lead the UK into an illegal and unjustifiable war on the basis of this deceit.

"The constitutional conventions require resignation for serious misconduct of this kind, as we have recently seen in practice in the cases of Beverley Hughes and Peter Mandelson.

"No-one can seriously believe that Blair's misleading of parliament was less serious - in its content or its consequences - than that of Hughes or Mandelson.

"By choosing not to follow the constitutional convention requiring his resignation, Blair has left MPs no choice but to seek impeachment as a last resort."

Green Party Principal Speaker Caroline Lucas, Euro-MP for South-East England and a member of both the European Parliament's cross-party peace group and CND's ruling council, said:

"The Greens have added their voice to the increasing number of politicians from across the political spectrum who are calling on Blair to face impeachment proceedings for the serious misconduct of misleading parliament over the reasons for taking the UK to war.

"This isn't about Greens' opposition to the war itself, but about our belief in the principle of accountability and that no minister should be allowed to pull the wool over parliament's eyes for cynical, political reasons."

Elected Greens at all levels - from local authorities to the European Parliament - are exploring ways of maintaining pressure on MPs to force an impeachment debate onto the House of Commons' agenda.

The Greens' statement comes as the impeachment campaign rises up the political agenda in the wake of the Iraq Survey Group's admission that Iraq had no WMDs and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's statement that the war was illegal.

Dr Lucas added: "Just a few months ago Blair, in a keynote speech on law and order, called for those who broke the rules to take responsibility for their actions - and for society to punish those who failed to do so. Blair has failed to take his own advice, now it is up to parliament to do so."

EU agrees £6bn British energy bailout.
Green MEPs condemn massive subsidy for failing nuclear industry 22nd Sep 2004

EU Commissioners have given the green light to a bailout of Britain's nuclear industry with £6 billion of taxpayers' cash.

Euro-MPs and environmentalists condemned the decision as a "disaster" which ignores the polluter-pays principle, and represents a massive subsidy to the morally bankrupt and deeply unpopular nuclear industry at the expense of renewable electricity sources.

Caroline Lucas, the Green Party MEP who lodged the initial complaint with the Commission, said: "Today's decision is nothing short of a disaster. It will lower the cost of generating nuclear power - by granting the industry a massive subsidy of taxpayers' cash.

"This will force renewable generators and research projects into bankruptcy and set back efforts to reduce CO2 emissions.

"Nuclear power is dangerous, deeply unpopular and economically unviable. This decision represents yet another blow for the democratic legitimacy of the EU."

BE is de facto bankrupt, as its assets are insufficient to cover both operating costs and its multi-billion liabilities - the cost of processing radioactive waste generated by the UK's ageing nuclear power stations.

Nuclear power plants generate waste that must be processed decades after their reactors are closed. To pay for these activities generating companies are supposed to put aside a percentage of their revenue.

In the UK, which has the oldest reactors in Europe, it has now become clear that insufficient funds have been put aside and the Government is now proposing to bailout these waste management activities.

British Energy ran into huge financial difficulties in 2002. The UK government proposed a £6bn rescue package in apparent contravention of EU rules outlawing 'unfair state aid' to prevent government cash being used to distort the EU's internal free market.

The Commission today argued it was obliged to accept the state aid because of its obligations to promote and protect the nuclear power industry under the Euratom Treaty.

Today's decision clearly shows the incompatibility of Euratom with internal market rules, said MEPs, who again called for it to be radically overhauled.

Dr Lucas, South-East England's Green Party MEP and a Member of the Parliament's ...

Green Party challenges Tory leader Michael Howard as he makes his first major speech on climate change - and Tony Blair on similarconference speech.

Green Party spokesperson has accused both party leaders of "trying to pull the wool over the voters' eyes".

Dr Spencer Fitz-Gibbon, who was today appointed to the party's "Green Cabinet" with a newly-created climate portfolio, started his new job by throwing down the gauntlet - stating the Tories and Labour must make commitments NOW if they are to have any credibility on climate change.

Climate Change Challenge: 12 urgent commitments the government must make will be published on Monday 13 September 2004.