News from the New Party

Miliband's carbon solution is to export employment during recession

Labour has spent that past 12 years steadily dismantling the manufacturing base of the UK and shipping it to developing countries, and now when the sector is most needed to help the economy grow, the government is seeking to speed up the process through supporting spurious carbon reduction initiatives in a 'Carbon Credits for Jobs' scheme, New Party leader Richard Vass said today.

The Climategate fiasco has illustrated the endemic problem of political and financial vested interests meddling in science, he says, and now with dignitaries and academics gathering from all countries in Copenhagen, we see the scale of the betrayal of UK industry in the closure of Corus' steel plant in Redcar.

Richard Vass says: "The decision to close the plant has nothing to do with over-production as is claimed and everything to do with carbon reduction allowances under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme*. The Indian-owned firm will stop the production of 6million tonnes of carbon dioxide, which could be worth up to £600million thanks to the carbon trading initiative.

"Meanwhile, Tata Steel, which owns Corus, is to build new 'cleaner' steel plants in India and raise production. Through the UN's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) UK-based heavy carbon emitting industries such as power generation can buy carbon credits from Tata to meet EU targets for carbon reduction.

"The effect for Redcar's steelworkers is that they will be put out of work as their jobs are exported to India as Tata increases production there. They will then have to pay higher fuel bills in the UK as their energy supplier passes on the cost of buying credits from the firm that made the steelworkers redundant. It is a shocking way to run a country."

The New Party maintains Climate and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband is taking the role of cowboy at the Copenhagen Summit, steering the Carbon Cash Cow, now too sacred to slaughter, to safety. Sadly for UK employees this means they can look forward to further job cuts as other heavy industry big hitters seek to work the system and move operations out of the UK.

Richard Vass: "Labour gambled our economic inheritance on the financial markets and lost. Now, with the economy shattered, it is going to gamble it on the carbon markets using borrowed money and people's jobs as collateral. It beggars belief."

*The European Union Emission Trading System (EU ETS) is the largest multi-national, emissions trading scheme in the world and is a key element of EU climate policy. Covering more than 10,000 installations with a net heat of more than 20 MW in the energy and industrial sectors, the scheme allows organisations keeping within set carbon levels to trade their carbon savings to higher emitters of carbon dioxide. You can learn more here: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/climat/emission/index_en.htm

For more on New Party policy read the manifesto here: http://www.newparty.co.uk/manifesto/