Tag: Rupert Read

Daniel Zeichner – making the case for Cambridge

17:20 Friday 9th October 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: Cambridge is at a crossroads, poised for the next wave of growth, but being held back by its infrastructure. That is the view of Cambridge Ahead, a group of business leaders and academics committed to growing Cambridge into the top small city in the world. Today they launched A Case for Cambridge, their plea to central government to invest more in our region and benefit the whole country. The Chairman is Ian Mather. He said Cambridge can’t rely on its history to thrive in the future.
IAN MATHER: People come to Cambridge. They stick here; I did over thirty years ago. And they love the place, but it does need to develop to attract some of the best industries in the world. But doing that at the same time as keeping it a special place. And it’s a difficult act to do, but I believe it can be done.
CHRIS MANN: Ian Mather of Mills and Reeve. Antony Mattessich is the Managing Director of Mundipharma International, one of the many pharmaceutical companies that chose to base themselves in the city over the last decade. He said Cambridge is competing with cities like San Francisco and Boston, and it’s vital that we continue to be an appealing option to the talented people that he wants to recruit.
ANTONY MATTESSICH: When they have children where are the kids going to go to school? Is there a place in the schools? What is my commute going to be like? What is my house going to be like? Where do I have to live? I would also mention that we have people who .. they’re not quite ready to settle down in a place like Cambridge. They want to live in London. If they want to live in London, the questions are what’s the commute going to be like coming from London.
CHRIS MANN: Today’s launch featured a discussion with the area’s MPs, asking how we influence central government. But Rupert Read who stood for the Green Party in Cambridge in the last General Election, unsuccessfully, thinks we should also be asking the question whether we want the city to continue to expand.
RUPERT READ: What we’re saying in the Greens is, this growth can’t go on for ever. There’s a serious danger now we’re going to lose forever the very special character that Cambridge has, if we carry on recklessly growing it and sprawling it out into the countryside.
CHRIS MANN: The Cambridge case may be about academics and decision-makers, but the Leader of Cambridge City Council Lewis Herbert insists they’re taking everyone’s opinions into account.
LEWIS HERBERT: In some bits of the world you’ve either got governments or you’ve got business, who just don’t care about what people think. It really does matter what people think in Cambridge, and if we cannot answer the needs of the people on low incomes as well as those that need to be attracted as international brains, then it will fail.
CHRIS MANN: That’s councillor Lewis Herbert. Well Cambridge MP Daniel Zeichner, the newly appointed Shadow Transport Minister, was part of this morning’s panel, and he joined me in the studio later to discuss how it had gone.
Continue reading “Daniel Zeichner – making the case for Cambridge”

Cambridge election campaign a closely fought contest

08:16 Thursday 26th March 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: Talking about politics with Paul Rowley there reminds me. I’ve been getting so many leaflets through my door.
CLAIRE GREGORY: Yes. Me too.
DOTTY MCLEOD: So many political leaflets. Where I live, I live in Cambridge, and I think the most prolific party for political leaflets through my letterbox has been the Labour Party.
CLAIRE GREGORY: Oh really? Mine’s been the Conservatives.
DOTTY MCLEOD: Well I think it all depends on who the real race is between …
CLAIRE GREGORY: Yes.
DOTTY MCLEOD: .. wherever you are. And in Cambridge a lot of people predicting that it’s going to be a big battle between the LibDems and the Labour Party. So it would make sense to be seeing a lot of red and a lot of yellow through the letterbox. The Labour Party at one point last week, at least one leaflet a day.
CLAIRE GREGORY: Oh! And did you read their leaflets?
DOTTY MCLEOD: Absolutely not.
CLAIRE GREGORY: (LAUGHS).
DOTTY MCLEOD: Absolutely not. And that makes me sound terrible because I know I ought to read them. But if I want objective information on a party’s campaign, and on a party’s manifesto, I’m not going to read their own leaflet. Do you know what I mean?
CLAIRE GREGORY: Plus you are in the rather lovely position where you’ll probably meet a lot of the candidates in the next few weeks. (LAUGHS)
DOTTY MCLEOD: Quite possible. Yes. We had Rupert Read in the studio this morning. Represents the Green Party. I thought about this the other day. Does the practice of leafletting put the Green Party in quite a difficult position?
CLAIRE GREGORY: Yes. Actually that’s a good point, because presumably they don’t, because obviously leaflets are not great environmentally.
DOTTY MCLEOD: It would harm the environment.
CLAIRE GREGORY: Perhaps they do e-leaflets instead
DOTTY MCLEOD: But it must be detrimental to them. Interesting. Have you been getting loads of stuff through the letterbox? Is it just me? I came back from holiday and it was like getting through a tsunami, trying to get from the door through to the living room. So let me know. Who has been leafletting you the most, and tell me where you live in Cambridgeshire as well, so that we can try and work out what that means.

===========

Caroline Lucas – getting to grips with pollution in Cambridge

10:37 Tuesday 10th March 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: We’ve been talking pollution today. The Leader of Cambridge City Council, Labour’s Lewis Herbert, has told this programme it won’t be long ’til some cars are banned altogether from the city centre. The Council has produced a map of the city’s pollution levels, and it paints a worrying picture. Bus station on Drummer Street the worst affected area, roads like Queens Road, East Road, Newmarket Road and Elizabeth way not much better. Well the traffic around the city causes a whole ring of pollution on the map. So we’ve been asking what the solution is. We’ve had many comments from you saying we need cleaner buses. Perhaps we need a congestion charge, need to get rid of diesel cars. Well I’m pleased to say we’re joined by something of an expert perhaps. Caroline Lucas from the Greens. Morning Caroline.
CAROLINE LUCAS: Good morning.
PAUL STAINTON: The Greens’ only MP at the moment.
CAROLINE LUCAS: At the moment.
PAUL STAINTON: At the moment.
CAROLINE LUCAS: We’re looking forward to being joined by Rupert Read in Cambridge, and we’ve got someone in Norwich South and Bristol West, all of our targets. So we’re hopeful.
PAUL STAINTON: Yes. Even after your faux pas by your Leader do you think? Do you think that’s going to have any impact on your poll ratings?
Continue reading “Caroline Lucas – getting to grips with pollution in Cambridge”

Green transport policy for Cambridge

08:25 Monday 9th March 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: It is the final day of the Green Party conference in Liverpool. Of course everyone building up to the General Election in May. Let’s talk now to Rupert Read, who’s the Green Party’s Parliamentary candidate for Cambridge. Rupert good morning to you.
RUPERT READ: Good morning Chris.
CHRIS MANN: I know you spoke on an interesting subject, how to combat UKIP, because obviously for you they’re a challenge as another one of the parties that are potentially in the mix.
RUPERT READ: Yes. So one of the things I was saying when I spoke on this at Liverpool was that UKIP attract some people who are looking to make a vote of protest against the old parties, who are looking to have a real alternative to the failed parties of the past. And what I was saying to conference was we can make a case in the Greens that we’re a much more positive alternative than UKIP. UKIP are only a negative voice. We actually have something to offer, a vision of a genuinely better future, a vision of a sustainable future. And I was also pointing out that sometimes people are very surprised when they hear about UKIP’s policies, for example ..
CHRIS MANN: Well let’s not go into UKIP’s policies right now, because they’re not here to defend themselves. I’m sure we’ll discuss it on a future occasion. But let’s talk about transport.
Continue reading “Green transport policy for Cambridge”

Jonathan Djanogly on immigration and UKIP

11:22 Wednesday 4th March 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: We’ve been talking immigration this morning as UKIP Leader Nigel Farage has been setting out his party’s plans for a points-based visa system. Recently the party proposed a cap of 50,000 people a year, compared to the 300,000 currently entering the country. Now Nigel Farage is refusing to come up with a target figure this time, but he did say under the Auatralian system he supports 27,000 people would have been allowed to come here in the last year.(TAPE)
NIGEL FARAGE: That number will vary a bit every year. But all of those people that come will have to bring with them health insurance, and will not be able to claim benefits of any kind until they’ve been here and paid into the tax system for five years. And that I think is a fair way of dealing with people that want to come to Britain to work.
(LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: Now we had Rupert Read on from the Greens earlier, who said that there’s a better way to deal with immigration. That’s to sort out the problems at source, and then people wouldn’t want to come here. A sort of Utopian vision is what the Greens were presenting. We also heard from Heidi Allen as well, who threatened to quit if David Cameron doesn’t come up with the promised referendum in 2017.
(TAPE)
HEIDI ALLEN: It’s such a fundamental position of constant integrity that David Cameron has made to the British people, and I’m a member of the British people as well. And if that came to pass, if a referendum, you know, obviously we need to be in power in May, but you know it would be going back on one of the things that’s most emotive to people in this country. And that would be deceitful.
(LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: Yes. Well let’s get the view now of Jonathan Djanogly, the MP for Huntingdon. Jonathan, good morning.
JONATHAN DJANOGLY: Good morning.
PAUL STAINTON: Most of our listeners it has to be said, I would say, 95% of the people listening to this show, sixty odd thousand, are pretty much in favour of what Nigel Farage is saying this morning. Where stand you?
Continue reading “Jonathan Djanogly on immigration and UKIP”

Rupert Read on Green Party transport policy

08:23 Monday 2nd March 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: A new private company has taken over the running of the East Coast Mainline. It of course goes through Peterborough. The route has been in public hands since 2009, but yesterday Virgin Trains took over the running of it. Our reporter Tom Horn has been there this morning, and he’s spoken to a few passengers.
(OB)
PASSENGER ONE: I think the Government did a good job running it. Hopefully Virgin won’t put the prices up, run it as well as the Government did.
TOM HORN: What are the priorities for Virgin as far as you’re concerned?
PASSENGER ONE: Ideally it’s more services if possible, more seats. It’s always hard to get a seat in the rush hour from Peterborough to London.
TOM HORN: Overall you think Virgin has a relatively decent name of train travel elsewhere?
PASSENGER ONE: I do actually. I think they have a good name. I believe they also can be quite expensive. So I’m hoping they don’t change the prices much.
PASSENGER TWO: As long as the price stays the same and the service stays the same that’s fine. I was happy with it in public ownership before, and I believe it should have stayed that way personally. But there you go. The fact that it was owned by the public was good I think, because it should be a public service.
TOM HORN: Priorities for Virgin hopefully then?
PASSENGER TWO: Good service, be on time and don’t hike the prices to pay your shareholders. That’s my view.
PASSENGER THREE: Be nice to have a good commercial operation that tries to put the customers first rather than the staff, which I think East Coast was a bit about.
TOM HORN: What were your thoughts on the Government-run side of things for the last few years?
PASSENGER THREE: It was a bit like the old days of British Rail, staff looking after themselves, customers are irrelevant. Looking forward to Virgin. Should be a lot better.
TOM HORN: Priorities for Virgin you’d like to see?
PASSENGER THREE: On time and cheaper ideally. But on time first.
PASSENGER FOUR: Well I’ve been on Virgin before. I think they’ve .. I haven’t had no complaints about them. probably have to give it a few months and see what it’s like, and then complain at you later.
TOM HORN: What are the priorities for Virgin as far as you’re concerned?
PASSENGER FOUR: Mainly keeping them on time. If they’re going to promise you a train to come, you want it to be here don’t you really?
TOM HORN: You think it’s the right decision to put it back into private ownership? Because it was a decent job the Government did, running it as East Coast.
PASSENGER FOUR: I can’t see why it’s gone back private. As long as they don’t keep upping the fares for profit. That’s the main thing, isn’t it?
(STUDIO)
DOTTY MCLEOD: Well with me now is Rupert Read who is the Transport Spokesperson for the Green Party. Also happens to be their candidate for Cambridge at the upcoming General Election. Morning Rupert.
RUPERT READ: Morning.
DOTTY MCLEOD: Thanks for coming in. Your party has advocated renationalising the railway system. You’re hearing those people there who don’t really care who runs the trains, as long as they are on time and the fares don’t go up. Why does it matter to you?
Continue reading “Rupert Read on Green Party transport policy”

Opposing Views on MPs’ Pay

09:21 Monday 8th September 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: On the subject of money and MPs’ pay, the TUC say everyone in the UK deserves a pay rise. That’s what’s going to be said at the TUC General Congress later on today. It follows that news that MPs might get up to £74,000 a year. The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority recommended the increase, saying MPs do an important job, and shouldn’t be paid such a miserly amount. Well on the line is Nick Clarke, Chairman of Cambridgeshire Conservatives. Morning Nick.
NICK CLARKE: Morning Paul. How are you?
PAUL STAINTON: I’m alright. “A miserly amount”. £67,000.
NICK CLARKE: Well that depends on where you sit and what you’re getting paid, I’m guessing. That’s quite interesting. This is always a most difficult subject for politicians, whether it’s at the local level or nationally. Politicians don’t like this subject at all, because whatever is the outcome, they always get the blame. Now in this case it’s an independent study. And I think the media is missing one point here at the moment. It’s not actually a pay rise, because it’s a renegotiated terms, renegotiated package. My understanding is that the MPs are going to have to give up their golden goodbyes, the money they receive when they are no longer elected, which is clearly a silly thing to hand out anyway. And I also understand it’s going to affect their contributions to pensions, and they’re going to modernise a whole bunch of the expenses which none of us like anyway. And if we throw our minds back to the days of my hero Margaret Thatcher, it was about then that she also encouraged MPs not to take a pay rise. And of course over time the Nelson’s Eye was turned towards the allowances, and a scandal arouse because of it. I think the good news about this is that once we get through this concern about the headline figure, I think MP salaries are then going to be linked to average earnings, which I think is a very sensible way forward.
PAUL STAINTON: Yes, average earnings, which are a third of what MPs are earning. Is that fair? We’ve not had a pay rise Nick.
NICK CLARKE: No, and I don’t get paid anything at all these days, so I sympathise entirely. But at the end of the day I want the best people we can attract into politics to help run our affairs.
PAUL STAINTON: Does this guarantee it, paying them more money? Do we get better politicians?
NICK CLARKE: Well, some politicians are motivated by power, some are motivated by self-importance, some motivated by the rewards I’m guessing. It’s part of the package, and what we don’t want to be doing is paying a salary that doesn’t attract the best. And equally we have to be mindful that we must be paying sufficient that we don’t get involved in any of the old corruption scandals that used to affect our police forces so many years ago, when they weren’t paid enough. So it’s a difficult balance. I think the big bit about this though is linking .. once they can get past this .. linking MPs’ salaries then to some .. you know .. the average earnings rise is a very sensible way forward, and I just wish they would do it with local councils as well. because at least for the MPs it’s an independent authority that sets this.
PAUL STAINTON: Well they set up the independent authority, didn’t they? Let’s be fair.
NICK CLARKE: Yes which is very sensible.
PAUL STAINTON: As independent as possibly the word can be.
NICK CLARKE: Yes, but a lot more independent than MPs actually voting for their own pay rises, which is a complete nonsense, and causes even more political shenanigans, I have to say.
PAUL STAINTON: But you can understand why people have been listening to this this morning. At the TUC there’s going to be a speech later on today from Frances O’Grady, saying we all deserve a pay rise. Why can’t we all have one then? What’s good for the goose has got to be good for all us ganders, surely.
NICK CLARKE: Yes, I would totally agree with that, but as I say, this isn’t a pay rise per se. It’s a renegotiated package, isn’t it? And in business anywhere else, if someone was to come to you Paul and say oh, we’re going to take away some of your pension rights, and all your holidays and all the other good things you get, company car perhaps ..
PAUL STAINTON: I wish.
NICK CLARKE: I know. And in return we’re going to buy those benefits off you by raising a one-off payment increase, that’s quite normal in business, quite normal in negotiating employment rights. So I’m not shocked by that particularly. I think getting it tied then down to something sensible, so we haven’t got to go through this pain every two or three years, is the right way forward.
PAUL STAINTON: Rupert Read is with us as well. He hopes to be the Green candidate for Cambridge at the General Election. Rupert, morning.
RUPERT READ: Good morning.
PAUL STAINTON: Ooh it’s a big earner now isn’t it? Seventy four grand. That must be enticing.
RUPERT READ: (LAUGHS) The point here from a Green point of view is that our MP, Caroline Lucas, has been a shining light of probity on this. Nick as a Conservative says, oh dear, this is a very difficult issue for politicians …
PAUL STAINTON: What do you mean, she’s been a shining light of probity? That’s a very nice sentence. well constructed, but what does it mean?
RUPERT READ: I was just about to explain, if you let me explain.
PAUL STAINTON: Go on.
Continue reading “Opposing Views on MPs’ Pay”

Rupert Read on Scottish Independence

11:20 Wednesday 20th August 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[A]NDIE HARPER: This morning we’re talking about Scottish independence, not which way people are going to vote, but generally looking at it in terms of business. Because if people do have concerns, north and south of the border, it is all to do with finance, the pound, membership of the EU and how business would thrive. Ross Clark the commentator thought that it wouldn’t have too much effect . On the other hand we heard from one of our listeners Richard a few minutes ago who felt that he’d got it completely wrong, and it could be a catastrophe. Simon says “In the Times on 18th of this month it showed that if Scotland voted for independence, the size of the Scottish economy would rank 43rd in the world. They would be behind the Philippines, Finland and Greece, and just ahead of Pakistan in 44th place, Portugal 45th and Ireland 46th. So much for independent Scotland being a major player in the world.” That was Simon’s take on it. Well let’s talk shall we to Rupert Read from the Green Party in the East of England who gave us a call. Rupert, good morning to you.
RUPERT READ: Morning Andie.
ANDIE HARPER: Do you feel that it would be disastrous for the countries both sides of the border if Scotland were to vote yes? And I’m talking now in purely business terms.
RUPERT READ: I don’t think it would be disastrous. Not at all. I think we have to calm the debate down a little bit here. I think some people on both sides are getting a bit het up. The first thing really I’d like to say as a Green Party person about this issue is I do think it’s a matter for the Scottish people, and we in the Greens think that if the Scots decide they want to go their own way, then well, good luck to them. And I think we should be looking on the bright side of that, and not just on the dark side. I think it could have all sorts of positive consequences.
ANDIE HARPER: And those would be what?
Continue reading “Rupert Read on Scottish Independence”