The Green Party's leader put forward her views on education, pay and the NHS in a live debate with young voters.
The Green Party’s leader put forward her views on education, pay and the NHS in a live debate with young voters
Last night Green Party leader Natalie Bennett was the first politician to appear on Leaders Live, a new debate series that gives young people the chance to put questions directly to leaders.
Broadcast live on YouTube, the series is created by Bite the Ballot, an organisation that empowers young people to make informed voting decisions.
Bennett’s appearance was significant as she has been omitted from the BBC’s scheduled debates that will mark the run up to the general election.
You can watch the full debate here.
The questions that the audience asked Bennett showed that jobs and education are at the top of their list of worries.
When asked who she proposed would cover the cost of the free higher education the Greens have promised, Bennett pointed to rich individuals and multinational companies who do not pay their taxes.
She stressed that there is a need for society to be “rebalanced” and that multinationals need to take responsibility for contributing towards society.
The issue of equality also informs the Greens’ policy on drugs.
Bennett was adamant that drugs “should be treated as a health issue, not a criminal justice issue”, and said that the amount of discretion given to police means that more people from minority backgrounds are arrested for drug misuse than people from other backgrounds.
This, she said, is despite the fact that more privileged people are no less likely to be using drugs.
Bennett also pledged to end zero-hours contracts, and stated that her party was “absolutely opposed” to unpaid internships. Alongside workers who currently receive a minimum wage, interns, she said, should be paid the Living Wage as a minimum.
The NHS was also a key issue in the debate. Bennett warned that the UK is ‘racing towards’ an American style privatised health system, and criticised the private finance initiatives (PFI) which are holding the NHS hostage with huge interest rates and service charges.
Campaign group Drop the NHS Debt estimate that by 2020-21, the annual costs of the 118 NHS PFIs will be £2.14bn. Saving 46 per cent of that would release about £1bn a year.
As part of the Greens’ plans for the NHS, Bennett promised that more detail on mental healthcare would be added to their manifesto. She criticised the way that mental health problems are regarded as less urgent than physical ones, and pledged parity of esteem for people with mental illness.
On education, Bennett said that no school run by a faith group should receive government money. She predicted that in the event of this becoming legislation, many faith schools would choose to come into the secular system rather than become private.
The school system also face criticism from the Green leader over its competitive nature. Bennett said that the system should be based on cooperation, and shold include a more practical curriculum covering things like relationships, health and nutrition, in order to give pupils an “education for life”.
Ruby Stockham is a staff writer at Left Foot Forward. Follow her on Twitter
49 Responses to “Natalie Bennett: We have to ban zero-hours contracts”
hs1815
Yes, generally people know at the start of the year approximately what hours they will be working…e.g one youth club is the 1st Saturday, so they know they have to work that Saturday. It is a difficult subject, I don’t think we can do away with zero hour contracts completely but I understand the concern.
hs1815
But some months they get no hours, like December might be zero hours for some. It obviously isn’t the same as a lot of cases where people work daily on a zero hour contract, we are only talking 3 clubs and one play scheme a month, tops. But what I am saying is that in some cases zero hour contracts are useful so we can’t do away with them completely.
Leon Wolfeson
You get PAID by the day, which is completely different to WORKING by the day.
And your argument that you can’t hire people for shows is sad. That you argue that you won’t need the same roles filling day to day…
Fabian Vanham
And a hell of a lot more who are desperately trying to get the hours they need that cannot. Actually been in a workplace where this was the standard practice.
uglyfatbloke
In the live concert business most people are hired by the day most of the time, largely because you don’t need the same roles filling every day.
OK, so today’s show – The Turgid Blahs’ – is in a 400 seat hall requires two sound engineers, one Lighting Designer and a level of production that can be provided from two transit vans (one for audio one for electrics) and all the crewing requirements can be met by the 2 noise boys, the LD and two or three humpers – who will also shift the band’s backline in and out. Next week the same promoter and the same contractors will work on ‘The Smiley Ninjas’ in a 3000 seat hall. The contractors will each provide an extra person or two, the promoter will bring in six or eight humpers instead of two or three and the contractors may have to bring in riggers, a couple of follow-spot operators, a site- electrician and possibly other specialists. Most local/regional promoters seldom have more than three shows a week and each show may be on a very different scale.
The position is not very different for each of the other links in the chain. The same humper who lugs the kit into a pub gig on Thursday for £50.00 may well work on a massive stadium concert on Friday for £150.00 and a trade show on the Saturday for £200.00. The same sort of thing applies – obviously – to the lighting and audio contractors. By and large they get hired in to do one show at a time. That’s not always the case; you might get hired to do the same show 3 or 4 nights in a row in different venues. It’s hardly ‘going on tour’ admittedly, but even then the show requirements may be radically different form one day to the next – Friday night in a concert hall for 2000 punters, Saturday night in a big theatre venue to 3000, Sunday night in a great bif pub for 400….the scale of production will be very different for several reasons – size and shape of auditorium, size and shape of stage, availability of power and of course the economics of production budgets that have to be contained within the ticket price. Promoters, production companies and show crew all have to be extremely flexible if the business of putting on gigs is to work at all.