Cabinet Reshuffle: Paterson and Gove Sackings Are Long Overdue

16 July 2014

* Paterson failed to take effective action on climate change

* Gove’s legacy is a 'disjointed system of schools'

* Increased number of women attending Cabinet is welcome

The Green Party has welcomed the removal of Environment Secretary Owen Paterson and Education Secretary Michael Gove from their posts. However the radical reshuffle will not solve the Coalition’s mounting problems with under a year to go until the General Election, say the Greens.

Only the Green party’s people over profit policies will deliver the real change for the common good that our broken political system and planet desperately needs.

Natalie Bennett, Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, said:

"The removal of Paterson as Environment Secretary removes a major international embarrassment to Britain and a significant impediment to effective action on climate change. Paterson failed to take the threat of climate change seriously and will be remembered as the man who failed to take action to protect Britain against it. 

"Having Paterson, who wilfully ignored scientific evidence on climate change, as well in instituting the badger cull, in the post of Environment Secretary made a mockery of David Cameron’s promise that his administration would be the 'Greenest Government ever'. 

On changes at the Ministry of Education, Ms Bennett said:  

"The removal of Michael Gove as Education Secretary will hopefully draw a line under an awful period for British education. 

"His legacy is a disjointed system of schools, with far too many out-of-control free schools subject to no effective oversight, a disillusioned corps of teachers who feel undervalued and dread the likely divisive impact of performance-related pay, and pupils who've been flung from pillar-to-post in a flurry of changing judgements and standards." 

The Green Party welcomes that the percentage of women who will attend full Cabinet has risen from 15% to 25% after this reshuffle (1).  

Ms Bennett said: 

“The increased presence of women is welcome, and long-overdue, but the new female Secretaries and Ministers will barely have time to find their way around their departments before the government goes into full election mode, so the claim of tokenism can certainly be laid at Prime Minister David Cameron's door. 

“Perhaps in fact it is desperation, given the growing gender gap in voters prepared to consider voting Tory. Changing the wardrobe is unlikely to change that: more and more women are seeing how the government's policies are impacting heavily on them, particularly in the cuts to benefits and services on which women rely.”

Notes

1.     http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/jul/15/cabinet-reshuffle-broken-down-gender-education-age

2.     http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/sep/21/spending-cuts-women-report 

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