Green Manifesto 2010 Introduction » UK General Election

Green Manifesto 2010 Introduction

The Green Party is the party of hope and radical change.

Years and years of politics as usual have given us broken communities and remote services, financial chaos and environmental breakdown.

But there is an alternative: a transforming green alternative.

Across the country voters have already found out that the Green Party is different to all the rest.

Over 100 Green councillors have been elected in recent years. Green policies link strong local communities and public services, fairness and sustainability.The two Green Party London Assembly Members, Jenny Jones and Darren Johnson, have ensured huge investments in communities and services, and continue to defend these in the face of cuts from the current Conservative Mayor.The two Green Party MEPs, Caroline Lucas and Jean Lambert, have led the cause of equality and sustainability in Brussels. In Scotland, Green Party MSPs have done the same in the Scottish Parliament. Everywhere, Greens get elected and stay elected.

Now it’s Westminster’s turn.

This General Election is a historic opportunity to turn local, London, Euro and Scottish success into UK success. For the first time ever, the Green Party can break the Westminster monopoly and take a creative, radical and independent new voice into Parliament to address the unprecedented times we are in.This is a breakthrough moment, and you can be part of it.

Throughout Britain voters have learned that the only wasted vote is a vote you don’t believe in.

New thinking is needed for the challenges and opportunities we face.There are three defining crises of our time: a debt-fuelled economy teetering on the edge of collapse and haemorrhaging jobs, massive inequality of income and assets, and catastrophic climate change. We need to tackle these crises together, and only the Green Party knows how.

We have been consistently ahead of our time, calling for what was needed before others even recognised the need. We’ve been proven right time and time again about the threats facing the country and this, our one and only world. Now is the time to trust us to deal with those threats, and lead the way to a better life for us all.

We are living in a time of great change and therefore great opportunity.The world is opening up and the old rules are being thrown to the four winds. If we believe in something better, now is a time when we can actually achieve it. Our challenge to you is to dare to dream the better future and to work with us to make it happen.

At the heart of our joined-up approach is the Green New Deal.

Ever since coining the phrase with her colleagues in the Green New Deal group of economists in the summer of 2008, Green MEP and Party Leader Caroline Lucas has led the way on this ground-breaking proposal to tackle the three crises of economic collapse, inequality and climate change.The Green New Deal is all about investing massively to create jobs and move towards a sustainable, zero-carbon economy.

Private enterprise can’t bring the jobs and the people together, so the Government has to act, just as the US Government did in the 1930s, to train and employ unemployed people to do the work required.

Green MPs will fight to move the management of money from the casino capitalism underlying the current collapse to productive, useful investment.This will relieve unemployment and kick- start the move towards a zero-carbon energy system. It will stabilise the economy generally, lead to new and attractive ways of investing personal savings and pension funds, create more fairness, and bring back a sense of purpose to an economy characterised by drift, profiteering and consumerism.

Britain is at a crossroads. More financial chaos and environmental breakdown, or policies that make good social and environmental sense? Cutbacks in public services, or good-quality local schools and health services? More relentless materialism or a fairer, more satisfying, more affordable life?

It’s your choice.

Trust the Green Party, and together we can make it happen.

our vision

Some will tell you that ‘green’ issues are a luxury in times of economic hardship. Wrong. Green policies are essential if we are to get out of this mess and create a sustainable and fair economy.

Our vision is of a fairer society that meets everyone’s needs, and an economy working with nature rather than against it. Of a more equal society. Of higher incomes for pensioners rather than bonuses for bankers. Of quieter, cleaner, safer streets. Of stronger local communities and the space for children to play and learn. Of healthier, safer, better food and the quality time to appreciate it. Of a natural world left more to itself.

This dream is achievable. All it requires is political courage – and popular democratic backing for that courage. Only the Greens want to see the back of rampant inequality, deregulation and laissez-faire. Only the Greens have understood the lessons of the financial crisis, and know what to do about it. Only the Green Party has a vision for Britain that will see a better quality of life for everyone.