Category: Other issues

Just like Caroline Lucas, I welcome the fact that so many of the Green Party ideas from our 2015 manifesto have become Labour Party policy under Corbyn. I spent 16 years on the London Assembly encouraging Ken Livingstone and even Boris Johnson, to ‘steal’ the Green Party’s ideas and put them into practice. The Living Wage Unit, Same Sex Partnerships, hire bikes and a lengthy list of other green proposals were implemented as we changed the world via proxy. That only happened because of the large numbers of Londoners who regularly voted green.

A Corbyn led Labour government would start to address inequality, reduce the queues for food banks and stop the NHS from collapsing, but it would still be wasting billions of taxpayer pounds on Trident. Labour would also condemn the next generation to decades of paying huge energy bills for a new set of outdated and redundant nukes.

Climate change is given a mention towards the back of the manifesto and we would get a new Clean Air Act. However, there is no stated opposition to Heathrow expansion which is the single most environmentally damaging project in the country. I have no doubt that most of Labour’s current MPs (outside of London) would back Heathrow expansion in a free vote and that is what Corbyn has promised them.

Another good reason to vote Green is that I don’t want to reward Labour tribalism. We Greens have done our generous best in standing down in 30 constituencies where there is a close contest, but Labour doesn’t even support PR. Labour has even expelled activists who supported a progressive alliance attempt to unseat Jeremy Hunt by swinging behind a doctor standing as an NHS candidate. I admire the local Green parties who have made the sacrifice, but Corbyn’s Labour Party have failed to respond and engage.

If the polls are right and we end up with a Conservative landslide, then it will be even more essential that we have clear Green Party voices in Parliament to help protect existing environment regulations from Theresa May’s Great Repeal Bill. We need more Green Party MPs like Caroline Lucas to push a positive agenda on renewable energy, civil liberties and reducing pollution. There’s no substitute for real Greens.

Follow the link to see the range of voices discussing a green Brexit in the Green Business Magazine (paywall, but free trial available). This is taken from the interview I did.

Although I voted Leave, I’m very clear that I don’t want a hard Brexit. I want a Brexit that actually ramps up our environmental and social protections and encourages a greener economy. So the way that I am working now is that I’m assuming Brexit is going to go through and I am working with anyone and everyone who wants the same sort of agenda as I do.

GreenerUK have come up with some environmental criteria and I am supporting them and trying to push that through. So that’s my aim, I’m just looking to make sure that we have good regulations, better than before rather than worse, good enforcement of those regulations and lots of support for people who want to challenge organisations that aren’t living up to those standards. So those are three things that I am very clear that, for me, have got to happen.

We have to work together to make sure that our voice is heard. My fear is once the Great Repeal Bill swaps everything over to this country that by a variety of measures we will start to lose some of the values, some of the principles and protections, that we take for granted.

I still think it’s the right decision to leave, but I think it’s obviously going to be very painful for us. In any sort of big change like this, it’s momentous and it’s going to be painful, but there are opportunities there if we can just get organised.