Greens offer alternative to “Tweedledum and Tweedledee” parties
The Green Party Principle Speaker Caroline Lucas, has argued that the public wants an alternative to the “increasingly interchangeable” three main parties.
And she said the Greens’ policies – which include reducing CO2 emissions by 90 per cent by 2050, scrapping the £30 billion national road-building programme and renationalising the railways – mean they offer that alternative.
The Party gained an extra 10 council seats, and held on to its two MEPs, in the recent local elections and European elections. They are keen to counter the traditional view that a Green vote is a “wasted vote” – instead saying it is a “vote for real progress”.
Speaking to the Green Party annual conference, Ms Lucas said Britain’s three main parties were becoming “ever more indistinguishable” at a time of “increasing disillusionment with traditional politicians”.
She described their policies on the war in Iraq as “the choice between two parties of bomb and kill, and a third party of reluctant bomb and kill”.
“It is no surprise that people are desperate for a credible alternative to the Tweedledum and Tweedledee politics of three increasingly interchangeable parties,” she said.
The Green Party do not have a leader in the conventional sense, those responsibilities are shared between two Principle Speakers – who are always a man and a women. The other Principle Speaker, Keith Taylor, spoke to the conference earlier this week.
Ms Lucas attacked Prime Minister Tony Blair over the war in Iraq, saying it had been a “bloody, illegal, unnecessary and immoral” conflict and the public had been dealt “deception and fabrication… on an epic scale”.
An apology from the Prime Minister would be insufficient, she added: he should resign immediately, or failing that be impeached.
She was equally critical of the Black Watch regiment’s redeployment in Iraq, saying it would be supporting “yet another major and bloody offensive, with hundreds if not thousands of civilian deaths and injuries” after the US military’s last campaign in Fallujah left 1000 people dead.
On climate change, she accused Mr Blair of not backing up his speeches with action.
“I’m afraid we have to say we’ve heard all this before, and that words count less than actions,” she said.
“What we should be judging is not the depth of sincerity in the prime ministerial furrowed brow when he’s telling us how serious climate change is, but the abysmal record of the Blair government on delivering real progress on tackling it.”
Ms Lucas challenged the other parties to accept the Greens’ “climate change challenge”, which included reducing CO2 emissions by 90 per cent by 2050 or sooner; passing bills on home energy conservation and air traffic reduction; scrapping the £30 billion national road-building programme; ending all nuclear and oil industry subsidies, and ending all tax breaks given to the aviation industry.
On public services, she said there was ample evidence that the railways should be renationalised – and that two-thirds of the public would support such a decision.
“This Government’s fixation with privatisation has led to poor services, high prices, and massive insecurity for anyone that has to travel on a daily basis It is time that Britain’s railways were run for passengers, not for profit,” she said.
Labour’s choice policy also came under attack for neglecting “ready access to good public services” in favour of “more bogus choices”.
“For Greens, the NHS is a service, not a shop. And good quality public services, provided where people need them, are what we are committed to achieving,” she said.
