The
heedless exploitation of the environment and of people go hand in hand, as can
be seen in the lifecycle of a cheap t-shirt. Such goods are no longer
manufactured in this country; we focus on finance, arms and pharmaceutical
companies and import the other things we need. This model is blatantly not
working any more.
Take
what happens when a new out-of-town supermarket is set to open up in your area.
We are told this is good for job creation but this fails to take account of the
impact on jobs in local shops from greengrocers to signwriters. They are all
likely to close for lack of business. This is counterproductive as we need
strong local economies with money circulating in the town, not going out of the
district and into offshore accounts. In contrast, towns which have introduced a
local currency to promote shopping locally have all prospered.
It
is also important to look at the kind of jobs which are being created. Many
offer the very basic minimum wage or even a zero-hours contract. This kind of
contract is becoming more and more common in more and more occupations and
professions, from care and nursing to accounting and teaching. Employees with
this kind of contract must be available for work every day but will not be told
until 6am on the day whether they have any work. They may have no money at the
end of a week to pay the rent, or may have had to work a 40-hour week.
Natalie moved on to the
situation in agriculture. We now import 93% of our fruit from outside the
country and also have the fastest rate of food inflation in the EU. It is vital
that we bring food production back. Half a million people in the UK
So our current model is
broken economically, socially and environmentally. The three main political
parties are still treading on each other’s toes on the same old ground, talking
about economic growth and trying to attract floating voters with optimistic
visions of the future. Yet people are
now becoming aware of the true situation. The Green Party is the only one
representing the idea of changing the system, but we are part of a big movement
which includes Occupy, trade unions, the Campaign for the Protection of Rural
England, and a number of other groupings. We must lead down new paths.
Natalie went on to
enumerate some of our policies:
1.
The minimum wage should become a living
wage
2.
Renationalise the railways - Caroline Lucas is introducing a
Private Member’s Bill to this effect
3.
Keep Royal Mail public - we support the CWU
on this
4.
20pmh speed limits in built-up areas
5.
Councils should pass motions to have no evictions on the
basis of the bedroom tax (like Brighton & Hove)
6.
Declare one-planet cities (Brighton & Hove is the first
in the world) − the WWF one-planet living idea is based on green policies (see http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/how_we_work/conservation/one_planet_living/about_opl/principles/
for more on this)
7.
Make cooperative farming viable − create small market
gardens with a variety of jobs rather than back-breaking monotonous work like
fruit-picking on a huge farm. The community farm in Wye is a good example. We should
encourage vegetable growing in schools and open days for green business
advertised in Job Centres. This must go hand in hand with affordable housing in
the countryside, where rents and house prices tend to be too high for locals to
pay. We need to fight the government on “big is better” in farming.
8.
Bring bus companies under one publicly owned company in
order to reduce prices and give councils control. At present eg Arriva makes
60% profit on tickets. Buses must be the cheapest, simplest, most reliable
means of transport in an area
9.
We should factor the costs of the car culture into the costs
to society eg NHS costs of illness from air pollution, obesity from lack of
exercise, etc
Pat Marsh, Branch Secretary.
Pat Marsh, Branch Secretary.
