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GREENS POINT WAY FOR GREY PARTIES

18 May 2001

The Green Party's manifesto, published today, contains many welcome policies which“point the way forward for the grey, established parties”, Friends of the Earth commented.

The Green Party's proposals include:

• re-creating a public railway and investing in trains and buses
• cutting the roads budget
• a radical shift in farming policy, with subsidy directed at increased organic production
• tackling Britain's housing policy through a major increase in funding for public housing, and bringing empty properties back into use
• scrapping the World Trade Organisation
• strict controls on industrial pollution
• a major investment programme in energy efficiency, aimed at ending fuel poverty
• sharp cut in the use of dangerous pesticides
• debt cancellation for the world's poorest countries.

Commenting, FOE Executive Director Charles Secrett said:

“The Green Party is often dismissed by the political class as unrealistic and Utopian.But in fact many of their policies - such as sorting out the mess on our privatised railways - are highly popular with the public. Sooner or later, the established grey parties will pick them up as well.

The Green Party shows that there is political life beyond the sterile and tedious debate so far seen in this Election. The Green manifesto is also a reproach to political commentators in the media, who have once again generally failed to see that environmental issues matter in politics. The Greens are now represented in the Scottish and European Parliaments, as well as in the London Assembly and in Councils around the country. Only Britain's electoral system has prevented the Greens from making an impact at Westminster too.”

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