“If they know what they are voting for, they might start questioning it. And you wonder why we are in such a sh*thole”. That was the verdict of Britain’s only Green Party MP, Caroline Lucas, in conversation with veteran environmental campaigner Jonathan Porritt.
The Cheltenham Green Party hosted Ms Lucas at the Parabola Arts Centre, on Thursday, with nearly 200 people in attendance.
Before the event started there was an opportunity to socialise with party members and councillors from across Gloucestershire. With only a few minutes before the event was meant to start the doors to the auditorium opened allowing the excitement and tension to flood through them as the crowd entered and begun to take their seats,
With the run up to the 2024 local elections events like this are important; especially for local parties which have the opportunity to secure more councillors. There will be elections in Gloucester, Cheltenham and in Stroud.
In Stroud there is an opportunity to become the biggest party with a working majority, in Cheltenham the Greens’ aim is to become the main opposition party which would push the Conservatives down into third, and finally in a Gloucester the hope is to elect the first Green Party councillor.
Gloucestershire is one of the leading counties for Green Party councillors already with 37 district councillors. The Green Party is leading the council coalition in Stroud with 14 councillors, and last year Cheltenham elected its first two Green councillors. It is also the biggest party in the Forest of Dean.
Dale a member of the Green Party spoke about Cheltenham’s history of being traditionally a two-party area between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, which means there “isn’t much of a choice.”
The Green Party has pledged “to stand in Cheltenham at every election. As if we keep stepping aside we will end up as a two-party state forever”.
Ms Lucas then took to the stage with a speech which overall reflected on making connections; whether those connections were with each other or the planet. With a reflection on three main things, firstly the green light the government gave to Rose Bank Oil Field, secondly the King’s Speech and thirdly the Autumn statement.
Rose Bank is the biggest underdeveloped oil field in the North Sea, and if it goes ahead, it will produce the same amount of emissions on an annual basis as the poorest, 28 countries put together. Ms Lucas said Rose Bank did nothing for “our energy bills, energy prices or energy security”. The government put this policy forward when parliament was on conference break meaning there was no scrutiny of the policy, she argued.
She said the King’s speech was “lacking in vision and narrative”, and she described Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s autumn statement as ‘a smug and short term statement from a chancellor who it feels like is on a different planet.’
So what would the Green Party put in place if they were in charge?
Firstly they would put in place a clean air human’s right bill affectionately dubbed Ella’s law. Ella was a nine year old from London who was the first person to have air pollution put on their death certificate. This law would enshrine a new human rights to clean air which would be required to be achieved in England after five years. “Thinking about the impact on health service, on young people, on the environment. It’s a win-win from all of those perspectives”.
Secondly a renters reform bill “worthy of the name”; which would ban section 1 evictions which are currently in place under the current renters reform bill. As well as making sure the country builds more affordable homes and rent controls brought in places where rent is spiralling out of control.
Thirdly, it would bring in a fossil fuel phase out bill as the Green Party recognises that people will need time and training to get new jobs whilst still eliminating fossil fuels.
Mr Porritt (author of Seeing Green: The Politics of Ecology Explained) asked her what needs to be done about the difficulty of getting people to support Green Party politics, political discourse, climate change, growth in temperature across the world and her departure from politics at the next election.
The evening then wrapped up and the bar was reopened and ready for more socialising amongst guests and Green Party members.
If you want to get involved with the Cheltenham Green Party you can visit their website here or find them on social media @CheltGreenParty
