Tory chaos means the country does not have even the pretence of a viable government says Green co-leader.

 

Responding to the resignation of Liz Truss after 45 days in office, making hers the shortest tenure of any British prime minister Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer has reiterated calls for a general election.

In a statement made outside Downing Street on Thursday the outgoing prime minister said she recognized that she was unable to “deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party [1]”.

This triggered a streamlined leadership contest which will be completed by 28^th October at the latest, and my end sooner.

Responding to the resignation Carla Denyer said the “chaos” surrounding the Conservative Party had “spiralled beyond any pretence that the country has a viable government” [2].

Adding that it was “reckless for the Tories to claim that they can replace Liz Truss with any leader capable of commanding authority, nationally or internationally”.

Following the resignation three candidates emerged as front runners to gain the 100 signatures from MPs needed to enter the ballot, former chancellor Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt and former prime minister Boris Johnson.

Johnson pulled out of the race late on Sunday evening, despite claiming to have the backing of 102 MPs and being, by his own estimation, “best placed to deliver a Conservative victory in 2024” [3].

He had though, he said, after “reaching out” to the two candidates he had “sadly come to the conclusion that this would simply not be the right thing to do. You can't govern effectively unless you have a united party in parliament”.

At the time of writing Penny Mordaunt was still seeking the required number of signatures and one of her backers, former cabinet minister Andrea Leadsome told the BBC there was “absolutely no chance of her standing down” [4].

However, with just 26 MPs publicly willing to back her compared to the 180 who have come out for Rishi Sunak her chances of entering a second round of voting look slim.

Whoever wins the race to be the next prime minister would, Carla Denyer said, impose “austerity 2.0” on the country, meaning “more cuts to vital public services and more suffering for people across the country”.

They would, she went on to say, be doing so without a mandate, making it impossible for them to govern effectively.

A general election is needed, she said, so that “people can vote for the policies they want to see that will turn this mess around” and be given “their chance to decide on the country’s future.”

 

 

 

 

[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63332037

[2] https://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/2022/10/20/greens-call-for-general-election-after-truss-resigns-as-prime-minister/?link_id=0&can_id=8bc5e413fe5b14a23ca14eb06da17776&source=email-green-party-morning-briefing-thursday-20-october&email_referrer=email_1710650&email_subject=green-party-morning-briefing-friday-21-october

[3] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63368973

[4] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63370359

 

The Tories are the Anti-Renewables Coalition says Green Party co-leader.

 

Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsey has described the Conservative government as the ‘anti-renewables coalition’ as ministers prepare plans to ban solar panels from most of England’s farmland.

Environment secretary Ranil Jayawardena is understood to oppose solar panels being installed on agricultural land on the grounds that it impedes food production. A report published in the Guardian claims he has instructed officials to use rules governing how land is classified for planning purposes to declare large areas unsuitable for solar farms [1].

Adrian Ramsey said the ban, if implemented, made it “clear that the Tories and their fossil fuel friends have turned into the anti-renewables coalition” [2], adding that “Research has also shown that solar energy generation and food production can co-exist well together, arranged in certain formations, solar panels have been found to boost agricultural production by helping with shading and water conservation during heatwaves, for example”.

In her keynote speech to the Conservative Party conference prime minister Liz Truss listed “Labour, the Lib Dems and the SNP, the militant unions, the vested interests dressed up as think-tanks, the talking heads, the Brexit deniers, and Extinction Rebellion” as members of an “anti-growth coalition” determined to hold the UK back [4].

There are currently 500 solar farms in the UK, providing 28% of the country’s renewable energy. More solar panels were in stalled in 2021 than in the previous 5 years, the amount of energy produced by solar is expected to increase by 500% by 2030 [3].

Dustin Benton, policy advisor at think tank Green Alliance told the Guardian that the UK “desperately needs to expand renewables” to meet the challenges posed by climate change and soaring gas and electricity costs.

This point was also made by Adrian Ramsey, who said “Solar panels can be deployed extremely quickly and offer some of the cheapest electricity, helping to tackle both the cost-of-living crisis and the climate emergency”.

 

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/10/ministers-hope-to-ban-solar-projects-from-most-english-farms?link_id=1&can_id=8bc5e413fe5b14a23ca14eb06da17776&source=email-green-party-morning-briefing-monday-10-october&email_referrer=email_1697070&email_subject=green-party-morning-briefing-tuesday-11-october

[2] https://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/2022/10/10/solar-farm-ban-shows-tories-are-anti-renewables-coalition-say-greens/?link_id=3&can_id=8bc5e413fe5b14a23ca14eb06da17776&source=email-green-party-morning-briefing-monday-10-october&email_referrer=email_1697070&email_subject=green-party-morning-briefing-tuesday-11-october

[3] https://housegrail.com/solar-energy-statistics-uk/

[4] https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/liz-truss-attacks-anti-growth-coalition-as-tory-conference-ends_uk_633d67ade4b0e376dbfca2c6

 

 

 

New Green Deputy Leader pledges to speak up for those who feel unseen, unheard, and unrepresented.

 

In his first speech as deputy leader of the Green Party Zack Polanski said there can be no environmental justice without racial, social, and economic justice too.

Speaking at the party conference in Harrogate Polanski said that in the UK of 2022 too many people felt “unseen, unheard, and unrepresented”, adding that the Greens will be the party to “take their worries and needs and speak truth to power” [1].

He highlighted the importance of diversity, representation, and electoral reform in delivering a fairer and more inclusive society.

He said that representation and diversity were both “massively important”, and that he wants to use the platform provided by the deputy leader’s role to “speak with rather than for” those communities who don’t feel they have a voice in politics [2].

Key to doing so is, he said, reforming the UK’s “broken voting system”, which leaves many people and communities outside the decision-making process. A problem that can only be solved through the introduction of proportional representation.

This would encourage the development of “grown up collaborations” that “work in people’s interests”, and he called on Labour leader Keir Starmer to “listen” to his members who blocked a vote in favour of putting introducing PR into party policy by unions and grassroots members.

The party conference saw delegates back motions aimed at promoting social justice, these included introducing a £15 an hour minimum wage and backing stronger trades union rights.

Work, Employment and Social Security spokesperson Professor Catherine Rowlett said the current minimum wage had been eroded by “inflation and the cost-of-living crisis” creating “dire levels of in work poverty” [3].

Raising the minimum wage to £15 an hour would, she said, be part of creating a “new social contract” where “a basic standard of living isn’t a luxury”.

Matthew Hull of the Green Party Trades Union Group successfully proposed a motion backing a ‘positive charter of workers and union rights’, saying it will protest the “fundamental right to organise and strike” [4].

Too many people, Zack Polanski said, feel unrepresented when major decisions are made about their lives and communities a fair society is one “that includes everyone”, adding that “in the Green Party, representing people is our priority”.

[1] https://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/2022/10/01/deputy-leader-autumn-conference-speech-2022/?link_id=8&can_id=8bc5e413fe5b14a23ca14eb06da17776&source=email-green-party-morning-briefing-friday-30-september&email_referrer=email_1687585&email_subject=green-party-morning-briefing-monday-3-october

[2] https://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/2022/10/01/no-environmental-justice-without-social-justice/

[3] https://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/2022/10/02/greens-back-%C2%A315-an-hour-minimum-wage-and-declare-support-for-trade-union-campaigns-on-pay/

[4] https://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/2022/10/01/greens-back-positive-charter-of-worker-and-trade-union-rights/