Adrian Ramsay :: Green Party Deputy Leader :: MP candidate for Norwich South

My values - for social justice, for real action on climate change, against animal cruelty

By Adrian Ramsay

The Green Party has a clear vision for a sustainable and just future, and clear policies for tackling poverty (locally and globally), environmental degradation and animal cruelty.

Key areas for me as Deputy Leader would be:

Better links with the broader movement 

More contact and co-operation with campaign groups and trade unions is crucial to develop stronger relationships with working people and with people working on a wide range of environmental issues. We need to support these groups, illustrate our strong policies on environmental and social justice issues, and show them the importance of electing Greens to Westminster.

Focus on social justice and affordability

In the London Mayoral election, Siân Berry successfully showed that the Green Party has answers for people who are struggling in the current economic situation.

On a national level, we need to emphasise our strong policies on tackling fuel poverty, introducing a Living Wage and protecting and enhancing local services and the local economy.

Real action on climate change

The Green Party is good at illustrating the problems that climate change will cause and how this will affect people. We need to consistently illustrate how Green policies for radical reductions in carbon emissions will bring benefits for people’s everyday lives.

We need to show how elected Greens really do take action to create, for example, cheaper and more reliable public transport; more local jobs with local companies; improved energy security through  energy efficiency measures and renewable energy installations.

Anti-privatisation

The Labour Government is literally mortgaging our children’s future, not only by failing to take comprehensive action to prevent the worst effects of climate change but by privatising more of the NHS and education system and pushing through more and more PFI deals, creating huge public debt for decades to come.

More and more schools are being handed over to private consortiums to run as part of Gordon Brown’s academy school scheme. None of the other three main parties consistently oppose privatisation – another area where the Green Party has distinctive and crucial policies.

Fair Trade

The Make Poverty History campaign brought international poverty back up the political agenda.

It made the other parties talk about the problem more – but it is only the Green Party that supports and promotes policies to make Fair Trade the norm and create more self-sufficient local economies worldwide, where people are less reliant on the whim of multinational companies.

A better deal for animals and wildlife

Britain is supposed to be a nation of animal lovers, and it many ways it is – but we are not helped by Government policy. Millions of people enjoy wildlife, and green spaces are a crucial for human relaxation and recreation as well as for protecting ecosystems. Yet local and national governments consistently fail to protect wildlife and green spaces from development.

Every year millions of animals are needlessly tortured in laboratories because the Government insists that new drugs are tested in this way, even though there are more effective and reliable humane testing methods available. Conditions in Britain’s factory farms are a national disgrace, yet none of the other main parties are interested in requiring humane standards across the board.