Shan Oakes bashes fake Miliband leadership contest.
In David Miliband’s interview, Thursday, on BBC's Jeremy Vine Show, the focus was sadly on personality and not policy.
But Shan Oakes, who stood against David Davis in last month’s by-election for the Green Party, has different ideas.
“Whoever is in charge of the 'old' parties,” Ms Oakes says, “we still get the same old policies - policies supporting profit, not policies promoting the welfare of people and planet.”
“We need an ethical policy at home and an ethical policy abroad - instead we’re served up with streams of smooth-sounding soundbites.
“Miliband wriggled out of the lack of a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. People want it - and the people would have said no. So, we weren’t given the chance and instead government signed it anyway.
“On the Middle East, we were told Iran is not behaving like a ‘normal country’! But David Miliband failed to remind us that there is only one nuclear armed state in the area - Israel - with an estimated 200 nuclear weapons. Iran is apparently not ‘a normal player in the international nuclear game’. Presumably Israel is - with dozens of UN resolutions against it – the state which bombed Syria in 2007 - the state which went to war on Lebanon in 2006.
“It’s heartening to hear on Iran that ‘100 per cent of our effort is focused on the diplomatic track’ - but we remember Blair wanting a “diplomatic solution” on Iraq, 5 year ago.
“Today, an ethical policy on Iraq means ending the adventure and bringing our troops home. On Iran it means rejecting the option of starting a war, as we started a war on Iraq.
“Miliband is being talked about as Brown's successor, but whether someone sounds ‘more confident’ or 'smoother' - or more like Tony Blair - does not make them any better. The policies stay the same: profit, growth and empire building!”
“It’s time for proper political debate on the fundamental issues.”
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Shan Oakes,
Hull & E. Riding Green Party
