Letter to Beverley Guardian
Dear sir
I wonder if our local Tory MP, Graham Stuart, was one of
the group questioning the Prime Minister on his lack of commitment to green
policies? I have asked him, but somehow I doubt it. Perhaps he
would like to let the readers of this paper know where he stands on this
crucial issue.
Whether David Cameron actually used the words ‘green crap’ or
not, that phrase sums up what is now quite clear: his
complete U-turn on aspiring to be ‘the greenest government ever’. He is
utterly dismissive about real green issues and the radical agenda that is so
desperately needed now. In the face of climate change, and
devastation of nature and communities on an unparalleled global scale, he can
think only in terms of what suits the corporations which fund the Tories (and
cause the devastation) – resulting in our being stuck in the same old
paradigm of fossil fuels, fracking, more and more cars on more and bigger
roads, stupidly fast trains cutting swathes through the
countryside for a few minutes’ saving on journey time (does the frantic
rat-race really need yet more speed?), factory-style agriculture which kills
the soil and soaks the land and water supplies with chemicals which end
up in our bodies, selling off our public services like the NHS and
schools, blaming the poor and vulnerable for the crimes of City bankers
and corporate tax dodgers - not to mention promoting sales of arms
worldwide - often to regimes which use them on their own citizens.
The only way out of this economic , social and environmental
mess is through REAL progress: a transformation of the economy through a
transformation of our values - and that needs political leadership.
The Greens work for this on a European and global level. We need
modernisation and sustainability in the best sense: millions of new jobs
improving all our buildings to insulate them properly against the
cold, a determined push for all the varieties of renewable
energy, better integrated public transport and urban cycling strategies (
like they have in places like Copenhagen), promotion of local foods and local
communities and excellent public services.
This, though, takes vision and political courage – something
which is in very short supply in all the (almost indistinguishable)
puppet political parties who dance to the corporate tune of
‘growth’ on our small and finite planet.
