Keith Taylor – 2005 Speech to the Green Party’s Spring Conference

The speech/speaking notes made by Keith Taylor, the then Principal Speaker for the Green Party (alongside Caroline Lucas) on 4 March 2005.

Fellow Greens, I’m sorry I couldn’t be here yesterday, but I was speaking in the Brighton & Hove Council budget debate, where like in Oxford/Norwich/Lancaster we were busy placing Green priorities within the spending plans of those councils

And I’m sorry I can’t be here tomorrow or Sunday, but I there’s a full weekend’s work back in Brighton Pavilion constituency

Anyone would think there’s an election on!

Like many of you I have been talking across of lot of doorsteps over the last few months, and when I explain to people how Greens are putting their interests and those of the environment at the heart of our policies, more and more are agreeing with us that those priorities are the right ones for the 21st century

People are hungry to see integrity and vision put back into all levels of government. They want policies that are about the next 100 years, not the next 100 days

In fact over a million people voted Green in the last European Elections, and where people have elected Greens, they like what they get and want more

We now have more councillors than ever before, as well as 2 MEPs / 2 GLAMs and over the border in Scotland there’s a magnificent 7 MSPs

Yes, I know the FPTP system works against reflecting the diversity of the community, and it works against smaller parties. But it’s the system we’ve got, and the one we have to work with. And the one I’m sure will deliver the public with their first Green MPs, very soon.

But, while we’re on the subject of FPTP wouldn’t it be good for Tony Blair to deliver on his pledge he made in 1997 to hold a referendum on whether the public wanted PR? We could hold that at the same time as the referendum on the European Constitution.

Soon, will be the General Election. We’ll have getting on for 200 GE candidates, about 30% of the seats in the UK, and many more contesting local elections

That’s not bad for a party that does not feed at the corporate trough – which I see the latest snout swallowing big business bucks belongs to the LibDems – they’ve obviously given up all hopes of street cred

Our manifesto will be published on XXXX, and once again provides radical and alternative policies across the whole spectrum of how we live, how society functions, and offers policies that deliver social, environmental and economic justice for all.

we’re unveiling today our campaign slogan that wraps up what we are offering –

REAL CHOICE FOR REAL CHANGE

The Green Party is the Real Choice for Real Change because Britain needs an new intelligent, radical and compassionate vision for politics. We need real change now on the pressing issues that face our society such as climate change and the power of big business. We need a politics and economics that puts people first and delivers real quality of life.

Our major campaign themes headline three key areas where action is needed now

* Global Warming – that Climate Change is happening now as a result of burning fossil fuels is no longer in doubt * more than simple rhetoric needed – Blair is fooling no one by promising action while other govt policies undermine carbon reductions * and Labour, to their shame, recently voted to increase the carbon emissions allowed for industry * Need to stop the plans to treble the aviation industry within 20 years, * redirect the £30BN roadbuilding programme into investment in sustainable transport * massively invest in renewable energies * use regulatory powers to reduce unnecessary waste like packaging materials which form a large part of what’s being thrown away

We need a strong Green voice at Westminster to deliver these messages

* Public services * stop sell off * bring rail services back into public ownership * no more Foundation Hospitals * no more PFIs, because * PFIs are poor value for money, * taxpayers pay through the nose over long contracts for generally a lower standard of service * bad for standards (link between cleanliness/MRSA/privatised services) * bad for workers * end the spurious ‘choice’ argument about patients choosing where they want health treatment What people want is a good service in their local hospital or surgery, free at the point of delivery * Proper funding for public servicesIn getting an education or receiving medical treatment there mustn’t be two levels of service, a good one for those who can afford it and a worse service for those that can’t. Free medical care, no tuition fees, no top up fees

* Yet still the westminster parties cling on to the misplaced faith that the markets will solve social inequality * Well that needs challenging – and we need a strong Green voice at Westminster to do that

Iraq – breakdown in trust/accountability * That Tony Blair took this country to war on a lie is no longer in doubt * No WMDs were ever found and the dodgy dossier was another piece of Downing St fiction * That Tony Blair took this country into an illegal and immoral war is now longer in doubt * It’s being reported that the legal basis for war presented to MPs was written not by the Lord Chancellor, but was a “statement of his views” written by two devout Blairites

And you couldn’t argue that we didn’t try to tell him it was wrong.

The millions people demonstrating across the UK tried, but Blair believed he was “doing the right thing”

And now George Bush and Tony Blair tell us we need to draw a line under Iraq. Mistakes were made, but so what? Get over it they say.

100,000 Iraqis won’t wake up tomorrow. They can’t get over it – and in this case there can be no justification that the means justified the end.

What we’re left with is a PM who’s taken this country into five wars in six years – Bombing Saddam Hussein in 98, military action in Kosovo in 99, Sierra Leone in 2000, followed by Afghanistan, then Iraq. That’s more conflicts than any other British PM

And what we’re left with is a government and a premier who does not accept either the mistakes he made or responsibility for what his government did in this country’s name

And what we’re left with a drift towards increasing big brother controls and decreasing civil liberties – a turn about in the basic legal right that every person is deemed innocent until proven guilty. We see politicians seeking to act as prosecutor, judge and jury.

And that conference, is a major assault on liberty and democracy

We need a strong Green voice at Westminster to effectively champion these values because NO OTHER PARTY WILL DO IT

And Iraq has left people * not trusting Labour * feeling disempowered * feeling their vote counts for nothing

Well we want to re-value those votes because every single vote IS precious

Give it to us and we will make good use of it

Labour will still win this election but every single green vote sends a message that the business as usual politics of Westminster is no longer good enough, it needs a thorough sorting out.

Voters are fed up with the pantomime politics of Westminster, where policy setting is not about long term vision or strategic thinking, but more about what marketing experts have identified will sway people to vote one way or the other.

Look at labour’s six pledges total failure to mention climate change, that’s despite Tony Blair just one week earlier naming it nr 1 challenge

Look at the climate of fear that all three parties are stoking up, so they can frighten people into voting for them, so that they can lock people up at a whim.

Look at the race to find a scapegoats led by M Howard, followed closely by Charles Clark. Immigration, asylum seekers and is always a favourite. The more vulnerable the target the better, because there’s less chance of anyone speaking out for them.

Yes of course immigration and those issues are important, but it’s part of the decoy that all three Westminster parties are deploying to distract attention from where they are really taking this country, to distract from * from the divisive effects of their govt’s social policies * the ever increasing gap between rich and poor, * the continuing exploitation of our environment and resources in the name of the major corporations and at the expense of developing countries and of future generations. * Their shared reliance on simple economic expansion as being the only kind of growth that is possible

* One of our activists neatly summed up what happened to Labour and New Labour. Labour started off as a movement and a political party, with the arrival of the New Labour project it lost its values and just turned into another political party.

* We need to remain both a movement and a party, because the passion, the vision and values of the first must be the guide to the second

* We must work alongside other progressive thinkers to ensure that our children and theirs receive the future they deserve

* We cannot stand by and allow the human race to become the first intelligent species to be the authors of its own extinction

Now is the time for a politics of vision, of ideals and values

“The Green Party received over a million votes in the European Elections and – at least in a few key constituencies – voters could now elect a real alternative to the war-mongering and deception of the Labour Party. Once in Parliament, even a handful of Green MPs would change the face of politics for good”.

Time for a Real Choice for Real Change

Together we can do it!