Green on Brown...

Responding to Gordon Brown's Labour conference speech, Caroline Lucas, leader of the Green Party, said: "Brown talked of Labour's onward march of fairness and justice - but we have a wider gap between rich and poor after 12 years of Labour. Labour has had 12 years to change the voting system, to restore the earnings link to pensions, 12 years to work for nuclear disarmament by axing Trident, to make the Post Office sustainable, and to provide fair wages for working people. And they have not."

"Brown talked of free education and expanded university places, but Labour has been the government to introduce tuition fees and rising student debt."

The Green Party welcomed Brown's aim for 250 000 new green jobs, and up to

10 000 green job placements for youth. But Caroline Lucas said that: "We cannot have a green economy with Labour promises of nuclear power and new coal plants at its core."

Lucas continued: "Unfortunately, Gordon Brown has a track record of grandly announcing projects that led nowhere -- whether it was midnight football, citizens' juries, or a NHS Constitution that ended up having no new enforceable rights."

Lucas also commented on the proposal that 16 and 17 year parents on public support would be sent to a new network of supervised homes: "We strongly object to the idea of forcing all 16 and 17 year-old parents on taxpayer support into a network of supervised homes. It would be a form of paternalistic, 21st-century workhouse. Teen parents flounder, as we've had 12 years of Labour without support for carers, and childcare provision that has been very patchy across the country. We need projects that encourage teen self-esteem and sex education, not punishment after the fact for teen mothers and fathers."