Political possibilities

My response to the view, expressed in an online debate here, that there will only ever be two political parties (ie either Labour or Tory) running the country: Given the huge and interwoven economic, social and environmental problems the country and the world has, new political thinking is now more needed than ever. New political movements, like the Green Movement, do come along and new parties do get into government at a range of levels. Liberals have a share in govt now and they currently run Bristol City Council and other councils - and Liberals have been in govt in the past, albeit a long time ago.The labour movement developed over the last 100 yrs, so there is no reason why other movements and parties cant do the same or better. 

The Green Party addresses the real world where other parties wish 'for exponential economic growth and endless population growth on a finite planet with dwindling resources' (see online comments here). Greens are making political progress - they have their first MP in Caroline Lucas in addition to Green members of the Scottish Parliament, they are now runnning the council in Brighton and Hove, have two MEPs (Jean Lambert in London and Keith Taylor in the South East), and have two councillors in Bristol (Gus Hoyt in Ashley and Tess Green in Southville) in addition to hundreds more on other councils around the country

City Conference

The Green Party Autumn Conference will be held at the Council House in Bristol from 7-10 September this year. Included will be policy debate on: working hours; economic democracy; making corporations responsible; international law of ecocide; end of life palliative care; animal racing; Aarhus Convention and environmental information and participation; natural resources; nuclear waste; libel law reform; crime prevention and justice; economics...

On the draft timetable the Conference Opening Speech will be from Daniella Radice, the Green Party Candidate in the Bristol Mayoral election followed by a speech from the Party’s newly elected Leader who will be introduced by Caroline Lucas MP, outgoing Green Party Leader.

Details via: http://www.greenparty.org.uk/conference.html

 

Lucas leadership impact

Look who is making her mark ! Again - previously ‘MP of the Year' in the Scottish Widows & Dods Women in Public Life Awards; ‘Best All Rounder' in the Total Politics End of Year MP awards; ‘Newcomer of the Year' by the Spectator... http://conservativehome.blogs.com/platform/2011/08/which-of-the-class-of-2015-are-making-an-impact-neildotobrien-has-the-answers.html

Schumacher Centenary

The Schumacher Centenary Business Dinner will take place on Friday 7th October from 7:00pm and 11:00pm. The venue is @Bristol. This marks the beginning of the Schumacher Centenary Festival that runs over the weekend of the 7th to the 9th of October, 2011. The event is sponsored by Sustain – a carbon reduction company.

The evening will be a reception and talks followed by dinner to celebrate the centenary of E.F. Schumacher with various guest speakers including: Jacqueline McGlade, Executive Director, European Environment Agency; John Whitmore - leading business coach, author of 'Coaching for Performance'.

It will also be a chance to meet the speakers who are talking the next day. They include: Peter Blom, CEO of Triodos Bank, authors Bill McKibben and Prof Tim Jackson, Green Party MP Caroline Lucas and co-founder of the Transition Towns movement, Rob Hopkins.

Tickets can be obtained from http://schumachercentenary.eventbrite.com/

If you would like any more information about this event, please don't hesitate to contact Lucy Fleetwood at The Schumacher Institute for Sustainable Systems www.schumacherinstitute.org.uk

Doing business with illegally logged timber

Green Party leader Caroline Lucas MP, is renewing her calls for a ban on illegally logged timber in the UK via a Private Member's Bill, which is on the agenda for its second reading this Friday. The Illegally Logged Timber Bill (Prohibition of Import, Sale or Distribution) would make it illegal in the United Kingdom for a person or company to import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire or purchase timber or timber products illegally taken, harvested, possessed, transported, sold or exported from their country of origin; and for connected purposes. Why have this and previous governments not already dealt with this matter??

For more details, please visit http://services.parliament.uk/bills/201011/illegallyloggedtimberprohibitionofimportsaleordistribution.html
and http://www.carolinelucas.com/cl/media/caroline-renews-calls-for-uk-ban-on-illegally-logged-timber.html.

Green Party | Caroline Lucas urges voters to go Green on May 5th

I like the examples of what Green local councillors have achieved here*. In Bristol the Green Party presence on the council has: initiated the climate change select committee, vice chaired by Cllr Charlie Bolton which resulted in over 40 policies being adopted by the council; initiated the sustainable transport select committee, chaired by Cllr Charlie Bolton, which also had many policies adopted; produced the motion which led to the saving of the Bristol-Bath railway path; tried to get Bristol councillors to be eligible for ‘recall’, giving people a way to get rid of them; produced a policy motion to the council aimed at saving residential caretakers; gained extra money for energy efficiency measures; proposed a motion to decentralise the distribution of Section 106 money, now taken up by the council.

*Greens in local government have produced alternative budgets showing that savings can be made without cutting vital public services.

In Brighton, for example, Greens helped persuade the ruling Tory administration to drop plans to rip out a cycle path at a cost of over £1million.

In Oxford, Leader of the Green Group, Cllr David Williams put forward a costed budget which would have reversed some of Labour's spending cuts. Greens wanted to cut the number of senior council officers and take back their recent 23% pay increase.

Lancaster Green Party's local manifesto puts forward its vision for a fairer, greener society and explains in detail what Lancaster Green Councillors have done for their city. Local Cllr Andrew Kay says, "We will not stand by and watch the rich get richer, while ordinary people lose their jobs and the services they depend upon."

In Norwich, where the Green Party is the second largest group on the Council, Greens have invested in renewable energy, spoken out against the crippling cuts and lobbied Government to deal with the financial difficulties in a fairer way.

Green Party Caroline Lucas urges voters to go Green on May 5th

BBC News - Greens launch English poll push with anti-cuts message

The Green Party has launched its campaign for next month's English local elections, promising to be the "true opposition" to the coalition. [see party broadcast here]

Leader Caroline Lucas said the Conservatives, Lib Dems and Labour had all broken promises and urged the creation of a more honest politics. She called for more local action to improve the environment and a halt to the government's spending cuts.

The party is running 1,605 candidates for council elections on 5 May. At the party's official campaign launch in central London, Ms Lucas said: "We have a government that is handing financial settlements to local councils which mean they are going to make horrendous decisions and big cuts.

"It's crucial that there are Green councillors to protect people from the most harsh of those cuts."'

Extreme austerity

She added: "Our whole analysis of the cuts project is that it's the wrong approach. Yes, we need to address the deficit but a better way is to get people back into work to ensure there are more taxes coming in.

"Otherwise there is a greater risk of a double-dip recession. We can already see what extreme austerity is doing in countries like Portugal and Ireland."

Ms Lucas said the Greens expected to gain councillors in the party's power bases, which include Brighton and Norwich, and elsewhere across England.

She called on councils to protect the "most vulnerable" in society from the impact of budget cuts and also for local authorities to do more to promote the use of renewable energy sources.

The Greens' election broadcast will air on 27 April. It features Ms Lucas "ambushing" an audience at a west London comedy club to tell them about her party's policies and call for a less "cynical" form of politics.

She told the BBC:

"It is trying to make the point, in what is usually a comical setting, that the issues we are dealing with are very serious.

"We are the true opposition party and we have the people and experience to do that job across England."

The Greens have two Members of the European Parliament and Ms Lucas became the party's first Westminster MP at last year's general election.

BBC News - Greens launch English poll push with anti-cuts message

Military action in Libya

This * seemed like a sensible initial position on the Libya no-fly zone for the Greens. Given what Caroline Lucas said on last weeks Question Time, clearly siding with former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie on the panel in opposing military action, things have changed. On this issue I find myself in opposition to the Greens leader, for once, if not my party. MacKenzie basically said '‎'Not worth it...Nothing to do with us...' which is surely not something Greens want to be associated with - I certainly dont.

*On the subject of a no-fly zone, a Green Party spokesperson said:

"We are not ruling out support for a no-fly zone, but it would need to be very carefully handled and would need the support of countries in the region. It would have to be something that the civilian population wanted, and only be enforced to protect the civilian population.

"Past no-fly zones have not always achieved the desired outcome and have not always protected the civilian population.

"Most importantly, the UN Security Council must refer the situation in Libya to the International Criminal Court. Colonel al-Gaddafi must understand that all those responsible for carrying out attacks on civilians will be held to account."

http://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/11-03-2011-parliamentary-vote-libya.html

Lucas: lessons on nuclear power from the Japan disaster

The lesson from the Japanese disaster is that you can never design out every possible human error, or natural accident, or unpredictable event. The problem with nuclear power is that it’s just so inherently risky. If a catastrophe does happen, then the impacts when we’re dealing with nuclear power are uniquely catastrophic, if you like, in a way that they’re not if we were dealing with the alternatives around renewable energy and energy efficiency, and so on. Of course, all of our thoughts are with the people of Japan, and particularly with those incredibly brave people who are at the plants now trying to bring them under control, but I just think that when we’ve got alternatives that are safer and cheaper, it does raise the question as to why we would run the risk with nuclear.

-“Wave and wind energy can’t be cheaper than nuclear, can it?”

Yes it can, and it is. If you look at the documents, that’s quite clear. Sometimes it doesn’t look that way of course, because nuclear’s very clever about not putting on its books the cost of decommissioning nuclear power at the end of its life. But if you add in those nuclear decommissioning costs, then nuclear is a lot more expensive. If we’re looking in Britain at the best way of being able to meet our carbon objectives, in terms of getting our emissions down to deal with climate change and keep the lights on, then it’s far cheaper, and government’s own statistics show this, to be investing in renewable energies and energy efficiency rather than nuclear. Of course the nuclear industry right now is engaged in a massive fight-back, trying to present itself as this nice clean energy of the future. I think the situation with Fukushima just shows us that that’s not the case, and it’s never been the case.

You can’t design out unforeseen circumstances. When they built those nuclear power stations 40 years ago, they never expected an earthquake of that size. Here in Britain, just back in the 1950’s, we had storm surges which were extraordinary and killed 300 people in East Anglia – you cannot predict what’s going to come in the future, and if there are alternatives, we should be using them. If it were genuinely the case that we had to make the choice between climate change and nuclear power, then of course the situation would be different, we’d have to look at it again. That’s not the choice we’re being faced with right now. You can never “design out,” whether it’s a terrorist attack, whether it’s human error, and when you’re dealing with something that’s as inherently risky as nuclear, it doesn’t make sense to take that risk.

Caroline Lucas MP, Green Party leader, on BBC Radio Sussex – 16 Mar 2011

Cameron 'committed to full Trident replacement'

There isn't all-party support for retaining the UK nuclear deterrent, though the BBC asserts that there is. The Green Party eg through Caroline Lucas MP, is very clearly and strongly opposed and regards both the threatened and actual use of any weapon of mass destruction as immoral and illegal - and there are other MPs that support this view. Ludicrously our PM David Cameron uses phrases like 'keep our guard up' and 'insurance policy' about nuclear weapons!

It is, sadly, right to say though that few politicians are now arguing a fundamental case against nuclear weapons. I watched the 1959 film On the Beach about a post-apocalyptic world again recently. Its not a cheery number - with characters played by Gregory Peck, Ava Gardiner, Anthony Perkins, Fred Astaire and others facing the end of their lives and the end of human beings as fatal radiation levels spread across the globe - but for me its a classic film that makes some very telling points.

I'm 100% with Fred Astaire's character when he says 'The war started when people accepted the idiotic principle that peace could be maintained by arranging to defend themselves with weapons they could not possibly use without committing suicide.' (see video clip). Our PM David Cameron continues, with the support of the Labour and Lib Dem leadership, to support this idiotic principle.

"In terms of the future, all I can say... is that I am in favour of a full replacement for Trident, for continuous at-sea deterrent, and to make sure we keep our guard up.

"That is Conservative policy. It will remain Conservative policy as long as I am the leader of this party."'

All-party support

Labour MP John Woodcock, whose Barrow-in-Furness constituency builds the Trident submarines, also asked Mr Cameron for reassurance that he would not go back on his word.

Mr Cameron said: "I profoundly believe we should maintain our independent nuclear deterrent. I have looked at all of the alternatives over the years and I am completely convinced that you need a submarine based alternative - a full replacement for Trident in order to guarantee the ultimate insurance policy for this country."

BBC News - David Cameron 'committed to full Trident replacement'

Goose steps and mass graves? We're only trying to save the world - Telegraph

Brilliant article in the Daily Telegraph from Robert Webb (pictured) 'one of Britain's most popular comedians, [who]brings his wit and imagination to the Telegraph's comment pages with capricious stories of his everyday life.' We need more communication on politics and climate change like this!

When the Martians finally invade and make me Lord High Protector of the Earth, I like to think that my first act will be to have myself arrested. It might be useful if those who spend a lot of time banging on about how much they love liberty ask themselves if they would do the same thing.

What would you do? A quick tweak here and there, and then hold elections? More than a tweak? It's the whole Earth, so there's quite a bit to put right. And you'll need people you trust to help: friends… maybe family! And what about those Earthlings who don't appreciate your efforts? Well, protest is one thing, but when they start to really interfere with your helpful plans for them, then it might be time to be a bit firm – which is just your way of showing how much you love them. So the Friendly Protectorship might go on slightly longer than we first imagined. Best to give it a while: say 30 years? A lifetime?

Yes, you've guessed it: this week's column is about the leader of the Green Party, Caroline Lucas MP. If you don't immediately understand the connection, then that's because you are sane. To have made the mental leap, you would need to belong to the head-banging libertarian/Ukip fringe who seem to think that all Lefties are born tyrants. You might be tempted to offer them the figure of George Orwell – who spent a lifetime defending the values of the democratic Left against the triple menace of communism, fascism and imperialism – but that doesn't work on the head-bangers, because they think Orwell is one of them. This indicates a psychological problem that experts have identified as "an inability to read a book properly".

Anyway, Lucas – who this week made an attempt to make the House of Commons work more efficiently, and was roundly patronised for her efforts – makes an almost perfect hate figure for the head-bangers, not just because she shows worrying signs of talking about wealth redistribution and actually meaning it, but because of the inevitable scale of aspiration that is part of the Green agenda. They look at her and think: "This woman doesn't just want to keep the 50p rate, she wants to change the entire Earth! This can only mean jackboots."

I say she's an "almost" perfect hate figure because she doesn't have an eye-patch or a hook or wear swastika earrings. In fact, it's a bit inconvenient all round that, when interviewed, she sounds quite sensible. Still, that won't matter. There's a YouTube video posted by "ukipmedia" where, to my ear, Lucas is clearly winning a debate with Ukip spokesman David Campbell Bannerman. At the point where she says, "People are dying from climate change, David", the video then clunkily loops back so we can hear her say it again another three times. The intended effect is presumably to highlight some kind of "gaffe" or standout absurdity, but in fact it reveals far more about the mentality of the poster than the subject. It's the use of repetition that is sinister here, not the thing that's being repeated. "People are dying from climate change" is not a remarkable statement; it is a scientific commonplace.

Given the bitter tone of the environmental debate, I imagine that this last sentence will have made some of you really quite cross. The YouTube clip has inspired seven pages of comments, characterised in the main by unhinged vitriol and references to totalitarian mass graves.

Let me have a go at understanding these people: wish me luck. I suppose that if you really think climate change is a sham; if you really think it's possible for a global scientific community to get together to fabricate a mountainous embarrassment of evidence in support of a particular theory and that, furthermore, they are able to hoodwink successfully – or even secretly conspire with – hundreds of governments and political parties, who are wildly opposed on everything else, so that there is a consensus that something should be done, then I suppose you're going to be quite annoyed when, as a result of this mammoth fraud, someone asks you to turn the central heating down.

Because if what they're saying is true, then our only way out of it is through unprecedented, long-term collective action. And human beings are really not very good at unprecedented, long-term collective action. And, knowing our history, we certainly don't like the look of that word "collective". Or, for that matter, "action". So better to believe the whole thing is a lie: Jeremy Clarkson will back us up, and he's a fun guy.
Believe me – I don't want to be on the un-fun side of the argument. I enjoy a visit to ClarksonWorld along with the next man, but I can't live there. All the rides are free because someone else is paying. And I sympathise with the daunted. I'm pretty daunted. The crushing scale of the thing, the complexity of getting agreements between countries at different stages of industrial and political development, the technological challenges, the whole seeming futility of it makes you want to club Caroline Lucas around the head with a patio heater to shut her up.

But still, I don't "get" where coercion, goose steps and Room 101 is implied in any of this. A failure of imagination on my part, no doubt. Maybe the Martians should appoint David Campbell Bannerman instead. What would he do?

Goose steps and mass graves? We're only trying to save the world - Telegraph

Drag Parliament into the 21st century Caroline Lucas

Yes, yes, yes and yes to these proposals. Great work by Green MP Caroline Lucas on parliamentary reform. Drag that place into the 21st century and make it more accessible, practical, democratic, economic and effective!

...Among the report's proposals are; the introduction of electronic voting, a systematic overhaul of Parliamentary language, measures to prevent the "talking out" of Private Members' Bills, greater use by the Speaker on limits on backbench speaking time and an end to late night sittings...

Green Party MPs to debate Green calls for overhaul of parliament

Oppose forest flogging: Petition and Early Day Motion

Please sign the 38 degrees petition opposing plans to flog our forests.
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/s/save-our-forests#petition
The government is planning a massive sell off of our national forests. They could be auctioned and fenced off, run down, logged or turned into golf courses and holiday villages. We can't let that happen. We need to stop these plans. National treasures like the The Forest of Dean [pictured], Sherwood Forest and The New Forest could be sold off. Once they are gone, they will be lost forever. A huge petition will force the government to rethink its plans. If we can prove how strongly the public are against this, they will have to back down. Please sign the petition now.Find out more: Visit the save our forests action centre to find out more about the forest sell off and download campaign leaflets and posters.

Copied below is Green Party MP Caroline Lucas' motion to the House of Commons opposing the sell-off of the country's forests...No Bristol MPs are signed up...

UK Parliament - Early Day Motions By Details

EDM 1199

FORESTRY COMMISSION REDUCTIONS IN EXPENDITURE

Lucas, Caroline

That this House is alarmed at the 25 per cent. cut to the Forestry Commission announced in the Comprehensive Spending Review; opposes plans to sell off parts of the Public Forest Estate in England which could result in 30 million trees being cut down and job losses in England and Scotland; notes that the Forestry Commission in England manages 258,000 hectares of public forest, employing 856 people; further notes that the Commission manages the highest number of sites of special scientific interest, with 99 per cent. of these in favourable or recovering condition; regards forests as a priceless carbon storage resource and essential to the Government's efforts to achieve climate change mitigation targets; is concerned that education courses and public health programmes would be inhibited by the sale of public forests; acknowledges that public rights of way are lost under private ownership of former Forestry Commission land; furthernotes that at 9 per cent. the level of forestation in England is one of the lowest in Europe and that 69 per cent. of forest is already privately-owned; further notes that hits on the Forestry Commission Trades Union's website increased by 560 per cent. to 80,000 per month after this cut was announced; and calls on the Government to bring forward proposals to amend the Public Bodies Bill [Lords] to remove this threat to forests.

Green view on today's spending review

Budget to destroy a million jobs

Green Party leader Caroline Lucas MP has called George Osborne's comprehensive spending review a "budget to destroy a million jobs" - and has again argued that the worst cuts could have been avoided by an alternative policy based on a fairer tax regime.

Caroline Lucas said immediately after the budget statement:

"This is a budget to destroy half a million jobs in the public sector, according to the government's own estimates. And the knock-on effects will be at least as many jobs lost in the private sector."

The Brighton Pavilion MP added:

"When those public sector workers find themselves out of work they will, along with disabled people, feel the full force of the additional £7 billion worth of cuts in welfare spending, on top of the £11 billion of cuts announced in June. The housing benefit regime will become much more harsh, risking a rise in homelessness.

"They will also find that the loss of public services that this budget represents will massively disadvantage them, and all the most vulnerable people in society who rely on those services."

She asked:

"Where's the fairness in a budget that lets vital public services go to the wall, hitting the poorest hardest?"

Britain's first Green Party MP concluded:

"This was a budget of false economies, undermining the economy and hitting the most vulnerable - and all, incredibly, under the banner of fairness."

First Green MP elected to the Westminster Parliament!!

Caroline Lucas has been elected MP for Brighton Pavillion - the first Green to be elected to the Westminster Parliament! The full - and historic - result is below:

'Leaders debate' in Bristol

I will be introducing Peter Tatchell, speaking at The Thunderbolt, Bath Rd, from 8pm tonight when today’s ‘leaders debate’ is broadcast from the Arnolfini, Bristol by Sky and so I’ll have to watch a recording. Peter is of course someone who has offered up and demonstrated great leadership over several decades now – maybe the media will seek his view on the debate?

My view on the tv debates is that they are undemocratic if restricted to just the three people who lead a political status quo that is more discredited now than it has ever been! There is very little difference between the three of them in practice, including the Lib Dems, and it certainly suits their political agenda to exclude others. People have a right to see and hear a broad range of political leaders, including the Greens, Scottish and Welsh Nationalists, UKIP, Respect…In the last local and European elections the interest in parties other than Labour the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats was higher than ever, so don’t the media have a duty to help voters become fully informed??

Caroline Lucas MEP, leader of the Green Party and odds on to win the Brighton Pavillion seat and become the first Green MP at Westminster said this about the first tv debate:

Is Peter Riddell right to say “The shift to the Lib Dems seems to have little to do with their policies and more to do with Mr Clegg’s personal appeal” (The Times 21 April)?

Certainly it seems the Lib Dems’ 10-point jump in the polls has been almost entirely attributable to Mr Clegg’s 90 minutes of prime-time television. He performed well. But could he have performed equally well had he not been confident in a set of policies he believes enjoy a good deal of public support?

The independent Vote for Policies, Not Personalities website (www.voteforpolicies.org.uk) has had over 150,000 people participate in its survey to ascertain which party’s policies they most support, without initially revealing which parties follow which policies. The Liberal Democrats are currently showing in second place, with just over 18%, ahead of Labour (17.6%) and the Conservatives (16.5%).

The Greens, however, are way ahead of them all, with well over 27% of respondents preferring Green Party policies.

I do regret the broadcasters’ decision to exclude the Green Party leader from the debates. But in the end, we must remember that it’s the policies that count. It’s policies translated into acts of parliament that affect people’s lives, not whether Gordon Brown looks tired or Nick Clegg feisty or David Cameron had, to quote The Times, “Disastrous pursed lips,” an “Unfortunate Elvis quaff” and “Awkward hand movements”.

I believe the Green Party’s flagship policy of a £44 billion government investment programme, to create a million new jobs in the UK, funded by tax reforms that would leave 87% of Britons better off, is a policy well worth voting for. And I think a high proportion of the electorate would vote for it, if the Green Party were given even a quarter of the airtime the big three parties get to explain their policies.

The Age of Stupid south east Bristol screening

An Indie Screening of The Age of Stupid, the climate blockbuster from the director of McLibel, starring Pete Postlethwaite: Tues 20th April, 7.30pm, The Thunderbolt, 124 Bath Rd, Bristol BS4 3ED. Free entry. Click image to enlarge.

"You wont see a more important film this year" according to the News of the World.

"I defy anyone to come out and not feel like they've got to make a difference" Caroline Lucas, Green Party Leader.

Green leader Caroline Lucas interviewed on the Andrew Marr show

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8613967.stm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/The_andrew_marr_show

Significant stats (5): 200 yrs before there is an equal number of women in Parliament, at the current rate

Read this stat in excellent coverage of International Women's Day in The Independent on Sunday. Some more: just 19.5% of MPs are women; 3 million women in the UK suffer rape, domestic violence, trafficking, forced marriage or other violence; 90% of local authorities do not have a rape crisis centre; of 109 High Court judges only 15 are women; womens average net income per week is £180 compared to £231 for men; 20% of people belive it is sometimes acceptable for a man to hit or slap his girlfriend; 36% believe a woman is partly responsible for being raped if she is drunk; 83% of experts cited in news stories are men; 19% is the proportion of women in news stories portrayed as victims, compared to 10% for men...

The front page of the paper had many powerful quotes from a range of women. Views expressed include: recent generations lack of achievement; momentum of women's movement has stalled; women suffering more from cuts in public services; equal pay not achieved; sexism still common; no female editors of broadsheet newspapers; female director general of the BBC needed; one woman a day dies in childbirth; girls suffer circumcision and prostitution; women left for hours on their own in labour...

Great to see Green Party leader Caroline Lucas on The Independents list of 100 women who changed the world (though I'm sure Caroline would say that she has a lot more to do yet!!). I was especially pleased to see scientists Rosalind Franklin, who played a key role in idenifying the structure of DNA, Jane Goodall, who has done vital work on chimpanzees and Helen Sharman, the first Briton to enter space(who I met when she visited the science dept at a school where I was working) listed, but did not see scientist Rachel Carson author of Silent Spring, who should be there. Caroline said this on her blog about the Greens policies:

Today is...a fitting day for the Green Party to launch its manifesto for women.

We support the introduction of quotas to ensure that boards of major companies are at least 40% female, based on the model already successfully implemented in Norway, and currently being considered in France.

We would insist that all large and medium-size companies carry out equal pay audits and redress inequalities uncovered; and that the law be changed to make joint suits for equal pay cases simpler.

We also propose better provisions for maternity and paternity leave, with a focus on paid paternity, to ensure that responsibilities are shared more equally in a way that benefits both parents.

I am proud to be a part of the only political party in Britain that is explicitly committed to equality for everyone, and as part of International Women's Week, I'm delighted to be appearing on Question Time this Thursday - in front of an all-woman audience.

More here:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/a-century-of-distinction-100-women-who-changed-the-world-1917427.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/the-rights-of-woman-how-far-have-they-advanced-1917579.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/a-progress-report-six-tales-reveal-how-much-still-remains-to-be-done-1917580.html

Why vote Green? Part Five: What do you want your MP to fight for?? clip

Public views on what they want from MP's and Green Leader Caroline Lucas in response: