Derbyshire cuts leaflet (please adapt; acknowledgements to Peter Allen)

The Green Party Manifesto offered the electorate an economic programme that would reduce our national debt without cutting vital public services. This programme is the Green New Deal.

It is a response to the triple crisis that the world now faces:

A financial crisis caused by the uncontrolled speculation of international bankers, including many based in the City of London, interested in quick profits, rather than sustainable development, creating a financial bubble, which was bound to burst and did.

An energy crisis as the supply of oil peaks, and remaining reserves become more damaging and dangerous and expensive to extract

A climate crisis driven by burning fossil fuels, resulting in increased global temperatures, threatening the very survival of humanity.

The Green New Deal proposed a major investment in energy conservation and renewable energy, creating thousands of sustainable jobs.

It proposed the serious regulation of the financial sector to prevent the reckless behaviour that led to the financial crisis, while ensuring that low cost finance was available for the construction of a low carbon economy.

The Green Party showed in its manifesto that it is possible to reduce our deficit while putting more people to work, protecting public services, and ensuring that the tax burden falls on those who can afford to pay.

Caroline Lucas, newly elected Green Party MP in Brighton, has spoken out against the economic destruction threatened by the ConDem government’s budget:

“Cuts are not an economic inevitability. They are an ideological choice. Politicians of all parties are now sharpening their axes to slash public spending, forcing those on lower incomes, who depend on public services the most, to pay the highest price for the recent excesses of the bankers.

That’s the challenge I’m issuing: for that political choice to be made. It must be clearly asserted that we are not all in this together: that some had more responsibility for this crisis than others, and some benefited more from the boom that preceded it. Those who enjoyed the largest benefits must pay up now. There is a choice. We should ask those best able to pay to foot the bill through fairer taxation. For that to happen, fair taxes, not cuts, must become the new big idea to replace today’s callous and uncaring cuts fanaticism.”

Only The Green Party has the policies and principles required to address the problems facing Britain and the world in these dangerous times.

For more information visit  http://www.greenparty.org.uk  and http://derbyshiregreenparty.org.uk