The War Between the Greens and Lib Dems
The Greens are making a very tactically astute grab for left-leaning Lib Dem voters - and have taken the gloves off:
Their press release says:
"Following a series of policy announcements from Brian Paddick which have shown him moving away from Liberal Democrat positions, particularly on the environment, Green AMs Darren Johnson and Jenny Jones are to deliver an open letter to Nick Clegg at the Lib Dem headquarters in Cowley Street, London, inviting him and his party to back Green candidate Siân Berry instead.
Paddick has pledged to tear up environmental policies that have been supported by both the Greens and the Liberal Democrats on the Assembly, in favour of Conservative positions. He has said he would:
-- Scrap the Low Emissions Zone which was introduced in February to cut the 1,000 premature deaths caused annually by air pollution.
-- Cancel the £25 congestion charge for gas-guzzling Band G vehicles, a policy championed by Lib Dem MP Lynne Featherstone when she was an Assembly Member.
-- Privatising the tube network so that: "One company runs the tracks, trains, staffing and signalling for a fixed fee and TfL take the fare box." Lib Dem candidates contested the 2000 Assembly elections as "Liberal Democrats: Against Tube Sell-off."
Darren Johnson AM said: "It's increasingly clear that there is no Liberal Democrat candidate in this election. Brian Paddick, who holds the party's nomination, is has made it clear that his aim is to capture Conservative votes and he is turning his back on Lib Dem voters to do that.
"We expected a display of anti-environment, pro-privatisation posturing from Boris Johnson, but it comes as a surprise to see it from Paddick. Lib Dems are no doubt similarly shocked.
"Liberal Democrat voters have been placed in the unenviable position of being asked to vote for a Conservative with a yellow rosette, and most will now find themselves politically closer to the Green candidate then their own.
"Siân Berry may not be a Liberal Democrat, but neither is Brian Paddick. We are urging Lib Dem supporters who still care about public transport, health and climate change to vote Green this time."
posted by Luke Akehurst at 9:53 am
3 Comments:
What a load of crap. The Greens have seriously lost the plot they really have. Kens use of Green issues is a complete joke considering the contrasting choices Brown is making for the whole country.
The greens idea of carbon credits is a con and isn't working and you only have to look at oil consumption to see this. You are never going to tackle climate change on this sort of micro scale. We are currently maxed out in terms of oil production so we are burning more oil then ever before, this is at a time when we are meant to be cutting back. This is a global issue and has very little to do with London.
If this government really wants to tackle green issues then they need to look at decentralising energy production which is in complete contrast to Browns nuclear programme. They need to pay for every home to be insulated walls included, pay for solar water heating and solar energy production. We need communal wind farms and ground source heat pumps that make use of lakes, and unused land. The money needs to come from central government as the current grant system is useless and inadequate.
We need then a government that is brave enough to stand up to China and America and willing to challenge capitalism. We need to be shrinking our economies and not growing them, and this is the whole problem with the current capitalist model...we need growth.
We all know how poor our transport system is. It's too expensive and slow and the only way we are going to resolve this is nationally. Brown needs to buy back the Railways. How can you lot sit there and preach about car drivers when there simply isn't an alternative to the car? It costs me over £130.00 on a unregulated fare to travel to london on the train...that is a joke. How can you expect to people onto trains when they charge this sort of money. Yes you can book a month in advance and travel on regulated fares but for 90% of people this is not practical.
This government has been in power for 10 years and all I've seen is rising rail fares and poorer service. No long term stratergy for energy production and the lowest green grant system in Europe.
In the last 10 years the Germans have turned Green into an industry that is worth billions. They now produce over half their energy from Green sources. I'm sorry Labour are poor and I can see no reason why the greens would support them
1:28 pm, March 28, 2008
Colin Low, Baron Low of Dalston made a damming assessment of Hackney council yesterday in the Lords. Was your name mentioned Luke?
2:14 pm, March 28, 2008
Well done to Livingstone on conning the Watermelons; he may even get a few Libs at this rate.
It's more hilarious though to see the Watermelons using the Lib Dem techniques against them: "We're asking Lib Dems to lend us their vote just this once for this very special election. It's a two-horse race: only Livingstone or the enviro-Trot can nick your second preference here..."
7:43 pm, March 28, 2008
Post a Comment
<< Home