Highlights of Dr Caroline Lucas’ first speech as Leader
While most of the world’s attention is currently focused on a prominent election campaign in the United States, almost unnoticed in the Brunei Gallery of the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London) a historic moment in British politics was taking place. On 5th September The Green Party of England and Wales elected Dr Caroline Lucas MEP as its first ever leader.
Formed as the Ecology Party in Coventry in 1973, it changed its name to the Green Party in the 1980s and until this month the party has had two elected principal speakers, one male, one female, but party members voted to change the system late last year. On the 30th November (my birthday!) 2007 the Green Party announced that almost 50 per cent of the party’s membership voted in a referendum, 73 per cent voted in favour of switching to a Leader / Deputy Leader or Co-Leader structure, 27 per cent voted to stay with the principal speaker system. Green Party Principal Speaker Dr Lucas said at the time:
“I’m delighted about this result. The party can now move forward together and onto the job in hand. We have an urgent green message to communicate and many votes to win. This is a fantastic day for the Green Party and will help ensure we have a party that is understandable, recognisable and effective. But we now need to demonstrate to all our members, regardless of which way they voted, that this is not about weakening our principles, it’s about strengthening our effectiveness.”
The other Principal Speaker Derek Wall added: “We need a Green Party which is effective and empowering, doing things differently from the top down traditional politics that turns voters off. The result of this referendum challenges the Party to create a leadership structure that is true to green ideals. It has put our future leaders on notice that the membership expects a more focussed, more effective party, with a leadership team that is truly accountable to the membership in a real and effective manner.”
So in London last week in the first leadership election Dr Lucas defeated her rival for the leadership, Ashley Gunstock, by a landslide margin of 2559 votes to 210, and Adrian Ramsay was elected unopposed as the Green Party’s first-ever Deputy Leader.
“I am deeply honoured to have been elected as the first leader of the Green Party“. she said.
“I am also delighted to have Adrian Ramsay elected alongside me as our party’s first Deputy. His work for the past ten years in Norwich, transforming an inactive party into the largest group of Green councillors in Britain is truly inspirational. Britain needs Green leadership now. None of the other parties has the vision or the courage to tackle the real challenges we face today - the accelerating climate crisis, and Victorian levels of inequality.”
“We need a Green New Deal to tackle the impact of rising prices and increased unemployment. We need to invest the proceeds of a Windfall tax on massive energy company profits into making the homes of ordinary people warmer and fuel bills more affordable. As Leader I will work tirelessly to get our positive Green message across to the public, and to see more Greens elected to deliver social and environmental justice in towns and cities across the country”.
Dr Lucas’ first task as leader was to deliver a passionate speech where she also set out plans for a Green New Deal. The “Green New Deal” report, authored by a panel including Dr Lucas, Co-director of Finance For The Future Colin Hines, SolarCentury boss Jeremy Leggett, Guardian Economic Editor Larry Elliot, and former Friends of the Earth chief Tony Juniper, calls for public investment in green-collar jobs in areas including renewable energy. Lucas also backed a programme of free insulation for every home in Britain to create jobs, cut fuel poverty and reduce carbon emissions.
In her speech Dr Lucas attacked the profits of energy companies saying:
“Take a simple idea like a windfall tax on the grotesque profits that companies are making from the growing energy crisis. These are corporations whose profits have increased 6-fold in just 5 years, on the back of a double windfall – from rising oil and gas prices, and the £9 billion worth of carbon trading permits they were given by the government for free. Just three companies – BP, Centrica, and Shell – together made £1000 profit every second over the first 6 months of this year. Every penny on the price of oil means a surge of cash into the bank accounts of the world’s petro-giants. Where does it come from? The pockets of working families, students, the elderly and the disabled. For every 10% that the price of fuel rises, another 400,000 people are plunged into fuel poverty.”
“These corporations are robbing from the poor to give to the rich and they know it. And it’s about time they learned that in a progressive democracy, there is no place for robber barons.”
Proposing a Green New Deal in response, Dr Lucas said:
“When the world faced economic depression back in the early 1930s, it was President Roosevelt’s New Deal that got people back to work with a massive investment in infrastructure. Today we stand on the brink of a triple crisis – a combination of a credit-fuelled financial meltdown, accelerating climate change, and soaring energy prices. We need a Green New Deal in response.”
“The core would be a 21st century project to make the nation’s buildings truly energy efficient, with local authority bonds being issued to raise the necessary funds for a major investment in insulation, efficiency and renewables, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs in the process.”
Dr Lucas also hit out at the main Westminster parties and the record of the Labour Government and current Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
“None of the grey Westminster parties has the courage or commitment to carry through the kind of green energy revolution that we urgently need. Reducing demand. A massive investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy. It can be done. But it means real honesty, and real leadership. Instead, we have a Prime Minister who says that climate change is the greatest threat we face -but at the same time gives the go-ahead for a massive expansion of aviation, and prepares plans for a new fleet of coal-fired power stations. We have a Prime Minister who says that he feels your pain on energy bills. But instead of levying a windfall tax on oil profiteering, he rushes off to Saudi Arabia to beg the profiteers-in-chief for just enough more oil to keep us dependent. And we have a Prime Minister who insists that his government is taking a global lead on climate change, while throughout his time in Number 11 and Number 10, carbon emissions have been not falling, but rising.
Labour, and the Tories persuade themselves - and try to persuade us - that cutting carbon emissions is painful or depressing or elitist. As if warm houses and reliable public transport are somehow unpopular, or only matter to the comfortably off.
In a few years, people will look back bewildered and angry that – knowing what they knew in 2008 – none of the other main political parties in Britain confronted the most critical issue of our time.”
Dr Lucas went on to argue that the Green Party does not push the kind of materialism that leaves people unfulfilled, kills the human spirit and destroys the natural world. She feels that more people are now realising that the pursuit of possessions doesn’t always make them happier, and that the richness of our lives isn’t about just how many things we own. However the old parties don’t know how to respond to this change, and she maintained:
“They’re simply not up to the job. Their advisors only give advice they think is ‘politically realistic’ – in other words, advice that won’t require any major transformation of the economy or business as usual. Advice that says ignore the facts – you can have your cake and eat it – forever.”
Dr Lucas accepted that it was a hard task ahead and while she had been elected party leader, she needed all party members to show leadership in the challenges they faced. It was also a good chance to ridicule the Conservative Party’s cynical adoption of “green” policies.
“Do we want leadership like the Tories? The PR professional. The marketing man? Politics as a fashion show. One month green is in, but now it seems green is out. Flying was out. Now it’s in again. Motoring the same. A leader who is everything to everyone – until election day. Then it won’t be the focus groups who make policy. It will be the oil companies, the arms industry, the businesses who want to sack staff without compensation, who want to cut regulations that protect workers and the environment. Leadership for the elite.
We have to show that politics doesn’t have to be that way. That you can have a leader, and have true democracy within the party. That you can have leadership that truly represents the values of the Party and the needs of the country – not one small section of it. Leadership that can help the party come together, to stick to its principles not sell out in pursuit of power.”
Dr Lucas spoke of the encouraging progress in the London Assembly and one other crucial result in those London elections namely finishing ahead of the BNP. She called this achievement. “A vital moment for the state of our national politics, at a time when people feel so betrayed by the cosy Westminster village, that the BNP can present themselves as an alternative.” She went further claiming the Greens were not done with the BNP yet, adding:
“ Every time they wrap themselves in the Union Jack, we should be there to remind people that, bigotry, violence and racism have no place in this country.”
Dr Lucas finished her speech with a rallying call, asking the party to take a responsibility for making a real difference to the lives of others and the future of the United Kingdom:
“We need to work ever harder, reach out to those new members, forge new local parties, do all that we can to rally people to our banner. But to meet that responsibility, we also have to stay just as we are. Honest with ourselves and with the people. True to our principles. If I thought that the role of leader was power at all costs – a new Labour pact of selling the party’s soul – I would never have stood for leader. And you would never have elected me. The Green Party has always had its leaders. Thousands of them. And that is how it must stay. So until we meet again - lead on.”
Green councillors now play their part in councils across Britain, like in Norwich where at the local elections in May they achieved an historic breakthrough by being the first Green Party to become the official opposition on a city Council, in doing so winning more seats than Labour across the entire city, and more votes than any other party for the second year running. The Greens have two MEPs and two members of the London Assembly, Darren Johnson being Deputy Chair of the London Assembly. At the next General Election Dr Lucas will be standing as a parliamentary candidate for the Brighton Pavilion constituency hoping to make history as the first Green MP. From tiny acorns great oak trees grow, and personally I hope that in thirty years time the Green Party are an established popular political force for the good of British politics, the country, and indeed the world. In electing Dr Lucas as leader they’ve made a good start.
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