Here’s why millions of people across the country are voting for the Green Party.

Bryan Blears
Nov 5 · 4 min read

In May 2019 the Green Party more than doubled its number of Councillors from 178 to 372, and received over 2 million votes in the European Elections. As a political party, we have seen a huge surge in membership and support in recent years. Here are just a few reasons why people are choosing to reject the politics of the mainstream parties and vote for a new, Green alternative.

We put local communities first.

The Green Party’s politics are based on representing local communities needs and working together to make local areas a nicer place to live. Green Councillors can make a huge impact upon local policy on issues including housing, transport and recycling. If you want to know what difference local Green representatives can make, just ask the residents of Trafford! Their three Green Councillors have managed to change the focus of the council by declaring a climate emergency, and have introduced a ban on single-use plastic and a motion to stop investment in fossil fuels, as well as taking on a range of casework aimed at reducing litter and pollution and improving people’s health across the borough.

We are the only party taking climate change seriously.

Forget Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson’s lip service to the climate crisis. The Green Party has been campaigning on environmental issues since 1985. We saw the problems of climate change and species extinction forming decades ago, and although people weren’t ready to listen then, that has all changed since people like David Attenborough, Greta Thunberg and the Extinction Rebellion movement have drawn global attention to the climate problem we all face.

While the mainstream parties have all pledged to do something about the climate, their actions speak to the contrary. The Tories and Lib Dems are committed to our consumerist economic model which is the main driver of CO2 emissions, and Labour has committed to airport expansion at a time when we should be reducing the amount of air traffic in the sky. Locally, our Labour Council and Mayor have given developers the opportunity to build expensive homes on Green Belt land which they promised to protect. Our message is clear — there is only one vote this General Election which is a vote to save the climate. Accept no imitations.

We aren’t backed by big business or other outside interests.

The Green Party is funded by our members. We don’t have the backing of big businesses, trade unions or foreign powers, and as a result we are the most democratic and well-liked political party in Britain. We don’t have influential people like Rupert Murdoch or Len McCluskey calling the shots. Instead, every word of our manifesto is written by our members, and local parties are free to represent their areas in the way best-suited to them. Even despite a lack of corporate funding, we still manage to gain millions of votes across England and Wales, as a result of people’s faith in our common-sense, forward-thinking politics. In fact, a fairer electoral system would have seen the Greens win at least 6 seats at the last General Election; enough to give us a much louder voice in Westminster on behalf of our voters.

Our manifesto is the most ambitious plan to transform Britain.

Many of the most radical and transformational policies being discussed in Britain today come from the Greens. A Citizen’s Income, the move to a four-day working week, free public transport, a ban on fracking — these are just some of the ideas the Green manifesto has had to offer. We opposed austerity from the start of the Tories getting into power, and we have been a key voice for bringing public services back into public ownership since the Thatcher era.

It is clear that we can’t carry on with business as usual. Our current plan is the most ambitious plan to transform Britain — to reshape our economy to provide green jobs, reduce the amount of waste we produce, re-invest in public services and take power back from Westminster into the local community.

We believe in a kinder type of politics.

We believe that politics works better when we work together. That’s why the Green Party prides itself on our values of tolerance, liberty and inclusion. We are critical of those in power, particularly when powerful individuals place personal profit above the well-being of everyone else. But our criticism never lowers itself to smear politics or personal abuse. We will always stand up for sensible, evidence-based debate, and oppose the radicalism of both the far-right and the far-left.

Across Britain, thousands of Green Party candidates are ready to take on the important work of transforming our country. This general election presents the opportunity of a generation — to send a message on the climate to the mainstream parties and take on our failed, two-party system in Westminster. Please get involved wherever you are and make a difference on December 12th by voting for the Green Party.

Bryan Blears is Green Party candidate for Salford and Eccles constituency. You can follow him on Twitter @bryanblears and on Facebook /bryanblearsgreenparty/

Bryan Blears
Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade