The Wales Green Party will be launching their Euro campaign on May 8th at The Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, 11.00 am, Room 2. There will be refreshments.

Pippa Bartolotti, Lead Euro Candidate and Party Leader said: “This campaign is a battle of values as well as policies. We are talking about the future versus the past; hope versus fear; decency versus bigotry, science and precaution versus ignorance and recklessness.”

“The Greens are an obvious home for disenchanted voters. We reject the corporate take-over of democracy and call for reform of the EU. It is all very well using a protest vote, but the result is always going to be the same unless you vote Green.”

The most recent ICM poll put the Greens in Wales at 12% vying equal with Plaid and the Tories.

“This is an election of shifting sands, and the outcome is not a done deal. Only one party has the strength and focus to deal with the most pressing issues of our generation – climate change and the corporate takeover of democracy - and that party is the Green Party.

“Our manifesto is a bold roadmap for positive change. From cutting carbon to investment in renewable energy, only the Greens will step forward to make our environment fit for the future.

“Young people understand the deep rooted problem of gross economic inequality, and the dire consequences of doing nothing to stop climate change. They know that decisions made today will blight their future unless courageous politicians tackle the main issues of climate change and design a future they will be proud to inherit. The Greens are that courageous political party, in fact if only young people were to vote at this Euro election we would almost definitely have Green representation from Wales in Europe.

“This election is about choice. Denial and despair or hope and opportunity, scientific evidence over profiteering and fossil fuels. We can build a brighter future. We can find solutions to the challenges that we face. “When people hear about our policies – bringing the railways back into public hands, turning the minimum wage into a living wage, scrapping tuition fees and insulating every home – they vote Green.

“When they vote Green they get Green. We don’t just highlight problems, we build lasting solutions.

“A vote for the Green Party in these elections is a vote for an economy that works for everyone, not just the richest. It’s a vote for jobs to build a life on, and a cap on bankers’ bonuses – rather than a race to bottom on wages and tax breaks for the wealthiest.

“At this election the choice is stark. You can vote for one of the establishment parties, who only offer different shades of business as usual. Or you can vote Green for a progressive and positive change. We believe that the EU can, and should, put people and the environment first. The Greens certainly will.”

The Wales Green Party has declined an invitation from the BBC Wales to debate at a radio hustings to be held on Wednesday 13th May at 11.30.

They have taken this step to highlight the negligence of the Electoral Commission, who wrongly allowed Britain First to use the name of Private Lee Rigby on their election material, against his families’ will. The family are reportedly very upset.

Greens have asked the BBC to read out the following statement during the programme: “Greens stand for a thoughtful and progressive politics. We believe wholeheartedly in the principles of democracy, however, on this occasion feel that as Britain First should rightfully have been disqualified By the Electoral Commission from taking part in these Euro elections, our silent protest is in keeping with the values of our society.

We abhor the fact that Private Lee Rigby’s name should be used by this organisation without his families’ permission, and will appear at the BBC offices at the due time, but outside the building where we are willing to discuss all matters relating to this election in a legal and dignified way.”

Pippa Bartolotti, Wales Green Party leader and lead Euro candidate said,” Whilst we always welcome the chance to put forward our ideas in the media, we do not feel that giving a platform to ultra right wing parties acting in an illegal way will in any way forward the cause of democracy. It is lamentable that the BBC have been put in this position.“

The Wales leader will be joining a protest and open air husting outside the BBC offices in Llandaff at 11.30 on Wednesday.

When all the scientists on the International Panel for Climate Change agree that the planet is on course for a 4 degree warming - caused in the main by human activity, and this warming will be 'severe, pervasive and irreversible', you would think that the European election might just be based on what the political parties would do about it.

Instead the election is based on ill-founded comments (for that is all they are) on immigration. When we are told repeatedly that millions of Bulgarians are coming to the UK, and it doesn't happen, do we get an open and honest debate? Sadly no. Those who claim to want an "honest and open debate" about immigration don't actually want a debate at all. They want to lie : 26 million Europeans are after your job. They want to scare: we're facing a Romanian crime wave. For 'facts' on immigration read 'unsubstantiated, simplistic propaganda'

And all the while climate change creeps onwards. Fifty communities in Wales alone are earmarked for abandonment to the sea. Climate change, just like these European elections, is not just about Wales, though Wales could by now be playing a seriously active part in trying to prevent the worst effects. To do this we need a government which can make decisions, and that we haven't got.

The Scottish government is on course for half of electricity use to come from renewable sources by 2015. Scotland plans to generate 100% of the country's electricity by 2020. In England the sector produced only 8.2% of electricity, while in Wales accounted for a pathetic 8.7%. Wales has more than twice the renewable energy it can use. Wales could be creating thousands of jobs - quality jobs that people can build a life round - exporting half the energy it creates. Wales could be prosperous and proud that it has created a stable economic environment for its young people. Instead the Wales Government is stuck in the dark ages of nuclear, fossil fuels and fracking.

We are literally living in an age of corporatocrocy, and democracy is on it's last legs. Corporatocracy is an economic and political system controlled by corporate interests, and is a disaster for all ecological systems and human health. In a nutshell, only a few will make money and the rest work long hours on comparatively low pay. We are in a system that shows very little compassion towards any of the inhabitants of this planet.

Yet the alarm bells are ringing. How many wake up calls do we need if people are programmed to sleep through the sirens?

If we are to sum up the European elections we would have to say it is climate change action versus false 'facts' on immigration and greed based corporate interests. The key question will have to be: what will make the silent majority go out and vote?

I believe there is a moral compunction to vote for a party which isn't racist or homophobic, but if you don't want to vote, you don’t have to, just let everyone else decide how racist, homophobic, corrupt or sexist our elected representatives are going to be.

Here’s a thing. The UK will stay in the EU after May 22nd – with or without UKIP MEP’s. Even if we did leave the EU some day, we would still have to trade on EU terms, and leaving the EU within the next 5 years would be disastrous for Wales.

West Wales and the Valleys are as poor as Romania and attract some £2billion of EU funding to get us out of this rut – a rut incidentally, which could be smoothed over quite nicely with investment in the tremendous renewable energy potential of the region. This sort of money would not be forthcoming from Westminster no matter which way you cut the scary debt.

It’s no coincidence that as soon as the media homed in on Nigel Farage – just for the entertainment value he provided - UKIP’s rating went up in the polls. Politics can be entertaining that’s for sure, but in the final analysis it would be wrong to vote for a party just because they liven up the news. Politics runs your laws, your life, what you eat and where you shop. Politics is a serious, intricate business and not an episode of I’m a Politician Get Me Out of Here.

It therefore may come as a shock that the Green Party has been making steady gains in spite of having next to no media coverage. It may be surprising that millions of people are quietly weighing up the issues, unimpeded by the weight of the media circus. In Wales alone the Green Party membership has increased by 12% in just 2 months and the list of supporters and volunteers has grown exponentially.

Greens are part of the fourth largest group in the European Parliament. That means we can really score results on the issues which matter. This election could return many more Greens to the EU, and we could achieve even more – like taxing bankers bonuses, binding targets for energy efficiency, ending overfishing and banning the harmful pesticides implicated in bee decline.

UKIP are part of a smaller group. But they are belligerent and damaging. In key votes over the past EU parliamentary term, they have failed to back gay rights time and again. (The record of Conservatives is not much better.) In a particularly harsh anti-EU mood they even voted against a resolution designed to combat the illegal ivory trade in Europe (and that is when they bother to turn up to vote). This is not doing anything to abolish the EU. This is defending the indefensible.

If you want hype on a hiding to nothing, vote for any of the big four parties. There is not much to choose between them and they all make promises they are happy to break.

If it’s a protest vote you want, vote Green. If it’s a more thoughtful politics you want, vote Green. If it’s a deep down feeling that large corporations are taking over our lives, vote Green. If you want a party which puts equality before making the wealthy even wealthier, which will not punish the poor for being poor, which fully intends to leave the environment fit for the future and which will invest heavily in the clean energy projects which will give us security, jobs and better health, vote Green.

Politics is about hope, not fear. Politics is about good policy, not light hearted banter. Above all politics is not about celebrity and soundbites; it is about good solid decisions based on science and compassion.

Tomorrow voters will decide on the future direction of Europe, and that is no light task.

The annual Queen's Speech sets out lawmaking topics for the following 12 months of government. This is what it would say for Wales in a more hopeful world:

“The Queen’s Speech will clear away years of obfuscation and dithering, by committing to clear financial investment into the infrastructure and energy needs for the future of Wales.

Wales can produce more than twice the energy it needs in clean renewable energy. Wales will have the freedom to harness wind, tide and solar on a large scale, and empower and equip communities to generate their own energy. This will provide energy security, fuel price security, jobs and manufacturing. Wales will be financially helped to take advantage of this exciting approach in the short term. In the long term Wales will be exporting energy and expertise, and will pay its own way.

Wales’s emergent economic activity will be unconditionally financially supported by the Westminster government through electrification of the rail network to Swansea, the Valleys, and the North, and the money made available immediately.

A total ban on fracking in Wales. Industrialisation of the countryside by yet another form of polluting fossil fuel is not desirable for Wales. Valuable investment and subsidies which would have gone to fracking, will be diverted to improving energy storage capabilities.”

In today’s Queen’s Speech, it was announced that the Westminster government is hoping to change the law so that fracking companies can drill under your house without your permission. Shale rock (the stuff that will be fractured to release pockets of gas) is notoriously unstable. When the Brynglas Tunnels were first drilled into the self-same shale rock, there was a collapse, and people lost their homes.

Around the world fracking has been cited in small earthquakes and contamination of water. It takes almost as much energy to recover these pockets of gas as the amount of energy gleaned. The Tullett Prebon report puts this at a ratio of 5:1, with the amount of recoverable gas depleting quickly after the first couple of years.

Pippa Bartolotti, Wales Green Party Leader said, “Fracking is not even borderline sustainable. Worse, it sucks up valuable investment which should be directed to clean renewables for energy security, price stability and long term jobs.

“It is pure folly to go to these ridiculous lengths to prop up the failing fossil fuel companies and their outdated business models. We are on the brink of unthinkable changes to our weather systems, and the time to stop burning fossil fuels is now.”

Scotland is well on its way to producing 100% of its energy from renewables by 2020. Wales has more than twice the renewable energy it needs, but is lagging pathetically behind the curve when it comes to realising this vast potential.

Ms Bartolotti added, “Taking away the right to decide what happens under your home is to open the gates to a plethora of rogue activites. If they can drill under your home, they can inject harmful chemicals. Renewables will give us better health, worthwhile jobs and energy security. The technology to arrest the march of climate change is here, so let’s use it.”

Pembrokeshire Green Party members will meet on Wednesday 25 June at 7.30 pm for the first meeting in several years. This inaugural Pembrokeshire meeting will see the selection of the first General Election candidate the Greens have fielded in Pembrokeshire since 1992.

Wales Green Party leader, Pippa Bartolotti will be in attendance to help advise the group in ways to build and grow the branch locally.

Pippa Bartolotti said, “I am delighted that the Pembrokeshire Green Party has invited me along to their first meeting. Membership of the Green party in Wales has shot up by an unprecedented 46% since January. The outcome of the recent European election has really concentrated people’s minds, and they are joining the Wales Green Party.

"We know that climate change is affecting all communities – from farmers to seaside towns, and people everywhere are telling me that we must start putting the environment at the top of the agenda. Coupled with increasing rural poverty and soaring house prices, the Greens are the only political party with the knowledge and the will to transform Wales into a one planet, more equal, and thriving nation.”

The meeting is to be held at Lletty Danbarch, Wolfscastle, Pembrokeshire, SA62 5LX there is disabled access at the venue. There is limited parking so please contact Jim Scott before the meeting on 07814089250 as we will have a shuttle car available from Wolfscastle should numbers require it.

During Pippa Bartolotti's visit to Pembrokeshire she will visit the surplus food cafe run by Transition Bro Gwaun where she will have lunch at 11.30 am on Thursday 26th June, and will see for herself the ongoing success of Transition Bro Gwaun who have recently celebrated their first anniversary.

The Wales Government is lacking inspiration and vitality. In Wales we have access to more than twice the renewable energy we can use. The implications for jobs, security and prosperity seem to be lost on Welsh AM’s, but they are not lost on the Scots who know they must shake off the chains of Westminster mismanagement and forge a sustainable future for themselves.

For example, Scotland is equally well placed to harness renewables, and is on the way to energy security. Currently 65% of its electricity comes from renewables and Scotland is well on target to reach 100% by 2020. Contrast this with Westminster dithering, and the English fall-back on a status quo which values the international fossil fuel industry more highly than the need to combat carbon emissions and provide us all with secure home-grown energy.

Greens share the despair of communities who see opencast coal mining rearing its polluting head across the Heads of the Valleys. Nant llesg, Ffos-y-Fran and Varteg all have either planning applications in or are in appeal. Local communities reject them all, yet would welcome with open arms the prospect of solar farms and windmills on these very same sites. Fracking is yet another business model designed to prop up the fossil fuel industries and add to global warming. Yet the investment which will see the industrialisation of the South Wales countryside from Swansea Bay to South Monmouthshire could so easily be used to promote and intensify our transition to energy self-sufficiency and lasting prosperity.

The Wales Government has not shaken off the Westminster chains of authority. The Wales Government is too feeble in its outlook to forge a way through Westminster ideology and strike out for what is good for Wales.

Renewables are the only way forward to the future. Community owned renewable generation is even better. In Germany only 5% of renewable energy is owned by utilities. The other 95% is owned by households, communities, co-operatives and farmers. This could be us.

Deep down we all share the desire to decarbonise the economy, to develop clean, resilient community–based energy and do our fair share to tackle climate change. But government is not engaged. A clear strategy needs to be developed to enable long term planning and investment. Such a strategy would engage finance, industry and technology. The prospects for employment would be huge, and importantly the jobs would be there for generations.

If Germany is already employing 380,000 (2011) people in the renewables industry, it is not difficult to see that Wales, with it’s superior natural resources could set its sights even higher. More jobs, stable jobs, and more money circulating in the local economy – it makes too much sense.

And this, indeed is the problem. The decentralisation of power ownership is a threat to the outmoded business models of the fossil fuel industry. It is a threat to the power of the industries which govern government. Yes there are challenges, for example in guaranteeing first access to the grid for renewables (currently fossil fuels rule) in pricing reforms to protect the vulnerable, and in re-framing financial investment, but the rewards are huge and lasting. We need to see vision and leadership.

We need to see a clear Feed-in Tariff which drives costs down, provides stability and opens the market to ordinary people. We need local banks to transform investment, 1% long term interest rates, and an updated grid that prioritises clean energy and gives communities first right to use their own renewable energy at wholesale (not retail) prices. All this would drive yet more innovation in energy storage and energy sharing. The future is staring us in the face.

Wales already exports energy to England, so the precedent is set. The irony is that the exports come from renewables in North Wales, whilst at the moment South Wales imports energy, paying overinflated prices for this dubious privilege because there is no north/south energy grid. Elected politicians seem to be more than happy to let this stupidity persist, denying us all the prosperity and energy security others are eagerly grasping.

Today it has been announced that the unpopular Black Route as a relief for the M4 at the Brynglas tunnels is to go ahead.

Pippa Bartolotti, Wales Green Party leader said, ”What an appalling decision. To spend £1billion pound on this short-sighted environmental wrecking scheme flies in the face of all reasoned arguments put forward against it.

“£1billion can go a long way, but without an intellectually original thought in the collective heads of the Welsh government it will be spent on shoring up the models of the past. This money should be spent on bravely constructing the models of the future, such as excellent health and education, clean energy from our enviable natural resources and model public transport.”

The Wales Leader added: “Generations to come will have to suffer the loss of wildlife, the concrete, the unthinkable debt, and the pollution this will encourage. With open cast coal mining, a fossil fuel based economy and poor public transport, Wales has become a paradise for polluters.”

The Plan for the M4 can be found here http://www.m4newport.com/assets/the-plan---english.pdf

The Wales Green Party is steadfast in its support for the rights of Palestinians. Greens all over the world uphold the basic human rights of freedom of speech, security, food, water, and in the case of Palestinians the right not to be forcibly driven from their homes under bombardment.

Pippa Bartolotti, Wales Green Party leader said,“The British Government has shamefully shirked any responsibility over the matter of Palestine for 77 years, and stand silent whilst the sands of Gaza once again turn red with blood. It was the British who abandoned Palestine in 1947, leaving it to become the world’s first state invented purely for religious purposes, and born in bloodshed. It was the British who consistently turned away from helping the unarmed inhabitants of Palestine, and it is about time the British Government took responsibility and led the pathway to peace.”

Several polls indicate that Israeli public opinion is shifting against its government's continued military response and occupation, and the UN Secretary General is calling for a renewed commitment to a two-state solution.

The Wales leader added, “The siege on Gaza is inhumane and counterproductive. It must be lifted now”

Pippa Bartolotti was one of the people who broke through the Gaza blockade in 2010, and has seen for herself the hardship and deprivation of life under Israeli siege. On a subsequent visit to Bethlehem on the West Bank, she was imprisoned in Givon Jail, Israel.

Greens are not especially concerned by national boundaries, but we do believe that decisions should be taken closest to the people who will be most affected, and that sometimes, but not necessarily, means devolution.

A strong Scottish government can have a big impact on sustainability and equality; a weak one wouldn't make a dent. A ‘yes’ vote for Scottish independence is a matter for the people of Scotland, yet people wonder how this might affect Wales.

Right now, I don’t believe there is an appetite for more powers in Wales, because since devolution the Governments in place have shown neither leadership nor inspiration. Tragically Wales has badly managed the powers we do have – particularly on energy, health and education - and have not in any way roused the people of Wales into thinking there would be any benefit to greater devolution.

If Wales wants to value greater equality, strong welfare provision and a dynamic economy which is based more and more on clean energy creation, then it must, like Scotland, show greater intellectual originality.

Devolution is not a gift. It is a responsibility. Wales needs stronger Assembly Members and a more imaginative civil service in order to deliver economic viability. We need to invest in the potential of this resource-rich land and restore pride and spirit and joy in our future development.

Top of the list has to be the specific issue of repatriating powers to the Assembly for energy generation plants over 50megawatts. In 16 sorry years of muddled devolution we have gone nowhere on this, and backwards on almost everything else. Community owned energy means profits stay in the locality, price stability and self-reliance. It also means exports. North Wales already exports energy to England.

By contrast Scotland is well on the way to energy security. Currently more than 50% of its electricity comes from renewables and Scotland is well on target to reach 100% by 2020. In Wales we have access to more than twice the renewable energy we can use (Planning for Renewable Energy 2011). The implications for jobs, security and prosperity seem to be lost on Welsh AM’s, but they are not lost on the Scots who are actively forging a sustainable future for themselves.

An Independent Scotland could do well. Successive Scottish governments have taken firm strategic steps to place Scotland on track to achieve the needs of its future, both in terms of political astuteness, and in terms of environmental, economic and social progress.

In Wales we have yet to see vision and leadership. The inability of the Wales Government to take us out of neo-colonial dependence on England, and create a coherent long-term energy policy to secure the future for every woman, man and child, for generations to come, is one of the main reasons a ‘yes’ vote in Scotland would have next to no impact on Wales.

Wales Green Party Leader, Pippa Bartolotti speaks at Green Party (of England & Wales) conference in Birmingham on a number of current political issues as well as the 2015 General Election.

Don't forget to catch up with Pippa Bartolotti on twitter @PippaBartolotti

Jim's speech in full:

Good afternoon friends and comrades, and thank-you to Drape the Drones and CND Cymru for organizing this wonderful, colourful event today on this international day of peace and inviting me to come here today and speak to you on behalf on the Green party, I am from the Pembrokeshire Green party just down the road which we have recently set up.

So, happy autumn Equinox to those of you who celebrate it and may I just say; It is very inspiring to see that so many people out here in west Wales and beyond care so deeply about the despicable state of affairs that the military industrial complex (The war machine) has led us to, to the point that you have come out here today and given up your Sunday to make a stand against this particularly inhumane technology which is UAV’s or Drones, a technology that is increasingly taking larger roles in modern warfare.

At the Green Party we are ideologically and diametrically opposed to the West’s addiction to war and in full support of this campaign and of CND Cymru.

In the British mainstream media we hear so much about threats of terror, we are constantly bombarded with divisive anti-Islamic rhetoric, designed to make us feel divided yet proud and patriotic of our United Kingdom! People argue that our loved ones are sent over to Iraq & Afghanistan to fight for our freedom and democracy and that drones are an essential step towards making this battleground safer for our troops.

What we don’t hear in the media, what they fail to divulge, are the real motivators behind these wars, how the West’s addiction to oil and minerals is driving and perpetuating this onslaught against the earth’s resources and against humanity itself. Not in fact driven by “Freedom or democracy”, quite the opposite, these wars are driven by profit, by banks, by the huge international arms trade and multinational companies engaged solely in the exploitation of people and resources across the globe.

The media certainly doesn’t mention the vast environmental impact that just the very act of preparation for war has on our planet. If this wasn’t bad enough, we have the politicians to deal with too, in the west -- here in the UK the last few decades have seen us avalanche into neoliberalism and crony capitalism, the very people who are supposedly elected to represent us and represent our views are actually the people signing the cheque’s and oiling the wheels for the arms dealers, and multi billion pound tax dodgers who profit so much from perpetrating and orchestrating these illegal wars.

Just one example is this : Of the billions of pounds of our taxes given to private companies for “rebuilding contracts” in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2003, not one school or hospital has been built in Afghanistan or Iraq, not one! And to compound this, as John Pilger writes 300 tons of depleted uranium were rained into Iraq from US and UK military aircraft during the last gulf war, the Iraqi population are now suffering a cancer epidemic, in the Basra area where the Rumaila Oil field is located they say the depleted uranium blows in the sand, where once 2-3 cancer patients were reported per month now there are 30-35 cancer deaths each month and just as happened in Hiroshima after the atom bomb, there has been a sudden increase of congenital malformations, nearly half of the people in these areas can expect to get cancer.

Yet the roads got built and the infrastructure was put in place so that BP can continue to pump out the oil from the Rumaila oil field, which is soon to become second largest, producing oil field on the planet! Drone warfare surely embodies the epitome of this modern age of organized war for profit. Youngsters who have been bought up on a diet of PlayStation and Xbox can now sit in control centres in the East of England destroying blobs on screens at the controls of these UAV’s, only these blobs on screens are human beings, women, children, farmers and even, quite commonly first responders.

Just as we’ve seen in Gaza recently with the UK/US backed murder of Palestinians, they launch a missile attack, they wait for the ambulance drivers and first responders and then send in another one. The UK and US are not only complicit in this slaughter in Gaza they have their top military men ‘sitting in’ on Israeli command centres, giving them front row seats of this testing of their new toys and scientific innovations, whether they are buying or selling, this technological and clinical murder of Palestinians is effectively the shopping channel for these profiteering cultivators of war, and when Israeli arms dealers come to London for the arms fairs they boast that their weapons are “Battle tested” meaning literally that they have tested them out on unarmed civilians in Gaza, so with all the UK government’s support for this, it comes as no surprise that the UK is the second biggest global exporter of arms after (you guessed it) the US.

Sadly the environmental implications of this false addiction to war and oil are far reaching too. In Canada they are destroying swathes of natural forest and displacing many thousands of people in order to extract oil from the tar sands, a procedure that ‘uses’ one barrel of oil to ‘produce’ just two!

In the US Fracking has already caused untold damage to peoples water supplies and air quality, all the evidence suggests that Fracking is completely unsafe now let alone in years to come when the wells degrade and allow highly toxic chemicals into the aquifers and pollute our water supply. But they are planning thousands of Fracking wells here in Wales and the UK and the politicians who have been put in place to regulating Fracking here aren’t just cozying up with the Fracking companies, they are the owners and directors of the Fracking companies too.

This all makes for grim reading and I do apologize if I have just thoroughly depressed you! But I am sure that you have come here today because you want change, want a positive and peaceful future and like us at the Green party and those at CND Cymru you will not stop until you get it. Just like 45% of the Scotts, people are waking up to the realities of those who seek to exploit them.

Rather than allowing this minority ruling class of disaster capitalists to profit from their ‘real life’ war games, whilst orchestrating austerity for the rest of us with all our safety nets removed, we could be building a better future for all beings on this planet and planning for a future where no-one lives in poverty or scrapes by on poverty wages.

Rather than profiteering from the development of technologies designed to murder people by remote control, we could expand the technology of renewables. Just here in Wales alone we have a surplus of potential wave and wind, Why not invest in that? Rather than deliberately causing, funding and creating instability in the Middle East for oil and profit , we could be nurturing stability and peace, we could scrap trident and set an example to the rest of the world that our future--our childrens future cannot be based on fear and the threat of catastrophic world war.

We can build a future based on Peace & unity and on solidarity with our brothers and sisters, from whatever piece of this earth they happen to inhabit.

We can start to build a future where the success of humanity is not measured by how much money can be made from exploiting and murdering our neighbours in a free market environment that benefits just the few, but a future where the success of humanity is measured by how well we all look after one and other and how well we protect the planet that we live and rely on.

Thankyou.

It is not right to force people into low wages and long hours in order to maintain a decent standard of living, and it is not right to pretend that ‘economic growth’ or ‘higher productivity’ will see improvements down the line.

Automation is seen a one way out of the grind of monotonous work, but it is also seen as a threat to the very existence of certain types of jobs. There is no question that machines are more accurate than humans, more reliable and more effective in certain types of work, particularly in the field of miniature technology where the human eye is not adapted to the task, or in heavy lifting where the human body is too weak for the gargantuan task of large scale manufacturing and bulk warehousing.

Machines will ultimately become more intelligent than humans, and will perform tasks 24/7 with little maintenance. As competition for a diminishing amount of human jobs increases, wages are driven down, insecurity is driven up. When the Luddites smashed the spinning frames and power looms of the 19th century in protest at the replacement of men by machines, they certainly had a point, but they could not stem the tide of mechanisation. Yet there is another way of looking at the problem – indeed turning it into an opportunity.

Marx referred to the Luddites, and noted that it would be some time before workers were able to distinguish between the machines themselves and "the form of society which utilizes these instruments” and he was right. It is not the machines which deliver poverty wages, job insecurity, the zero hours contract and an inadequate minimum wage.

It is not the machines which have created a pervasive sense of insecurity and a pressing need to work more hours to get more money. The society in which we live has created the negatives. The opportunity now is to respond with a realistic and just way to value human beings as more than just hours of work. Whilst machines are good at large scale number crunching for example, humans will always have the edge when it comes to interpretation, improvisation and interaction.

There will always be work for people, the question is: how much work do we want to do, and how much would we like to be paid for it?

Key to answering this question is breaking the link between working more hours for more money, and the value of work itself.

The Luddites may have smashed the spinning frames and power looms of the 19th century in protest at the replacement of men by machines, but they could not stem the tide of mechanisation. Yet there is another way of looking at the problem – indeed turning it into an opportunity.

How many of us would like to work shorter hours, spend more time with the family, more time in self advancement? The answer is most of us.

Creating a society whereby it becomes a pleasure to stand aside and let the machine do your boring work is what will lead us to full employment. This is in no way to confuse the grind of 40 or so hours a week of work with something more fulfilling – such as 3 days a week of work, financial security and good quality leisure time.

Humans have been treated as machines up until now - dispensable, disposable even - and to add insult to injury only a small part of our individual and collective capability is usually employed. But we are human. Our capacity for knowledge, invention, interaction and improvisation is almost limitless, and to achieve this potential we need a form of economic and physical security only something like a Citizens Income can deliver.

If every man and woman received a steady and automatic income it would enable them to make choices. The choice to stay home and look after an elderly relative would save the country hundreds of thousands of pounds; the choice to bring up your child would minimise childcare subsidies; the choice to choose a job nearer home would lower transport impacts and pollution, or to wait for work more suited to your talents and thus increase your social worth, would all be possible.

A Citizens Income would be financed by all these savings including the phasing out of all tax relief, benefits and allowances. Fraud would be impossible, because everyone would receive the same amount by virtue of being a citizen, bureaucracy would be greatly diminished.

Two hundred years on from the Luddites we have to think about labour and leisure in a more sustainable and hopeful way, and that means abandoning the old models of dependency on working hours for money, with benefits to make up any shortfall. A truly sustainable future means having the courage to transform society into one of greater equality, greater security and greater choice.

If you think these are just fine words, think again. This is Green Party Policy and it has been effectively and properly costed. The welfare budget alone costs the country £275 billion every year and is rising. The costs of bureaucracy, fraud and social welfare would be on top of that.

The time is upon us when we must think again about the value of work and the needs of the human. The Citizens Income marks out the way to a more hopeful, equitable and positive future. http://policy.greenparty.org.uk/ec.html

On the train last night a young man said he was pleased the UK would be bombing Iraq. When I asked why he said “because otherwise they will be bombing us.”

Where he got that idea from I do not know, but it reflects the feelings being stirred up by the TV media, and those feelings are powerful.

The UK Parliament vote to bomb Iraq was depressing. Crude political words about ‘homeland security’, threats to our shores, threats to our people, have whipped many into a panic. The persuasion to bomb was clumsy. There are alternatives.

Since when did bombing ever solve a problem? Previous haphazard attempts to bomb people into submission have always failed. Hitler thought he could try that on us, and it only hardened our resolve. We have done it in Iraq twice before, and failed miserably, worse than that our blatant disregard for civilian life created the conditions for those fascist psychopaths handed the veil of statehood by our own media who insist on calling them the Islamic State (in its varying forms). Have the British Government recognised IS as a state?

‘We’ tried bombing Afghanistan, and the effect was a terrible toll on civilians and the advent of drone warfare – that illegal form of summary execution where no trial is necessary, insufficient checks are made on the target and entire families are wiped out. No one counted the dead in Afghanistan, but it is estimated that the death toll in Afghanistan and Pakistan during the decade long war was at between 20,000 and 50,000. These are people. These are men, women and children, not collateral damage.

‘We’ bombed Libya on the pretence that it was to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe, but continued fighting amongst rival militias, armed with weapons kindly supplied by ourselves and our equally kind Allies, have place this country on the cruel path to becoming a rogue state.

Sad to say that if we had not been fuelled with Tony Blair’s lies about WMD and bombed Iraq in the first place, the situation with these nasty insurgents would not have arisen in the first place. Bombing is indiscriminate, innocents suffer the most, and bombing creates problems as fast as it seeks to solve them. This we know.

One can be forgiven for concluding that a state of perpetual warfare (with anybody) is desirable in order to keep the profitable wheels of the over-subsidised arms industry in motion.

If the British Government has suddenly found some money to spend on overseas ventures, it is infinitely more desirable to spend the money on protecting humanitarian corridors, protecting those who are trying to rebuild infrastructure, and protecting the civilians in Iraq whose lives we have systematically crushed in three terrible wars in 16 years.

Bombing will not make us friends. Providing safety and security will. Sadly we have yet to try the more constructive approach.

I am very proud that our own MP, Caroline Lucas, voted with a clear head and calm resolve against the further bombing in Iraq. Like so many others in ordinary life, Caroline has seen through the game of perpetual despair, and would stop it.

http://greenparty.org.uk/news/2014/09/26/caroline-lucas-mp-on-iraq-debate-killing-people-rarely-kills-their-ideas/

Green Surge: Membership of the Green Party up 46% in 2014

• Membership passed 20,000 at 4.00pm yesterday

• Young Greens' 100% growth this year is ‘testament to a sea-change going on in politics’

• Green candidates will be standing in 70% of seats in Wales at the 2015 General Election

Membership of the Green Party has surged 46% this year and just passed 20,000 for the first time. The steep membership surge is mirrored by rising polling (1) which see the Greens riding at their highest numbers ahead of a General Election since the breakthrough year of 1989.

The Green surge shows no sign of slowing. Pippa Bartolotti, Wales Green Party Leader said, ”Our stunning growth in membership is testament to the fact that the days of the old 2 party system are on the wane. This growth in membership is unprecedented for us in Wales, and there is no sign of it slowing down.

“It’s a delight to me that our 20,000th member is a young man from Cardiff, and I heartily welcome him to the Greens where true democracy and thoughtful policies mark out how we are so very different from other parties.

“Strong Green groups have been forming all over the country, and it is clear that the pressing need for social and environmental justice has resonated with more people than ever before.”

Membership of the Young Greens, the youth branch of the Party, has rocketed up by 100% since March this year (2). Green Party members help form policy at both Spring and Autumn Conferences Consistently polling at over 10% among 16-24 year olds, the Young Greens membership has doubled in size since March.

Our young people have not held back from challenging the establishment, calling for free education, affordable and publicly-owned transport, an end to migrant-bashing and a halt to the continual attacks on young people.

The youth of Britain have been at the sharp end of austerity, and are increasingly realising that none of the other parties have stood up to the huge hike in tuition fees, cuts to youth services and EMA and the dire lack of cheap housing for 'Generation Rent'.

Pippa Bartolotti added, “More and more people are hearing that we are calling for a £10 per hour minimum wage by 2020, for rich individuals and multinational companies to be forced to pay their fair share of tax, for the finance sector to be made to serve the needs of the real economy, rather than threaten it with disaster.

“The Green Party warmly welcomes all our new members. Members are the lifeblood of the Green Party, a truly democratic party.”

Ends Notes 1 http://greenparty.org.uk/news/2014/09/29/yougov-polling-green-party-neck-and-neck-with-liberal-democrats/

2 http://www.younggreens.org.uk

3 http://greenparty.org.uk/news/2014/05/26/european-elections-greens-gain-50-more-meps,-push-liberal-democrats-into-fifth-place/ 4 http://wales.greenparty.org.uk/

Swansea Green Party has announced that Ashley Wakeling will be standing in the upcoming Uplands by-election.

In response to this decision he said, 'Swansea Green Party has grown by over 50% in the last year and now includes a rapidly expanding Young Greens group based on the University Campus. I will be standing in the upcoming Uplands by-election with a view to represent the 23,000 students that live within Swansea, alongside independent businesses, struggling to survive the continual growth of multinational corporations, and everyday, hard-working people who seem to lack a voice on our city council. As co-chair of the local party and leader of Wales Young Greens I believe it is key for communication between the people of Uplands, and their councillor to be paramount. Therefore, I vow, if elected, to hold quarterly annual meetings to make sure your voices are heard. More of the same politics is not the answer in Swansea, it is time to be part of something exciting, it is time to turn to a new party of representation, equality, and progress.'