Wednesday 12 February 2014

An Open Letter to Voters in Wythenshawe and Sale East

An Open Letter to Voters in Wythenshawe and Sale East

Floods and Climate Change – your vote is the wake up call

In 1989 the Green Party was supported by 15% of the British population. The worries over the ozone layer and what we then called “Global Warming” were commonly understood. Scientist predicted that if carbon dioxide levels continued to rise, there would be devastating consequences for our environment. As a result, every other political party said they were committed to doing something about it.

The current floods in Berkshire, Surrey and Somerset are entirely commensurate with climate change caused by global warming. It is what we – and climate scientists – have been expecting and predicting for years. And now the shocking reality is upon us. This isn’t just happening in the UK. Australia has just had its hottest year ever with appalling bushfires. Other parts of the world have seen the same. 10 out of the 16 years since 1998 are ranked as the hottest years ever recorded globally. [1]

Now that the flooding threatens the home counties and fields of Eton, David Cameron has said that “money is no object”, but this is a problem that is the result of a failure by the Conservatives and Labour to decisions taken years ago. In government they failed to agree strict cuts in carbon emissions at an international level, they failed to invest in renewable power technology on an industrial scale, and continued to support our addiction to fossil fuels.  

What we need now is a promise to rule out fracking, which threatens to poison our water supplies, wreak havoc in our countryside, and pump more greenhouses gases into our atmosphere. That is before we mention yesterday’s explosion in the United States at a fracking well which has caused the loss of at least one life.
We need a promise of investment in energy efficiency, insulation and warmer homes for the least well off, rather than tinkering with the price freezes and expecting privatised companies to sell less energy. We need brave policies like a re-nationalisation of the energy market.

The people of Wythenshawe & Sale East know that they will wake up on Friday morning with a Labour MP. UKIP have thrown the kitchen sink at this campaign, but a candidate that took money from the EU and whose bankrupt business owed you and I (via the taxman) £22,000 was never going to seriously challenge here.

So on Thursday you can either vote for business as usual or you might seize the opportunity to vote for us. The Green Party has consistently raised the alarm on climate change and our need to tackle this in a way that ensures social justice. Nigel Woodcock has been the only candidate willing to oppose fracking, as he did again at the hustings on Monday, at St. Paul’s Catholic High School in Wythenshawe. When he asked the other candidates to comment on the link between climate change and the floods, they all chose to remain silent.

You can vote Green tomorrow for the Common Good. You can vote knowing that a Green vote is the best way to make the others realise you are worried and want something done, before Wythenshawe and Sale East are flooded or covered with fracking wells. Voting Green is the right thing to do because we are the party you can trust on Climate Change, flooding and the future.

Yours Faithfully
Nigel Woodcock


VOTE NIGEL WOODCOCK    X

Find out more about the Green Party and join us for the Common Good
Nationally                     www.greenparty.org.uk
Regionally                              www.northwestgreenparty.org.uk
Locally                          www.traffordgreenparty.org.uk
                                      www.manchestergreenparty.org.uk

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