Why I didn't join the Greens

I left the Labour Party because of the Iraq War and because it seemed to me that Tony Blair (and Gordon Brown) were leading Labour to moral bankruptcy. I considered joining the Greens because I believe Climate Change is by far the most important issue facing us all. However, after a detailed analysis, I concluded that that Liberal Democrats’ environmental policies were as strong as those espoused by the Greens.

Most importantly the reason I went into politics was to change the world for the better not just to shout about it. As part of the ruling Liberal Democrat group on Camden Council I have been able to set up the Camden Sustainability Task Force, a cross party body with a remit to green Camden. I hope we’ll be able to encourage Camden’s businesses, residents and organisations to move to a lower carbon lifestyle. But I would not have been in a position to set up and chair the Task Force as a Green.

So, as I keep telling Kentish Town voters, if you want to play a real part in the battle against Climate Change rather than just register a protest, then I would encourage you to vote for a party that believes in effective action and is in a position to effect real change.

Selling Souls in Kentish Town

I’m glad to hear that the Labour candidate in the Kentish Town by-election recycles and rides a bike (Ham+High 30 Nov). Everyone wanting to play up their eco-credentials for political benefit has to start somewhere. However I’m less happy to hear that he thinks that the previous Labour administration was strong on recycling. It was not.

What the Camden Labour Group did was tick boxes. Central government said you must recycle so they tried every trick in the book to increase the tonnage of material recycled. But because of the energy used, very little of it made sense. Everyone knows the example of the recycling that was sent to China. That’s why the new Liberal Democrat-led administration has launched a comprehensive audit of all our recycling practices - because we’re concerned that many of the things the previous Labour administration did actually caused more harm than good in terms of the battle against climate change.

Tony Blair’s main solution to global warming is nuclear power. I wonder if the Labour candidate in the Kentish Town by-election supports that. I doubt it. Yet another reason why I believe the Labour Party is morally bankrupt.

This week I knocked on doors in Kentish Town where I saw a Labour poster in the window and I asked why they were in the Labour Party and what they supported. Not one of them could think of anything progressive or laudable this government has done since 2001. And they all rejected Tony Blair (and Gordon Brown’s) simplistic, centralist and authoritarian answers for the future – Iraq, more nuclear power, ID cards, detention without trial, more jails, a replacement for Trident. It’s a long list of unpleasant policies. The Labour Party has sold its soul to the devil. I wonder if the Labour candidate in Kentish Town has too.