Jason Kitcat

Phew. What a week and a bit.

Election day last week was frantic and exhausting, which is how they are supposed to be. We put on a huge operation across the city to ensure we were visible at as many polling stations as possible. It was very noticeable that barely any activists from other parties were visible, we heard reports of one LibDem and two Tories across the whole city.

Then for a few days we had to wait, with the small respite of some good Green council election results in other regions. Finally Sunday evening came and as a candidate I went to Southampton to be at the regional count held in St Mary's football stadium. The atmosphere was a strange one with no 'real' counting happening there, we were waiting for local authorities to send us their results. The mood wasn't helped by the computers crashing rather too often (I'll blog more on that soon) and all the BNP crowd hanging around in suits and rosettes.

The result came in very late, after 1am if I recall despite the returning officer promising it would all be over by 11am! We did very well, with our regional vote share up about 4 percentage points in the South East and nearly 100,000 more votes being cast for us.

The two biggest cheers of the night were when we heard the Oxford and Brighton results where we beat all the other parties to top place across those cities. In Brighton & Hove we won 31.4% of the vote and 26.1% in Oxford, 11.5 and 6.4 percentage points up respectively in each of those cities!

However despite all the growth of the Green vote across the UK, we sadly did not win any more seats. While I'm delighted and relieved that our two existing MEPs Caroline Lucas and Jean Lambert have been re-elected to their third terms with increased margins, it's disappointing that all this growth didn't see more Green MEPs returned, especially when we came so close in a number of regions.

I calculate that in the South East we needed about 29,500 more votes to beat the LibDems for that last seat. Not beyond the realm of possibility, especially if No2EU hadn't been there. I respect and support the diversity of parties a more proportional electoral system brings. However the UK Euros are counted by probably the worst form of PR which means people need to be realists.

I don't think anyone in No2EU would be able to disagree with our key policies. Their website says No2EU wanted to oppose the Euro-Gravy-Train, EU militarisation, privatisation and champion civil liberties… the Green Party already offers those things and is established in the European Parliament. Of course you can't count on votes transferring between parties, new parties may well mobilise people who wouldn't otherwise have voted. But in the North West region No2EU won more than enough votes to, if they had been Green votes instead, stop the BNP and elect a Green. Again in the Eastern region No2EU and Animals Count votes, if Green votes, would have been enough to get a Green MEP there. Green MEPs are totally committed to workers and animal rights issues, and have a clear track record. Despite obvious good intentions, splitting the vote sets back our common cause much more than any publicity gains these tiny parties campaigns will have had.

The speeches from successful candidates in Southampton were pretty dire, and completely empty of any policy other than Caroline Lucas and a smidgeon from Nigel Farage. I couldn't help myself from heckling Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan as he smugly attacked Brown and proclaimed the new Tory dawn was upon us (or something to that effect). I shouted “Clear out your moat. Get back to your duck house,” to hearty guffaws all around. I know Daniel is one of the better Tory MEPs but it infuriates me that they are attaching themselves to a message of change… They are part of the establishment which maintains the status quo. Many Tory MPs were very noticeably implicated in the expenses scandal — the Tories should be judged on that, not given an easy ride.

Monday saw me back on the campaign trail. Yes, no rest for me despite having only got home from Southampton at 3am. You see on election day a Tory Councillor Paul Lainchbury submitted his resignation. Odd timing until you remember that Labour ministers were resigning one after the other during that election week. It must have been something in the air.

So we have a council by-election in Goldsmid ward which is a strong target for us Greens and we have a good candidate in Alex Phillips. If Greens win the seat from the Tories then we'll be in a stronger position to push through our policy priorities as the Tories won't be able to win votes without some form of cross-party support. So it's an important by-election and we're going to be working very hard to win it.

I am going on holiday in August so once the by-election is over on 23rd July I know I will be looking forward to a serious break. Until then it is rosette to the ready, here I come Goldsmid!

In the last week before the election I want to offer some of the reasons why I think a Green vote is a positive vote for the future…

Transport is such a vital issue… it’s how we get to work, see family and friends as well as how everything we buy gets to us. Traffic jams, train delays and sky-high costs at the pump or for a rail ticket all get us worked up.

Moving stuff and people around is vital, but carbon emissions from transport are also a major concern. While other the sectors’ emissions declined 9.5% across the EU, transport emissions grew a huge 32% between 1990 and 2005.

The right transport policies can create jobs, reduce pollution and save people money. Currently the car all too often seems the quickest, cheapest and easiest option for people’s journeys. Cars, whether running on petrol or batteries, will be with us for as long as I can imagine. But the mix has to change from car dominance to occasional use.

To make transport affordable and accessible to as many people as possible the Green Party proposes:

• Investing £3 billion to buy 30,000 new buses, create 70,000 jobs and spend £2bn more to subsidise fares and create new routes.

• Spending £2bn on a railway system brought into public ownership with new track, new trains and also urban tram schemes. This would created 20,000 jobs. We would also spend £3bn to bring rail fares down to be in line with the European average – not the 50% higher than European fares we currently suffer.

• We would oppose new airport runways or major road building schemes. We would support changes to taxation so that airline tickets were no longer unfairly subsidised (by being tax-free) compared to other forms of transport.

• We would introduce a core UK rail freight network and would introduce road use charges for lorries in Britain, as has been done elsewhere in the EU. This would cover the true costs of road-based freight and move it back to the rail network.

These are just some of our key policies on transport. We have detailed proposals covering all aspects of transport from rail networks, car emissions and noise to international shipping. You can read more about them on the Green Party website.

In the last week before the election I want to offer some of the reasons why I think a Green vote is a positive vote for the future…

As the financial crisis of the credit crunch was followed by a recession, the Labour government gave us some money to spend now (in the form of cuts in VAT and bringing forward spending budget for future years) in return for higher taxes in the future as well as likely service cuts.

Stimulating the economy with government action is certainly needed, but it needs to be big, bold, positive actions that will lead to long-term jobs in a stable economy.

The Green Party proposes a £30 billion programme we call the Green New Deal. This would create thousands of jobs in areas such as upgrading public transport, renewable energy and reducing the carbon footprint of buildings.

There are 700,000 empty homes that could be improved and put back into use. We believe that with local government action these should be improved and converted to provide affordable, quality housing to rent. All homes converted or built would meet tight low carbon standards, so not only helping to meet our emissions targets but also to build up local skills in achieving such standards. Our aim would be to invest £6 billion a year to convert or build 60,000 extra dwellings annually. We would also work heard to spread housing and so economic activity more evenly across the country.

We would also change the tax system reducing VAT, abolishing road tax whilst creating pollution taxes. We would take strong action to close offshore tax havens and prevent tax avoidance. These changes would help to pay for our proposed investments.

Overall these policies would quickly and positively help to boost the economy, discourage pollution and help to support the new technologies and industries we need in the UK to compete in the post-fossil fuel world.

To read more about the Green New Deal and other policies, visit the Green Party’s website

In the last week before the election I want to offer some of the reasons why I think a Green vote is a positive vote for the future…

I was chatting to a local resident very active in his community, particularly with regards to combating anti-social behaviour. He mentioned that he thought a party should be set up which would have as a core policy legalising drugs. “In essence, that's our policy,” I responded much to his surprise. I've had police officers privately also wish for an end to the drugs prohibition too.

Drug addiction is a public health issue, not a criminal one. Greens would take the drug trade out of criminal control and put it in a regulated, legal environment. This would cut out the criminal gangs and move us towards treating addiction – not pushing vulnerable people into an underground, unsafe black market.

Green policy is about creating a true 'health system' focussed on prevention and healthiness, rather than the current 'sickness system' which tends to intervene when problems are acute and so focus on processes to deal with sick people.

By reversing the privatisation of the NHS and reducing defence spending Greens would be able to:

• Abolish prescription charges,
• Increase community based services,
• Bring services like hospital cleaners and cooks back into the NHS.

We would also do much more to research and prevent the environmental causes of illness, such as from pollution or from agrochemicals in our food.

Through education, urban planning and eco-taxes we would strongly promote walking and cycling which would help prevent diseases, increase well-being and reduce pollution which is linked to childhood asthma. We'd also cut our carbon foot-print, a win-win policy!

By focussing on people and their right to be healthy, Greens promote lifelong health.