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
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for the Common Good
