Its easy to have a go at a rival party just before an election but an interesting thing happened at a ‘Europe and Immigration’ hustings event yesterday.
On Twitter, the prospective Labour MEP candidate was
criticised by a Labour Party supporter in the audience. I was a little
embarrassed for him given the twitter feed was on the big screen.
After speaking very receptive members of the audience, there were several things I should have said, like
- The government’s latest Immigration Bill (which asks landlords to check the status of immigrants, cuts back on the right to migrate to join family and drastically cuts down the ways you can appeal) only got through Parliament with Labour assistance. The Greens opposed it.
- Tuition fees lead to an average student debt of approx £35,000 on a 3 year course. Labour is planning a commitment to reduce fees from £9000 to £6000. Established Green Party policy is to scrap tuition fees completely. Every young person, every student should be voting Green.
- Labour Party is currently thinking over renationalising the railways. Green Party MP Caroline Lucas presented a bill to Parliament do just that in 2013.
- Labour invented the bedroom tax, the government just extended it
Green Party positions on a whole range of issues are more in line with those
of Labour party supporters than the Labour Party itself.
What I did do is
point the audience to the Vote for
Policies website and to make their own mind up.
Everyone should do it and vote accordingly.
