Diana Toynbee, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Hereford City and South
Political change is in the air. For the last 35 years a neo-liberal economic orthodoxy has held sway, and the right of centre parties that support it have dominated politics globally, and locally. A couple of political landslides over the last few weeks indicate the new openness and unpredictability of politics. Syriza’s victory in Greece has been much written about: more recent and perhaps more interesting has been the victory of the Arvind Kejriwal’s anti-corruption AAP in Delhi, and Annastacia Palaszczuk’s pro-renewables Labour group in the Queensland elections.
The Green Surge continues, with the membership of the England and Wales party up at 53,276, and our local Hereford City and South branch up at 136 as of this morning. People are joining for a wide range of reasons. Many ex Labour and LibDems have joined, fed-up with the ever rightward drift of those parties. Many Tories, especially the old One Nation type, are appalled by the extreme inequality that now exists, and in many areas fears over fracking are driving former Tories to join the Greens. Perhaps the biggest group of those joining are people who previously were not really involved in politics and didn’t bother voting: now they see that if they want change they do need to get stuck-in politically. The Green Party really does have a well thought out and popular range of policies across the whole spectrum: see the Vote for Policies link below.
Locally here in Hereford we have a really excellent candidate who’d make a great MP: Diana Toynbee. The local party is buzzing. Come along to our first new Members Forum type meeting at the Riverside Centre in Vicarage Road, St James, Hereford, 7.00pm Monday 16th February. And if you’re not already a member, why not join today? (Just click link below, Join the Green Party.)
Queensland elections http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queensland_state_election,_2015
Delhi elections http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-31294500
Vote for Policies http://voteforpolicies.org.uk/
Join the Green Party https://my.greenparty.org.uk/civicrm/membership/joining
Local Green Party news, plus some great fun fundraisers http://hereford.greenparty.org.uk/
Arts for Greens auction http://www.jumblebee.co.uk/greenteaparty