Martin Whiteside - A Green MP for Stroud

Thanks to all who supported the campaign

I would like to thank the many people who voted Green at the General Election. I am also delighted that Greens made history by getting our first ever MP, Caroline Lucas, elected in Brighton.

It is important that people in the Stroud area have the opportunity to vote for something radically different from what the three big parties have to offer, and we know that if many people had not had the opportunity to vote Green, they would not have voted at all.

It is vital to have a strong Green vote and councillors elected to show there is a clear voice from the Stroud area for a different sort of politics with clear values of more equality, social justice and action, not words, on climate change. It also points clearly to the absurdity of our electoral system with our MP elected by just 30% of the Stroud electorate. We need a better system fast.

David Drew has been a respected MP and many of us are sorry to see him lose through no fault of his own, but because of national swing away from Labour – it is a shame he didn’t stand as an Independent as asked by many of us, but I respect his choice. It is also a shame that Labour did not make the electoral system fair during their 13 years in office.

It is clear from the election results that many people who normally vote Green, voted to try and prevent David losing. Sadly this has left the Greens with an even greater challenge ahead to build the level of vote we need to challenge the power of the big parties and to make a transition to a sustainable and just future.

We need to hold our new MP to account, and remind him, that although elected by a small minority, he represents us all. Many of us care passionately for a more equal society and one where we live in balance with the planet. He needs to reflect this in his voting record or I am sure he will be sent packing at the next election.

Martin Whiteside – Green Party Parliamentary Candidate

Hillside, Claypits Lane, Thrupp, Stroud

Green Party launch their Election Broadcast

Green Party Election Broadcast 2010
The Green Party have launched their national election broadcast.

People have their say

21st April 2010

Over a number of months, the Stroud Green Party have surveyed local people to get their views on a variety of issues which are going to be particularly relevant come the elections on May 6th.

More than 500 people responded from Nailsworth, Bussage, Bisley, Eastcombe, the Stanleys, Dursley and Upton St Leonards. Of the respondents, 68% agreed that we should be creating jobs by investing more in public transport and energy efficiency rather than cutting public expenditure. More than 70% wanted people earning over £100,000 to pay a higher rate of tax than at present. A huge 86% felt that raising the state pension should be a priority.

Despite proposals for a new nuclear power station at Oldbury, 61% of respondents said we should invest in wind, wave, tide and solar power rather than have more nuclear power stations along the Severn.

Martin Whiteside, parliamentary candidate for Stroud, said, “It is heartening to see that 47% of people said they would consider voting Green locally and 22% nationally – with the majority of the rest not revealing how they would vote, rather than saying they would vote for another party. It seems many people in Stroud and the surrounding area, all the way down to Dursley, are supporting the Greens – the most rapidly growing force in local politics.”

Liz Hillary, Press Officer, Stroud District Green Party

Teenagers plan for bisley play space

News Release

17th April 2010

Teenagers Plan for Bisley Play Space

Anna Bonallack, who is standing as a Green councillor in Bisley, met with Tom Mackie-Heppa, 17, and Ashley Boulton, 16, to discuss their ideas for a play space in Bisley.

Tom and Ashley have formed a group they call the ‘Bisley Association 4 Kids and Families’ in order to take action over the lack of facilities for young people in the rural area where they live. The group’s first project is to find and develop an area of land as a play space for the young people of Bisley Village.

The BA4KF are forming a programme of principles, purposes and promises to assure residents and parish councillors that they will match funding for the play space project, help with landscaping and planting and commit their time and effort to look after the site in to the future.

Anna Bonallack plans to work with groups of other young people in rural villages in Stroud District in similar projects. Anna says, “If young people are given responsibility and control from the outset for developing a project such as this, they will take responsibility for the long-term maintenance and continued commitment to the project, helping to enhance rural facilities and to contribute towards creating sustainable and coherent communities.’

Notes:

Contact Anna Bonallack on 01452 770783
Liz Hillary, Press Officer, Stroud District Green Party

Voters confused by Labour advert

A number of voters have reported being confused by a full page advert, 
fringed in green and asking green voters to vote for ‘GREEN MP’ David 
Drew and which made no mention of the Labour Party whatsoever.  Some
voters mistakenly thought the advert was from the Green Party suggesting they vote for the Labour Candidate and contacted the Green Party in confusion.  Some were extremely angry when they were told of the tactics used by Labour to solicit their vote.

Parliamentary candidate Martin Whiteside said ‘I hope the election can be fought on party policies and record in Government – not on trick tactics like this.  It is a shame the campaign has started like this’

The full-page advertisement was placed in the Stroud News and Journal (7th April) and Dursley Gazette (8th April).  The advertisement contains a picture of Labour MP, Mr David Drew, a list of his ‘green credentials’ and opens with a call for Green voters to vote for him. 

There is not one mention of the Labour Party anywhere at all on the advertisement.

John Marjoram, Party Co-ordinator for the Stroud District Greens says, ”This advertisement has shocked and angered Greens throughout the district.  We would like to assure them that it has nothing whatsoever to do with the Green Party.  We have an excellent parliamentary candidate in Martin Whiteside who is doing everything he can to win on the fair and just policies that the Greens stand for”.

John added, “It is a sad day indeed when, after 13 years in  government, a political advertisement for a Labour MP dare not even mention the word ‘Labour’”.

Notes:

1)    Please contact John Marjoram for comments on 01453 750962 

Liz Hillary, Press Officer, Stroud District Green Party
14 Burdett Road, Stonehouse, GL10 2JW
Tel: 01453 821246  Mob: 07865 298159

Printed by, promoted by and on behalf of Stroud District Green Party,

8 Castle Street, Stroud, GL5 2HP. Telephone 01453 750962

Do you have the courage to vote Green?

Ahead of the General Election a national independent website www.voteforpolicies.org.uk is getting voters to pick their favoured political policies without knowing which political party the policies have originated from.

On April 10th after 70,700 votes, the Greens were runaway leaders with over 28% of the vote. The Liberal Democrats were next with 18% of the vote, Labour and the Tories followed with 17% and 16%, respectively, while UKIP and the BNP lagged behind with 11% and 9%.

Policy areas voters are asked to pick from include crime, democracy, economy, education, environment, Europe, NHS, immigration and welfare. The Greens topped the polls on 7 of the 9 issues, often with a lead of over 10 percent.

Clearly voters do want change. They just need the courage to vote for it.

Results on 12th April – from over 80,000 surveys:

Greens launch biggest general election campaign ever

Today, as the prime minister asked the Queen to dissolve parliament in preparation for the general election, the Green Party announced it would be launching its biggest ever campaign for a UK general election, with a record number of Green candidates – and for the first time ever, with a real chance of a Westminster breakthrough.

The Greens point to powerful indicators that their support is on the rise around the country. Last year the Green Party’s Euro-election vote-share increased by 44% compared with the previous election, while in the county council elections the Greens broke through onto four more councils where they previously hadn’t been represented. In the Euro-elections the Greens finished ahead of Labour in two complete regions (South East and South West) and defeated the Conservatives in a number of cities, ranging from Brighton and Hove and Oxford in the south, to Norwich in the east, and Liverpool and Manchester in the north.

A party spokesperson said today:

“This year, for the first time ever, more than three hundred Green candidates will contest a UK general election. And for the first time ever, leading pollsters are predicting a Green Party breakthrough.

“Party leader Caroline Lucas is contesting a seat in a city where the Greens have outpolled all other parties in every city-wide election since 2005, where the Greens leapfrogged both Labour and the Conservatives in the most recent by-election to win hands-down, and in a constituency where the Greens hold more council seats than any other party. Unsurprisingly both YouGov and ICM, not to mention local bookmakers, have backed Caroline Lucas to become the Green Party’s first MP.

“Party deputy leader Adrian Ramsay is contesting Norwich South, in a city where the Greens have twenty councillors, and have outpolled all other parties in every city-wide election for the last three years – a city where in last year’s Euro-elections the Greens finished thousands of votes ahead of second-placed Labour.

“Darren Johnson, the party’s trade and industry spokesperson, is contesting Lewisham Deptford. Johnson is one of the most recognisable members of the Green party due to being a thrice-elected member of the Greater London Assembly as well as a Lewisham councillor of eight years. He secured the highest vote of all 54 Lewisham councillors on the Council. Johnson is currently Chair of the London Assembly as well as Deputy Chair of the Environment Committee.”

“In places like Brighton, Lewisham and Norwich, voters have become used to seeing Greens elected in large numbers, so the normal squeeze of tactical voting doesn’t apply. These are cities where members of the public have seen Green councillors in action over many years, pursuing Green Party policies than have won re-election and a steady increase in council seats. We don’t underestimate the challenge, but these are places where the Greens are fighting to win.”

“Fair is worth fighting for”

He concluded:

“This week the Greens are putting the finishing touches on a fully-costed manifesto which will undoubtedly appeal to a wide sector of the voting public.

“Under the slogan ‘Fair is worth fighting for’ the Green Party’s manifesto will challenge the consensus among the big three parties that spending cuts as necessary. The Greens will be offering an investment package for massive job-creation to see off the recession once and for all, and we will show how to pay for it. We’ll also show how to protect and improve the NHS, and how to give British pensioners the best deal on offer.”

Gloucestershire Parliamentary Candidates

Gloucestershire Green Party is standing candidates in 5 out of the counties 6 constituencies.  The Candidates are:

Stroud – Martin Whiteside – 01453 757874 – whiteside@gn.apc.org – Facebook – Website - Twitter

Cotswolds – Kevin Lister – Facebook – Website

Gloucester – Bryan Meloy – Facebook 

Forest of Dean – James Greenwood – 07785 555909 – Website

Tewkesbury – Matthew Sidford – 07949 639946 – aubisque@zehuti.com

Budget ignores affordable housing

Letter to the local press

26th March 2010

Labour lost a chance in the budget to steer a course away from housing misery for millions.

One of the few eye-catching changes in Labour’s 2010 Budget was a housing measure. Unfortunately, for the thousands of people on social housing waiting lists in Gloucestershire, the measure had nothing to do with housing that those most in need can afford.

In providing a holiday on stamp duty for homes under £250,000, Alistair Darling is following the same tired formula of attempting to stimulate the housing market through subsidies to owner-occupiers, rather than investment in homes for the millions of people who are in very serious housing need. A subsidy of only a couple of thousand pounds will not make housing ownership accessible to all, and it will cost the country £550 million a year.

At the same time as this giveaway, the government is refusing to protect social housing investment from the swingeing cuts which will hit unprotected government departments later in the year. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has estimated that non-ringfenced departments will suffer cuts of 17.98%. This would mean a drastic reduction in an already inadequate building programme. In 2007, Gordon Brown pledged to build 1 million units of social housing by 2020 – however, according to the National House Builder’s Federation only 162,000 of these will have been built by 2011 and if the projected cuts take effect, the remaining 838,000 will not be built until 2029!

The direct effect of this complete neglect of social housing (momentarily ignoring the indirect effects on health, economic equality and prosperity) will be a further 1.25 million people joining the housing waiting lists across the UK.

The Green Party would do things very differently.  By protecting investment in social housing and ensuring it is built to the best environmental standards, the Greens would protect the most vulnerable in society and create jobs and apprenticeships in the construction industry at the same time.

Yours truly,

Liz Hillary

Green Party Member

14 Burdett Road

Stonehouse GL10 2JW

Taking Politics to the Pubs

News Release, 26^th March 2010

Martin Whiteside – Taking Politics to the Pubs

Martin Whiteside, Green Party Parliamentary Candidate is looking to take politics to a new audience by engaging with locals in pubs across the district.  Cllr Whiteside commented, “Politicians spend so much time talking that they often forget to listen.  I hope that residents of Stroud District will use this opportunity to come and tell me what their concerns are”.

The evening is an informal opportunity for you to talk to your potential MP directly. Martin believes that, “an important role of an MP should be to represent his or her constituents’ concerns; engaging in this way is a great way of gauging what locals are feeling”.  He urges anybody who would like to raise any issue to just turn up and have a chat or ask a question. 

Cllr Whiteside will be available at:

The WoolPack in Slad on the 1^st April 6-7pm

The Old Spot in Dursley on the 5^th April 5:30-6:30pm

The Crown and Sceptre in Stroud on the 7^th April 8:30-9:30pm

The Halfway House at Box on the 8^th April 6-7pm

The Crown on Pagan Hill on the 10^th April 7-8pm

Liz Hillary, Press Officer, Stroud District Green Party

14 Burdett Road, Stonehouse, GL10 2JW

Tel: 01453 821246 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              01453 821246      end_of_the_skype_highlighting, Mob: 07865 298159 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              07865 298159      end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Printed by, promoted by and on behalf of Stroud District Green Party,

8 Castle Street, Stroud, GL5 2HP. Telephone 01453 750962 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              01453 750962      end_of_the_skype_highlighting