Caroline Lucas MEP, leader of The Green Party visited Forest Row on Thursday 30th April to launch the local Green candidates campaign for both the West Sussex and East Sussex County Elections, and to promote her own campaign for re-election to the European Parliament.
Caroline has been a frequent visitor to Forest Row since 2003 when she addressed a packed audience during a national debate about the introduction of GM Crops to the UK, and a similarly vibrant public meeting in 2006 to support the Climate Change Bill which was finally passed by Parliament in 2008.
On this occasion she delivered a speech to an audience of more than 150 people in the Village Hall entitled Credit Crunch and Climate Crisis – The Way Forward. She outlined the proposals contained in a new report, A Green New Deal that she co-authored with the New Economics Foundation. The report claims to provide a blue print for getting us out of the Credit Crunch and creating a sustainable and prosperous long-term future.
“We were inspired by the work of President Roosevelt who launched a New Deal to rescue the US from financial crisis in the 1930’s” said Lucas, “but in our time, instead of spending the money on roads and railways, we would spend it on a massive programme of insulation and renewable energy, creating thousands of new green collar jobs in the process.”
Caroline then presented a positive vision of what a sustainable and prosperous new future might be like quoting the environmentalist George Marshall: “Imagine that you never have to commute to work again. Never have to sit in a traffic jam. Never have to fight over a parking space. Everything that you need and everyone that you want to see is a short walk or cycle ride away.”
Chairman of the event Keith Obbard said “the long stream of questioning from the audience at the end of the presentation demonstrated the keen level of interest in this subject. Caroline is now an internationally recognised figure on both the political and environmental stage, and we’re very privileged to have been able to host this event.”
