3rd June 2009

Writing in The Guardian today, columnist, author and campaigner George Monbiot, a former East Oxford resident,  is strongly backing the Greens. He says:

"...if you vote Green, you tell the political class exactly what you
want. It's plainly not a tactical vote. There is no Old Green and New
Green – the party's policies haven't changed a great deal over the
years. The Greens aren't old enough or big enough to have inspired the
kind of blind inter-generational loyalty that has helped to keep
Labour afloat. You are saying, unmistakably, that you want action on
the environment and social justice.
As the galvanising effect of the 1989 European elections, in which the
Greens scored 15% of the vote, showed, all parties have to respond to
this signal. Then Labour and the Conservatives desperately started
scrambling to prove that they were each greener than the other. They
continued to shut the Green Party out of politics, but were forced to
adopt a watered-down version of some of its policies.
In fact I'd suggest that a choice in favour of any of the major
parties is a wasted vote, not least because their policies on most
issues are so similar that you are scarcely making a choice at all.
Don't throw it away: speak clearly when you go to the polls tomorrow."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2009/jun/02/georg-monbiot-european-elections