During this period of wonderfully warm and dry weather, we at the Green Party thought it would be useful to mention some more reasons to be cheerful.
Firstly, there were many Green gains across Kent and in adjoining areas in the local elections.
In Tunbridge Wells we were pleased to stand in all seats for the first time, with a gender-balanced slate, and received a record 8.2% of the vote across the Borough, indicating a likely strong result in the coming General Election. We were pleased to come second to the Conservative in Frittenden & Sissinghurst, and we look forward to next year’s “all out” elections in the new Wards.
Across Kent, Greens won an impressive 24 seats, bringing the number of Green Councillors in the County to 52 (see the diagram, showing the degree of Green representation across Kent), and in the adjacent Wealden District Council the Greens won enough seats to jointly lead the Council with the LibDems.
The benefits of a strongly Green Council have already been seen in Folkstone & Hythe with the immediate cancellation of a controversial and hugely damaging proposed development on the seafront at Hythe.
Secondly, the Boundary Commission’s recent report on the Tunbridge Wells Ward Boundaries included some changes that reflect the fact that they listened to some of the feedback from earlier consultations – a rare occurrence in public consultations these days.
Our Green Party campaign to keep Kilndown in the same Ward as Goudhurst succeeded – the historical connections between those settlements will be maintained in their new Ward.
Thirdly, at a national level the Green Co-leaders Adrian Ramsey and Carla Denya are getting more airtime as they are seen to be offering positive solutions to some of the problems such as climate change, the NHS and housing that a tired government distracted by infighting is not addressing.
To cap it all, along comes Nigel Farage, admitting in his own words that ”Brexit has failed”!
We take no comfort in the fact that far from providing an extra £350m a week for the NHS, recent figures show that Brexit has actually COST the UK about that amount of money per week from lost exports and lower Government income from the fewer goods we have been producing. But we have always wanted to stay in close contact with our European neighbours, and it was satisfying to see a recent opinion poll in the Observer that found that 63% of the British people believe Brexit has created new problems, compared to only a third of that number thinking it’s been a success.
So why does Labour keep trying to convince the public it can make the Conservatives’ Brexit work?
As we move towards the next General Election, it’s beginning to look like the Greens who have captured the public mood across the country rather than the official opposition. That’s a reason to be hopeful, as well as cheerful!’