INTERVIEW
Caroline Lucas, Green Party
‘
More difference
than any other vote
The next general election promises a breakthrough for the Green Party. And its leader
for England and Wales, MEP Caroline Lucas, may be on her way to a seat in the Commons.
Erik Jaques meets the controversial politician
I
t’s not easy being green, or at least it didn’t use Statesman’s Person of the Year award top ten in Act) remain compromised by policy decisions
to be. Routinely derided by detractors in the 2006, came eighth in the New Consumer (airport expansion, nuclear energy, the “intellec-
UK as myopic, one-issue zealots, the Green Magazine’s top 100 ethical heroes list, and was tually incoherent” carbon capture and storage).’
Party has never been able make a major electoral identified as one of BBC Wildlife magazine’s She raises the government’s economic stimu-
splash. Top 50 conservationists. lus configuration as a prime example of bottling
All that could be about to change, however, if While appearances on such lists may not reli- the challenge, citing a study by the New
Caroline Lucas, Green Member of European ably translate into electoral votes, she is without Economics foundation that noted that a mere
Parliament (MEP) for the South-east of England a doubt the most credible and recognisable lead- 0.6% of the money would help engender a low-
since 1999, and the first ever Green party leader ership figure the Green Party has known. With a carbon economy. “I mean, that is pitiful. It’s
for England and Wales (since September last decent base of more than 100 Greens in local derisory. It’s a betrayal of British workers and it’s
year) has her way. councils up and down the country, two mem- a betrayal of the environment,” she cries,
Don’t be fooled by her elfin appearance – this bers in the London Assembly, and optimism becoming increasingly animated.
is a woman packing a formidable dialectical surrounding the European elections, there’s Another recent incident that has her incandes-
punch and has a passionate, vocal approach clearly a sense that, if there ever was a time for a cent with rage is Labour’s reluctance to help
unmatched in Whitehall. Gordon Brown is Green Party to seize the moment, it is now. Britain’s only wind turbine manufacturing plant,
pegged as “spineless”. David Cameron “exists in Indeed, in a recent speech, Jonathon Porritt, Vestas’s Isle of Wight operation, out of the finan-
a carefully manufactured policy vacuum”. chair of government watchdog, the Sustainable cial quagmire. “Britain is the best placed country
Leaders of large energy companies are curtly Development Commission, pointed out that in the whole of Europe when it comes to wind
branded as “robber barons”. 65% of the policies of the Green Party’s (then power, yet this government has managed to set
She’s a prodigious writer, exhorting on sub- known as the Ecology Party) 1979 manifesto up such a poorly functioning infrastructure and
jects as varied as trade justice and animal welfare had been adopted by “mainstream” parties. policy framework for renewable energies [that
in articles, reports and books (the most widely The next General Election looks set to herald the Isle of Wight plant] is going out of business
known being Green Alternatives to the big breakthrough. Lucas herself has a chance now because it can’t make money,” she exclaims.
Globalisation: A Manifesto, co-written with the “It is criminal for them to allow that to happen.”
late former Green Party principal speaker Mike As for the greened-up Conservatives, Lucas
Woodin), while her generous blog entries range
from in-depth accounts of fact-finding missions
to Palestine to vociferous support for lesbian,
gay, bisexual and transgender rights.
‘
People start to look at what
remains unconvinced, although she concedes his
Cameron is offering and realise it
party’s new stance has stoked positive debate
is insubstantial, and then they’re and even indirectly turned people on to the mer-
much more likely to come to the
its of the Green Party.
No stranger to controversy, Lucas has been “People start to look at what David Cameron
arrested several times for her role in demonstra-
tions, on one occasion taking her case to the
European Court of Human Rights in
Strasbourg, to argue such treatment contravened
’
real thing – the Green Party is offering and realise it is completely insubstan-
tial and then they’re much likely to come to the
to claim the constituency of Brighton Pavilion – ‘real thing’, which is the Green Party,” she says.
which recorded the highest ever vote for a Green “What you see up and down the country is Tory
the European Convention of Human Rights. Party candidate in 2005 (22%) – while Norwich councillors who are as reactionary as they were.
She recently hit the headlines after comments South and Lewisham Deptford are also seen as They haven’t fundamentally changed. If I think
she made on a televised debate about the expan- realistic targets. about Tory MEPs in the European parliament,
sion of Heathrow were erroneously interpreted “To get the first Green MP would make more they are the ones that are dragging down the
as suggesting air travel was “as bad as stabbing a difference than any other vote,” Lucas says ambition of our environmental policy. There is
person the street”. brightly. “Entry into parliament of the first such a gulf between the reality and the rhetoric
It’s no wonder that notorious agit-comic Greens would really shake up the whole politi- and I think the public is beginning to see that.”
Mark Thomas is a committed fan and has lent his cal system, and I think that’s actually quite a The Green Party argues for a target of 90%
voice to the Green’s European election campaign compelling message for a lot of people.” reduction in all greenhouse gases by 2030, and
on 4 June. A personality like hers does not go Lucas believes the Green Party offers the only has put a President Roosevelt-inspired Green
unnoticed. Last year, Lucas was named viable alternative to the government’s leadership New Deal which Lucas helped devise last July
Politician of the Year by Observer readers in the on climate change, where bold rhetoric and along with eight of the UK’s top financial and
paper’s Ethical Awards. She made the New groundbreaking legislation (the Climate Change environmental experts, at the heart of its eco-
20 June 2009 ❘ Sustainable Business
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