As soon as the election is over the Government is going to announce that it is necessary to undertake a new wave of cuts or tax rises in order to balance the budget. The impact will be felt by all of us but most especially the poor. Yet this crisis has not been caused by the poor suddenly deciding to be more feckless or by immigration. It has been caused pure and simply by a banking crash in 2008 which pushed us into a recession that wrecked government finances. It can only be solved by collectively expanding all the major economies at the same time to get us out of recession or by cancelling government debts held by the Bank of England.
If you have had enough of austerity then vote Green.
Each night we see on the television dreadful scenes of war, pictures of primitive cruelty and images of suffering refugees. Both major parties think that the way to tackle this is to get tough on terrorism. Tony Blair led us into a war in Iraq to get rid of dangerous weapons. All he succeeded in doing was to massively increase the danger and to sacrifice lives. The Greens opposed that war. One year David Cameron wanted to bomb Syria to protect opponents of the Assad regime. Isis were one of those groups. A year later he wanted to bomb Isis. You cannot defeat terrorist by becoming their best recruitment agent.
If you have had enough of foreign wars then vote Green.
The most positive thing any of us can do with our lives is to look after the planet we have been born on. Fracking the land to extract every last drop of gas from it is not the solution to our energy crisis. Nor is giving extreme incentives to the nuclear industry to take huge risks with our future. We need to cut down on our consumption of energy by providing proper incentives for insulation and we need to invest in efficient green energy production. We also need to protect our existing green land. The current government has tried to fix a housing problem by removing all serious planning restrictions and allowing developers to target hugely inappropriate areas such as the huge scheme in Embsay.
If you believe that the beautiful environment of North Yorkshire needs properly protecting then vote Green.
This election is one of the most important of your lifetime. For once voting with your heart is also voting with your head. Every vote for the Greens sends a message to government that will be listened to. We have had enough of austerity. We have had enough of joining in other people's wars. We have done enough damage to our planet and to our local villages. It is time to start building a positive future.
Vote Green. In Skipton and Ripon parliamentary constituency your candidate is Andy Brown