Stroud Green party member, candidate in the coming Euro elections and the Green party's national economic spokesperson, Molly Scott Cato who submitted a motion on the economic crisis (iii) said: 'It has been obvious for a long time that the international financial system has failed to provide for people's needs or to protect the environment on which we all ultimately depend. It is now increasingly apparent that it has also failed to provide economic stability. The motion I helped put forward at conference consolidated our policies advocating a sustainable alternative mechanism."

Cathy Beeching, who was attending her first Green Party conference, said: "I was particularly impressed to hear of the work instigated by Green Party councillors in Kirklees. There the Council offers free loft and wall insulation for all houses in the borough. This has created local jobs as well as saving energy, reducing carbon dioxide emissions and fuel bills. If this scheme was taken up by all councils, including here in Stroud, it would make a real difference."

Britain needs the Green Party more than ever before

Green party leader Caroline Lucas MEP who is widely tipped to become Britain's first Green Party MP in next year's general election, said that the big three parties were incapable of meeting the moral challenge of climate change (i). She likened the government's half-hearted approach to those who, in times past, have stood in the way of other kinds of progress, from abolishing slavery to acknowledging women's rights. "Imagine if they'd said: slavery is wrong, so let's cut down a bit - own one slave instead of two... Or if instead of letting women vote, own husbands had just agreed to ask us our views before they went to vote." The government, she said, was responding to the climate crisis with "a few low-energy light-bulbs here, a bit of loft insulation there."

Adrian Ramsay, in the deputy leader’s speech, spoke about the greed of the big banks, which took huge risks to boost short-term share values (ii). He said: “They handed out loans to people who could never afford to repay. They bought and sold these dodgy loans in a scramble to make a quick buck.” He also spoke about the government's action on both the climate crisis and the recession being seriously flawed. He said: "wasting time on dreams of new nuclear power stations, which would create far too few jobs far too late to help tackle the recession, while also being too late to make the necessary difference in emissions-reduction. Massive investment in the full range of policies for greening the economy would deliver far more jobs much faster". He also spoke to loud applause about Green party support for the CWU campaign to keep Royal Mail public.

Notes:

(i) The speech was covered by News24 at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7953641.stm and appeared on the 6pm and 10pm BBC1 television news, and in the Independent (http://tinyurl.com/dkgbdt).

(ii) Covered in the Norwich Evening News: http://tinyurl.com/dngtsp

(iii) View comments from bloggers about the conference including Molly Scott Cato here:
http://greendespatches.blogspot.com/
Full details of motions can be downloaded in the  conference guide here.

Some of the issues discussed:

A. ECONOMICS
C01 “commits the party to campaign for an emergency programme of economic and social reconstruction, based on the proposals of the Green New Deal pamphlet, but broadened and reinforced to transform fundamentally the current financial and industrial system”.
C11 sets up a guide to a new global financial architecture that aims to achieve balanced trade between countries, negotiated and fixed exchange rates, and a neutral international currency linked to the right to produce carbon dioxide. C12 adopted a monetary policy aiming to restrict the rights of commercial banks and other financial institutions to exert an unacceptably large influence on the economy, shifting the focus of lending to sustainable production.

B. ENVIRONMENT
A motion supporting Europe-wide renewable energy initiatives, such as concentrating solar power plants and highly efficient long-distance high voltage DC transmission lines, was passed (C10).  A call to support carbon capture and storage pilot projects was defeated, with opponents arguing that this would take money and attention away from renewable.  A motion opposing attempts at planetary geo-engineering through the use of proposed techniques such as ocean fertilisation was passed (C14). Motions C06 and C07 referring to general climate change policy were referred back for further work.

C. WOMEN’S ISSUES
A major set of policies on domestic abuse, including domestic violence, which was developed in close consultation with Green councillors, was passed without opposition. Among its provisions were calls for relationship education in schools to inculcate respect for others, multiagency working to identify abuse and improve prevention and early intervention efforts, and for domestic violence shelters to be given guaranteed permanent funding.

On maternity services, conference passed C05 (with amendment 1), calling for a full range of birth options to be available to all women, and supporting midwifery-led care along the model provided by independent midwives.

Also passed was a motion calling for the forthcoming Equality Act to provide for gender pay audits, for unions and individuals to be more easily able to start equal pay cases, and for a requirement on major companies to have at least 40 per cent of their boards female (as is now the case in Norway).

D. MIGRATION

Noting that migration is going to be an important issue in the forthcoming European  elections, and the need for a progressive and humane policy, the migration policy of the European Green Party was adopted as our own.

E. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
An extensive policy on intellectual property was adopted. It aims to “support the Green value of greater sharing, and while giving reasonable protection to creative people makes it generally more difficult to obtain patents and similar forms of protection than at present”.

3. EMERGENCY MOTIONS
Emergency motions were passed:
•     opposing the government’s nuclear consultation
•    calling on the government to reverse its Heathrow third runway decision
•    on the funding of rape crisis centres, calling for these to be securely funded as a core service
•    opposing further support for the privatisation of military training;
•    supporting students demanding that universities divest both from the arms trade and other organisations which directly or indirectly have financially contributed to the military and economic oppression of the people of Gaza.
•    condemning the government decision to talk out the Fuel Poverty Bill
•    opposing the construction of a medical research “SuperLab” in central London, beside the Eurostar terminal