10th October 2005

The WDP reports Oliver Letwin saying 'millions of voters will be attracted back to the Conservatives' if the True Blue party goes green (6/10/05). The Shadow Environment Secretary and West Dorset MP rightly poured scorn on Labour's record on tackling pollution and the crisis in farming, but Tories going Green must surely be a laugh?

At the last election, Conservatives planned to neuter English Nature and the Environment Agency with funding cuts and Tories have been consistently committed to more road-building, more airport expansion, continued aviation tax breaks and increased freight-mileage. They also don't appear to have rejected their traditional funding from road, aviation and nuclear lobbyists, and predatory supermarket chains.

Indeed whether it be Labour, Lib Dem or Conservative, their environment policies are similarly spineless with their priority being the endless fuelling of economic growth. Our CO2 emissions continue to rise: we will not meet even our wholly inadequate Kyoto targets. We are also reaching the peak of oil production and face increasingly serious long term oil shortages.

We cannot go on like this. We need radical action - not parties supporting Green issues just to get more votes. If we act now we can reduce the catastrophic effects of climate change and oil depletion. But we must act - not just talk. Others are already on the road: Sweden has just announced it plans to be free of oil dependence within 15 years. Let's join them in a Green energy revolution.

Philip Booth, Press Officer, Stroud District Green Party.