VB asked each of the prospective parliamentary candidates to send us a 500 word manifesto to share with VB readers. What you read below is an unedited version of what we received from the candidate. Ed
My plan to represent the Island is based on the recent, unfulfilled, vision of an Eco-Island but with real Green politics.
Environment
Everyone knows the Green Party does the ‘environment’ so plans for renewable energy and support for energy saving activities such as insulating homes is no surprise. On the IOW we are using resources equivalent to 2½ worlds. This is not sustainable. The more we use, the more others around the world are put at risk.
Economics
It is still possible to make the Island a centre of excellence for research into renewable energy and to create some of the many jobs that will flow from green innovations. At the same time we need to support those who have been marginalized by the inequality in our society. The gap between rich and poor has got wider. The rich will pay more in taxes and those that own second homes will not get Council Tax discounts. Small, local businesses will be encouraged with lending from community banks.
Social Issues
A more equal society is healthier, happier and has higher literacy. A more equal society has lower crime, fewer drug addicts, fewer teenage pregnancies and a lower prison population.
Socially the Green Party will provide a citizens pension of £170 per week, a higher minimum wage and free social care for older people. The Green Party will support cheaper public transport. We want good local schools, not academies. We want no more privatisation of the NHS and will stop any new PFI schemes.
Can the Island afford a Green MP?
Yes it can. Our carefully costed manifesto identifies additional income from taxes on the banks, the bankers and the wealthy. Those earning over £100,000 will pay income tax at 50 per cent. There will be savings on nuclear weapons and by scrapping ID cards.
At the European elections in 2009 the Green Party polled more votes on the Isle of Wight than both the Liberal and Labour Parties. A Green Vote is not a wasted vote. A Green vote is a vote for the long term, not just so we live tomorrow but so we live for the generations still to come.
Bob Keats’ leaflet on The Straight Choice
Bob Keats on My Next MP
