Following the Chancellor of the Exchequers speech today, the Greens have expressed deep concerns about the current economic strategy by the Labour Government and the devastating impact it will have on the most vulnerable members of society.
Green County council candidate, Kathryn Fisher explained:
“The Chancellor is desperately scrabbling around for a plausible magic growth bullet in order to prop up Labour’s ludicrous fiscal rules that don’t allow them to tax the super rich.”
She continued: “She sees Cambridge as this magic bullet, but the city doesn’t need growth, it needs investment in social housing and infrastructure. We should be investing in the old industrial heartlands in the north by redeveloping post-industrial sites, not pumping even more money into one of the most unequal, nature deprived and water-depleted cities in the country, by building million pound apartments all over the green belt.”
“People who don’t know the Cambridge area and its problems well might be fooled, but there is no way that the government’s plan can work even purely in economic terms.” she added. “However, we have gone beyond problems that can be solved by magic money trees. Every suggested solution raises a whole host of new problems . Magical thinking puts the economy at risk as well as the environment.”
For months, the Green Party has been calling for higher wages for lower-paid workers and an end to austerity measures that have crippled public services. In her speech, Reeves stated the government would be looking at “the rising cost of health and disability benefits”. A compassionate and competent government would work harder to stop people becoming too ill to work in the first place. It should not put up with companies that make large profits by paying workers so little that they must claim in-work benefits to survive.
Green County council candidate, Darren Green said: “It is time to increase taxes on the accumulated wealth of big businesses and billionaires to redistribute resources and rebuild our broken public services. We must prioritise the needs of the people and the planet over the interests of the wealthy few. The climate crisis cannot be ignored.”
The Green Party welcomes well-paying, unionised jobs, but if Labour doesn’t take urgent action on the climate crisis, there will be no jobs on a dead planet. We say no to austerity, no to the destruction of our environment, and yes to a fairer, greener future for all.