Natalie Bennett

Green Party leader

Reprint of Huffington Post Article

So the Ukip mask of respectability, always very thin and ill-fitting, has slipped. After what’s now generally known as Nigel Farage’s “car-crash LBC interview” and a leader in the Sunsaying that the party’s position is “racist”, the party has been forced to take out a full page advert in the Telegraph to counter Ukip’s perception as a bunch of xenophobes.

Just consider the “clarification” Nigel Farage offered, in careful consideration in the cold light of day on Saturday morning: “any normal and fair-minded person would have a perfect right to be concerned if a group of Romanian people suddenly moved in next door”. That is a statement that can only be described as bigoted, racist and disgusting. Those “Romanian people” might be doctors, or IT professionals or care workers, or Roma seeking a better life away from prejudice and as likely as any other people to be good neighbours, who’ll feed the cat or lend you a cup of sugar.

However, as the Telegraph points out, with probably up to 40% of votes in the European election already cast (by post), the immediate electoral impact may be limited. But it should be a powerful reason for every voter opposed to Ukip’s approach to immigration, Europe, charging for NHS services and many other issues to take ten minutes to get to the polling station on Thursday.

What Ukip’s rise should do is provoke seriously soul-searching among our political class about why it has been able to get so far with its dangerous, divisive and damaging rhetoric, and been almost unchallenged.

The three largest parties haven’t taken on Ukip, but all too often pandered to it, seeking to pull back Ukip voters by outdoing it in rhetoric and policy.

The Tories and Lib Dems have introduced the dreadful Immigration Bill, which seeks to turn landlords and NHS staff into immigration agents. And just this weekend, we saw Ed Miliband again grovelling in apology at the former Labour government’s immigration policies. Do we see similar words on its disastrous encouragement of financial sector excesses, of the fact that after 13 years of a Labour government inequality had actually increased? No.

This is not only morally wrong, but politically stupid. By pandering to Ukip’s stance on immigration and Europe, the three largest parties have helped to make its claims that immigration has “caused” low wages, has “caused” housing shortages, has “caused” crowded hospitals and schools seem plausible.

It’s perhaps not surprising that the Tories, Lib Dems and Labour don’t want to dig any deeper, for it’s the failed policies of their two successive governments that have given us today’s fragile economy and struggling society, both of which are failing to work for the common good.

The fact is that no immigrant from any nation arrives at the White Cliffs of Dover and declares: “I want to work for poverty pay, in awful conditions, without any job security”. The state of our job market isn’t the result of immigration, but the result of failed economic and pay policies. Labour brought in the minimum wage, an important advance, but then allowed its value to slip down and down, topping up the difference with government benefits that amounted to corporate welfare – subsidising giant profits for multinational companies that aren’t paying staff enough to live on, and all too often are forcing them on to zero-hours contracts and into casual hours that send them to food banks.

As for housing, well there are 600,000 empty homes in Britain, many in places with few economic opportunities, while 8 out of ten new jobs created since 2010 have been in London. There are now more bedrooms per person in Britain than ever before – resources, like cash, concentrated in the hands of the few while many are crowded together in often miserable conditions – at the extreme in East London’s “beds in sheds”.

Inequality and regional disparities, not immigration, combined with the disastrous privatisation of Right to Buy and inflation of a new housing price bubble, plus low wages and ballooning student debt, have created ‘Generation Rent’, not immigration.

And schools and hospitals? Well we have Michael Gove’s disastrous free school policy, spending money with profligate glee on pet projects while not allowing local authorities to plan sensibly for baby booms, the fact that the is NHS bearing the £3bn administrative cost of the Health and Social Care Bill, and the loss of £20bn of so-called “efficiency savings” from 2011 and 2014.

Voters are understandably, rightly, concerned, worried, frightened, about their future and those of their grandchildren.

Additionally, they are increasingly aware that our environment is showing the strain of overuse and exploitation – extreme weather, rising sea levels, polluted air – adding to their concerns.

It’s not surprising that Ukip’s nasty, simplistic recipe of ‘blame the foreigner’ has got traction. But it’s past time for its claims to be tackled and its prejudice to be exposed. Well done to LBC presenter, James O’Brien, for starting that process.

Now it’s up to all of us to continue that. And we need to offer, as the Green Party is doing on Thursday, hope, plans for a better society, one that provides security, comfort and a better life for all.

Follow Natalie Bennett on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@natalieben

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoMiLXQ5OsE

Published on 16 May 2014
My final animation for my Level 5 Convergence / Divergence unit at the Arts University Bournemouth.
I made a short animation to highlight just a handful of the negative effects that fracking will have on the UK. I was advised to cover only a few of the impacts as opposed to as many as possible. I covered both environmental and economical issues. Personally, I find the environmental effects scarier, but I want to aim my animation at a broad range of the general public and differences in opinion might mean that some are more concerned about the state of the economy.

The intention of my animation is to leave viewers feeling inspired to make a positive change; perhaps to participate in peaceful activism against fracking. I also wanted to inform and educate people about exactly what fracking is – many of my peers, upon hearing the theme of my animation, asked me ‘What is fracking?’ hence the first blue-prints scene.

I used Adobe Photoshop to illustrate the scenes, then imported the layers in to Adobe Flash where I created multiple motion, alpha and brightness tweens. I had to export from Flash in 15 second chunks, meaning the relocation of keyframes every 360 frames on each of my approximately 400 layers. I then imported these in to Adobe After Effects, to stitch together, then exported in to Audition to add the sounds that I had downloaded from freesound.com to add the effects. Then I recorded my voice over and my friend Laura on her ukulele, and combined everything together. I exported from Audition, and imported the audio and visual files in to Premier Pro and exported the whole media all together.

This was done entirely off my own back – so I do apologise if I have misrepresented any information here.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/15…

John has asked me specifically to post this. It with some regret that I do so, but I understand his sentiments, and this is a forum for open-ness and honesty if it is nothing else.

He will be sorely missed by the local party, and he held the post of Wales ERO with distinction.

We will remain good friends and who knows where the future will lead us.

Andy

Dorothy Wilson, Membership Secretary, Wales Green Party.

It is with great regret, that I find myself in the position of having to resign my membership of the Green Party.

I have thought long and hard about this over the last three months.

There are many different reasons that, as a whole have brought me to this decision. More recently, there are two straws that broke the camels back, as such.

Straw 1.

Is, Wales Green Parties stance on the legalisation of cannabis and especially WGP Spokesperson, Pippa Bartolotti’s remarks regarding this on WGP website.

To be clear, I don’t oppose the development and use of cannabis in a medical context. Indeed, I know people who suffer crippling medical conditions who get respite from their condition and are able to carry on a near normal and fulfilling life, due to the use of cannabis. These are people who have had no success relieving/controlling their condition with prescription drugs. I feel strongly that people in this position should not be criminalised for cannabis use.

For Pippa Bartolotti, in her capacity as party Spokesperson, to state, “Cannabis has wrongly been labelled a gateway drug. It is not. It is the criminalisation of it which is the gateway to harder drugs” is extremely naive.
To state “No one has yet died from cannabis” I ask her to explain that to the families of those that have died from “hard” drugs. In the majority of cases these families will tell you that their loved ones started their drug taking with cannabis and progressed onto the hard drugs that eventually killed them.
I ask Pippa Bartolotti, to explain to me, how a friend of mine who had used no other drug than cannabis, suffered extreme paranoia from using cannabis and took their own life.

I would say to Pippa Bartolotti that for every one person that dies via drug use, there are a large number of victims of drug use left behind. The family and loved ones of the person who has died.

In her statement on WGP website, the Spokesperson for WGP, appears to think that a major benefit to society of legalising cannabis consumption would be taxation. This taxation would not come close to covering the cost to the NHS, of treating the victims of cannabis use, who suffer from paranoia and anxiety as well as a multitude of other mental health disorders, brought on by the use of modern (stronger) strains of cannabis, that are commonly available now. Are in fact the norm. If anybody thinks there is a benefit to society from cannabis in any form is mistaken. The only benefit would be drug companies developing prescription drugs for specific medical conditions and these being only available on prescription from a doctor.

As for drug dealers at the school gates. I hope WGP Spokesperson, Pippa Bartolotti doesn’t think that they are any different from drug dealers anywhere else. Wherever they deal they will have customers of all age groups.
Does she honestly believe that by legalising cannabis it will put these drug dealers out of business. That they will not carry on as before. Believe me, they don’t only sell cannabis but a whole cocktail of drugs.

I cannot believe the naivety of people who think legalising cannabis and allowing it’s sale via licensed outlets would stop the sale by unlicensed (criminal) dealers. The product from unlicensed dealers would be cheaper and stronger than from the controlled licensed outlets.
Just look what the ever increasing taxation of tobacco products has done. Created an ever growing black market.

This is not just me spouting unsubstantiated views. I have witnessed first hand the horrific effects illegal drugs have had on people around me. People very close to me. Everyone of whom started their drug use with cannabis. Legalising cannabis will not bring about the change WGP or Pippa Bartolotti think it will.

If there is anybody out there who is under the misapprehension that cannabis is not addictive. This may have been the case up to about 20 years ago, but the strains that are grown now are addictive and can be highly addictive.

Straw 2.

In an interview given to journalist Graham Henry, Sennedd Corespondent, Wales online. WGP Spokesperson, Pippa Bartolotti, labels a whole generation of our population as racist.

How ignorant.

I am absolutely horrified that the leader of the political party I am a member of could say such a thing.
Does she think that by alienating a whole generation of voters, who in her own words “this is the generation that gets out and votes” will help the party in it’s European campaign or any other campaign.

I believe, that telling a journalist, that a whole generation of the population of this country is racist, has done far more harm to the Green Party, than anything members, who, in my time as a party member have said or done, that has led to their expulsion or suspension.

Where are these members who call for expulsion or suspension now. Strangely quiet it seems.

I challenge you to stand up and be counted.

In conclusion.
In conscience, I cannot be a member of a political party that advocates the legalisation of cannabis, or, whose Spokesperson believes a whole generation of our population to be racist.

John A. Evans

Source: FoE Europe http://votetracker.eu/fracking.html#collapseOne

The only other UK MEPs with a 100/100 track record on fracking are:

• Jean Lambert – Green Party
• Keith Taylor – Green Party
• Michael Cashman – Labour (I have long felt he is in the wrong party) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Cashman

Of course, this is 100% of the UK’s Green MEP’s , but only 1 out 13 Labour MEPs.

Opinion Polls

Polls suggest that the Greens are on track to possibly treble their MEP continent in England to SIX (4 or 5 perhaps being more likely), and Scottish Greens could secure one.
Despite misinformation to the contrary, the Wales Green Party has never been remotely in contention to secure an MEP this time around. If it had ever been a remote possibility, I wouldn’t have stood aside to support Jill Evans campaign.

A glance at the table above shows just how imperative it is that fractivists and ecosocialists rally behind Jill Evans.

The polls are all over the place for Wales. The national pollsters rarely survey more than 50 to 60 voters in the whole of Wales making the individual polls a nonsense. Looking for trends in all the recent polls could be more revealing.

They show Plaid Cymru ranging from 6% to 29% (no seat to two seats) but averaging around 13% and making Jill very marginal to retain her seat.
The Green Party in Wales range from 2% to 12% but averaging about 4%. If half of this were to vote for Jill, it could well make all the difference.

If Jill were to lose her seat, the polls suggest it could go to a second Labour candidate, but it looks slightly more likely to go to UKIP. Mind boggling!!! Scary!!!!

Of course, there is only one poll that matters – and that is at your local polling station next Thursday.

Get out and vote – and make sure it counts and makes a real difference!!

You may well have received the email below from, Ann Were, acting General Secretary of Wales Green Party, to all WGP members (although, to be honest, it does not read like something Ann would write – she is usually more careful with her facts).

It complains of misinformation by Plaid Cymru. I am not sure whether this is true or not – I have not seen them them claim that Wales Green Party has withdrawn candidates from the Euro elections (all I have seen them say is: “The lead Green candidate in Wales stood down in order to help Plaid win.” which is perfectly true) – but I can shed light on some misinformation contained within this Green Party communication.

Keeping things purely factual:

• I was elected by the Wales Green Party membership to be lead candidate, ahead of leader Pippa Bartolotti (in this sense, at least, I was the leading member)
• I decided to withdraw when I realised that Plaid Cymru’s MEP, Jill Evans, was under serious threat of losing her seat. She is part of the Green/EFA group of the European Parliament. https://bridgendgreens.wordpress.com/2013/11/06/why-i-have-withdrawn-from-the-euro-election-by-andy-chyba/
• I urged Wales Green Party to withdraw its other candidates, but having become lead candidate through my default, Pippa Bartolotti took the opposite view and decided to greatly increase her campaigning efforts.
• The claim that the Greens are polling at 12% has already been discredited, yet it is repeated below http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/wales-green-party-leader-pippa-7093559#.U2xf9uiu4Ps.twitter

This whole business frustrates me intensely. The first priority of both Plaid Cymru and the Green Party has to be to overturn the prevailing neo-liberal, capitalist hegemony that we are saddled with through our current dysfunctional version of democracy. It must surely be incumbent on fellow eco-socialists to form alliances across party divides rather than obstruct and effectively defeat each other. It saddens me that I seem to get a lot more support for this vision from Plaid Cymru, and members of the Green Party in England, than I do from the narrow-minded clique that attempt to run Wales Green Party.

I am hoping that my call for Green Party supporters in Wales to back Plaid Cymru, on this occasion, will help return Jill Evans, our most experienced and best MEP, and a fellow ecosocialist. Bridgend Green Party already works closely and effectively with Bridgend Plaid Cymru, and hopefully we can see both parties be more mutually supportive and co-operative in the future.

Think for yourselves. Do as you see fit. But do so in possession of the facts of the matter.

Andy Chyba
Chair Bridgend Green Party

Begin forwarded message:

Hello AndyIt saddens me to report that Plaid Cymru is not behaving fairly during the run up to the Euro elections. They are mis-informing the electorate regarding Wales Green Party’s position and are implying that we have withdrawn our candidates in order to support theirs. This is completely untrue. We are contesting these elections in the same way as we contest most other elections – to the best that our resources will allow.Unfortunately, it is now a race against time to get the correct information out there. Below is a model letter which we are asking for Local Parties and individual members to send to their local newspapers, in the hope that we can salvage the situation. Please don’t wait for someone else to do this; do it yourself. Many thanks for your help and support. Ann Were Acting General Secretary Wales Green Party. Sir, It has come to my attention that there is currently some misinformation in circulation regarding Wales Green Party and our position with respect to the forthcoming Euro elections. I would just like to clarify the situation. The Green Party will be standing a list of candidates in Wales, as usual. We are asking for all of our supporters, both old and new, to turn out and vote for us. We do not endorse any other Party. It is simply not true that “leading members” of the Green Party are asking you to vote for anyone else. Any statements to the contrary that you may have read or heard are deliberately designed to be misleading. In a recent ICM poll, the Green Party in Wales polled 12%, a figure which would be close to winning a seat here in Wales. Anyone who is concerned about environmental and social justice, tired of conventional politics, and not convinced by the “business as usual” model, should vote Green Party on 22nd May. Yours, xxxxxxxxx Wales Green Party —

This is the catastrophic scenario that Wales Green Party are helping to precipitate for Wales through contesting the Euro elections:

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/poll-ukip-course-five-assembly-7029092

Some Plaid Cymru supporter perspectives on an ecosocialist alliance between the parties can be found here:

http://dailywales.net/2014/05/08/plaid-cymru-the-green-party-a-complicated-alliance/

We need to wake up and smell the coffee!!! Vote Plaid Cymru on May 22nd!!!

N.B. This is the personal view of Andy Chyba (BGP Chair)

Dear Members and Supporters of Bridgend Green Party,

I owe you all a number of apologies:

• Apologies for getting my dates muddled up regarding April’s meeting, which should have happened on 24th in Pencoed. I hope nobody travelled to find nobody there. I did try and get a message round at the last minute cancelling it.
• Apologies also for not having this months’s meeting in the usual last Thursday slot. I am away again and I have had a request from regular attenders to move it to the first week of the month due to personal circumstances. I am happy to accommodate them as this has the makings of an important meeting – in the sense that it may be the last for a while.
• Apologies also the fact that I no longer feel able to function properly in my roles within the local party, and we therefore need to discuss the entire future of Bridgend Green Party, and its relationship with Wales Green Party.
• Apologies also for any embarrassment felt over the on-going rumblings and grumblings about my personal attitude to the Welsh language. Given the position I seem to be seen in by some – it has perhaps tarnished perceptions of the Party in a way that I regret.

There is also a building situation developing over my stance regarding the Euro Elections. You will recall that I withdrew after securing the lead position on the ballot in order to support the campaign of Plaid Cymru’s MEP, Jill Evans to re-elected. She has been an outstanding member of the Green/EFA group in the European Parliament for 15 years (three successive terms) and is in some danger of losing her seat as a result of the Lib Dem vote crumbling and Labour and UKIP growing in support. I maintain the position that Green supporters should whole-heartedly be supporting Jill, given that voting Green instead could well allow Labour or (please, no!!) UKIP to take her seat. That would be a tragedy to anyone of a remotely eco-socialist disposition.

Perhaps not surprisingly, this has not gone down well in some quarters – with John ‘Enforcer’ Matthews already calling for my expulsion. A bit rich for someone that has overseen the demise of the once relatively mighty Cardiff Green Party, but he has form in pursuing the expulsion of ecosocialists!

So, the upshot of it is that this meeting will be the last, for a while at least, unless someone else wishes to take over organising them.

Given the situation, I feel that it is best that we revert to the Railway PH for this meeting as it is accessible location, should other than the regulars wish to make the effort and come along.

Andy Chyba

7.00pm Thursday 5th June 2014 at theThe Railway PH at the bottom of Station Hill
ALL WELCOME (Especially new members!)

AGENDA:

1. Welcome and Introductions
2. Apologies for Absence
3. THE FUTURE OF BRIDGEND GREEN PARTY
4. AOB
5. DoNM ???

REMINDER – If anyone needs a lift to any of our meetings, let Andy know (greens@chyba.go-plus.net) and we will organise it for you.

 

A Facebook friend and fellow ecosocilaist, Martin O’Beirne has this to say, based on the blog link below:

“Interesting – I was of the belief that if you are of the ilk that vote UKIP, you must inhabit an orbit so far removed from green, there is no benefit in trying to appeal – But speak to people, working people, voting UKIP, not the hardliners, the kind of floating protest, jumping on a bandwagon type voters ( that have been manipulated by UKIP propaganda) and clearly they warm to green – even on the stance in europe – but it seems like such a paradigm shift for them to consider green – who they regard as ‘green’ perhaps? – but fundamentally the required paradigm shift exists because of an unfair playing field – e.g. the obscenely disproportionate airtime UKIP and Farage receive – BBC and Question Time”

http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/73-ukip-voters-green-party.html?m=1

This is, of course, a very different perspective than that expressed by the Wales Green Party ‘leader’, Pippa Bartolotti, who has this to say about UKIP supporters:

“She said: “They [Ukip] appeal to an older generation of people who feel that politics isn’t working along the way that they think. A lot of older people…are racist.
“They don’t mean to be, they aren’t going out of their way to be, but they are, because that whole generation is. ”

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/welsh-greens-leader-why-party-7019024

I am not sure what her father would have to say about that, but considering what my own father went through in fighting the Nazis, and given the ever-increasing significance of the over-65 vote, this was, to say the least, a regrettable (but all-too-typical) thing to have said. It will surely deter some flakey and/or floating voters from voting Green (in the same way that my lack of enthusiasm for the Welsh Language has apparently turned some people off). Saying things we regret is something all politicians have to live with (but hopefully learn from). It need not be a disaster – depending on where the disaffected voter turns to!! If the ones I have upset do the obvious thing and vote Plaid Cymru, I can sleep well enough. It is less obvious where the ones Pippa has just upset will turn to.

It seems to me that the way our democracy works, and the way the electoral systems work, it is entirely understandable that there is a a substantial and all-decisive block of ‘floating voters’ up for grabs. They wield disproportionate power as they effectively decide the outcome of every election, given that a large proportion of the people that do vote are entrenched in their support of a given party, almost as off it is part of their DNA. We certainly see this in Wales, with their astonishing level of continued support for Labour. They perceive Labour as the party of the poor and disadvantaged, yet have not, it appears, realised that it has become in Welsh Labour’s interest to therefore keep them poor and disadvantaged!! How else can Labour’s record in the Welsh Assembly and Bridgend Council be understood?

Whatever we think of what UKIP stands for, we have to acknowledge how very successful they have been in appealing to the non-committed floaters. They have used all the traditional scapegoating tactics to build a case for their ‘quick fix’ policies. The Greens core tenets of long-term sustainability and one world interdependence do not lend themselves very easily to such populism – especially when (in Wales at least) the perception of many (from its public face) is of a ‘bunch of pious, condescending, middle-class, fruitcakes’ (not my words). As we see with UKIP, the floaters appear to prefer their fruitcakes ‘belligerent, un-apologetic and ‘patriotic-to-a-fault” (again, not my words).

So how best do beleaguered eco-socialists in Wales use their votes? What role can the Green Party play?

There is no getting away from the fact that Wales presents greater obstacles for a Green Party breakthrough than elsewhere in the UK. The road map to success is clear enough – it has to be built on a long-term commitment (10-20 years) to building local parties from the ground up. This is how it was achieved in Brighton and with Caroline Lucas; how it has been achieved in the West Midlands, with Will Duckworth, and in every part of the country where Greens have achieved electoral success. There is no other way. It takes the commitment of people to do the hard work on the ground, and that rare, magic ingredient of effective leadership. These things are lacking in Wales Green Party, as is the recognition that the Plaid Cymru factor could be used as a positive rather than a negative.

There are, of course, some things that Green Party members would never agree with PC about, and vice versa. Given the current eco-socialist leaning leadership of PC however, there is a unique opportunity to build a mutually beneficial alliance with PC, as we have witnessed in the Green/EFA group in the EU Parliament. I have had a very favourable response to the suggestion from leading PC members I have spoken to about this possibility.

Given the state of the meaningful polls, it is therefore incumbent on true ecosocialists (admittedly far from the majority in Wales Green Party), to do what is needed to ensure Plaid Cymru’s Jill Evans is returned as a Green/EFA representative for Wales. It saddens me to say that voting for the Green Party in the forthcoming EU Elections can only jeopardise this. This is why I withdrew after being selected as lead candidate for Wales Green Party.

With the right dialogue between the Parties, some form of electoral pact could be achieved, helping ensure PC and Green support combines to help both parties in their target wards to make serious inroads into the Con/Lib/Lab neoliberal capitalist hegemony we have to endure at present. Bridgend Greens and Bridgend PC have worked very constructively together on issues like the Bedroom Tax, so it is entirely possible to work well together., so why not at a Wales level?

Now that ought to be something we can rally behind, don’t you think?

Andy Chyba

FASHIONISTAS’ FROCK SWAP Friday, May 9th, The Green Room, above SUSSED from 7.30pm.

Entry £3.00 includes a drinks and nibbles reception – alcoholic and non alcoholic.

Join in the vibe with like-minded frock swappers and take home some fab new clothes.

Reduce, reuse and recycle your wardrobe.
Give your unwanted good quality clothes or accessories a second life, go home happy with something amazing – you may strike gold!

As a nation we have a staggering £30 billion worth of clothes we never wear. Around 30 per cent of clothes bought every year are not worn.

Some items in your wardrobe are too good to give to the charity shop, but be frank, you don’t wear them anymore for one reason or another.

At the same time reduce your carbon footprint, 0.4 kg of CO2 is saved for every item of clothing that is re-used rather than bought new, and have fun. That can’t be bad!!

Participants should bring at least one loved item (clothing / accessories), considered too good for charity shops. Must be of decent quality, permitting a same value swap.

If more than one item is offered then a similar number of swaps can be made.

Hand over your items to our team on arrival in return for tokens which you can then swap for clothes. Additional tokens can also be purchased for £1. Relax and enjoy a night out with a difference.

Margaret Minhinnick
Director
Sustainable Wales Cymru Gynhaliol
4/5 James St.
Porthcawl
Bridgend
CF36 3BG
01656 783962

http://www.sustainablewales.org.uk/

We’ve just heard from the court in Brighton where five Balcombe anti-fracking protestors including Caroline Lucas MP are on trial. And the verdict is… NOT GUILTY! We hope that you’re as happy as we are with this fantastic news. But we’re not celebrating quite yet. As Caroline Lucas said this afternoon from outside the court in Brighton: “We are pleased that the court upheld our right to peacefully protest against fracking, but this judgement is not a victory. We will continue to campaign to end fracking and celebrate when that has been achieved.” “In the light of the UN’s latest report on climate change, it is clearer than ever that the only safe and responsible thing to do with shale gas is to leave it in the ground.” “All five of us would like to thank everyone who has turned up to support us and thank the thousands of people who have sent letters, emails and tweets to express their support.” You can read Caroline’s full reaction to the not-guilty verdict here. Please share it with your friends. With the latest opinion polls showing that Britons favour onshore wind over fracking by three to one, the fight for a safe climate and a frack-free future is looking hopeful, but we’ll all need to play our part. Thanks again for your support. Chris Luffingham Campaigns Director Green Party