Fair IS Worth Fighting For

Written by Pete Goodwin Wednesday, 03 February 2010

As a government report revealed last week that Britain had become a more unequal society, the Green Party in Bristol on Friday called on voters to ditch the parties of self-interest and vote for social justice.

"Fair IS worth fighting for" said Glenn Vowles, Green Party candidate for Bristol East. "A whole range of social, health and economic problems are caused or worsened by inequality so it's very important to spread wealth fairly."

Glenn Vowles and the other prospective Green MPs for Bristol were reacting to a government report An Anatomy of Economic Inequality in the UK showed that the gap between Britain's richest and poorest had grown dramatically in the last 30 years.

"The richest 10% of Britain's population are now more than 100 times as wealthy as the poorest 10% - and that's after 12 years of a government supposedly committed to fighting inequality," Vowles said.

"A core value of the Green Party is the fight for social justice," said Ricky Knight, candidate for Bristol West.

"It is galling that a supposedly socialist party has presided over an increase in poverty, especially among children, while incompetent bankers pocket bonuses way beyond what an average British family will see in a lifetime," Knight continued.

"Inequality will continue to an aspect of British life when you have the three main parties peddling the same broken economics," said Bristol South candidate and City Councillor for Southville Charlie Bolton.

"They are more focused on the amount of economic growth than on the nature of growth and how wealth from it is shared," Bolton said.

Their colleague standing in Bristol North West, Alex Dunn, went further.

"Government should change systems and rates of taxation and invest in free care for the elderly and free insulation for all homes, beginning with the poorest.

"These approaches help tackle inequality and at the same time boost quality of life," Dunn said.

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