The Magnificent 7 launch their Campaign!

Written by Geoff Collard Sunday, 03 April 2011

The Magnificent Seven, the Green Party's confirmed candidates for the 7 city council wards up for election in the Bristol West constituency, launched their campaign today at the Council House on College Green.

Graham Woodruff, the Greens' candidate for Cotham (below, far left!) said: "More and more people are joining us, our membership is on the rise, and with Green issues like opposition to nuclear power and selling off the forests, saving the NHS from attacks by the Con - Lib Dem coalition, as well as Labour's discredited privatisation attempts under PFI ever higher on the agenda, we are confident of increasing the Green vote and winning more council seats in this election."

"It's simply not acceptable for the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives to betray our children and young people by increasing university tuition fees to £9000, and thereby saddling students with large debts before they've even started working, said Bristol University student and Green Party candidate for Clifton, Georgina Bavetta. She added: "Neither is there any need to cut council care services to old people. This is wrong. The Green Party wants to integrate health and social care services by bringing them under local authority direction, which would also make the NHS accountable to people locally at the ballot box. The other major parties are going in the opposite direction by cutting and privatising council and public services."

"At least the other parties on Bristol city council seem finally to have taken up the Green Party's idea of creating an integrated transport hub at Plot 6 next to Temple Meads station, even though they are trying to claim credit for this," said Easton Green Party candidate Katie Buse "but they are still not investing in creating a local rail and tram network and proper safe cycle paths for central and suburban Bristol, which is what the Green Party wants."

Turning to the local economy, Katie agreed with Gus Hoyt when he said: "It is totally wrong for the council to put good independent local shops and traders out of business by continually giving planning permission to ever more supermarkets, such as a Tesco on Stokes Croft, or a Sainsburys at Ashton Gate."

Gus Hoyt (below, 3rd from right) who is the Green Party's candidate for Ashley, added: "With all three bigger parties signed up to privatisation of education and the NHS, hitting ordinary people with cuts and job losses instead of really taxing the bankers and their continuing obscene bonuses, it's no wonder more people are turning Green! And of course it's not just the Conservatives and Lib Dems who are refusing to tax the bankers; Labour could have done it a year ago, but chose instead to cosy up to their big banker mates in the City. Labour's policy is still to impose unnecessary cuts on public services - they would do it at a slower rate than the ConDem Coalition, that's all. The Green Party has been saying all along we need to stop making ordinary people pay for the bankers' greed, and put the pain where it belongs - with the bankers who caused our deficit in the first place." 

Ben Appleby, the Green candidate for the city centre ward of Cabot, which includes the Council House, said: "The Lib Dems, Conservatives and Labour all show the true hollowness of their 'commitment' to Green issues by their insistence on building more nuclear power stations, including at Hinkley Point, instead of creating thousands of new jobs through a Green New Deal by investing in alternative energies such as wind, wave and solar power, and also by their insistence on selling off Bristol's green spaces instead of using Bristol's existing large number of empty offices and other buildings for people to live in - the Labour Party, supported by the Tories, was just as set on selling off our green spaces when they were in power as the Lib Dems are now. The Green Party is really the only party which people can trust to build a socially just and an environmentally safer and greener world. Because these twin aims are at the heart of what the Green Party stands for, unlike the other parties."

In the last elections in all three seats of Cotham, Ashley and Cabot the Green Party came second. And a good clear second too: Cotham with 23% of the votes cast, Ashley 31% and Cabot 22% 

They are, (from left to right) Graham Woodruff (Cotham), Christine Prior (Lawrence Hill), Simon Bennett (Clifton East), Katie Buse (Easton), Gus Hoyt (Ashley), Georgina Bavetta (Clifton), Ben Appleby (Cabot).

Elsewhere in Bristol, the Green Party is standing in all 24 wards across the city which have elections on May 5th. In particular, the Greens' Charlie Bolton is on course to win the second Southville seat.