Green conference hears call for return to integrity and honesty in public life
22nd Oct 2004
Lucas predicts "Green MPs within a year"
GREEN Party Principal Speaker Caroline Lucas received a standing ovation at the party's annual conference today after making an impassioned plea for honesty and integrity in public life.
Calling on Tony Blair to resign - or face impeachment - for deceiving parliament and the public over the Iraq war, the Euro-MP said the Greens were the only alternative to the increasingly "interchangeable and indistinguishable" policies of the other main parties.
"The other parties are increasingly indistinguishable on war, privatisation, globalisation and public services - only the Greens offer a real alternative," she told the Weston-super-Mare conference.
"Over a million people voted Green in the European Elections earlier this year - and those million votes were votes for a credible and consistent party of honesty and integrity."
To raptuous applause, Dr Lucas predicted first the party would return its first MPs to the House of Commons in the forthcoming general election, citing this year's European Election result in Brigthton and Hove, where the Greens outpolled all other parties in its target Brighton Pavillion constituency.
She said the Greens offered the only credible policies on public services, calling for the renationalisation of the railways and "ready access to good schools and hospitals everywhere rather than a bogus choice between badly-resourced alternatives".
On Iraq, Dr Lucas said the "bloody, immoral and illegal" war had cost more then 20,000 lives already, made the world less secure - and been based on a lie.
"Tony Blair has made the gavest error possible," she said, "and he mus tnow take sresponsibility and resign, immediately and unconditionally.
"If he won't do this he must be impeached, or the consequences will be a precendent for pre-emptive war, even against countries that pose no credible external threat, and the end of the international rule of law.
"Future Prime Ministers will be able to mislead parliament and the public with impunity - and this is simpy too high a price to pay."
Dr Lucas, who is also a member of the European Parliament's influential Environment Committee, said the other parties had failed to understand the "revolution" in government transport and energy policy required to tackle climate change. She called for the government to scrap its roadbuilding programme, end tax beaks for the aviation industry and subsidies to the oil and nuclear power sectors.
"Our recent electoral successes, and the urgent need for a renewal of honesty and integrity in public life, mean Greens can campaign with confidence - and put social justice and the environment at the top of the political agenda."
"The Green Party offers the only credible alternative. The only wasted vote is a vote for a party you don't trust and believe in."
Editors' Notes:
1. Caroline Lucas is Principal Speaker of the Green Party and MEP for South-East England. 2. A full transcript of Dr Lucas speech - and pictures from the Conference - are available on request
