Your say / Politics
‘In Bristol Central, we have a rare opportunity to elect a progressive champion’
For many people in my generation, July 4 will be the first election where we can cast a vote. It’s also the last election where we can elect a government with a meaningful chance to act on climate change.
And yet, in so many ways it doesn’t feel like much of a choice.
Labour aren’t offering any real solutions to the crises we’re facing. Keir Starmer says he won’t put up taxes on the rich to fund our public services.
is needed now More than ever
Every major political party has watered down their climate commitments in the run up to this election: the Tories scrapped their net zero plan, Labour abandoned their £28bn climate spending pledge and the SNP ditched their targets too.
I’m one of thousands of young people who have joined Green New Deal Rising, a movement fighting for bold action on climate, economic and social justice.
In the streets of swing constituencies, we have been making the case for bold solutions that deliver a better future for communities, while tackling the climate crisis.
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The Labour Party is on course to win a massive majority thanks to our first past the post electoral system forcing most voters to prioritise getting rid of the Tories over voting for their ideal candidate.
But in Bristol Central, we have one of those rare opportunities to elect a progressive champion.
This is a seat where a Green candidate, Carla Denyer, can win on a platform of ambitious climate investment, taxation on the very wealthy that we need to invest in our public services, and taking bold action in the housing crisis facing young people, renters in particular.
Voters in Bristol have a chance to reject the false choice facing us nationally and vote for something better.
Some, like Dale Vince, founder of Ecotricity and long-time funder of Just Stop Oil, have argued the only way to get a ‘green government’ is to vote Labour.
This simply isn’t true.
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Read more: Dale Vince: ‘Labour offers the opportunity to get a green government for the first time’
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Just glance at the last 14 years and you’ll see that government priorities are always shaped by pressure from inside and outside parliament.
Keir Starmer has declared at every opportunity that Labour is no longer the party of protest, downplaying and ignoring the thousands that no longer feel at home in his party – many of them young people.
Under Starmer’s leadership, local candidate selections have been overridden, with candidates being parachuted in from hundreds of miles away.
Policies popular with young people – from bringing public utilities into public ownership, introducing wealth taxes to cancelling oil and gas licences – have been tossed out.
The space for debate and new ideas within the party isn’t exactly thriving.
A future Starmer government may also have to contend with Nigel Farage’s presence on the House of Commons benches as well as an ideologically unpredictable Conservative Party.
Pressure from these forces could pull a Labour government further to the right; as they’ve already been on fiscal rules and immigration.
The need for a progressive force on the left to counterbalance those forces, to generate the ideas, create the political space, and build public support, is huge.
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The only way to get a green government of any kind is to fight for it.
Not just on election day but every day after to keep up the pressure on whoever forms the new government to up their ambition, invest what needs to be invested, raise the money they need to raise from taxing those who can afford to pay, and doing so in a way that creates jobs and opportunities for ordinary people.
That means we need strong voices in parliament holding the next government to account independently and urging them to be bolder, not one more in hundreds of Labour MPs voting for whatever Starmer puts forward when he is No. 10.
We have to do everything we can to build the movement inside and outside parliament that can force a new government to deliver the transformative agenda we need to defend our futures.
In Bristol Central, that means replacing one of Starmer’s closest allies by voting for Carla Denyer.
This is an opinion piece by Tanith Hackney, a member of Green New Deal Rising who are endorsing a cross-party slate of candidates in this general election “who will fight for the Green New Deal in the halls of power, champion social and climate justice, and stand up for our generation”
Main photo: Green New Deal Rising
All of the candidates on the ballot paper for Bristol Central are due to take part in Bristol24/7’s hustings at the Bristol Beacon on Monday, July 1. For those unable to attend in person, the event will be livestreamed via the Bristol24/7 YouTube channel from 7pm. If you want to ask a question, please email editor@bristol247.com
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