North Swindon will be fought by local party Chair, Andy Bentley, who will be looking to follow in the footsteps of Poppy Leeder who contested the seat last time around.
Talis Kimberley-Fairbourn will once again contest the South Swindon seat. Talis was last seen standing for the Borough Council in Wroughton, where she came second.
The Green Party selected their candidates some months ago in preparation for this day, as they don’t think someone should be parachuted in to this position at the last minute.
While the other opposition parties will be going through a hurried selection process, the Greens have suggested that potential Labour and Liberal Democrat voters should consider backing their candidates instead. The Greens say they are ready, that the other “progressive” parties share many of their policies and voters should consider supporting them while the others scrabble around for their own candidates.
According to Andy Bentley:
“The Liberal Democrats, fresh out of their collaboration with the Tories, discovered a fresh enthusiasm for the EU. The Green Party have long been supporters of a strong UK role in Europe, where we should be leading not leaving. We also share the LibDems desire for a fairer voting system, so every person’s voice is heard at election time.
Recently the Labour Party have been adopting many Green Party policies, like the taxation of private schools to fund free school meals and a £10 minimum wage. We welcome the recognition that our member-led policy making produces such great ideas, and policies that don’t change every few years at the whim of whoever is leading the party at the time.
Obviously, there are some important ways in which we are different. We fight consistently for the environment and against austerity. One key difference, popular among our candidates and supporters alike, is that we have no Party Whip. Our candidates, in both the General Election and local Parish elections, will answer to the people of Swindon, not blindly follow orders from Party HQ.”
Reacting to news of the snap election, Talis Kimberley-Fairbourn said:
“Since coming to power, Theresa May and her Government have acted in the interests of the Conservative Party alone – to retain and increase power, but not to wield it for the good of the country. She has done immense damage to the UK, to its citizens, residents and visitors. This is not a government under which any of us can feel safe, whether healthy or sick, unemployed or employed, families or individuals. She has a vision of an unregulated UK without workers’ rights, the NHS, or liveable benefits for those who need them. She cosies up to dictators, and sells them arms, while dismissing our neighbours and isolating us more every day.
The deepest irony of Brexit is perhaps that, if we go on like this, the EU will be able to bring in better environmental protection without us, while the climate has no borders, none at all. I fear to grow old in a broken, fracked, pauperised and fearful country, missing the diversity that we have enjoyed and benefited from. A country lacking the brightest and best, who will go to live and work in countries where rights of all kinds are respected and built on, and where humane laws are passed and enacted by truly representative governments.
I have ideals – fairness, equality, inclusiveness, diversity, neighbourliness at the grassroots and on a national scale – and I want my government to start behaving as if it believed in these things too. “
The Green’s Party Election Broadcast went out on the night that the election was called. It is a strong call to arms for people who care about fairness in society, the NHS and the place of Britain in the world. The local Swindon Green Party is calling on all progressive voters to support their efforts for a greener, fairer Britain.
