Source: BBC Radio 4: Today Programme
URL: N/A
Date: 29/04/2013
Event: Natalie Bennett: "we're standing up for economic and environmental justice"
Attribution: BBC Radio 4
People:
John Humphrys: Being green is a luxury we can't afford when times are hard - that seems to be what many people believe. You can see it in the sales of more expensive organic food, for instance. So, how can the Green Party persuade us to vote for them in the local elections on Thursday? I'm joined by the party's leader, Natalie Bennett. Good morning to you.
Natalie Bennett: Good morning.
John Humphrys: It is a problem for you, isn't it.
Natalie Bennett: Not at all. We're looking forward to - very confidently towards the local elections on Thursday. We're confident we're going to win our first councillors in Essex, in Surrey and in Cornwall. We're confident we're going to grow our numbers in the West Midlands - which is an area where we've been going very well, recently - in Bristol, in Hertfordshire, and -
John Humphrys: All right, all right, we don't want to have a whole list, but -
Natalie Bennett [laughs]: Okay.
John Humphrys: - but you would accept, wouldn't you, that in times of austerity, when we're feeling the pinch, that we're slightly less keen to prove our green credentials.
Natalie Bennett: Well, what I would accept is that people are looking around for alternative models and ways of doing things, which is what the Green Party is offering. We've just -
John Humphrys: You sound just like a politician - I thought you were meant to be different, you Green people! [Laughs.]
Natalie Bennett: Well, we've just been - we are very different. We've just been hearing about the whole - how the whole model of privatisation in care homes is working out very badly. And I was sitting here listening, thinking of the people in those homes that go broke, who have to move. An old person that - absolutely life disrupted, because that privatisation model is failed. So, one of the things that, round the country, we're doing is we're fighting against privatisation. We're fighting to preserve council services in-house and bring them back in-house, where we can. And that's one of the things that our, you know, our people are campaigning around the country -
John Humphrys: I don't want to be frivolous about this, but the fact is: you are called "the Green Party", and that tells people a great deal about you. That is your primary concern. Isn't that a serious problem, when you're talking about things like privatisation, which patently have nothing to do with the environment, as such - I mean, you can find bits of the environment in every policy in the land, I suppose - but if people think of you, they think "green", they think of windmills instead of horrible nuclear power stations, and all that sort of thing.
Natalie Bennett: I think that increasingly that's not true -
John Humphrys: Really.
Natalie Bennett: - people are realising that Green politics is a complete philosophy. So, for example, we're standing up for economic and environmental justice, and the two are indivisible -
John Humphrys: What's "environmental justice"?
Natalie Bennett: Well, what we need to do is, for example, not fracking. Campaigns against fracking, campaigns against -
John Humphrys: What's it got to do with justice? I mean, it's either right or it's wrong. It's not a matter of moral - question, is it?
Natalie Bennett: Well, what we see in many places is it's the poorest and most vulnerable who suffer the most, from those kind of things.
John Humphrys: Why? You live in a beautiful rural village and they discover loads of that stuff under your village green, they'll dig it up, whether you're poor or rich.
Natalie Bennett: Well, I think you'll probably find that you have a great better - much better chance of stopping it if you can hire expensive QCs for the judicial review, if you've got -
John Humphrys: Well, that's life, isn't it? Even the Green Party's not going to be able to change that fundamental fact.
Natalie Bennett: Mind you, that's not always true. I mean, down in Cornwall I met the St. Dennis anti-incinerator people who, from a very small village without a lot of resources, are doing a great job of fighting against the incinerator. But -
John Humphrys: But you'd accept that every single party in the land would argue exactly that same point. What I'm looking for, from you at the moment, if I may, is something that says "We are green. We are the Green Party, therefore you should vote for us because of that, and here are the reasons to support that". And what you're giving me are general points, which may or may not be entirely praiseworthy, but they're nothing to do with you being the Green Party. And if you say "Actually, there's no difference there. We might as well call ourselves now the Grey Party, the Pink Party, whatever..."
Natalie Bennett: This is green political philosophy. We believe that we need to re-localise our economy, bring manufacturing and food production back to Britain, to build our economy round local businesses, small businesses and co-operatives, not -
John Humphrys: For environmental reasons.
Natalie Bennett: For environmental and economic and social justice reasons. We know, for a sustainable society, we need jobs you can build a life on. We want to ban zero hours contracts. We want to make the minimum wage a living wage. All of those things are essential to - jobs you can build a life on are essential for a sustainable society.
John Humphrys: Natalie Bennett, thank you very much indeed.
Natalie Bennett: Thank you.