My first stop was Huddersfield, where we took a look at what has been achieved by the Greens on Kirklees Council. It’s impressive to say the least. Cllr Andrew Cooper has persuaded the Council to install solar PV on about 100 council houses and flats, cutting residents bills. He’s also got them to build new affordable green homes. It’s a vision of what Britain could look like today.
Depressingly, though, what should be the norm is a huge exception, to the extent that the solar village’s residents are suffering ‘visitor fatigue’ as the great and the good repeatedly show up to tour the area.
Just as remarkable, not least for its lack of replication elsewhere, is the country’s first ever free insulation scheme. Kirklees is offering free cavity and loft insulation to literally anyone who wants it. Teams are touring every street to make people aware and then get the fitters out to homes. This will cut bills by over £100 per household a year, putting money back into the local economy as well as saving carbon.
I got a similar impression of originality and vitality from the Norwich greens. Although they have only recently started to wield the sort of influence that Andy Cooper has, they are starting to pressure the Council to make big changes. Having got them to adopt an ambitious target for cuts in carbon, Norwich City Council will now have to think about what they do with buses, cars and energy. Norwich Greens have also be prominent in protecting local shops, trains and amenities, being a real voice for the community there.
Caroline Lucas, of course, is our most high profile politician and seeing her work for a day was fascinating. She’s working a vast brief, including climate emissions, aviation, trade, human rights and animal rights. She is a very accessible MEP and clearly making a difference in that institution: to make Europe work for its citizens we need to elect people like her, or we risk leaving the EU’s agenda to be set by corporate lobbyists.
It’s often easy to forget that Europe is producing vast amounts of legislation, not least because the press here just don’t care about the EU except when they can talk about straight bananas and schemes to ban Imperial measures.
Europe does enter the news in other EU countries, such as Germany, however, and it might well be worth asking why we have a media and political culture that doesn’t want to face the fact that we are part of a multi-state Europe that needs democratic scrutiny.
You’ll see the videos in a few weeks on the Green Party’s Youtube channel.
