Can Darren Hall break new ground like Caroline Lucas did in Brighton?
Can Darren Hall break new ground like Caroline Lucas did in Brighton?
At the recent local elections in May, the Green Party in Bristol got a nice surprise. They came first in the Bristol West constituency going by the popular vote across the council wards, with a lead of 2 per cent over Labour.
Yesterday they announced as their candidate for Bristol West, Darren Hall, the man who won Bristol its European Green Capital Award 2015 and who runs the city’s Big Green Week festival.
To get the seat, he’ll have to take on incumbent Liberal Democrat Stephen Williams MP, and Labour’s Thangham Debonnaire, who is also standing.
According to the Green Party, “the contest is likely to be a closely fought three-way marginal, based on recent local election results showing the Greens are currently in the lead with 28 per cent support across the constituency, followed closely by Labour with 26 per cent, and 24 per cent going to the Lib Dems.”
Greens have six councillors across the city after making gains in May.
Hall, who now edits Good Bristol magazine, said:
“Bristol has always been a community that wants to stand on its own two feet. Only a Green MP can truly deliver a leadership that doesn’t conform to old party lines, that is democratic, that doesn’t let people down, that listens. As an MP, I would stand up for the people and interests of Bristol at all costs, rather than having to toe any party line.”
“Greens have been working alongside Bristol’s creatives and green experts for over 20 years to mould a vision for a more sustainable future for our city, but without an advocate in Westminster we are unable to make the vital changes we need. I’m excited to be starting out on this campaign to help us engage with innovative solutions on how to make Bristol work.”
Can he break new ground like Caroline Lucas did in Brighton? It will be an interesting race to watch next year, that’s for sure.
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51 Responses to “Could this be the next Green MP?”
Leon Wolfeson
x2.5/3 or more higher is not “lower”. Germany’s energy issues strongly disproves your contention, and we’re not as far South as they are (and we already have the RO ratchet which Green policy would springboard from, not to mention the very high housing prices which make the poor here so sensitive to energy prices!). That’s before we consider the borrowing costs, which would be dramatically higher than a sensible building program of nuclear – especially given the necessary massive investment we’d need in gas plants.
The evidence is pretty clear. Moreover… Chinese solar panels, made in environmentally destructive ways…yea.
Oh, and let’s not forget that many properties (especially rental ones) are not in fit shape to take them, and then there’s the issue of charging people who live above shops, etc.
(Want to talk mandating solar water heaters on new property…well…there there’s possibilities! And of course I am in favour of massive buildouts of new council housing…)
Gordon Ingram
Forgive me but you seemed to be talking about cost to the consumer (“trying to cut the poor off by massively jacking up utility prices”). I wasn’t talking about the macro-costs. Nor did I say anything about solar panels being an alternative to nuclear power, so most of your reply is a bit irrelevant really.
Gordon Ingram
As for Germany being farther south than the UK, don’t make me laugh. What, by 2.5 degrees (51 compared to 53.5 average latitude)?We have forests too, don’t we? – or we did have before the ancestors of our charming British landed gentry cut them all down.
Norfolk29
I have to advise you that when I take the test to determine which political party most meets my political beliefs, the Green Party always wins. If it were not for their rejection of Nuclear Power, which I believe will save the world, I would waste my political energies in trying to get them elected. As it is, I wish that the Labour Party could find some way of getting them to join in a combined enterprise, which accepted Nuclear Power, of course.
Leon Wolfeson
Yes, I’m sure you laugh at inconvenient facts.