Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has called a General Election for Thursday July 4, ending months of speculation about when he will go to the country.
Over the past two months, theIndie has invited the Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, Green Party and Reform UK candidates for Hertford and Stortford to introduce themselves to our readers before the campaign proper began, writing on any subject they chose.
From June 5, we will be asking them all to answer the same key questions and set out their stances on the crunch issues identified by voters in Hertford and Stortford. Then they will have a chance to make a final pitch to residents to sum up why they should be our next MP – and why their party should form the next Government.
Cllr Nick Cox, Green Party candidate for Hertford and Stortford and a member of East Herts Council for Ware, writes…
This time last year the Green Party had just made spectacular gains in the local elections, not least in East Herts.
Some thought this might be a one-off, a bit like in the 1989 European Parliament elections when Greens gained 15% of the vote but couldn’t then repeat it.
But it’s not a one-off. On May 2 the Green Party improved on last year’s results and now has a record 809 councillors on 174 councils, including seats in St Albans and Three Rivers in Hertfordshire.
And we fought the police and crime commissioner election in Hertfordshire for the first time, achieving a credible result and bringing Greens across the county together.
Over the last five local elections in England, we have seen an almost five-fold increase in the number of Green councillors. We’re on course for a similar increase in the number of MPs at the next General Election.
We’re now the largest party on key English councils including Bristol, Hastings, Stroud, Babergh, East Suffolk, Mid Suffolk, Lewes, Folkestone and Hythe, and the Forest of Dean, as well as East Herts, of course.
These results represent a seismic shift in English politics. Voters are increasingly voting Green because we offer a real alternative, with sensible and practical policies to tackle local and national issues such as the cost of living, the housing crisis, underfunded and run-down public services and the terrible state of our rivers.
Only Greens will hold the new Government to account on these issues.
The Conservatives are clearly flailing after decades of austerity and incompetence. I’m surprised they didn’t do even worse. They have been defunding the police for the last 14 years, so why did they win our PCC election? They even retained power in Harlow – how did that happen?
I won’t stop spreading the message that we deserve better and that the General Election can’t come soon enough. It’s time for change.
This column was originally published in the Bishop’s Stortford Independent of May 15.