Luton and Bedfordshire Green Party
The Green Party in Luton and Bedfordshire, UK

Local Elections 5th May 2011 Our special election boradcast can be seen on this Youtube site
Bedford Council Lucy Bywater and Tony Upton - Green Party candidates for Castle Ward With one of last year's winning independents not defending her seat, the Green Party candidates stand an excellent chance of winning. Last year Lucy, then the only Green candidate, beat two Liberal Democrat and two Labour candidates in this ward. Lucy Bywater Tony Upton
Bedford Mayoral Greg Paszyski - Green Party candidate Greg has expressed his determination to fight against cuts in local services and localise Bedford's economy, among other things. Read the full text of his conversation with Bedford on Sunday by clicking this link.	Luton Council The Green Party is supporting six candidates in Luton this year: Marc Scheimann, Lyn Bliss and Jim Fisher in South Ward Simon Hall in Barnfield Ward Eileen Nash in Lewsey Ward Denis Parker in High Town Click this link to see our policy statements

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First Ever Green Party MP Elected to Westminster ! Caroline Lucas has become the first ever Green Party MP in Britain, winning Brighton Pavilion constituency by 1,252 votes from Labour. With a hung parliament she will have a very significant role to play in getting better legislation passed and bad policies stopped. Visit her web site for more information.

Green solution to the cuts conundrum Letter to The Guardian from Carolline Lucas, published 22 June 2010 George Osbome's description of tomorrow's announcement as the "unavoidable budget" takes government deception to new depths (Osbome faces backlash on tax and cuts, 21 June). In a new Green party report published this week, Cuts: the callous con trick, tax expert Richard Murphy and I demonstrate that there is nothing "unavoidable" about the spending cuts which Osbome is about to serve up. As our report makes clear, any efforts that are needed to reduce the deficit can be paid for by fairer taxes without forcing those on low incomes to pay most for the excesses of the bankers. We are not "all in this together". Some had more responsibility for this crisis than others, and some benefited more from the boom that preceded. it. Progressive tax reform, increasing the tax take from those most able to pay it, and helping lower earners by reintroducing the 10% tax band, would raise revenue and address inequality. Moreover, the huge extent of tax avoidance tax evasion and unpaid tax in the UK economy is truly staggering. HM Revenue and Customs admits that tax evasion and avoidance amounts to at least £40bn a year. Our report sets out a range of options for changing the tax rules for the UK so that more than £40bn of additional taxes could be raised each year. That, together with the tax collecting efficiency savings, would deliver more than £60bn of tax revenues - so preventing the need for any cuts at all. The real way out of this crisis is through investment in a Green New Deal, creating thousands of jobs, and putting in place the green infrastructure our economy needs if it is to be truly sustainable.

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Not a One-Issue Party Many people seem to think the Green Party is concerned with the environment to the exclusion of all else. This is far from being the case. Among many other policies, the Green Party is pressing (and has detailed, costed policies) to: Keep the NHS a public service rather than a private business Increase pensions to £170 per week Create over one million long-term jobs Introduce a living wage, not a minimum wage Make the tax system fair We want real changes, not just a slogan about change To find out more, visit the main Green Party web site

General Election 2010

Our candidates, Ben Foley in Bedford, Simon Hall in Luton North, Marc Schieman in Luton South and Malcolm Bailey in Mid Beds thank all those who supported them in this election, which has proved to be another valuable step forward for the Green Party, despite the way were squeezed by the unfair advantage the so-called "prime minsterial debates" on television gave to the big three parties. The results of the election in the constituences in our area can be seen on this page.

Contents of the rest of this site

Introduction
 

News, annoucements and campaigns
 

Help us raise funds at no cost and little effort from you
 

What we stand for, in outline
 

Our local policies
 

Policies for Bedfordshire and Luton as a whole - Do you want the M1 widened in Bedfordshire?
 

Policies for Bedford
 

Policies for Luton
 

Policies for Mid Bedfordshire - Including support for the Safer Maulden campaign
 

Policies for South Bedfordshire
 

A simple question - yes or no?
 

Contact us!
 

Some useful external links
 

Browser compatibility statement
 

Sandy
2009 election (2seats) Liberal Democrat 1,383 Liberal Democrat 1,209 Green 748 Conservative 689 Conservative 619 Green 266 Labour 135 Labour 123	Comparison Based on Votes of Leading Candidate of Each Party Party Votes 2009 2005 County Change Liberal Democrat 1,383 (46.8%) 1,863 (45.0%) -480 (+1.8) Green 748 (25.3%) 198 (4.8%) +550 (+20.5) Conservative 689 (23.3%) 1,306 (31.5%) -617 (-8.2) Labour 135 (4.6%) 773 (18.7%) -638 (-14.1)
The 2005 county council elections were the last elections fought on the same boundaries

Recycling scheme

You can recycle your inkjet cartridges (unfortunately NOT including Epson) and old mobile phones through this scheme. You can register at:

http://www.recycle4charity.co.uk/intelsignup.aspx?supporterid=C11334

and they will send you freepost recycling bags to send your items away. We get £1 for every cartridge that they recycle and up to £30 for every phone.

It's easy, it's free, it's environmentally friendly.

Webshop

Visit the webshop site and shop from any of the affiliated shops and we earn commission which comes from the retailers not from you. There are well over 100 retailers offering from 2 to 15% commission. If you use this site make sure your browser accepts cookies otherwise the link is lost and we don't earn anything. You can book holidays, buy books, rent movies, do your Christmas shopping, insure your car, all worth a look.

Listed below are just a few of the policies with which we want to improve the lives of everyone (in the longer term, even the super-rich and corporate directors who are most opposed to us). Details and reasoning can be found on the main Green Party web site.

Stop global warming You might like to see Jim Fisher's personal comment on this
Real democracy at all levels of government
Local control of local matters
Genuinely sustainable development
Government for ordinary people, not for big business
Social justice in place of greed
High quality education in every school, and one close to every child to minimise unnecessary travel
High quality services in every hospital, and one close to every household to minimise unnecessary travel
High quality, affordable public transport
Affordable, decent, energy-efficient housing, making maximum use of brown-field sites
Maintain and enhance local communities by preserving local shops, post offices and schools, especially in villages and clamp down hard on edge-of-town supermarkets. There is a non-party-political campaign on this topic

This photo shows a joint Green Party/Greenpeace demonstration against locating nuclear waste dumps in Bedfordshire, which took place recently in Bedford:

To see discussion of local issues in the different parts of our area, click on the appropriate link below:

Policies for Bedfordshire and Luton as a whole
Policies for Bedford
Policies for Luton
Policies for Mid Bedfordshire
Policies for South Bedfordshire