The Green Party is suddenly being taken seriously- Mark Fletcher

Mark Fletcher, Green Party Candidate for Devizes Constituency, has noticed a change since the last General Election “The Green Party is suddenly being taken seriously”, he says, “The Economist has talked about a ‘green breakthrough’, and a ‘grown-up’ party.”

He may be right. An online questionnaire in which 180,797 people to date have voted on policies alone (without knowing which party the policies belonged to) currently shows the Green Party winning, over 8% clear of all the other parties. The Tories are still in a poor fourth position with 16.22%. (More on this questionnaire and similar ones in Marlborough People this weekend).

Mark points out that recent polls seem to show the Greens are also more trusted on conservative values.

“We want the countryside to be looked after for our children, not a suburban sprawl, not roads clogged with lorries and rivers with pollution. We believe in investing in local infrastructure like bus and rail networks, and local hospitals. Patients in community hospitals like Savernake on average recover faster and cost less than they do in the big hospitals in Swindon or Salisbury. Communities make better decisions about spending their taxes than Whitehall ever can.

 We support farmers, post offices and local services, and a cleaner environment. We are for quality, stability, and for a long-term future.”

When talking of the Green Party’s proposals for dealing with the financial crisis Mark explains,

“We seem to be the only party trusted when we say we don’t think the deficit is solved by cuts to local services. Sacking nurses and cutting pensions is not the solution. The solution is to return to the ideas of stewardship, thrift, honesty, and community.

We would raise some taxes, particularly for those who can afford it, but under our policies, over 80% of people would be better off. We would cut waste: wasted energy, wasted bureaucracy, wasted subsidies on businesses like aviation that pay no fuel duty, wasted crops left unpicked because supermarkets push uneconomic prices on farmers.

Our policies are about children, pensioners and small local businesses. We would cut the tax billions which have been given to huge foreign businesses like EDF, and foreign car manufactures, and instead use the money to simplify pensions so that nobody falls below the official poverty line, £170 a week. Student tuition fees would be scrapped so that our children don’t start their adult life in debt.

We would lower corporation tax for small businesses, and those investing in technology, energy, or cleaner transport, we would help even more. It is government's responsibility to help build a strong economy, based on the industries of the future.”

Mark, an award winning wildlife filmmaker and zoologist for the BBC, has seen climate change first hand. He has written about wildlife and conservation for The Daily Mail amongst others.

He is married with two young children- his wife Samantha is Green Party candidate for the new Chippenham Constituency.  A  Wiltshire resident for 13 years, Mark has led successful campaigns in Bromham to keep out a hazardous waste incinerator, to keep 150 houses off a green field site, and to keep out a concrete batching plant.

If elected Mark says he would give up making films, and campaign full time for Wiltshire.

The other Devizes Constituency candidates are: Claire Perry- Conservative, Martin Houlden- Independent, Patricia Bryant-UKIP , Nic Combe- Libertarian Party, Fiona Hornby- Liberal Democrats, David Carpenter- English Democrat Party and Junab Ali- Labour Party.