Lichfield and Burntwood residents are in a race against time to save the environment, claims Green Party parliamentary candidate Robert Pass.
The 29-year-old is the first Green Party parliamentary candidate to stand in Lichfield since 1990.
He grew up in the village of Whittington and attended Kings Edward VI School in Lichfield. He also studied philosophy at the University of Birmingham.
The Midlands-based director of his family’s Fortress Recycling business has urged the public to be brave and to vote for the policies they believe in.
He claims the Green’s are the only party willing to take on the vested interests of the richest one per cent.
Mr Pass said: “Since the 2008 financial crash the top one per cent in British society has got richer while everyone else has become poorer and wealth inequality is set to rise in Britain in the years ahead.
“The people of Lichfield and Burntwood need the Green Party to deliver social, economic and environmental justice for the people of this country. On a planet with finite resources it’s impossible to have infinite economic growth.
“The Green Party does not have wealthy backers, which makes us the only ones willing to stand up to vested corporate and media interests.
“There is no point in people complaining about the voting system if they continue to vote for the same old establishment parties. Nothing will ever change in British politics if people continue to back the Conservatives, Labour or Liberal Democrats.”
Mr Pass has also spent five years working as a campaigner for Birmingham Friends of the Earth.
Climate change
The Lichfield candidate believes that climate change is the biggest threat facing the world this century.
The Green Party supports a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU, which their candidate believes is the correct position to take in a democratic country.
But he adds that working with other countries on the international stage is the way forward to tackle global problems such as climate change and terrorism.
Mr Pass said: “I come from a middle class family and was raised on a consumerist western trip. In my teenage years I began to hear about climate change and I decided to do some research into the subject – in my opinion it’s the biggest threat facing humanity.
“I then got involved with Birmingham Friends of the Earth and met like-minded people who I really get on with. The organisation works with politicians to convince them of the need to adopt climate friendly policies. I’ve spent the last five years with the group trying to get the message out there and to raise the alarm.
“We believe that Britain’s place is in the EU, where we can operate with other countries to tackle climate change head on. We don’t believe in drawing up the draw bridge as UKIP does.”
Food banks
One million people will soon be using food banks across the country, according to the Trussell Trust, and there is such a facility operating in Lichfield.
The Greens’ claim 800 families in the constituency are reliant on the food bank at the Wade Street Church Office on Frog Lane.
Mr Pass believes these figures show why the financial system needs root and branch reform.
He said: “There are five million people in this country who earn less than the living wage of £7.85 and we as taxpayers have to pay them billions in housing benefit because their employers do not pay them enough to live on.
“The government also pays out tax credits to people who don’t earn enough money, yet corporate banks can afford to give billions to their chief executives in bonuses every year. That is why if we were in power nationally we would make substantial changes to the system.
“All electronic money is created as debt by commercial banks, and their investment decisions have a huge impact on the country. We need to take that power away from them and put it into the hands of a democratically accountable body.
“Over 97 per cent of the money in our system is created by the banks who then lend that money to everyone else as debt.
“In order to stimulate the economy Chancellor George Osborne encouraged the banks to lend to get our economy moving by lowering interest rates to encourage people to take on more debt. We’ll never break out of this debt cycle of boom and bust under the current system.
“The Green Party wants to raise the minimum wage to £10 an hour by 2020, because we believe if you work hard for a living then you should be able to live comfortably.”
The candidate for Lichfield claims the coalition government have got their priorities completely wrong over the last five years.
Educating the young, building homes, building a better public transport system and stopping foreign wars is what Rob believes the government should be doing.
HS2 would be an environmental disaster
He said: “I believe the government approach over the last five years has been completely wrong. HS2 would be an environmental disaster – we should invest in our local rail networks and encourage people to get out of their cars.
“The government claims we need to spend £50 billion on HS2, £100 billion on trident nuclear weapons and on giving out billions in subsides to fossil fuel companies. We spent billions bailing out the banks in 2008, but the government over the last five years have wrongly blamed the poorest in our society for the recession.
“Yet they can’t find enough money to educate our young people, they can’t find enough money to provide affordable housing or to provide a decent public transport system for all of us?”
New members have provided the Green Party with a substantial boost ahead of the general election.
The Greens now have over 60,000 members giving them more than both UKIP and the Liberal Democrats.
Grassroots activism
Mr Pass admits he is “very proud” to be a part of a party with a substantial grassroots presence.
He said: “I’m very proud to be the Green Party’s first parliamentary candidate since 1990 in Lichfield. I grew up in Whittington and I care very much about the area.
“As a small party we don’t have the same resources as the Conservatives or Labour and we rely very much on our grassroots activism.
“We now have 60,000 members nationally, which is bigger than both UKIP and the Liberal Democrats. These are people who are involved in a real movement because they realise we need to make changes to the way we do things in order to meet the challenges of the future.”
The candidates standing in the Lichfield constituency in May are:
- Andy Bennetts – Class War
- Michael Fabricant – Conservatives
- Robert Pass – Green Party
- John Rackham – UKIP
- Paul Ray – Lib Dem
- Chris Worsey – Labour
