TheGreenParty

The Green Party has long been opposed to nuclear on the basis of safety and the problem of fuel disposal. But I’m prepared to put those to one side - people tend to have very fixed views and aren’t often changed.

There’s also cost issues - but the big one for me is that nuclear is slow to get approval and build: way too slow for the urgency of our energy needs or our need to cut carbon emissions.

Solar energy is taking off and costs are plummeting, there’s exciting developments in tidal power, e.g. starting with the Swansea Bay lagoon proposal that’s part of a scheme set to provide 9% of the UK’s electricity demand via tidal in ten years—and hopefully we’ll soon get serious about energy conservation, which would also tackle fuel poverty.

The nuclear issue was debated at the last Green Party conference (a significant proportion voted to support nuclear power) - and it is worth saying that policy in the Green Party is made by our members - any four members can propose a motion to conference and it will be considered.

If you want to change it, I invite you to join the party and put your proposals forward.

To bring everyone up to speed: the Universal Basic Income is a cash benefit paid equally to every member of society, which ensures that no one need fear being left with absolutely nothing - unlike today, where low wages, zero-hours contracts, insecure employment and benefit sanctions mean 1 million people last year had to depend on foodbanks.

We’ll be releasing the full financial details in our manifesto in March, but it isn’t just us working on this issue. The Citizen’s Income Trust has released the costings for their plan, which is similar in scale but not the same as ours, you can find it here: http://www.citizensincome.org/FAQs.htm

However, I can tell you that about half of cost the Universal Basic Income (since we live in the age of UKIP I want to be clear that this would be available to everyone accepted as a member of our society) will come from existing benefits, including pensions. Also, the universality means that administration costs are very low, about 1% of total benefit paid out.

We don’t just see this as a humane policy, but also an economic boon. With a basic income, people who want to start a small business can have that security behind them to give it a go. I recently went to Building Bloqs (http://www.buildingbloqs.com/) in Enfield - a brilliant co-op where workers can use wood and metal-working tools (and they hope eventually lots of more high-tech gear): a basic income would make the lives of lots of the entrepreneurs there a lot easier. Also, benefits traps disappear tempting more into work - without the complex, probably impossible computer system that Iain Duncan Smith’s Universal Credit requires.

The Green Party supports evidence-based medical treatments, and says only these should be funded by the government. We call for an independent healthcare agency and say "effectiveness of treatments will be assessed by the agency using the best clinical evidence available". HE331 http://policy.greenparty.org.uk/he.html

In short we will be supporting whatever has been shown to work!

Voting tactically, often for the party or person we dislike the most, to stop the people we really dislike getting in, has given us the kind of politics we have now, where the rhetoric of Labour and Tory might sound a little different but there's little between their policies.

If voters keep doing this, we'll keep getting the same results (Einstein had something to say about this: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/alberteins133991.html)

We are clearly now in a new age of multi-party politics (the one sure loser from this election will be the first-past-the-post electoral system) and there's a real chance for voters in this election to create a peaceful revolution.

The Scots showed us the way: with an 85% turnout in the independence referendum. If we could do that in May, with young people turning out in the same proportion as the over-60s, then we could be in a new political age.

It is in voters' hands.

The Green Party is not against research on GM food, but has a policy to delay the release of it until it has been proven to be safe. We’re also very concerned about the power that ownership of the technology gives over a handful of multinational companies, and its link to large-scale industrial monocultures that have huge negative environmental impacts.

It is also our policy to lift public spending on scientific research to 1% GPD, when it is currently about half that. A much larger investment in science funding than any other party, along with additional benefits to science such as commitments to remove libel laws which stifle scientific advancement.

Find my answer to the nuclear question here: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2uez88/i_am_natalie_bennett_leader_of_the_green_party_of/co7t7zj