On 2nd November 2021 and within the conference venue, newly elected co-leaders of the Green Party gave a candid interview to Anooch Chakelian, Editor of the News Stateman entitled: “Encounter: UK Green Leaders”.
This is a verbatim transcript of non-binary Carla and Adrian’s responses to two questions put to them which, given the sorry state the party is now in and with hindsight, visitors to our blog may find …illuminating.
Anooch
“ Both of you spoke a lot about compassion with implicit reference to the division within the membership over gender Self Id “.
Adrian
“ It’s about a reference to how politics is conducted on all issues, including issues on which people have very passionate views or issues, or where people feel vulnerable or feel attacked and that’s the case in the Green Party and we’re also talking about compassion in politics more broadly, as well.
So, we…and in particular in this last week where we’ve seen a Member of Parliament killed in their line of duties, David Amees, running a constituency surgery. This is just a horrific.. We’re in that situation…
I think anyone in public life …it’s about how we engage with each other and finding ways in which we can look beyond divides, the common ground, having discussions in a respectful way and I think that’s always what green politics has been about, really.
Having the debate, people expressing their views and looking for a way forward.
I think we will highlight that compassion internally as well as externally. In terms of our compassion for the broader world, because we care about our communities locally; we care about justice around the globe, we care about other species as well as caring for people we work with day to day.
And so, we both felt during the campaign, and more recently, that compassion is a nice way of summing up the values of Green Politics.
Anooch
“ Carla . There was a round of applause in the hall when your work on health services for transpeople in the South West was mentioned. Is this a topic that your party is still working though in terms of the divisions over how transpeople should be treated within the membership ? “
Carla
“ Green Party Policy, you know, is very clearly in favour of trans rights . We have some specific green policies on trans health care, for example.
And those were chosen by our members at conferences, one member one vote, and really proud of those and as I said, part of our jobs as leaders as spokespeople and part of that is community policies but also, part of my job as a local councillor is representing people that live in my ward and it was through an approach from a group of trans students at the University of Bristol who asked me if I would sign an open letter about the quality of trans health care services in the South West. That’s how I got involved . It was directly representing the voices of people in the area I am councillor”.
Both co-leaders revealed they were vegans and that their priority was system change.
The full 10 minutes interview can still be found on Youtube.
Your comments are welcome : TheGreenLightBLog@protonmail.com
The Green Light 