Last night, Manchester Young Greens played host to Jean Lambert, Green Party MEP for London, and Peter Cranie, the Party’s candidate of the North West region for next year’s European election. In the one-hour discussion, about 30 young people grabbed the opportunity to gain first-hand insights into the internal running of the European Parliament from a politician who has been working for the European powerhouse in Brussels since 1999. Students asked questions and discussed issues ranging from EU and Green policies to local politics and learned how each one of us can make a difference here in the North West.
After a short introduction by Young Greens’ Co-ordinator Justine Hall in the Student’s Union, Jean Lambert started off by giving the students a short overview of how the European Parliament is structured. As she talked about her active membership of several committees including that for Employment & Social Affairs, Civil Liberties and Human Rights, it became clear that working as a member of parliament at European levels goes far beyond the usual policy debates. She emphasised the role of the EU as “central” in promoting good education and raising people’s awareness, particularly in the case of climate change. ‘It’s all very well having your targets, but if you haven’t actually got the skilled and trained workforce, you haven’t got a hope in meeting them.” With a critical eye on the Conservatives she explained that eventually “we'll have to say no to business” to achieve something in climate change.
A summary of the Greens’ general policies was requested at the very beginning of the question time. The MEP reminded the students that the focus on an anti- nuclear power position, habitat loss and on different organisations including Friends of the Earth or Green Peace will continue to be central for Green politics: “Nature is a free good and we have a duty to our future generations to ensure that it stays that way,” said Lambert. “It’s crystal-clear that what we’ve been doing so far is not sustainable.” Students put forward suggestions to make more use of wind farms.
An issue of great importance to the North West was raised through a question on the treatment of migrants and the Greens’ attitude to freedom of movement. With BNP candidate Nick Griffin as the Greens’ main rival for the 2009 European election, it is vital to show that “migration is a good thing”, said Lambert. However, she expressed a clear ‘No’ to full freedom of movement because full open borders “bring their problems.” Peter Cranie emphasised that immigrants provide good services, for example though qualified staff in the health sector.
Along with migration and environmental matters, anti-war campaigning against the occupation of Palestine was a popular topic on the students’ question list for Jean Lambert. Pointing to urgently needed improvements in access to water and land use, she called the occupation “a major scandal.”
Not only ‘typically green’ issues were discussed. The stubborn problem of electoral reform was also part of the agenda. Lambert only sees very weak chances for a voting system in Westminster other than first-past-the-post. She stated that Labour would merely look as though “they were scared that they would not be re-elected” if they changed the system now and, secondly, since the election procedures for the House of Lords still have not changed she cannot see electoral reform at “the top of the Conservatives’ shopping list.” Specifically referring to the North West, Peter Cranie added that even on a local level the Greens have less members and less money which “makes it really tough.” He finished off by calling for more young Green Party voters with a hint to the 2009 election because what “you choose to now will have a butterfly effect in the future”. The feedback seems to reflect this, as many students liked Lambert’s and Cranie’s “positive can-do message,” said PPE student George Alabaster.
Original article appears on the website of The Politics Society at the University of Manchester.