The Green party understands, and has long understood, that the climate crisis and the cost of living crisis are interlinked. Our economy isn’t currently working for people, or the planet, when it could and should be doing both.
People are getting desperate. They can see the world is changing around them but don’t often feel as if they’re included in the conversation. We’ve seen that over the past few months as people have started to organise during the joint hottest summer on record.
When wages are low but profits are high, it’s pretty easy to see what’s going wrong. A small group of people at the top are taking a massively disproportionate share. And while these people are free to pollute more and more, the poorest are pushed even deeper into poverty. Twelve years of Tory rule means that whether you’re a nurse, someone with a job on the railways or a postal worker, you’ve felt undervalued and been underpaid. The work has got harder, faster and more demanding, while the monetary compensation and the working conditions have failed to keep up for most of us.
This needs to be rebalanced. Higher wages create a more equal society where everyone can have a decent standard of living without pushing the planet off a cliff. A higher wage economy is a greener economy.
There are so many solutions available but unexplored, from investing in renewables to insulating homes. We need a windfall tax on the dirty profits of fossil fuels, and to close the gaps in the government’s plans that simply further support oil and gas companies. The Green party will bring back the £20 universal credit uplift – and double it – while making the long-term case for a universal basic income.
Sadly, real solutions to people’s actual problems play second fiddle
Read more on theguardian.com