Some of the region’s proudest achievements have occurred in Norwich. Seven years ago the local Party had no councillors there. Now, they have 13 City and two County Councillors. The Greens are now the official opposition on Norwich City Council; a first anywhere in Britain! In 2008, we broke through onto Cambridge City Council for the first time. This means we now have principal authority councillors in all six of the counties in the region. On both Mid-Suffolk and Braintree District Councils, Greens were recently re-elected with a whopping 79% of the vote!
Campaign Objectives
Since the last European Elections, the number of Green Councillors across Eastern region has risen from 8 to 29, across 10 different Councils. The Greens only need 10% to get Rupert Read elected, which is one reason why Eastern is one of the Party’s chosen target regions.
Lead Candidate: Rupert Read
Rupert is Reader in Philosophy at the University of East Anglia. He specialises in political, environmental and linguistic philosophy.
He is not working at the moment as he has taken the entire year off, and is living frugally off his savings, in order to be able to focus on full-time campaigning for the June 4 Euro-election. Rupert is convinced that the peril to our common future is such that this kind of effort and commitment is needed; and he is determined if it is humanly possible to increase the number of Green MEPs elected this time.
Number Two: Peter Lynn
Peter is Professor of Research Methodology at the University of Essex. A statistician by training, his career has been shaped by a belief that social policies should be informed by rigorous data collection and analysis. Exposure as an undergraduate to the scientific literature on climate science led Peter to join the Green Party in 1986. He is currently methodological advisor to the UK Office for National Statistics and has in the past advised most major government departments as well as international bodies including the European Central Bank and the EU Fundamental Rights Agency. Peter lives in Colchester with his wife and two sons, one of whom – at age eleven – asked a Colchester Borough Council Cabinet meeting to look into introducing trams!
Platform on which our candidates will be standing
A key objective is to turn Eastern Region into a stronghold of renewable energy generation. The region has fantastic potential which could be exploited to provide large numbers of jobs as well as energy security.
Strengthening local economies and supporting independent farmers are also high priorities for Greens in the region.
To get the Party another Green MEP we need your help. Get involved in our campaign by calling Rupert on 01603 219294
