Dear Jeremy,
These are exciting times for progressive politics. In the space of just a few weeks you’ve brought something into your party that’s been missing for far too long: hope. I’ve never felt so optimistic about a potential leader of the Labour Party. For the first time in my memory, the party of Keir Hardie and Clement Attlee looks likely to be led again by someone who dares to stand up for the radical changes demanded by the challenges we face.
I’ve shared many platforms with you, from opposing Britain’s disastrous and bloody war in Iraq to supporting investment in the economy in place of relentless and cruel austerity. Your inspiring campaign has put so many of our shared values into the centre of the debate in British politics.
The beauty of this moment, and what scares the political establishment most, is that the power of your campaign is coming from thousands of grassroots voices – not a diktat from above. It hardly seems a coincidence that the first truly democratic leadership election in your party’s recent history is producing such a powerful resurgence in optimism. People do indeed vote differently when they know their vote counts.
And it has been particularly exciting to see so many of the policies that have long been championed by the Greens resonating with such a substantial portion of the electorate. Like the Green surge of earlier this year, and like many of the social movements and new progressive parties that have sprung up across the world, an anti-establishment mood is manifesting itself into a real political force.
By working together in the coming weeks and months we can continue to build upon the movement you’ve played such a huge role in creating. Not only can we provide real economic alternatives to austerity, defend the trade unions and make the argument for urgent climate action, but we can also start to imagine an entirely different future – of a new social settlement, an economy that provides decent pay and allows people to flourish outside of work too. Crucially, a new politics will provide a constitutional framework which hands power from Westminster back into the hands of voters.
The old politics is crumbling, not just in Britain but across our continent. We now have the chance to embrace a movement based not on greed or fear, but on resilient local communities, people working together and a stable economy that works for generations to come. I truly hope you win the contest on 12 September – and I look forward to continuing to work with you to bring about the progressive politics that has inspired us both for so many years.
In solidarity,
Caroline Lucas
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices...ou-build-a-progressive-majority-10469934.html
