A Progressive London is a Green London

This Saturday, Jean spoke at the Progressive London conference. The conference was convened by Ken Livingstone as an opportunity for a broad group of politicians and activists to discuss how to combat the reactionary policies of the Boris Johnson administration, as well as how to unite around progressive policies in the capital for the next few years.

It was quite fitting that there were four Green representatives on the various panels (Jean, Jenny Jones AM, Darren Johnson AM, and Cllr Romayne Phoenix), since even the London Tories agree that the Green Group is the driving force behind most of the progressive initiatives in the London Assembly at the moment.

Even more fitting was the fact that Jean was speaking on a panel addressing the shape of the world in the 21st century, and how those of us with progressive politics should be meeting the challenges we now face. As the Green Party's European Election launch in late 2008 made clear, one of the solutions to the tripartite challenges of the credit crunch, climate change and economic inequality is a massive programme to generate Green Jobs. One of the major themes of Jean's re-election campaign, the need for Green Jobs has never been clearer than it is now - and is a major plank of what progressive politics in the 21st century has to look like.

Of course, lots of the political parties are mouthing platitudes about this sort of thing these days - but only the Green Party has been following up, and turning rhetoric into action. This video from Kirklees Green Party, covering their district-wide free insulation scheme and job creation programme, is only one example of what Greens are doing all over the country...and what Green MEPs can support and evangelise for on a European level.