Welcome to 2015 :)

Hello, readers, Alan's Green Thoughts returns for 2015 :)

And what an exciting year it will be-especially with the UK general election coming up on 7 May.

I am pleased to say that nearly 300 Green Party of England and Wales PPCs have been selected so far, ranging from places as far apart as Copeland ,Ceredigion, and St Ives. I hope that there will be a full slate of Green Party PPCs in Britain by the time the general election comes around-all voters of Britain should be able to vote for a real alternative to the four pillars of neoliberal capitalism that are swamping the nation (Labour, Liberal Democrat, Conservative, and UKIP).

One thing I would really like is, as has been said before, for the Green Party, the SNP, and Plaid Cymru to be represented in this year's televised leaders' debates, in addition to other parties who I believe will be able to field substantial numbers of candidates (like TUSC, who fielded the sixth-highest number of local election candidates last year, with some areas having full slates of Socialist candidates for their local elections). The BBC, ITV, and Channel Four (and other television channels) all need to realise how important it is for democracy, diversity, fairness, free speech for Natalie, Nicola, and Leanne to be participating in these debates alongside Dave, Ed, Nick, and Nigel when the debates come around.

There is so much potential for change in 2015-not just in Britain but also in Europe as well. Coming up this year is a snap election in Greece this month (called after the Greek Parliament failed to elect a new President three times last month), and also general elections in Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Portugal and Spain, where I am hoping green and socialist alliances will perform better than ever (especially in the case of Greece and Spain).

Alan.

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