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Lindsay Whitcroft
Green Party candidate for Northern Ireland |
The Green Party and I are proud to present to the people of Northern Ireland an opportunity to support a truly European Party - a Party with 45 MEPs from twelve countries ... a Party of Government.
As a major grouping in the European Parliament we have many achievements to our name: notably
- Opposing the commercialisation of genetically modified crops;
- Opposing the US/UK War on Iraq while other so calle radical parties have continued to entertain the Bush Administration at every opportunity; and
- Forcing the British Government to take the first steps towards the closure of the Sellafield Plant.
We are a party of Government. And in the words of the Greens' German Foreign Minister, Joschka Fischer, we are advocates of a new politics of care.
We are a Party for Nationalist, Unionist and Dissenter
We believe that the 'Agreement' can do for us what the European institutions have done for the rest of Europe - usher in a century of peace, social inclusion and cooperation.
We may occupy the progressive centre in Northern Irish politics, however we also provide a natural home for both Nationalist and Unionist supporters of the 'Agreement' - people who have come to understand that the old nationalist and unionist parties who negotiated the Agreement are not necessarily up to the job of making the Agreement deliver on jobs, transport, infrastructure, the protection of our environment and quality of life and the politics of the European Union. To reject sectarianism is NOT to reject legitimate nationalist and unionist aspirations.
It is clear that a number of the traditional parties and their leaderships - since the signing of the Agreement - have begun to look more and more exhausted and redundant. This is particularly true of the SDLP and the Ulster Unionist Party.
I am proud to offer myself as a candidate who will present a new face to Europe .... present a new post-Agreement agenda ....
I also look forward to drawing on the vast experience of the expanding Green group in the European Parliament at this exciting time in our own history and in the history of the European institutions. |
Created by: forster
last modification: Tuesday 18 of May, 2004 [11:19:37 UTC] by forster
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