THE Green Party manifesto aims to reduce pollution and waste, while encouraging a more sustainable way of living. The party is fielding 90 candidates, less than half the 255 put forward in 1992. Principal Speaker David Taylor said green politics had "hit a high" in the late 1980s without achieving an electoral breakthrough.
The party had switched strategy to achieve its aims by other means. It had more than 100 local councillors, had succeeded in getting two Energy Conservation Acts through Parliament through the support of sympathetic MPs and was closely involved in non-violent action against road-building projects.
Manifesto proposals include:
. Taxes to cut waste and pollution;
. Proportional representation to all levels of government;
. Giving voters the right to remove from office politicians who do not keep their promises;
. Scrapping gross national product as a measure of economic success and replace it with "sustainability indicators" measuring how well resources are protected;
. Introducing a basic income scheme to replace current benefits and tax allowances;
. Ending the building of any new urban trunk roads and motorways and setting targets for traffic reduction;
. Switching subsidies from "environmentally damaging farming" to organic farming instead.