The Green Party launched its General Election manifesto with a call for a "peaceful political revolu...

1. Greens urge: 'Join our revolution'
The
Green Party launched its General Election manifesto with a call for a "peaceful political revolution"
to end austerity and tackle climate change.
It pledged to stop the "creeping privatisation
of the NHS" and increase the minimum wage
to £10 an hour.
Leader Natalie Bennett and Caroline Lucas,
the party's only ever MP, unveiled a plan to
help the two million children growing up in
cold homes.
They want an insulation programme for the
worst-affected nine million homes.
Introducing the manifesto at the Arcola
Theatre in Dalston, east London, Ms Bennett
said it represented a "genuine alternative" to
"business as usual politics".
She said she wanted to "take back" the NHS and the railways from the private sector.
The 84-page manifesto, entitled "For the common good" sets out the Greens' main policy pledges,
including:
Creating one million jobs that pay at least a living wage

2. 60% rate of income tax on those earning more than £150,000 a year
A new wealth tax on the top 1%; a "Robin Hood tax" on the banks
Banning fracking; investment in renewable energy
Scrapping university tuition fees
Cutting rail fares by 10%
Abolishing the bedroom tax
The Greens are fielding a record number of candidates - 571 - on 7 May and claim a surge in
membership numbers to 59,000 - more than UKIP and the Lib Dems.
Ms Lucas said a free nationwide insulation programme to tackle cold homes, specifically in areas
blighted by fuel poverty, would help two million children.
She also called for extra £1.3bn on the NHS budget to deal with the associated costs of cold homes.
Key priorities
Green
Main pledges
End austerity and restore the public sector, creating jobs that pay at least a living wage
End privatisation of the National Health Service
Work with other countries to ensure global temperatures do not rise by more than 2C
£85bn programme of home insulation, renewable electricity generation flood defences
Provide 500,000 social homes for rent by 2020 and control rent levels
Return the railways to public hands
"We believe if we invest in insulating people's homes, we can get their fuel bills down on a
permanent basis," Ms Lucas told BBC Radio 4's Today programme
"It would also get our climate-change emissions down and could create hundreds of thousands of
jobs.
"And crucially, for every £1 invested in this programme, it's estimated that £1.27 comes back to the
economy in terms of the benefit in jobs and reduction on the NHS bill."
Ms Lucas said the government had "a woeful record on energy insulation", with the installation of
energy-efficient measures in UK homes falling by 80% over the last two years.
The Green Party has called for a "progressive alliance" with the SNP, if it has MPs at Westminster in

3. the next Parliament.
Ms Lucas ruled out backing a Conservative government, but said Green MPs could support a
minority Labour administration on "a case-by-case basis".
The Green Party's manifesto is full of big promises: a pension of more than £300 a week for a couple,
renewable energy taking over from fossil fuels, a million new public sector jobs.
But they are having difficulty defending their
numbers robustly. They claim they'll raise a
massive £30bn extra from clampdowns on
tax avoidance; very, very optimistic. And the
man behind the manifesto's numbers, Brian
Heatley, told me they couldn't really be sure
how much their new wealth tax would raise
because it hasn't been tried before.
They say they could make up any shortfall by
reducing their planned cut to employers'
national insurance contributions.
In one sense, refreshingly candid. In another
way, extremely problematic for a party that
wants to be taken seriously on a tax that they
need to raise £20bn.

4. The Greens also say they would carry on spending
more each year than the government gets from
revenue. Does that mean deficits for ever? The party
won't say.
In other news, Natalie Bennett has told Newsnight
they don't want to ban the Grand National after all -
more straightforward than working out government
spending.
Read political correspondent Ben Geoghegan's
analysis
"That would give us a real opportunity to push
Labour on the policies we know the public wants and
which are at the heart of our manifesto," she said.
"Whether that's scrapping nuclear weapons or
reversing the privatisation in our NHS, whether
that's returning local schools to local control or bringing rail back into public ownership."
'Scrap road building'
Recently, Ms Bennett said the party's policy of a Citizens' Income of £72 a week for every adult in
Britain would feature in the manifesto, but that it would take longer than one parliament for it to be
implemented.
The cut in public transport fares would be paid for by scrapping new road-building programmes,
while the party is also expected to pledge free social care for the elderly.
At the weekend, Ms Bennett said the 60% top rate of tax would apply to people earning over
£150,000 and that it would raise £2bn a year.
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