Want to thank everyone especially all those who turned out to vote

MAY I, through the pages of the Echo, thank everyone involved in organising and ensuring the safe conduct of the general election in the Loughborough constituency: the officers at Charnwood Borough Council, the police, and particularly those who counted the votes long in to the night.

I’d like also to thank Loughborough Students’ Union and Loughborough Churches Partnership for organising elections hustings. And Liam, of the Echo, for dutifully filming key events and posting them on social media. All of these allowed democracy to happen, as best as it possibly could.

Not least I thank all the other candi- dates, their enduring families, and party workers for wearing down the pavements to ensure voters got a choice; but above all I thank all voters, regardless of how you cast it, for turning out.

Of these, and I’m sure my partisanship is forgiven, I especially thank the just shy of 1,000 voters who cast their vote for the Green Party in Loughborough (I’m not taking this as a personal vote). They represent a significant number who share our key concern that we’re pushing through the ceiling on safe environmental limits whilst billions of people fall through the floor, lacking the solid social founda- tions on which people can build their lives.

The Green Party exists to get us all back in to a safe zone and some of these issues were barely mentioned by the main stream parties.

There is no doubt the Green vote was squeezed. Voters know only too well the weakness of our first-pastthe-post voting system which favours a two horse race , a system that has given the right wing DUP 10 crucial seats with less than 300,000 votes compared to the Greens one seat from over half a million!

Moreover credit must be paid to Jeremy Corbyn who has led Labour in to the territory only the Greens occupied in 2015, offering a main-stream party choice for policies that deliver anti-austerity, public investment, opposition to privatisation and nationalisation of key state infrastructure, thus jettisoning the flawed deficit reduction and austerity-lite positions of Ed Miliband.

How exciting it was that this time so many came out to exercise that choice, particularly younger voters who have given the hard Brexit grey-vote the collywobbles.

This is to be welcomed; it’s a new context for the Greens’ bold and courageous politics which promises a cir- cular, inclusive economy which has human well being, and environmental sustainability as the default position.

We will continue to campaign for this essential paradigm shift and for this reason those 1000 votes kick well above their weight. So again, thank you to everyone who voted Green - who voted for the future, voted for hope and voted with their hearts. Philip A Leicester Loughborough Green Party