Manifestos and one course menus

Details on the Green Party's manifesto launch today in Brighton. I have had access to the manifesto for some weeks now but it has been embargoed from the press etc, but I can tell you that it contains some very good and radical policies. Last night I attended the first ever hustings for the voluntary sector in Lambeth at the Town Hall, along with colleagues who work in the voluntary sector there. I was not on the platform as it was for council candidates. The Labour, Lib Dems and Conservative parties had wheeled out their big guns, withe the respective leaders of all three groups on the Council on the platform. The Greens were represented by Duncan Law who is standing in Brixton Hill ward. The local voluntary sector was well represented in the audience and some questions had been sent in beforehand by directors of the various organisations.

I was unable to stay for the whole event but the moment of the night for me was when Cllr Whelan, the Tory group leader, said that the manifestos all three main parties were "indistinguishable, apart from a few words here and there." The Labour Leader's face (Steve Reed) was worth seeing at that moment! However, Cllr Whelan is basically correct and the same goes for the three national manifestos - all offer a menu of cuts - the only difference being when and how you want them. Only the Green manifesto contains something radically different. It is still grey politics v green politics.

 Manifesto launch today

The Green Party will launch its 2010 general election manifesto this morning. The launch will take place at the Hilton Brighton Metropole Hotel, starting at 10.30.

Darren Johnson, the party's national spokesperson on trade and industry and its candidate for Lewisham Deptford, will chair the event. The party's manifesto will be introduced by Caroline Lucas MEP, party leader and candidate tipped by bookies and pollsters alike to win the Brighton Pavilion constituency, and Cllr Adrian Ramsay, deputy leader and candidate in the party's Norwich South target seat.

The party’s manifesto will include tax changes to reduce inequality. It will also include a government investment programme to create around a million new jobs and training places across a wide range of economic sectors including jobs for carers, midwives, plumbers, builders, engineers and public transport workers.

The Greens will say that a determined effort to prevent cuts to public services will result in swifter recovery from the recession, large-scale job-creation and long-term economic stability. The manifesto will spell out a package of savings from scrapping projects like Trident, ID cards and new roadbuilding, as well as raising higher taxes on the highest incomes, to pay for the investment programme.