Organised by Climate Coalition, SPEAK UP #fortheloveof was the UK’s biggest ever lobby on climate change. Around 9000 constituents went to lobby Parliament, meeting with over 250 MPs across all parties.

A group travelled from Eastbourne to meet with Caroline Ansell, our newly appointed Conservative MP. Having attended every hustings during the local campaign, where climate change was hardly mentioned by any prospective parliamentary candidates other than the Green and Independent, we were keen to discuss the concerns of constituents face-to-face.

Renewable and sustainable energy, anti-fracking, better, cleaner transport, flood risks and international aid all featured during our conversation. We were given a generous amount of time, agreement on many of the issues we raised and requests for more information where we differed. Caroline offered her full support for the Friends of the Earth ‘Run on Sun’ campaign, expanding on this with a wish to see solar panels installed on commercial roofs as well as schools. A great start, which will be followed up with Caroline when we meet again, in Eastbourne, in a month's time.

Highlights from Wednesday include meeting with another Caroline, Lucas this time, who rightly acknowledged that many voters were disappointed by any serious commitment to addressing climate change by politicians either during the election, or in the Queen's Speech.

Asad Rehman of the Climate Coalition probably gave the most impassioned speech of the day, acknowledging that "we are in a time of crisis". His rallying cry was that if, following the talks in Paris in December, the politicians and Governments do not take the action needed then we must all take the power in our hands to demand they do.

Thursday 18 June 2015: Hope from the Pope (but not from the Conservatives)

Pope Francis delivered his historic encyclical on climate change today, building on growing public pressure, and hopefully political momentum, in the months leading up to the Paris conference in December. His 180 page cry from the heart called for moral action to address "climate change [which] is a global problem with grave implications: environmental, social, economic and political...it represents one of the principle challenges facing humanity in our day".

Today the Department for Energy and Climate Change also made an announcement, that UK onshore wind farms will be excluded from a subsidy scheme a year earlier than originally set out in the Conservative Party manifesto.

So, by the end of the week we have thousands of people lobbying their MPs in the UK to take steps to address climate change; we have an historic clarion call by the Head of the Catholic Church, imploring nations to take greater responsibility for the effects we are all having on climate change and then we have a Conservative Government who are reducing subsidies on renewable energy schemes.

Whilst I disagree with many other views held by Pope Francis, I am with him, Caroline Lucas, Asad Rehman and many, many others on this one. Climate change is the greatest threat our home, the Earth, faces. Those charged with political power must take up the Pope's message of hope, that "human beings are capable of rising above themselves, choosing what is good".

As we asked of them on Wednesday, our MPs must show a moral leadership and stand against behaviours which threaten our future. These behaviours include supporting dirty energy at the expense of renewables. MPs and the Government need to grasp the importance of moving away from fossil fuels - keeping them in the ground.

If they don't take a serious stand in protecting our 'home', then we, collectively, must.

Kim Sweet, EGP member

p.s. Also pictured meeting Caroline Ansell, MP for Eastbourne, at the SPEAK UP! rally are Sally Boys, Derrick Coffee, Jenny Shorter and Linda Whittle.

The fact that there was no money left is factually incorrect. If it had been true when the Conservative/Lib Dems came into power in 2010, then this coalition government would have had to apply for a bail-out from the IMF or the EU. It didn’t have to because the UK can create money through its own central bank and through its ability to raise credit cheaply through the issuance of government bonds.

Despite the national debt doubling since 2010, the Conservative led coalition Government has 'found' money to spend £3 billion on a top-down reorganisation of the NHS that has led to chaos and fragmentation, meaning it is now impossible to sack the management team of the Eastbourne DGH despite it receiving an ‘inadequate’ rating from the Care Quality Commission! It has also led, according 140 top doctors, to the ‘withering away’ of the NHS due to rapidly increasing privatisation of its services.

They also 'found' £2 billion to spend on trying to introduce Universal Credit, it's flagship welfare reform that was supposed to make work pay. It hasn’t worked and does not look likely to ever work, so the probability is that it will be quietly scrapped after the election, whoever wins!

Looking ahead, the Conservatives claim that there is enough money to pay for the upgrading of Trident, at a cost of £100 billion over the next 30 years. That there is enough money to pay for a brand new High Speed 2 rail line at a cost of at least £50 billion. That there is enough money to pay for brand new motorways at a cost of £15 billion. That there is enough money for subsidies for new nuclear at Hinkley, at a cost of about £22.5 billion. That there is enough money to provide tax breaks and subsidies for fracking as well as for extra oil and gas drilling in the North Sea. And so the list goes on and on…

Yet the Conservatives, and the Lib Dems, claim there is not enough money to pay decent welfare benefits to the old, poor, sick, disabled and vulnerable who need them. Which is why more than a million people in the UK now rely on foodbanks to avoid hunger. Which is why nearly a million older people are in acute poverty. Which is why 15,000 people died as a direct result of their homes being too cold last winter. Which is why one in four children are now growing up in poverty. Which is why half a million more families are now claiming housing benefits compared with 2010. Which is why 5 million people now earn less than the Living Wage and are dependent on in-work benefits to make ends meet. Yet the Conservatives want to reduce welfare benefits by a further £12 billion if they win the election! This is austerity on steroids!

After 5 years of the rich getting richer, while the poor get much poorer, making the UK’s inequality of income and wealth amongst the worst in the world, we have the choice at this election. The choice is to vote for more of the same from the Conservatives and the Lib Dems or to vote for the Green Party alternative of caring for our people once again by restoring the NHS as a fully public and properly funded service, free from privatisation. By reversing social care cuts and making social care free for all who need it. By scrapping student tuition fees and student debt so young people have the chance of a decent start in life. By creating a million new jobs in the green economy, ending fossil fuel subsidies and investing in clean energy and energy efficiency. By renationalising the railways and reducing bus and train fares. By investing in cycling and pedestrian infrastructure. By making the super-rich and the big corporations pay their fair share of tax. And by reforming our democracy to make it truly representative of how people vote. The Green Party has a fully-costed manifesto for achieving all this and much more in order to create a fairer, healthier, cleaner, safer society within the natural limits of the one planet we call home.

So the 'wrap around' cover bought by 'Tory HQ' at such high cost and with significant damage to the credibility and independence of the Eastbourne Herald, is a blatant attempt to deceive the Eastbourne electorate by diverting attention from the real issues of this election. It isn't a genuine news article as they hoped readers would think. It is scaremongering, thinly veiled as an 'advertisers announcement'.

It's not true that we have run out of money. There's plenty of money, but the wrong people have it. The bank bosses get richer with huge bonuses despite running failing businesses. The big corporations get richer by evading their fair share of tax through hiding their profits in tax havens protected by the City of London. The super-rich get richer, seeing their wealth double over the last 10 years.

The Conservative Party believe that placing adverts in local newspapers may help them win Eastbourne from the Lib Dems who have collaborated with them in harming the welfare of millions.

When challenged on the principles behind selling the paper's 'front cover', Gary Shipton, the Editor-in-Chief, has publicly stated that political advertisements are an important part of local democracy. Both Mr. Shipton and Laura Sonier, the Deputy Editor, state that:

"We did insist that the advertisement feature was clearly labelled as such, not least because the artwork provided to us had been given an 'editorial' look by the political party. In addition, we inserted a prominent article within the paper making clear that this was an advertisement and that its acceptance did not imply that we endorsed either the party or the message. We support no political party and remain proudly independent. I do hope you will continue to enjoy our newspaper every week. Our editorial coverage is always objective and free of any party political agenda".

My post on social media, raising the issue of objective editorial coverage versus advertising revenues at such a politically sensitive time, has now been seen by over 6000 people. It received over 50 comments, many locals saying how shocked they were by The Herald agreeing to carry the advert, others that they would no longer read or buy future editions.

Bizarrely, the response from The Herald's Editor-in-Chief, posted on the newspaper's website, was followed by another advert by the Conservatives . Needless to say, the advert has mysteriously disappeared, but not before we captured a screen shot...

On 7 May, Eastbourne voters have the chance to vote Green and put an end to the machinations of both the Tories and the Lib Dems. To vote for the Lib Dems again in Eastbourne just means another Tory government in power if Nick Clegg again goes into a Coalition with them, which he says he may well do.

It is time to stop the Tories imposing even more unnecessary and cruel cuts in public services and welfare provision. Eastbourne voters can choose to support the Green Party - now the fastest growing political party in England - in starting a peaceful revolution to make Britain a fairer society. And, to clean up politics.

Andrew Durling
Parliamentary Candidate

If elected, I won't say one thing and do another. I want to be an MP who sets an example, helping to reform Parliament so that it can earn the respect of the voting public again. That means making promises I know I can keep.

Here is one promise I can, and will, keep. If you elect me as your MP for Eastbourne, I will donate half of my MP salary every year to charitable causes in Eastbourne, to help those in poverty or distress. I’m promising this because it’s no good MPs asking us to make sacrifices if they’re not prepared to make sacrifices themselves. From next month, MPs will earn £74,000 per year, an 11% increase on last year. This is more than 90% of us earn. MPs also get very generous expense accounts for their travel, accommodation, offices, support staff, etc.

I’m lucky in that I don’t need £74,000 per year. I’ve survived in life happily enough on far less than half that amount. I regard being an MP as an opportunity to engage in selfless service on behalf of all my fellow citizens, so I’m more than happy to donate half my salary for every year that I’m an MP. I’m not in it for the money. I’m sure that many of the people in Eastbourne who are in dire straits would benefit greatly from the practical help provided by the charities receiving the money, and I’ll ask everybody in Eastbourne to vote on how best to donate it.

They say that charity begins at home, so I’ll begin my charity here in Eastbourne and do my bit to help reverse the damage that the austerity policies of the Conservative & Liberal Democrat Coalition Government have inflicted on us over the past 5 years. I hope that other MPs might follow my example, helping to restore faith in our parliamentary democracy. A sense of fair play is one of our better traits, and in a time when the rich are getting vastly richer while the poor are getting so much poorer that many of them face hunger and have to rely on foodbanks, it is time to apply that sense of fair play to building a society that is fair for all.

I’m proud to be a member of the Green Party, which believes that fair is worth fighting for. So let’s be fair; let’s ask MPs to put their money where their mouth is!