Edward Gildea is the Green Party Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for North West Essex Constituency

Huge thanks and congratulations to everyone who contributed to the Green Party vote in NW Essex!

Nationally, the Green Party has done outstandingly well, winning all our 4 target seats with remarkable majorities. I very much hope that this is the beginning of a sea change.

We can also celebrate each of the 2,846 votes we won here. Votes for the Green Party are thoughtful, caring votes. People don’t vote Green out of self-interest or tribalism, but out of concern for others and for the future, so each is very special.

Constituents here had a very tough choice and I will long remember the agonised expressions I met on the doorstep: torn between voting with their hearts and voting tactically. There is no doubt that we were squeezed by the ‘Get Kemi Out’ vote, and it is a shame that that vote fell short.

Don’t let anyone say that we split the vote though. Our party willingly signed up to the primary process that would have selected a single, progressive candidate to stand against Kemi. The idea was vetoed by the management of the Labour and Lib Dem parties. That was an opportunity they missed.

I would like to thank some of the key members of our team: Paul Allington, who bore the brunt of all the technical and beaurocratic processes that I only vaguely understand and for getting our leaflets designed and printed; Emma who was key to the drafting our leaflets and brilliantly managed our leafletting campaign; Graham, who took on a huge burden as secretary last Autumn and has been efficient, encouraging, reassuring and proactive every step of the way, and to Margaret, keeping such a watchful grip on our finances as well as ferrying our market stall gazebo and gear on a regular basis!

And to all of you who trod the streets leafletting, persuading, encouraging and simply playing your parts in our growing movement: Thank you!

As for the way the election went nationally, it seemed to me that there was something of a conspiracy of silence in all the debates I watched and programmes I listened to. Although the state of our rivers was well covered, the Climate Crisis really didn’t feature. You wouldn’t have thought that last year Antonio Guterres, the Secretary General of the UN said that we have ‘opened the gates to hell’ by allowing the climate crisis to worsen and that ‘We must make up time lost to foot-dragging, arm-twisting and the naked greed of entrenched interests raking in billions from fossil fuels.’

Instead, we have elected an MP who stood on a policy of an ‘affordable and pragmatic transition to net zero,’ without any attempt to say how they would raise the taxes to cope with the vastly greater costs in damage and lost production caused by accelerating climate change, or how pragmatism will work in the face of increasing crop failures, floods and droughts. When Nature turns on us, there can only be one winner.

Enough of that! My thanks once again to you all and I’m sure you will join with me in wishing our new Government well and hoping that, having under-promised, it will over-deliver.

5th July 2024

‘Politics as normal’ simply can’t deliver. Vote Green for Transformation.

A healthy, balanced, fair and harmonious life on our delicate planet.

Edward became a passionate environmentalist as a result of sailing around the world, realising how very small and delicate our planet is.

He is motivated by concern for his children and grandchildren.

A retired inner-city teacher and headteacher, Edward has lived in Saffron Walden since 2013.

He served on the Green Party Policy Development Committee 2020-23, encouraging the development of robust national policies. In 2021 he succeeded in getting 1,000 church bells to ring out their warning on the eve of COP 26 in the UK, the US, Canada and Australia.

 He writes regularly in the press on green issues, gives talks locally to Women’s Institutes, Probus meetings and U3A groups and was the environmental stakeholder for the Uttlesford Local Plan.

Getting his hands dirty, he planted the snowdrops and primroses on the sides of Saffron Walden Common and designed and helped to plant the new waves of daffodils on the north side. He was the gardening team leader at the Railway Arms Community Pub and as St Mary’s Eco church team leader is increasing biodiversity in the churchyard.

He is deeply committed to the fight, at all levels, to ensure that current and future generations can live in peace and social justice on a healthy and hospitable planet.

Edward laying the Green Party wreath at Saffron Walden War Memorial November 2023 

Building Sustainable Communities: The Railway Arms

Edward pulls an enormous bramble root from the lawn at the Railway Arms Community Pub. Leading the gardening team there, he was instrumental in turning a tenacious wilderness into a thriving pub garden. “The community pub shows how being sustainable is about building happier, connected, enjoyable communities. The committee have a great vision for all the activities that could thrive here: mother and toddler groups, repair shops, youth club games, coffee mornings, book clubs…. Whatever brings people together and enriches their lives. It’s a great project to be part of!”

 As ye sow, so shall ye reap

I greatly enjoyed learning to scythe recently. It is one small way of reconnecting with nature, reducing dependence on fossil fuels and staying fit!

We have faced summers of extreme weather events and a constant stream of storms here in Uttlesford and across the globe. As of April 2024 we have had 10 successive months of record breaking global temperatures. The rate of warming is increasing fast. We are clearly reaping the consequences of our accelerating abuse of the planet over the last couple of centuries.

Conventional politics is failing to deliver. We have the technologies to save us; but generations of politicians have failed in their role.

Political courage is needed to take on vested interests and unleash new private investment to bring new technologies to market. China is out-competing us massively in clean technology manufacture! Our fiscal priority must be to ensure a swift, affordable transition to clean energy and healthy ecosystems.

But democracy is trapped in short termism, each party courting popularity by promising to cut, or not to raise taxes. Our children’s interests are side-lined.

The Green Party is different. It is founded on the need to re-build economic systems that acknowledge realities of our planet.

A strong, Green presence will be needed in the next Parliament to call out the short termism of whichever new Government, to bring about radical change in our systems of taxation and regulation and to make social justice and accessible health a reality.

‘Politics as normal’ simply can’t deliver. Vote Green for Transformation.

A healthy, balanced, fair and harmonious life on our delicate planet.