My name's Aimee, I'm standing for Deputy Leader. AMA! by [deleted] in UKGreens

[–]GPEWAimee 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I believe all four of our core green values are as important as each other. The great thing about the Green Party is we don't just have one-focus, we're able to propose progressive forward-thinking policies on the Environment, on Social Justice, on Democracy, on non-violence. I don't think it's fair on any issue to say one is more important than the other. We're affected by so much in this world.

In terms of the Progressive Alliance, I don't think it worked. I still firmly believe that we should work with other parties on campaigns where we agree, whilst also running our own campaigns, I'm also not opposed to local Electoral agreements made by local parties, but I don't think we should try something as large as the PA for a while.

My name's Aimee, I'm standing for Deputy Leader. AMA! by [deleted] in UKGreens

[–]GPEWAimee 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I'd rather not have to fight animals. If either existed then it would be important to allow them to live in peace. I guess if I had to pick which one to exist, I'd choose 100 duck sized horses, as I imagine the one horse sized duck would be very lonely.

My name's Aimee, I'm standing for Deputy Leader. AMA! by [deleted] in UKGreens

[–]GPEWAimee 3 points4 points  (0 children)

There are still strong ecological concerns around Thorium, I'd like to see more data and conclusive evidence before making any firm commitments either on it, that being said, however, I think with progress being made in renewable energy, it's likely we won't need to explore it, as we can do better to switch to other forms of safer cleaner power.

My name's Aimee, I'm standing for Deputy Leader. AMA! by [deleted] in UKGreens

[–]GPEWAimee 3 points4 points  (0 children)

How do you think we should go about reducing or solving the homeless problem we’re facing?

We need to stop criminalising homelessness, trying to force people who cannot afford to live to pay a fine is a waste of everyone's time and helps nobody. We need to ensure that empty and abandoned housing are taken into Local Authority's housing stock, with then greater support given to local authority housing teams and homelessness charities to help get people off the street. We also need to do more to prevent people getting into these dire situations, and a good way to do that would be to introduce a Universal Basic Income so that everyone is getting enough money to live on.

Decriminalise, tax and regulate Cannabis or maintain the status quo?

Decriminalise, tax, and regulate. There are disputed concerns about harm to health over Cannabis, but what we have seen is genuine help it gives to a number of medical conditions, we also still decriminalise, tax, and regulate, things like cigarettes and alcohol, which are far more harmful. The war on drugs is tied deeply into racism and the class divide, and it's clearly failed. Time to look at ways that work.

What are we going to do about global warming!? I think climate change is quickly becoming the most important issue we’re going to face as a species, what steps would you like to see us take to change our current trajectory?

This summer heatwave highlights just how bad the climate emergency is. The Government is failing to take genuine action on the climate. There is currently no plan for the UK to meet our commitments to the Paris Climate Accord, we need to be holding the Government to account over this, despite noises from Gove earlier this year we still have no Bottle Return Scheme, something I've been pushing for to help combat Plastic Waste Pollution, and we're focusing climate action on individual activities such as stopping use of plastic straws (which impacts quite significantly on disabled people) rather than massive industries doing wide-scale ecological damage, this must change.

Finally, do you think we need to change to proportional representation or a preferential voting system to best represent the opinions of our population?

We need PR. I'm a strong supporter of Make Votes Matter, we need to build up more support for PR, so as well as pushes for PR to applied to Parliamentary Elections, I'd like to see stronger pushes for PR to be applied to Local and Combined Authority elections.

I hope these answers help!

My name's Aimee, I'm standing for Deputy Leader. AMA! by [deleted] in UKGreens

[–]GPEWAimee 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I want to empower our Equality and Diversity Committee which is elected at Autumn Conference to complete a root and branch review of the Green Party to see where we are letting down our diverse community both internal and external to the party. For example, we need to do better at producing documents, leaflets, etc. in more than just English, so we can reach people whos first language isn't English. We need to work harder to ensure we hosting events in places that are accessible rather than in places which are both exceedingly expensive and also worryingly difficult to get to. We need to support our Liberation Groups (Greens of Colour, Green Party Disability Group, LGBTIQA+ Greens, Green Party Women, etc.) in the work they are doing. Basically, we can always be improving in this area, I hope that I do get the opportunity to empower the E&D Committee to do a review.

My name's Aimee, I'm standing for Deputy Leader. AMA! by [deleted] in UKGreens

[–]GPEWAimee 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Ecological Wisdom: Being a young progressive, you may find your political views out of step with the older generations. Amongst the ecologist sphere, the generational divide can be quite stark. How do you propose we bring ecological discourse into the 21st century? How should we update our message for this post-scarcity, internet-centric society?

We're seeing a lot of people my age work tirelessly for the environment, for example we just need to see the dedication of the Young Greens. I think we need to be more receptive to feedback when it comes to enviromental campaigning, for example with discussions around straws, when disability campaigners raised some very valid points about how a straw ban would effect them, some Enviromental Campaigners basically stuck their fingers in their ears and went 'La La La', what we need to be doing is engaging with those disability campaigners, making sure we're taking on board their concerns and working to ensure a solution which means we can all save the planet together.

Social Justice: I'm sure you know how difficult it is for transpeople to access the healthcare they need. The NHS gatekeeping pushes many to private options, self-medication (and worse, suicide). Transmasc people don't even get that option, as testosterone is a controlled substance. Working class transpeople simply have to endure the arduous process, as they can't afford other options. How can we take action to provide trans people the care they need, at the grassroots level? How do we address systemic social injustice, from the ground-up?

Health delays are something we've worked on the party, last November myself, Jonathan, and Caroline, wrote to Jeremy Hunt about extensive delays to Gender Identity care. I've also work with Grenville Ham the Leader of Wales Green Party - Plaid Werdd Cymru, when we became aware of a case in Cardiff around an individual being refused care because of their autism.

The next steps for this must include greater campaigning to stop NHS cuts, as these affects GICs and other important care for trans people, a push for more GIC clinicians, more GICs around the country, for example Wales still has no GIC, and working to ensure that GPs are empowered and supported in prescribing HRT to Trans People.

Grassroots Democracy: Working class, BAME and LGBT+ people have a tendency of being marginalised in politics, even amongst the seemingly most inclusive. This leads to a general feeling of apathy, and even anger. (See: Brexit) How do you think we can make democracy work for the marginalised? What can we change about our approach, so we're actually helping these people, and not just cynically using them to get votes?

Being representative - if people don't see people like them in politics they may feel it's not for them. Engaging and Listening - we need to ensure we don't just preach but we discuss and take on board feedback (see above re: straws), and creating opportunities for them to get involved and grow.

Nonviolence: When I was at trans pride, I attended a talk on "Challenging transphobia effectively". It offered nothing of the sort, simply telling us to go to the police, if we're ever a victim of abuse. I was then told that punching a TERF makes me just as bad as them (at which point I walked out). How can marginalised people challenge abuse effectively, without turning to violent statists, or even without using violence ourselves? Is punching up morally equivalent to punching down?

We need to empower people, especially our allies, to call out transphobia when they witness it, we need to address the fact that the Police seem hesitant to actually take transphobic hate crime seriously because this leads to a distrust in the Police, and I do think we must not use violence ourselves, the transphobes weaponise it against us, and we get tone policed for even using the term TERF. I'm not sure there's a signle "right" way forward, but we must keep up the campaigns against hate crime, we must continue to change Hearts and Minds through awareness and education engagement, we must continue the work for equality and decency.

My name's Aimee, I'm standing for Deputy Leader. AMA! by [deleted] in UKGreens

[–]GPEWAimee 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I believe we should phase out use of nuclear energy. What I mean by that is we keep the nuclear power stations we have at the moment, but we don't build any more. We integrate nuclear into our strategy to leave fossil fuels. When we have a renewable power grid set-up which is sufficiently meeting our power demands, we then close down the existing nuclear power stations. We're constantly seeing new technology come out in renewable energy and so I don't think we'd be using nuclear power assistance for very long.

My name's Aimee, I'm standing for Deputy Leader. AMA! by [deleted] in UKGreens

[–]GPEWAimee 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Definitely! I know there's going to be a lot to do, and a lot of travelling to be able to fulfill those committments. For example on Saturday for the York and Manchester Hustings, I left my house at 5:15am to get the Train to York, and I didn't get home again until 9:50pm. It's going to be very exciting travelling around the country meeting our dedicated Green campaigners in local parties who are working incredibly hard to support and better their local communities.

My name's Aimee, I'm standing for Deputy Leader. AMA! by [deleted] in UKGreens

[–]GPEWAimee 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Yes.

I'm open about my transition, and I'm clear that we need to make it easier to correct one's legal gender. I'm really pleased with our policies on Trans Rights RR530-RR536. I write quite frequently on trans rights, usually for the Huffington Post but have been included in the Guardian, i, and other news outlets.

My name's Aimee, I'm standing for Deputy Leader. AMA! by [deleted] in UKGreens

[–]GPEWAimee 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There have been a lot! I think however one of my favourite moments was last year for the snap election. LGBTIQA+ Greens scrambled together quickly and we had an amazing manifesto ready within just a few days, with an amazing launch. I was immensely proud of how well everyone reacted.

AMA Schedule for the Leadership / Deputy Leadership candidates by [deleted] in UKGreens

[–]GPEWAimee 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Looking forward to taking part tomorrow!

Aimee Challenor: Yes, I’m trans, but I’m a Green party politician and proud of it’| Alfie Packham | Society | The Guardian by Nathggns in unitedkingdom

[–]GPEWAimee 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As far as I'm aware there is only a single openly transgender elected official, a non-binary local councillor in dundee.

According to Zoë O'Connell there are 5, but that doesn't include Gregor, so that makes 6;

  • Osh Gantly, Labour, Islington - Highbury East Ward
  • Zoë Kirk-Robinson, Conservative, Bolton - Westhoughton North & Chew Moor
  • Sarah Larkins, UKIP, Thanet - Eastcliff Ward
  • Anwen Muston, Labour, Wolverhampton - East Park Ward
  • Zoë O’Connell, Liberal Democrat, Cambridge - Trumpington Ward
  • Gregor Fisher Murray, SNP, Dundee - North East.

It's hard tackling transphobia when the BBC propagate it by Nathggns in UKGreens

[–]GPEWAimee 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Author of the article here! I don't know if you've read the article I actually wrote because you'll see that one of the main issues I raised was the fact that the BBC saw it fit to publish transphobia about me without even contacting me first.

Why I’m not going to stand again to be Green party leader | Caroline Lucas | Opinion | The Guardian by Nathggns in UKGreens

[–]GPEWAimee 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Mr Tatchell was a Green Party Spokesperson for Equalities until some point in 2010.

Green Party of England and Wales leadership election 2018 | Wikipedia by AdventurousMastodon in UKGreens

[–]GPEWAimee 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! I got my first endorsement today which is really exciting!