Green Party
From Skeptical Voter Wiki
The Green Party of England and Wales is the principal political party in England and Wales campaigning under the banner of environmental issues. Other parties use the name "Green Party" in other parts of the UK: the Scottish Green Party, and the Green Party in Northern Ireland.
The current party leader is Natalie Bennett, elected in September 2012.
The Green Party had their first MP elected to the House of Commons in the 2010 general election: Caroline Lucas. They also have elected members in the European Parliament, the London Assembly and local government.
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Stance on Sceptical Issues
In February 2010, Green Blogger Jim Jepps wrote an article about 'an ongoing "re-evaluation" of Green Party policy around scientific evidence'[1][2].
In March 2011, Jim Jepps, party development co-ordinator, was interviewed on the Pod Delusion with regards to changes to the party's science policy.[3]
Alternative Medicine
At the Party's February 2010 conference, the party voted through a series of amendments to their health policy[4]. These included the removal of a section on "natural medicines", and the same controls being applied to both alternative and conventional medicine, so that both are determined by clinical evidence.
In a blog entry dated 31st May 2009, titled "Complementary therapies - Greens ahead of the game on health (again)"[5], Green Party leader at the time Caroline Lucas welcomed the recommendation by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence that patients be offered complementary therapies on the NHS. She stated that "the Green Party has been way ahead of the game for years in advocating this greater integration of complementary and alternative medicines into NHS services". Talking about complementary and alternative medicine practitioners in Brighton she stated that "Green Party would fully integrate their services and expertise into NHS treatment plans, not only improving patient choices but helping to boost this important sector of the local economy". On the issue of evidence she wrote that "Complementary and alternative medicine may be written off by drug companies and other sceptics as 'mumbo jumbo' medicine, but recent evidence strongly contradicts such claims."
At around the time that party policy was changed in 2010, Caroline Lucas' blog entry above was removed from her website, though it is currently still available from the Google cache[6]. The full text is reproduced on Caroline Lucas' page.
Animal Testing
Note: the party's policies on animal testing has changed since the information below was collected.
It was previously Green Party policy[7] to "End all animal experiments, replacing them with more reliable non-animal alternatives". The party claimed that "Experiments on animals are unreliable as a guide to human biology. Different species react differently to drugs and toxic substances. Many drugs that cause damaging side-effects in people have passed animal tests. There are viable alternatives to animal testing including epidemiology, the use of cell cultures, human tissue and computer simulation."
The party were contacted in 2009 by pseudonymous skeptical blogger Gimpy asking for evidence to back up their claims[8]. Their initial response lead Gimpy to conclude of the Green Party that "They only use narrow and highly biased sources of information when formulating policy" and "They have no understanding of scientific research or medicine". However, there was confusion over who the Green Party's official spokesperson for animal rights was, and whether Gimpy was corresponding with the correct person.
References
- ↑ http://jimjay.blogspot.com/2010/02/green-party-conference-animals-science.html
- ↑ http://liberalconspiracy.org/2010/02/23/the-greens-have-changed-their-approach-to-science/
- ↑ http://poddelusion.co.uk/blog/2011/03/11/episode-75-11th-march-2011/
- ↑ http://jimjay.blogspot.com/2010/02/green-party-conference-animals-science.html
- ↑ http://www.carolinelucas.com/?q=node/102
- ↑ http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:aWlDa_1DWaEJ:www.carolinelucas.com/cl/blog/102.html
- ↑ http://www.greenparty.org.uk/policies/animal-protection.html
- ↑ http://gimpyblog.wordpress.com/2009/09/05/the-green-party-are-dangerously-wrong-on-animal-rights/
