Peace
“I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
Despite the atrocity of 9/11, despite the war in Iraq, the threat of terrorism and the alienation of countries from the West, we continue to believe in peace.
We have always been, committed to peace and to peaceful solutions to conflict. Greens were prominent campaigners in Scotland and across the world against the war in Iraq. We believe the US and UK have to rebuild international trust and hand over to a UN-controlled force. We believe that there has to be a just settlement in the Middle East.
Britain has a moral obligation to destroy its own weapons of mass destruction, and to deliver on our commitment to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Greens have consistently campaigned against nuclear weapons throughout their history.
Britain must also scale down its arms trade, which supplies weapons for conflicts and state repression all over the world.
An unjust world will never be a peaceful one, so we believe it is the wealthy West’s duty to cancel Third World Debt and to focus on eradicating poverty, disease and suffering in the poorest nations.
We would legislate for fair trade to ensure that the exploitation of the developing world by the richest countries is halted and to enable poorer countries to build sustainable economies of their own.
We will support human rights and a fair system for supporting asylum seekers in Britain and value their contribution to our country. We also believe our worldwide peace and fair trade policies would reduce the number of refugees fleeing both the danger and destitution they face in their own countries.