Two new versions of the Brighton and Hove Green Party manifesto have been produced to reach more voters.
An easy-read version designed for people with learning difficulties and an Arabic translation are now available online.
The local party’s equalities and diversity officer Matthew Moors’ 22-year-old daughter Ushka, who has Down’s syndrome, is voting for the first time next week so it is an issue close to his heart.
Mr Moors, who is standing in the Goldsmid ward, said: “We talk about democracy, we use the word but how do we actually achieve it?
“I chose the Green Party to stop more cuts and so that adult and child services would have a voice.
“Brighton and Hove Green Party is strongly committed to making the local democratic process as inclusive as possible for potentially marginalised groups in our community.”
He added: “Arabic is the second most widely spoken language in the city after English. I’m proud that the Green-led council carried out the city’s first ever needs assessment of black and minority ethnic communities.”
The local Green party has worked with Mencap to produce 10 election pledges from their Rejuvenating our City manifesto in an easy-read format.
There are around 6,000 people in the city with learning disabilities, and many more who have reading difficulties.
Hannah and Katy, local residents with learning disabilities were very happy with the easy-read manifesto and how they were spoken to by the local Green Party and Green Party MP Caroline Lucas when she visited.
Hannah Child, 33, of Hove, said: “It’s been great, we feel like we’ve been listened to and it will be really helpful. Everyone’s looking at it and talking about what it says, it’s cool!”
Katy Lord, of Portslade, said: “With some of these things you can get information overload but this is broken down into easy chunks which is good.”
The easy-read copy and the Arabic translation of the Brighton and Hove Green Party Manifesto are available on their website, www.brightonhovegreens.org.
Well done!
Thanks David
How sad that all political parties do not try to seriouslyreach out to voters.
Well done Greens for taking the lead yet again.
Thanks Hjarrs
This is just the beginning and overdue, we certainly need to make more efforts to engage with everyone in our community, that’s the key to democracy.
Matthew
So it has taken them 3 years and 51 weeks to realise that their are people with Special Needs and the second most popular language is Arabic living in the City.
Not quite Rolivan, as the piece states, I am a parent of a child with a learning disability and have long known how people with disabilities can be excluded from ‘mainstream’ debate and democracy. The manifesto’s are written at election time, it is election time, and so I thought it appropriate we had versions of the pledges in Easy Read and Arabic. If we had more resources I would want us to do more. All of us must ensure that we take responsibility to engage with all sections of our community all the time.
thanks
Matthew
Good work! Alongside the Green Party’s BSL general election Manifesto the Greens are setting the Bar.
Thanks Arthur
Still some way to go, but I am pleased with the positive reaction I have already received from groups advocating for people with special needs, the people themselves and those in the community for which Arabic is their first language.
Onwards!
Matthew
Fair play to the Greens for making their manifesto accessible, but in Arabic? Ridiculous.
There are a fair number of South Africans in Brighton; why not print a copy in Afrikaans? There’s a lot of Poles too; how about a manifesto written in Polish? And don’t forget all of the Irish living in the city; they’ll need a manifesto in Gaelic….
As long as the manifesto is the one related to just the city so we can all be aware of what grandiose vanity schemes the green will try to impose on the city if they, unlikely though it may be after the past 4 years, get to be the largest party again.
We can then get to see where they expect to spend our taxes and the reasons for the above inflation increases in council tax they will continue to demand every year.
I see from http://www.brightonhovegreens.org/news/2015/03/26/rejuvenating-our-city-brighton-and-hove-greens-launch-2015-local-election-manifesto/ that they have no plans to do anything about core services such as refuse collections or street cleaning and still think they are running a government.
If it is the manifesto for the parliamentary party, then we can safely ignore it, as with just 1 MP, and little chance of any more, they are really just Caroline Lucas (Independent for feminism and decriminalisation drugs).
Now I also wonder why they decided to print an Arabic translation?