Green Party leader candidates grilled by Croydon members

Skype used in the q and a  with Peter Cranie and Pippa Bartolotti (August meeting)

Romayne Phoenix at July's meeting

Natalie Bennett at June's meeting.

Over the last couple of months the four candidates for the post of Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales have been touring the country visiting local parties and attending hustings. There was even an hour long special on Iain Dale's show on LBC (link here).

We in Croydon have had the pleasure of hearing from all four of the candidates at our local party meetings. Both London based candidates, Natalie Bennett and Romayne Phoenix came to see us in person, and due to difficulties in scheduling we heard from Pippa Bartolotti and Peter Cranie using skype.

Filling the shoes of the multi-award winning politician Caroline Lucas MP is not going to be easy, but through our guest visits, we got to learn more about the vision, talents and attributes of the respective candidates.

I deliberately asked the same question to each of the candidates in order to gauge their thinking!?:

I recently heard a radio presenter assert that the average lunch break is now 15 minutes*. How would you explain, in laypersons terms, to a resident of Croydon why their average lunch break is 15 minutes? What has happened over the years for this situation to develop?

*Only today did I try and search for the source of this statistic.

[In order of their guest visit]

Natalie's answer mentioned the fact that in years gone by, employees that wanted to stand out from their colleagues, with a view to progressing up the career ladder, would work more of the lunch hours. But workers now are a having to work through most of the lunch hours just to retain their current position.

Romayne's answer referred to the importance of Trade Union membership linking this with the fact that terms and conditions were not protected. She also stated that emails meant that work was coming in at all times. She concluded by saying that she would ask the Croydon resident to check their contract.

Peter's answer noted the changing culture of the working environment and the important role that unions play in the workplace. He also talked about the responsibility of employers to their employees.

Pippa's answer compared Germany's workplace with the UK's. In Germany people aren't worked as hard and they end up being more productive. In reality, an employee is actually only productive for two hours in their working day. She also spoke how companies too often try to ring out every shred of work out of their workers.

All the candidates handled the question excellently, focusing on what could be argued their particular viewpoint.

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Tags croydon, greenparty