By William Mills
He has the charisma and character to be the natural successor as the best known Green politician to MP Caroline Lucas, who kept the Council leader waiting while she occupied the main hall with some panel or other.
It was worth the wait. Cllr Jason Kitcat gave a stellar performance. The audience repeatedly interrupted with wild,spontaneous applause. The hall had a celebratory feel to it. Unlike yesterday’s stage managed Lucas speech when the clapping was, well, polite.
The leader of the Green Party’s first ever council Cllr Jason Kitcat said;
“I became impatient about the things I knew could be so much better here so I became a member of the Green Party. We have power to put our values into practice. We have delivered huge amounts. We have delivered three quarters of our manifesto promises already, only two years in.
” The highlights for me are delivering a living wage for our lowest paid workers. We have protected our local economy which has outperformed the national average despite the terrible recession we are in. In July we had a million people visit this city which shows we are committed to protecting everything which makes Brighton special.
” The majority of visitors come by public transport and we are the least car dependent place outside London.
“There are about a hundred manifesto achievements we have already delivered.
“We have borne the brunt of the cuts. Those cuts are harming our local communities. We have to fight against them. The cuts aren’t necessary and austerity does not work.
” Until that time when we control all levels of Government simultaneously we do have a duty to do the best for our areas.”
