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Greens offer voters 'alternative'

From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8050021.stm

The Green Party offers voters an alternative to parties which are "mired in sleaze", it has said at the launch of its Euro election campaign.

Leader Caroline Lucas said the party promised a "positive and clean" brand of politics, amid recent negative stories about MPs and peers.

The party is promising to create a million new jobs in green industries.

It says it would fund this by a mixture of increased borrowing and cutting programmes like Trident and ID cards.

'Standing out'

The party is calling for an £44bn investment programme to boost employment in sustainable industries.

It says it plans to fund this by making £19bn in savings from existing spending programmes, cracking down on tax avoidance and placing a windfall tax on the profits of non-renewable energy firms.

The remaining £25bn would come from borrowing.

The Green Party currently has two MEPs, having won 6% of the popular vote in 2004's election.

Ms Lucas said she believed her party could improve on this result, benefiting from the expenses scandal overshadowing Parliament.

The three main parties did "not look very different" from each other, she argued.

They all supported an economic model which had resulted in the recession while their environmental policies failed to put the public good over private interests.

About 375 million European citizens in 27 countries are eligible to vote in next month's election, as 736 members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are elected for a five-year term.

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