Under his proposals the NHS, already weary from years of restructuring under Labour, now faces the prospect of reorganisation on an even bigger scale.

GPs - our local family doctors - are likely to be asked to manage a budget of more than £60 billion so that they will have responsibility to commission - essentially to buy in and decide what types of healthcare services are needed for their local communities.

At present NHS primary care trusts working across an area about the size of Brighton and Hove undertake this vital function. They have the expertise and professional background to enable them to do it.

But no one has really asked GPs if they are able to do it and if they want to do it.

Why would they want to practise healthcare management with all its budgets and bureaucracy when they opted for a professional vocation caring for individual patients - providing medical care?

Meanwhile, primary care trusts and their regional health authorities will be abolished with more than 20,000 people likely to lose their jobs in the process.

In these challenging times for public finances, further disruptive reorganisation is the last thing the NHS, patients and healthcare professionals need if we are to achieve the highest quality patient care.

Nigel Edwards at the NHS Confederation, which represents NHS organisations, has warned that the reforms could lead to the health service looking more like the "gas and telecom market" than the NHS we've been used to, and that the proposed changes will create "a market dynamic."

Increasing the role of the market in the NHS will not make it more efficient, nor make the NHS more responsive to patients needs.

Instead, an increased role for the market will fragment care and increase the costs of provision.

As any economist will tell you, markets need mechanisms to operate.

For the NHS, that means increasing the number of managers and accountants, which will result in a cut in front line services, just the opposite of what Andrew Lansley announced he wanted a few weeks ago.

By expanding the role of the market, handing powers to consortia of GPs, privatising hospitals, and scrapping important targets, the Coalition Government is creating the perfect conditions for high costs, poor practice, unaccountability and long waiting lists.

Lansley's plans will also ensure that there is even less health care to go round with our aging population.

I'll do my best to put the case in Parliament that there are better ways to ensure value for money and achieve high quality patient care than this needless, wasteful reorganisation.

It shows how vulnerable our local economy is to the on-going economic crisis.

We also face the bleak prospect of job losses in front line local public services such as education and social services. 

A result of the utterly misguided Cameron-Clegg budget, with its savage and unnecessary public spending cuts.

Cuts on this scale could plunge us back into recession

Workers, private or publicly employed, taxpayers, businesses as well as those most vulnerable, who depend on public services, are all paying the price for this financial mismanagement.

Conservative Brighton and Hove City Council Leader Mary Mears has gone as far as saying public sector cuts on this scale were necessary.

I don't believe these cuts are necessary and neither do respected economists.

Longer dole queues and banking and public service lay-offs are not the way forward.

In parliament, I shall continue to make the case that, as the English economist JM Keynes demonstrated so successfuly in the last century, government investment is the way to get people back to work and to cut the deficit.

I'll be seeking meetings with local unions from the banking and public service sectors to support them in putting the case to employers that this city really is worth a long term investment and hopefully save some jobs.

Council poll today - back Lizzie Deane

Today, Thursday, is a city council election in the St Peters & North Laine ward in central Brighton.

The ward also includes some of the Seven Dials area, West Hill, Roundhill, Viaduct-Rise and the New England Quarter.

If you're a resident, please come out and support Lizzie. 

She's an exceptional and hard working candidate.

An experienced community activist who understands the challenges of city-living.

Best of luck, Lizzie!

Get more information on Lizzie's campaign here.

To watch me put my question please forward to 16 minutes in. 

This was my first question to David Cameron at PM's Question Time on Thursday. The first of many questions I'll put to challenge him and the Government:

Me: Homecoming parades for our very brave soldiers in Afghanistan are incredibly important, but so is an exit strategy from Afghanistan.

Given the growing agreement that there is no military solution to the crisis there and that the head of the Army himself has said that we should start talking to the Taliban soon, would the Prime Minister not agree that we should start talking now, so that we can save more lives on all sides and bring our troops home?

Here's what he said in answer:

PM: May I first of all welcome the hon. Lady to the House?

Winning her seat was an incredible achievement for her party, and I know that she will make a huge contribution during this Parliament.

We discussed Afghanistan at quite some length in the House yesterday. Of course there is no purely military solution; very few insurgencies are ended by purely military means.

But I think it is important to continue with the strategy this year of the military surge, to put pressure on the Taliban-and, of course, there should be a political track.

But as I said yesterday in the House, we have to recognise that there is a difference between the Taliban linked to al-Qaeda, who want to do so much harm not just in Afghanistan but across our continent as well, and those people who have been caught up in an insurgency for other reasons.

Should there be reconciliation and reintegration? Yes, of course; there is, and we can go further. But I think that the things that the hon. Lady is talking about would not be advisable.

Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 30 June 2010, c857)

Watch the video of Thursday's PM Question Time at Parliament Live.

http://bit.ly/9g3IKz

To see me putting my question to Cameron, forward to c. 16 minutes in.

What the community garden has been - until this week - (above) and what it looked like before (below)...

While the national media has understandably focused on the potentially devastating impacts of the recent Tory-Liberal budget, several local issues are coming to a head.

One of those is the community garden in Brighton's Lewes Road, where Tesco now wants to build yet another supermarket.

I mentioned this in an earlier blog post in April during the election campaign on small businesses.

Read here - 'Small-businesses-need-some-big-imagination' 

Community gardeners have made the garden into a really wonderful, vibrant green oasis in a part of town short on public green space. Perhaps even more important, they've made it into a vital community hub.

However, this week, they are facing eviction and have been told they must leave.

The prospect of another Tesco supermarket in Brighton is the last thing we need, and local opposition is growing.

It will drive out the unique mix of smaller independent food retailers.

And there's already a Sainsbury's and a Co-op just nearby.

So as the local MP, I'm seeking a meeting with Tesco's, to make the case that another supermarket would have a devastating impact on smaller shops in the Lewes Road area of Brighton.

I'm also lobbying the Coalition Government to bring in a competition test to protect neighbourhoods from supermarket dominance.

I've written to Eric Pickles, the Tory Communities and Local Government Secretary, to ask him to introduce legislation to protect high streets from the impact of the giant chains.

In particular I want to see urgent reform to the antiquated planning system to ensure that the diversity of the retail landscape becomes a planning consideration, which it isn't at present.

For example, legislation could make the identity of the proposed retail occupier a consideration for planners.

The Government could introduce a local economic yield test to assess how much any new development will benefit the local economy, and a retail diversity test to ensure that all types of shops are protected.

It could force planners to assess the contribution to the community of a proposed development - for example, whether it would increase accessibility to healthy food for families on low-incomes.

I hope we can succeed in persuading Tesco but if we fail to persuade them, then I, along with my Green councillor colleagues, will encourage a community boycott of the store.

You can sign an online pledge on boycotting Tescos, should a store be built, at the Brighton and Hove Green Party site here:

http://www.brightonhovegreens.org/localsites/bh/campaigns/pledges.html

Right now, the priorities are fighting city academies, and setting out an alternative to the Cameron-Clegg cuts that will hit Brighton and Hove - and the whole country.

Brighton's in the firing line - big cuts locally - so what's the alternative?

Seriously, I'm not overstating it when I say that in Brighton and Hove we're really in the firing line with government budget cuts.

Our local economy is reliant on a diverse mix of emerging and dynamic smaller businesses - alongside the public and voluntary sectors - exactly the kinds of enterprises most at risk from the Cameron-Clegg cuts.

That's why on budget day Tuesday 22 June when George Osborne, new Chancellor of the Exchequer, announces billions of pounds of cuts I'll be joining Green Party activists all over the country in front line opposition to his proposals.

With as much as £100bn lost to the Treasury through tax avoidance, tax evasion and unpaid tax, serious tax reform needs to be urgently pursued as an alternative to swingeing public spending cuts.

You can find the report I've been writing about it: Cuts the Callous Con Trick  here.

Green councillors on the city council here in Brighton have already appealed to the Tory councillors to cooperate on how to manage the cuts at the council but they rejected the offer.

Schools under threat

Last week I spoke at a meeting to defend locally run education from the new Government's proposal to fast track more schools into the hands of wealthy backers - AKA City Academies.

The controversy centres on Portslade Community College which lies in next door Hove constituency.

But what happens there will affect the rest of the city.

Read more about what I said here:

http://www.carolinelucas.com/cl/media/think-again-on-school-academies-caroline-urges-new-government.html

Questions and Motions in Parliament

I've been putting a range of questions to Ministers, which you can find at the excellent Theyworkforyou site http://bit.ly/95mp1n  in particular focusing on Britain's nuclear weapons, on the BP oil disaster, and on the Trafigura toxic waste scandal.

Early Day Motions highlight issues that otherwise might not reach public attention, and demonstrate the extent to which they enjoy parliamentary support.

I've proposed EDMs on a range of issues- please hit the links to get the full text

* Welcoming a criminal investigation of BP for the Louisiana oil spill http://www.edms.org.uk/edms/2010-2011/142.htm

* Welcoming growth in local soccer teams in Sussex, particularly those working with people with disabilities http://www.edms.org.uk/edms/2010-2011/170.htm

* Calling for honouring of pledges from Brown and Clegg to reform Parliament to make it more democratic and easier to hold the Government to account http://www.edms.org.uk/edms/2010-2011/259.htm

* Appealing for help for the Refugee and Migrant Justice Charity with slow payments for legal aid http://www.edms.org.uk/edms/2010-2011/191.htm

* Calling on the Government to launch a full inquiry into the allegations against Trafigura, a multi-national company accused of illegal dumping of waste in West Africa.

http://www.edms.org.uk/edms/2010-2011/118.htm

Also, if you haven't already, take a look at what I said on Israel's violation of the Free Gaza flotilla and loss of life.

http://www.carolinelucas.com/cl/blog/what-im-doing-there-free-gaza-flotilla-question-and-motion.html

As you probably know, this was a convoy of ships carrying volunteers and essential medical supplies to Gaza.

Several people were killed or wounded.

I asked Hague whether he would back an urgent inquiry into the incident and whether he would consider proposing to his European Union foreign minister counterparts the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement - a political and trade cooperation agreement between the EU and Israel.

There's a human rights clause within that agreement which expressly allows the EU to suspend cooperation in the event of human rights abuses taking place.

So, I asked, would the UK government use its influence and take action rather than just offer mild words of criticism?

In answer to my question Hague said that the UK Government would continue to find 'diplomatic' ways to help solve the dispute.

But diplomacy only works if backed by real action.

Will our government provide it?

Like many, I'm deeply shocked by the brutality of the assault.

My thoughts are with the victims and their families.

I was one of the sponsoring MPs who proposed a Commons motion condemning the attack.

Please see text below.

Gaza Early Day Motion

"That this House is appalled by the loss of life associated with Israel's attack on the flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Notes that the attack took place in international waters and demands the release of UK nationals and others being held by Israel.

Endorses the call of the United Nations Secretary General for a prompt, impartial, credible and transparent investigation conforming to international standards.

Recognises that Israel's blockade has destroyed the economy of Gaza, deepens poverty, inflicts widespread suffering and which, by imposing collective punishment on the people of Gaza, is itself contrary to international law.

Therefore calls on the international community to require Israel to end its blockade and to redouble international efforts to secure a lasting settlement with a secure and independent state of Palestine alongside a secure and independent Israel."

Will update more on other items of work I've been involved with soon.

What I'm doing here: meeting children and staff at the Brighton Montessori School.

As an MP I spend time in Brighton meeting and helping constituents as well as voting and representing the people of Brighton in Westminster.

An example of the Brighton-side of work is my visit to the Brighton Montessori School, the other day.

The school is independently funded but parents and the school governors are campaigning for state funding from the local education authority.

They asked me to visit to hear about their campaign.

As the local MP I'm really passionate about the need for all pupils to access good, well funded local schools and will be working hard to make sure that government legislation makes this possible.

Thanks for the iced green cup cake, baked by the children, by the way. Delicious!

To watch my speech forward video to 1 hour 47 minutes in.

My 'maiden' speech given today at 3.30pm in the House of Commons.

A maiden or first speech is seen as quite a big event as far as MP protocol goes.

Here's what I said:

Mr Speaker,

I am most grateful to you for calling me during today's debate.

The environment is a subject dear to my heart, as I'm sure you know, and I'll return to it in a moment.

I think anyone would find their first speech in this chamber daunting, given its history and traditions, and the many momentous events it has witnessed.

But I have an additional responsibility, which is to speak not only as the new Member of Parliament for Brighton Pavilion, but also as the first representative of the Green Party to be elected to Westminster.

You have to go back several decades, to the election of the first Nationalist MPs in Scotland and Wales, to find the last maiden speech from a new national political party.

And perhaps a better comparison would be those first Socialist and Independent Labour MPs, over a century ago, whose arrival was seen as a sign of coming revolution.

When Keir Hardie made his maiden speech to this House, after winning the seat of West Ham South in 1892, there was an outcry.

Because instead of frock coat and top hat, he wore a tweed suit and deerstalker.

It's hard to decide which of these choices would seem more inappropriate today.

But what Keir Hardie stood for now seems much more mainstream.

Progressive taxation, votes for women, free schooling, pensions and abolition of the House of Lords.

Though the last of these is an urgent task still before us, the rest are now seen as essential to our society.

What was once radical, even revolutionary, becomes understood, accepted and even cherished.

In speaking today, I am helped by an admirable tradition - that in your first speech to this House, you should refer to your constituency and to your predecessor.

David Lepper, who stood down at this election after thirteen years service as Member for Brighton Pavilion, was an enormously hard-working and highly-respected Member whose qualities transcend any differences of Party.

I am delighted to have this chance to thank him for his work on behalf of the people of Brighton.

It is also a great pleasure to speak about Brighton itself. It is, I am sure, well-known to many Members, if only from Party conferences.

My own Party has not yet grown to a size to justify the use of the Brighton Centre, although I hope that will change before long.

But I can say to honourable members who are not familiar with it, that it is one of the UK's premier conference venues; and there are proposals to invest in it further to help ensure that Brighton retains its status as the UK's leading conference and tourism resort.

There are also the attractions of the shops and cafes of the Lanes and North Laine, the Pier and of course the Royal Pavilion itself, which gives its name to the constituency.

And beyond the immediate boundaries of the constituency and the city, there is the quietly beautiful countryside of the South Downs and the Sussex Weald.

Brighton has always had a tradition of independence - of doing things differently. It has an entrepreneurial spirit, making the best of things whatever the circumstances, and enjoying being ahead of the curve.

We see this in the numbers of small businesses and freelancers within the constituency, and in the way in which diversity is not just tolerated, or respected, but positively welcomed and valued.

You have to work quite hard to be a "local character" in Brighton.

We do not have a single dominant employer in Brighton. As well as tourism and hospitality, we have two universities, whose students make an important cultural, as well as financial, contribution to the city.

There are also a large number of charities, campaigning groups and institutes based there, some local, others with a national or international reach, such as the Institute of Development Studies, all of which I will work to support in my time in this place.

I would like also to pay tribute to those wonderful Brighton organisations that work with women. In particular I'd like to mention Rise, who do amazing work with women who have been victims of domestic abuse.

Many of my constituents are employed in the public and voluntary sectors. They include doctors and teachers, nurses and police officers, and others from professions that do not always have the same level of attention or support from the media, or indeed from politicians.

But whatever the role - social workers, planning officers, highway engineers or border agency staff - we depend upon them.

I'm sure that members on all sides would agree that all those who work for the State should be respected and their contribution valued. In a time of cuts, with offhand comments about bureaucrats and pencil-pushers, that becomes yet more important.

There is also a Brighton that is perhaps less familiar to honourable members. The very popularity of the City puts pressure on transport and housing and on the quality of life.

Though there is prosperity, it is not shared equally. People are proud of Brighton, but they believe that it can be a better and fairer place to live and work.

I pledge to everything I can in this place to help achieve that, with a particular focus on creating more affordable, more sustainable housing.

Brighton was once the seat of the economist Henry Fawcett who, despite his blindness, was elected there in 1865. Shortly afterwards he married Millicent Garrett, later the leader of the suffragists, a movement he himself had supported and encouraged.

So he lent his name to the Fawcett Society, which is still campaigning for greater women's representation in politics.

The task of ensuring that Parliament better reflects the people that it represents remains work in progress - and as the first woman elected in Brighton Pavilion, this is work that I will do all that I can do advance.

I said when I began that I found this occasion daunting.

Perhaps the most difficult task is to say a few words about the latest radical move that the people of Brighton have made - that is, to elect the first Green MP to Parliament.

It has been a long journey.

The Green Party traces its origins back to 1973, and the issues highlighted in its first Manifesto for a Sustainable Society - including security of energy supply, tackling pollution, raising standards of welfare and striving for steady state economics - are even more urgent today.

If our message had been heeded nearly 40 years ago, I like to think we would be much closer to the genuinely sustainable economy that we so urgently need, than we currently are today.

We fielded fifty candidates in the 1979 general election as the Ecology Party, and began to win seats on local councils. Representation in the European Parliament and the London Assembly followed.

Now, after nearly four decades of the kind of work on doorsteps and in council chambers which I am sure honourable members are all too familiar, we have more candidates and more members, and now our first MP.

A long journey.

Too long, I would say.

Politics needs to renew itself, and allow new ideas and visions to emerge.

Otherwise debate is the poorer, and more and more people will feel that they are not represented.

So I hope that if, and when, other new political movements arise, they will not be excluded by the system of voting. Reform here, as in other areas, is long-overdue.

The chance must not be squandered. Most crucially, the people themselves must be given a choice about the way their representatives are elected.

And in my view, that means more than a referendum on the Alternative Vote - it means the choice of a genuinely proportional electoral system.

Both before the election and afterwards, I have been asked the question: what can a single MP hope to achieve? I may not be alone in facing that question.

And since arriving in this place, and thinking about the contribution other members have made over the years, I am sure that the answer is clear, that a single MP can achieve a great deal.

A single MP can contribute to debates, to legislation, to scrutiny. Work that is valuable, if not always appreciated on the outside.

A single MP can speak up for their constituents.

A single MP can challenge the executive. I am pleased that the government is to bring forward legislation to revoke a number of restrictions on people's freedoms and liberties, such as identity cards.

But many restrictions remain. For example, control orders are to stay in force. Who is to speak for those affected and for the principle that people should not be held without charge, even if it is their own homes?

House arrest is something we deplore in other countries. I hope through debate we can conclude that it has no place here either.

A single MP can raise issues that cannot be aired elsewhere.

Last year Honourable Members from all sides of the House helped to shine a light on the actions of the international commodities trading group Trafigura, and the shipping of hazardous waste to the Ivory Coast.

There was particular concern that the media in this country were being prevented from reporting the issues fully and fairly.

This remains the case, for new legal actions concerning Trafigura have been launched in the Dutch courts, and are being reported widely in other countries, but not here.

Finally, I would like to touch on the subject of today's debate.

I have worked on the causes and consequences of climate change for most of my working life, first with Oxfam - for the effects of climate change are already affecting millions of people in poorer countries around the world - and then for ten years in the European Parliament.

But if we are to overcome this threat, then it is we in this chamber who must take the lead.

We must act so that the United Kingdom can meet its own responsibilities to cut the emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases that are changing our climate, and encourage and support other countries to do the same.

This House has signed up to the 10:10 Campaign - 10% emissions reductions in 2010. That's very good news. But the truth is that we need 10% emission cuts every year, year on year, until we reach a zero carbon economy.

And time is running short. If we are to avoid irreversible climate change, then it is this Parliament that must meet this historic task.

That gives us an extraordinary responsibility - and an extraordinary opportunity.

Because the good news is that the action that we need to tackle the climate crisis is action which can improve the quality of life for all of us - better, more affordable public transport, better insulated homes, the end of fuel poverty, stronger local communities and economies, and many more jobs.

I look forward to working with Members from all sides of the House on advancing these issues.

"As the Queen prepares to travel to Westminster to make her first speech setting out the coalition's planned laws, the country's first ever Green MP Caroline Lucas writes for Channel 4 News to describe what her alternative Queen's Speech would look like....

"My government's overriding priority is to modernise the British economy for a low-carbon future, to create an economy more balanced between manufacturing and services, more resilient in the face of financial crises, where wealth is more equitably distributed and the more vulnerable in society are offered greater protection.

"My government will bring forward a bill to initiate an emergency investment package, to cost £44bn, which will be intended to create over one million new jobs and training places...."

See more of what I (or officially the Queen) would say at Channel Four's website:

http://bit.ly/9yIJCA

Sorry this picture has only just come through! 

This was at my 'public' swearing in that followed the private oath of allegiance all MPs take to the Queen in the chamber. 

Swearing an oath of allegiance to the Queen is mandatory to take up a seat.

I'm holding a pebble from Brighton beach as a symbol of Brighton.  

As reported in the Argus newspaper, the pebble was returned to its rightful place on the beach. 

More information about my swearing in here

Unfortunately, I don't have an MP office yet so, for now, if you're a Brighton Pavilion constituent who needs support or advice from me as your MP, please contact me in these ways:

E mail: caroline.lucas.mp@parliament.uk

Tel: 020 7219 7025 House of Commons
- a message will be passed on to me.

Post:
Caroline Lucas MP
House of Commons
London SW1A 0AA

Please ensure that you always provide a full postal address however you choose to contact me.

This will help me and my team in responding to your enquiry.

I'll confirm more permanent contact details as soon as I have them - and I have an office.

ADVICE SESSIONS FOR CONSTITUENTS (MP SURGERIES)

I'll be holding my first formal advice session for my constituents on Friday 21 May 3.30 - 5pm at the Brighthelm Centre, North Road, Brighton

Map location: http://bit.ly/a4Ba4l

To help ensure that I (and my team) can provide a good service, it would be appreciated if you could ring my constituency office in advance to book an appointment to see me: Tel 01273 766 670.

We'll publish dates and venues shortly of regular surgeries in locations in the constituency.

I will continue the blog as an MP but my new workload means that I won't always be able to update as much as I have been doing in the election campaign as a candidate.

In the Palace of Westminster (as it is still officially known) I now have a coat hook with a pink ribbon for my sword should I need one and am still waiting to hear when I get some desk space.

I shudder to think what I might be given next - a coat of arms, perhaps?

But away from these archaic Westminster traditions, it's time to get down to the business of being an MP - serving the people of Brighton who have put their trust in me.

I pledge to represent all of the voters of this constituency, not just those who voted for me.

The people of Brighton deserve a good constituency MP who helps constituents with whatever political issues or problems affect their lives.

But they also deserve an MP who will campaign on the wider principles that matter - nationally as well as locally, including:

Equality

Fairness

Protecting civil liberties

And making sure every home is warm and dry and fit to live in.

The economy

But what about the economy in this difficult time for the country?

Brighton's economy is largely composed of small, independent businesses and the public sector, which I as a Euro-MP and the Green councillors here have consistently done our best to support.

I'll continue that support as the MP for the smaller business sector - the lifeblood of the city's economy - by seeking talks with all involved about widening the local economic base and creating more skilled employment.

I hope over the coming months to meet with all those in the business community and in the public sector and the voluntary or ‘third' sector to discuss what Brighton needs for a sustainable and thriving local economy.

An independent voice in Westminster

I also hope that my election will give me an independent platform to raise the issues that really matter to the people of Brighton: a voice for families struggling in the recession and a voice of reason with the new Tory-Liberal coalition government.

But there's more to it than that.

Street meets with residents

As has happened twice already over the last few days I plan to do more ‘street meets' in different parts of the constituency as well as traditional 'surgeries' - drop-in advice sessions in the constituency usually on a weekly basis. 

It was great to meet so many people so easily - that kind of accessibility is how it should be for an MP.

One of the first people to congratulate also asked me to make a date to go and talk to her about some issues in relation to care for the elderly, which I have asked my staff to arrange straight away.

Another example is the constituent who until recently had been homeless, living rough in New Road itself.

He had managed to get himself off the street and into housing and wanted me to meet with him soon, to be able to share his experiences more widely to replicate his success.

He was an inspiration and is coming to meet me in my office very soon.

It is exactly this sort of direct involvement in people's lives that Green Politics is all about.

My first 'street meet' as local MP on Friday. Will do more of these as well as traditional 'surgeries' where MPs meet constituents who need advice or other help.

 

Heartfelt thanks to voters of Brighton Pavilion for amazing Green result, & thanks so much for all the wonderful messages of support.

Thank you, also, to my great campaign team.  

Will say more a bit later after some rest!

Result below:

GREEN GAIN FROM LABOUR

Name Party Votes % +/-

CAROLINE LUCAS - GREEN 16,238 31.3% +9.4
Nancy Platts Labour 14,986 28.9 -7.5
Charlotte Vere Conservative 12,275 23.7 +0.4
Bernadette Millam Liberal Democrat 7,159 13.8 -2.2
Nigel Carter UK Independence Party 948 1.8 +0.6
Ian Fyvie Socialist Labour Party 148 0.3 -0.1
Soraya Kara Citizens for Undead Rights and Equality 61 0.1 +0.1
Leo Atreides Independent 19 0.0 +0.0
Majority 1,252 2.4

On Queen's Road, central Brighton.

Thanks to everyone for all the best wishes and support today!

An enthusing day so far: I've been on the Green Party battlebus touring the constituency and have been encouraged by the cheerful responses: people spontaneously waving, coming up to us at traffic lights to wish us luck, and collecting leaflets to give to friends.

It's helped by it being a bright sunny day and we have had many people in Brighton coming to our offices offering to help.

We've even heard stories of Labour telling agents wishing us luck, and the Conservatives have not even able to provide enough volunteers to have tellers at all the polling stations.

Don't be taken in by Labour's scaremongering - all the evidence points towards a Labour meltdown in Brighton Pavilion constituency.

The collapse of the Labour vote here has been as spectacular as anywhere in the country.

In the heady days of 1997, when Labour came to power, they had a majority of 13181 voters in Brighton Pavilion constituency (with a 55% share of the vote).

By 2001 that was down to 9643 (48%) and by 2005 had declined further to 5030 (35%), and in last year's European Elections (our most recent nationwide elections) that decline went into freefall when they polled just 15% across Brighton (and you would expect that Pavilion would be their strongest area)!

Meanwhile the Green vote at successive elections has soared, electing nine green councillors in Brighton Pavilion (more than any other party), and culminating in the Greens topping the poll citywide in last year's European Elections with 31% (more than double what Labour polled).

To compound this, the popular local Labour MP is retiring.

Labour's collapse here is reflected in the Bookies' odds. Labour's odds are lengthening by the day, with one bookie putting them at 8/1 and the shortest odds you can find for them now are 9/2 (meanwhile, Greens' odds have shortened and we are odds on favourites with ALL the bookies, and one bookie puts us at 1 /2 on!).

An interesting piece on the PM programme yesterday argued that, historically, bookies have a better record of predicting Election results than pollsters!

Election Predict 2010, a website that combines Comres polls with bookies odds gives the Greens a 55% chance of winning in Brighton Pavilion, whilst it gives Labour a less than 15% chance.

And if you are sceptical about the figures, you only need to take a short walk around the constituency and look at the posters to see who has the popular support here.

Labour ministers, Ed Balls and Peter Hain, seem to have given up on hoping that voters will have the enthusiasm to vote for them with their hearts and have, in desperation, started to ask them to vote with their heads instead.

In Brighton Pavilion, you don't have to do that because here you can vote with your head and your heart together.

On Thursday, you can vote with your head and your heart.

Trust your vote to the Greens and, together, we can change the country and Parliament for good.

I'm also enjoying having the Green battlebus pass through the constituency, which is running on recycled vegetable oil.

It was lovely to see the Children's Parade on Saturday and some of the children's costumes were just fantastic - a huge tribute to the enormous time and energy that clearly went into making them.

Earlier on in the week, I took part in two hustings, one on LGBT issues, the other at the Calvary church.

The Calvary church was packed - standing room only - which I hadn't expected as it clashed with the Leader's debates.

It was great to see that people had chosen to see their prospective MPs speaking, ie. those they would be voting for, rather than watching the personality clash of the leaders.

Am still frustrated that I was not able to take part in the leader's debates.

During the debate on international issues, for example, not once was tackling global poverty mentioned. Nor was climate change seriously tackled, and many of the commentators afterwards seemed more interested in the leaders ties or how many times they smiled, rather than the policies discussed.

The LGBT hustings were interesting, and I was pleased to be able to set out Green Party policies on equality.

The timing of this couldn't be more vital as we see gaffe after gaffe from the Conservative party - as well as sitting with homophobes in the European Parliament, the comments of Chis Grayling about gay people and B&Bs and the recent allegations that prospective MP Phillipa Stroud tried to 'cure' gay people do not exactly hearten voters that the Conservatives are 'caring' when it comes to equality.

We've been saying from the beginning of this campaign that in Brighton Pavilion, a vote for the Greens will count, in terms of electing a fresh, independent MP with a strong voice, and in terms of keeping the Conservatives out of what looks ever increasingly likely to be a hung parliament.

I was delighted to see that the Independent recognise this: that voting Green is the only was to keep the Tories out of Brighton, as you can read here.

More than anything our Parliament needs reform and renewal.

The current system has failed us, culminating in a rotten Parliament, mired in scandal and disillusionment.

We have a Parliamentary system of government in the UK, not a Presidential one, and yet we have seen successive Prime Ministers riding roughshod over Parliament and the expressed will of the people, even to the extent that a Labour Prime Minister has led our country into an illegal war on a dossier of lies.

If you elect Labour and Conservative MPs, they will look to perpetuate the unfair voting systems that have enabled them to stitch up power between them for the past 65 years, forming majority governments on small minorities of the vote, and arrogantly assuming a Divine Right to rule.

And don't be fooled by Labour's deathbed commitment to hold a referendum on the AV voting system.

They've chosen to offer that method because it would be even less proportional and would suit them even better!

In Brighton Pavilion constituency, the Greens offer you your best possible chance of electing a reform-minded MP.

The Labour vote is collapsing here and they are still trailing third in some national polls.

The LibDems are trailing a distant fourth in Brighton - so a vote for them, rather than Green, makes a Tory or Labour victory more likely, and could end the chance of reform for another generation.

We need reform of the electoral system and a clean-up of Parliament.

But we need to elect MPs who will change Parliament for good now.

We need voices of dissent in Parliament - not ‘Yes- men' (and women) who are ‘on-message' the whole time and controlled by party whips.

We need voices that are prepared to challenge and question.

We need voices that believe that change is possible.

We need voices that are different.

BRIGHTON IS DIFFERENT - so this Thursday, dare to be different - and on Friday morning wake up to tell the rest of Britain that, together, we have led the way in being different and that BRIGHTON IS GREEN.

There was lots of discussion around the many simple steps that could be taken to improve the day-to-day lives of people with disabilities.

Brighton and Hove could copy transport authorities elsewhere which have been requiring more taxis to have full disability access, for example, and the Green Party supports the Federation's call for a quota system for the taxi and private hire vehicles to be wheelchair accessible. 

There is also a wealth of work to be done to ensure that the large numbers of vehicles using Brighton's streets don't park on the pavements or block routes used by people with disabilities. 

So much of this comes down to a change in attitude - and a recognition that it is society's failure to take into account the needs of a person with an impairment which is the fundamental problem, not the disability itself.

In short, there are many steps that can be taken in the local area to make life easier for those with disabilities.

On that note, I'm pleased to say that our manifesto is now available online in an easy read version, which can be downloaded here.