Renewable energy and thinking green.

Yesterday I was given an enormous honour and great responsibility in being elected as the leader of the Green party of England and Wales.

This is a time of tremendous opportunity for the Green party. Voters across Britain are seeking new answers – they want to know why in the world's sixth-richest economy, millions feel insecure, frightened about the future, worried about their children's future.

They know that after decades of growth based on the financial and retail industries, with a long-hours working culture and growing job insecurity, Britain has the unhappiest children in the developed world, that levels of mental illness and stress are extremely high, that huge numbers of people are not sure they can keep a roof over their heads.

And they know that our entire economy is based on treating the Earth as though it were a mine and a dumping ground, and the poor as though they were rubbish.

They understand that the 20th-century approach of neoliberalism and globalisation, of outsourcing and financial speculation, cannot continue. The model is broken.

Yet the Labour party, which was so relaxed about people getting "filthy rich," which was so keen to outsource NHS services and encourage academy schools, hasn't changed its tune – it just wants to cut a little more slowly than the coalition.

Only the Green party has the vision of radical change. It understands that we need to invest in the future, to invest in housing, in jobs, in energy conservation and renewable energy.

Do you want some renewable energy or solar panel installation? http://www.wessex.org/renewable