LightningMinion cycles to Ely and gives a speech outside Ely Cathedral

Our economic system is failing the people of Cambridgeshire. Whether that is an owner of a high-street shop being increasingly unable to compete with online retail giants, or a minimum wage worker living in poverty, our economic system is failing the British people.

The Progressive Workers Party is committed to changing this. We support establishing a Community Investment Bank, which will provide money and capital for potential businesses to boost local economies, bring back jobs to deprived areas, and to revitalise high streets and town centres all across the nation.

We are also a party of responsible budgets. We will ensure that our public services, like our schools, our police or our NHS, receive enough funding to educate our children, to keep us safe and to protect us from illness. We will also invest in Britain’s transport infrastructure and in a Green Industrial Revolution to tackle the climate crisis, bring back jobs and to boost economic growth and productivity; and we will aim to balance the books in 5 years.

To ensure that the government raises enough revenue to fund our public services, we will ensure that the rich and big corporations pay their fair share. Every year, big corporations utilise tax loopholes and tax evasion schemes which lose the Treasury billions of pounds of revenue each year which could be spent on our NHS and schools. We promise to close tax loopholes and crack down on tax evasion schemes to ensure that big corporations are paying what they should be.

Agriculture is a very important industry here in the East. It brings in billions of pounds each year and employs tens of thousands of people as well as putting food on our plates. Between the 17th and 19th centuries, Britain led the world on agriculture by launching the 2nd agricultural revolution. During this period, there was an unprecedented increase in British farming output and productivity - at times, agricultural output was growing faster than Britain’s population and our agricultural productivity was one of the highest in the world. However, we are no longer a world leader and it is time for us to lead the world on this issue again by launching a 3rd agricultural revolution to make British farming sustainable, more modern, and to increase crop yields. We will achieve this by subsidising new hydroponic technologies, which is a new, innovative farming technique where crops are grown without soil, for example in sand, gravel or in a mixture of water and nutrients.This can have a number of benefits - for example, soil can contain pathogens and farmers may need to use pesticides whereas with hydroponics, that isn’t an issue. Soil-based farming also requires a large area of land to grow a substantial amount of crops whereas with hydroponics, it is possible to create skyscraper-like vertical farms. In addition, nutrient uptake is more efficient in water grown plants, leading to crops growing more quickly. Hydroponics have even been used to grow vegetables on the International Space Station and may form a key part of defeating global food shortages. Our subsidy for hydroponics will allow British farmers to use hydroponics when appropriate.

Genetically modified, or GM, crops also offer a great opportunity for farmers as they allow crops to be enhanced, for example to increase crop yields, fortify crops with vitamins, to make crops more resistant to pathogens, and more. To allow farmers to utilise this tech where appropriate, we will legalise genetically modified plants and seeds and we will also begin to phase out chemical pesticides in favour of pest-resistant GM crops.

We are in a climate crisis and farming happens to be one key contributor of greenhouse gases. To ensure that British farms are sustainable and eco-friendly, we will fund research into low carbon ways of farming meat and into potential alternatives to meat.

To help farmers utilise these new technologies, we will set up a National Agricultural Board under DEFRA. This board will oversee rural affairs and will promote modern farming practices and help farmers utilise them. We will also encourage shops to stock products from British farms first and we’ll work to ensure farmers get a fair deal for their produce.