Award-winning film maker Ken Loach today gave his support to Green Party leader and Brighton Pavilion candidate Caroline Lucas MEP.
Loach - director of such films as Land and Freedom, and the Palme D'Or winning The Wind That Shakes The Barley, said he believes that the difference between the three main parties is now so slim that only the Greens offer a sustainable and equitable solution to the current economic crisis.
The film maker, whose latest film Looking for Eric starred former Manchester United striker Eric Cantona, alongside Loach's customary cast of unknown actors, said:
"The three major parties asking for our votes on May 6 present programmes with differences of degree rather than of principle. They all will seek to make the workers pay for the crisis. Caroline Lucas represents a real alternative and calls for a necessary transformation of society. I wish her well," said Loach.
Responding to Mr Loach's statement, Caroline Lucas MEP said "I thank Ken Loach for his kind words of support. As a great admirer of his work I know that on many levels we share the same desire for a fairer, more balanced society. The kind of society that the Labour Party have long since abandoned and the other parties simply do not offer."
Loach's support comes on the same day as senior members of Sussex Trades Unions including Unison, Unite, GMB and NUJ publicly declared their support for Brighton Pavilion candidate, Lucas.
Expressing their disappointment after 13 years of Labour government, they said "We believe that the election of Caroline Lucas will do more for working people and trade unionists than a Labour MP whipped into line to keep Brown in office, or who pretends a social conscience while in opposition." (1)
Notes
1. Link to full Trade Union Support press release on Green Party website