Institute of Development Studies

Caroline Lucas mentions IDS in maiden speech to Parliament

Having made history by becoming Britain's first ever Green Party Member of Parliament, Caroline Lucas gave her maiden speech to Parliament on 27 May 2010. In it, she described the constituency she represents - Brighton Pavilion, where IDS is based. In it, she referred to:

'…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.'

Caroline Lucas at IDS lecture

Prior to her election as MP for Brighton Pavilion, Caroline visited IDS on 22 April 2010 to give a lecture in the series of 'Sussex Development Lectures' held Thursday evenings during term time. Due to the restrictions on political activity during election campaigns, the lecture was given in her role as Member of the European Parliament for the South East region, rather than as a prospective parliamentary candidate. It represented an opportunity to hear her thoughts on development, climate change and much else besides.

The lecture was entitled 'Do Good Lives Have to Cost the Earth?'. In it, she decried the definition of ourselves common in the media as primarily 'consumers' rather than citizens, and argued the case for being satisfied with less 'things' and more intangible assets, such as free time to spend building relationships and engaging with our community.

Lucas said she thought the developed world had an obligation to 'change first and fastest' in the global effort to stop climate change and preserve the world's natural resources. She also said that her party did not agree that 'free' trade necessarily meant 'fair' trade, and that the often-used phrase "free and fair" trade made it sound like they were the same thing.

In fact, free trade is deregulated trade, and is very rarely fair.   She  emphasised the benefits to be had from re-localising the economy, with more local production and consumption, and less reliance on imports and exports and all the unnecessary and polluting transport that they involve.

International Aid as Justice

In a reversal of the usual slogan, she called for 'aid not trade', but also made clear that she sees international aid not as charity but as 'justice' – as the developed world repaying their debts to those countries whose natural resources they have stripped and whose ecologies they have damaged.

Lucas admitted that the environmental movement has on occasion had a problem of perceived negativity; that the image has too often been of all the things we must do without, and all the awful scenarios that await us if we do not change quickly. She does not see things quite this way; she thinks that when re-drawing our lifestyles to avoid climate change we can also create better, more fulfilling lives for ourselves in the process.

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