Get facts right on Greens

I respect it for putting together a trade unionist-backed coalition and agree with a lot of what it says. But its attitude to existing left parties is farcical.

Saying as Peter Skelly does (M Star April 25) that "the Green Party ... supports cuts and privatisation" is patent nonsense.

Even in Brighton, where the minority Green administration has been forced into making more cuts by an alliance of Labour and the Tories, the Green Party has made clear its vocal opposition to the Tory-led coalition's austerity.

And it has certainly not privatised any services or supported outsourcing. To say that they have is inaccurate.

Caroline Lucas MP, meanwhile, has been one of the strongest voices in the Commons against privatisation and cuts.

In London on May 3 Tusc is contesting London Assembly seats on an anti-cuts platform, but there has been an anti-cuts and anti-privatisation party on the assembly since 2000 - the Greens.

The two Green AMs Jenny Jones and Darren Johnson have worked tirelessly to promote the living wage, decent public services and have opposed Boris Johnson's cuts since before Tusc was even founded.

A strong Green group of three or four AMs would be a far greater anti-cuts voice than a lone Tusc one.

By all means let's have a debate over left politics and the need for a trade unionist alternative to the Labour Party.

But please let's not simply spit venom at those parties and people who actually agree with us - and let's be honest about the fact that the Green Party is not, despite the claims of Tusc, the same as the three main parties.

Elliot Folan
London N20