Macclesfield: Independent candidate calls for ‘cross-party consensus on climate change’
By Alex Greensmith 2nd Jul 2024
An Independent General Election candidate in Macclesfield wants to unite party lines, over one topic.
Christopher Wellavize, Independent candidate, wants to create a 'cross-party consensus on climate change'.
He also criticised how climate change has become a dividing issue, much of Mr Wellavize's campaign is about healing divisions.
Mr Wellavize was speaking at the second hustings in Macclesfield, at St. Michael's Church on Monday evening.
The environment is part of Mr Wellavize's personal life, as well as his political one too. Mr Wellavize runs a garden centre in Prestbury, and is a supporter of 'SAVE DANES MOSS'.
"The whole issue of climate change has been made political.
"There needs to be a cross-party consensus on this. We are all living on the same planet. It is our home.
"If your house is on fire, you need to act.
"For us to be able to come together and do that, we need real leadership.
"We need people to say, 'okay, we can still enjoy a good quality of life, but we are in a post-consumer society.
"There is not any need for more stuff, it doesn't give us happiness. We know the things that give us happiness in our heart and souls. And that is being true to ourselves, being true to our spirit and to love one another.
"We don't need to keep consuming, so agreeing policy that actually puts a place that we can provide energy, cleanly, and cheaply is exactly what we should be doing.
"It is really important that whoever is in power in the next government, tries to heal these divisions between us. And make climate something we can all come together, and agree upon."
Certainly, there are signs of a cross-party consensus on climate change already in Macclesfield.
Tim Roca MP of the Labour Party, who agreed with some of Christopher's points throughout the night, and at one point even put his hand on him in a friendly way, called climate change 'biggest challenge of our time'.
Amanda Iremonger of the Green Party also engaged the audience with the subject during her opening speak, asking those to put their hand up if they thought the government could be doing more to tackle the climate crisis. Almost everyone in the church put their hands up.
Climate change was one of the driving factors for Liberal Democrat candidate Neil Christian for joining his party 25 years ago.
Meanwhile, David Rutley mentioned the countries he has been visiting as a junior minister in the Americas, to see they work they are doing to help tackle climate change.
Social Democratic Party Dickie Fletcher highlighted that they are the 'only party that wants to renationalise our water companies', to heal our nation's environment.
Reform UK's Stephen Broadhurst was critical on net zero, but is also a supporter of local environmental campaigns like 'SAVE DANES MOSS'.
So a Macclesfield eco-consensus is slightly there across the candidates, the real challenge is taking that to Westminster for whoever is elected, and uniting the nation over what has become a dividing issue.
The polls open at 7am on July 4.
In alphabetical order, the candidates are: Stephen Broadhurst (Reform UK), Dickie Fletcher (Social Democratic Party), Neil Christian (Liberal Democrats), Amanda Iremonger (Green Party), Tim Roca (Labour Party), David Rutley (Conservatives), Christopher Wellavize (Independent).
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