FOOT and mouth disease is the result of intensive farming methods that need to change through review of the CAP.

The live transport trade that spread this epidemic was unsuspected. MAFF assumed 20,000 stock movements in the first two weeks. It was later found to be 1.3 million. Their incompetence throughout resulted in the unnecessary slaughter of 3 million animals, recklessly burning and burying infected carcases.

Green policy was for vaccination from the start. Enormous sums (about £9bn) have been squandered to support an export trade worth one fifteenth as much (£630m). This must never happen again. Check the facts on the Green Party website, greenparty.org.uk

It costs £1 to vaccinate a cow, and £1,400 to kill it. I feel enormous sympathy for the farmers let down by their union, MAFF and the entire Westminster crew, and will ensure that the real farmers get properly compensated while the dealers are punished.

THE Green Party is committed to a reduction in the arms trade and welcomes the opportunity for DERA to profit from its undoubted genius. The LCD screen that we all use was developed there, but because of DERA'S official status the entrepreneurial incentive was lacking to benefit from its manufacture.

Like so many of our inventions (and I speak as the holder of several patents myself) the LCD had to be developed elsewhere. I sincerely hope that DERA staff will both develop and market new ideas with a vigour impossible under the old system. I will press for better Research and Development support from Government, especially in the emerging recycling, waste and renewable energy industries, and support the Science Park as a means of selling our expertise. Let's face up to the future, keep the pound and fight our corner for a better Europe with justice for all.

IT is not only education that suffers under the formula that decides the Standard Spending Assessment, and Governments of both colours must take the blame for the fact that Worcestershire is at the bottom of the heap. The annual percentage increases must be seen in the light of decades of insufficient funding providing a low base from which to start.

Furthermore, the county has been penalised a further £1.7m under the Council Tax Benefit Subsidy Limitation Scheme; far more than any other authority.

I have seen wonderful teachers driven out of the system by Governmental demands. I favour scrapping SATS, and National Curriculum, and internal audit rather than the excessive bureaucratic burden and Ofsted inquisitions now suffered by teachers. Teachers are professionals who can be trusted to educate our young within a loose supervisory network. Let the teachers teach, let the nurses nurse, and let us all believe that it is worth fighting for justice in our society.

NOT enough importance is given to the prevention of illness. Obesity is now the greatest cause of illness in our society. How ironic! Excessive consumption makes you ill. There's a Green statement. When we fight the root causes of illness: insufficient exercise, pollution, stress etc., then we release the NHS from the burden of self-inflicted illness. However, funding must be increased to European levels without forcing people to go private, and the Greens want a specific NHS tax for that purpose. Moreover, eye tests, dental work and prescriptions will be free. Social justice implies a healthy and productive population.

The NHS must enable its staff to work happily and efficiently, without the hoops imposed upon it by current government policies. It must be adequately funded or else we will all be paying an additional tax for private health care.

THE Green Party doesn't believe that roads are the answer to traffic problems, and will maintain the current level of fuel tax (alas) until viable alternative transport network is available. The unpleasant truth is that we are condemning our children to a future devoid of hope unless action is taken to dramatically reduce emissions. In rural areas like this constituency a vehicle is almost a necessity, and will remain so until that transport network is effective. We have to think long-term rather than react to short-term need, and fortunately all the other parties have delayed the construction of the bypass.

The Green Party intends to re-integrate the rail network under public ownership and extend the use of trams and other "clean" forms of transport. Personally, I want to develop a viable steam car run on LPG or natural gas. Crisis forces human beings to be creative.