Europe
2019.11.20 03:14 GMT+8

Election at-a-glance: Greens set out their plans

Updated 2019.11.20 03:14 GMT+8
By Alex Hunt

While much of Tuesday was dominated by preparing for the first big TV debate of the election campaign, what else happened?

Green Party publish election manifesto

The Green Party pledges the planting of many more trees.

The Green Party of England and Wales launched its election manifesto with a pledge to invest £100 billion a year as part of a "green new deal" to reach a net zero carbon emissions in the UK by 2030.

Among the measures will be upgrades to heating systems for one million homes, replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy, delivering public transport improvements and better cycle and walking routes, plus the planting of 700 million trees.  

The party, which currently has only one member of parliament despite standing in 498 constituencies, also pledged to increase NHS funding, hold a Brexit referendum and extend voting to 16-year-olds. The most recent election voting intention poll from ICM put the party's overall support at 3 percent. You can read their manifesto here.

In Pics: Packing a punch

Conservative leader Boris Johnson enters the boxing ring (Credit: AFP)

You can't see here, but his gloves have his election slogan on them (Credit: AFP)

Labour's John McDonnell says workers will get new rights if they win the election (Credit: AFP)

It's not been the first boxing event of the campaign. Here's Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson, last week (Credit: AFP)

UK election jargon-buster: Canvassing

There is plenty of canvassing going on at the moment. It is the word used to describe political candidates going round knocking on people's doors to talk to them about the election, and hopefully to win their support. It can also take place on shopping streets, or outside school gates, and in more recent years some canvassing takes place by phone or online.

The history of the canvassing can be traced back at least as far as Roman times, although it was banned for a time for long periods in the UK and was frowned upon in the first few elections in the US (as fans of Hamilton the musical will know). According to the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica the word comes from canvass, which meant "to sift by shaking in a sheet of canvas" - so canvassing involves talking to lots of people in the hopes or winning at least a few votes.

Opinion poll update...

According to pollsters ICM, this is the latest level of voter support:

Conservatives: 42% (up 3 percent on the previous week)
Lab: 32% (up 1 percent)
Lib Dem: 13% ( down 2 percent)
Brexit Party: 5% (down 3 percent)
Green: 3% (unchanged)
SNP: 3% (unchanged)
Others: 2% (up 2 percent)

Catch-up with the electoon:

UK election at-a-glance 18 November: Leaders courting business

UK election at-a-glance 17 November: Teeth MOTs and scientists welcomed

UK election at-a-glance 16 November: Trees, women and... 'house-things'?!

UK election at-a-glance 15 November: Free broadband for all?

UK election at-a-glance 14 November: All about Brexit?

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