It took me a while to be Green. I’ve always been shades of pink you see- starting from the basic theory that all men are born equal, and the Blues (in the UK the Blues are the Tories) would never admit it. The discovery that all women are born equal too. Then the further realisation that so are animals like cows, pigs and chickens –  and not just the delicious ones, but also inedibles like Black Widow spiders and trees and bushes. All equal and entitled to a vote, should they want one. It seemed so unfair that just because they took no interest in politics, their opinions should be ignored resulting in death or being eaten or burned or chopped up or all three.

And then I began to realise that breathing was not easy any more. Listen: I live in Chiswick, hard by the A4 where it becomes the M4 and in the past few years my lungs have been invaded. By a mysterious ticklish sometimes hacking cough which is almost always lurking just at the base of my chest, ready to hack its way into my peaceful life. Or shake my nights, disrupting my dreams.

Caused, I have no doubt, by particulates farted out by diesel vehicles. Apparently.

Learning that about 16,000 people die every year from respiratory angst in London alone was not reassuring.

A greenish tinge began to intrude on my pinkness.

And soon I realised how minor my little lungs are in the scheme of things. That there are deaths worldwide now. And more in the future. Not just from particulates: from rising sea levels, from dreadful storms, from skin cancers.

Because that subject which bores you to pieces and may end up boring you to actual death – Climate Change suddenly became really really really real. Al Gore then sealed my pinkness under a cloud of sodden green with his awesome film, an Inconvenient Truth. Evidence upon evidence followed – we are fucking up this planet, ladies and gentlemen.

And in my little world, they are wanting to build a third runway at Heathrow Airport so that aeroplanes can take off above my head, farting out particulates all over West London as will all the extra traffic which will swarm around this hub of greed.

So I will be voting Green in the local elections, and I hope you will too. We desperately need Greens in our local councils. Green voices who can hold truth to power, as Caroline Lucas does so effectively in Parliament. So that we can challenge the vested interests and the businesses that want to steal our air, our land, our trees, our animals in order to make someone a profit.

I am standing for the Hounslow Council Ward of Cranford. Wish me luck!