Why I'm Voting Green - The green party is consensus breaking

A few weeks ago Natalie Bennett gave an excruciating interview on an LBC show. But however much it looked like the wheels were coming off the Greens’ carbon-neutral bus, that interview won her my vote. Because no matter how screwed up her numbers were, the commitment was there to build half a million new social homes. It was bold and visionary and also a desperate necessity. ‘How will you pay for it?’ asked a brace of commentators. 

As a first-time voter belonging to Generation Rent and watching thousands of people displaced from my city due to housing costs while millions languish on waiting lists, I was asking a different question. How will we pay for the alternative?

Housing is, perhaps, one of the main reasons I’m voting Green on Thursday.

It is not the only one. Firstly, I refuse to give in to the ‘Labour to keep the Tories out’ line. My faith in Labour may have faltered some years ago, but I could not have expected to see Ed Miliband posing on a metal gallows with a giant tombstone upon which ‘Controls on immigration’ was etched (alongside other more vapid non-pledges.) Then there’s Labour’s work and pensions spokesperson proclaiming that she couldn’t give two hoots about representing the unemployed, while refusing to commit to restoring the Independent Living Fund. There’s Labour’s Orwellian language redefinition - the pledge to ‘ban exploitative zero hours contracts’ is a pledge to ban only those zero-hour contracts deemed by Labour to be exploitative, rather than actually banning them.

The same for unpaid internships, which I am told are used at Labour HQ. This is before we even get to the vicious internal culture of the party - the game playing of the cliques surrounding Miliband, the campaign against the SNP which has been led by hypocrisy and smears rather than principled disagreement, the bullying of dissenters from Redcar to Tower Hamlets, and so on. Labour continues to hold the left because it can use the Tories as a threat to keep its own side in line, and because it claims to bear an institutional link to the working class through the trade unions. Er, when was the last time Labour actually supported one of those unions going on strike?

To dwell on Labour overly, though, would be to repeat the politics of negativity that have overshadowed this election. We need positive reasons to vote, and we need a vision.

I’ll come back to housing. About a mile down the road from where I grew up, Southwark’s Aylesbury Estate is due to be smashed to pieces to make way for ever more luxury flats. (At the Aylesbury a makeshift banner hangs over the place, the lament of a former resident: ‘They’re all lying fuckers and I’m not voting for any of them until they fix the lifts.’) Elsewhere adverts targeted at a new generation of spivs gleefully boast that there will be no social housing in the area to tarnish their customers’ glossy new apartments, and Labour and the Tories sit there and let it happen. This is not just about affordable homes - it is about class, it is about culture, it is about sustainability and it is about the sort of city we want to live in. And I trust the Greens to have that in mind, to genuinely go about creating places where people want to live.

Ultimately, it comes down to austerity. We have two Westminster parties that agree on the fundamentals of how one runs a society. The manifestoes are different, the scale of cuts are different (and that matters a lot) but regardless of the anti-austerity views of many Labour (and indeed Tory) supporters, a Green vote is a vote for the largest party that stands up to the consensus on cuts. That’s a message that needs to be sent this election, because a deranged and pathological obsession with the deficit has led to untold damage being wreaked upon our society. The closures of schools and libraries and hospitals, the brutalisation of suffering people through the benefits system, the scrapping of jobs and the facilitation of an underemployed, underpaid workforce have all been justified and explained by the need for a ‘stronger economy.’ And so as intangible as an ideological conception might be, registering a solidly-sized vote against the ideology of austerity is crucial as we move forward in the next five years.

That’s not the only area where the Greens are consensus breaking - I’m voting for the largest party that believes you should stand with migrants rather than cheaply pandering to Ukip voters, I’m voting for the largest party that recognises the importance of fixing the climate crisis, and I’m voting for the largest party to make a commitment as simple as ensuring everyone’s wages are enough for them to afford to live on.

The Greens won’t win. But their electoral success can serve as part of a platform for building movements for social and economic change outside of parliament. It is a way to use this election to demonstrate support for principles – the most fundamental being that we solve a crisis by helping people out of it, not punishing them. It’s a way to build an alternative.

That Bennett interview showed that while she might forget numbers (that were produced amply and well later), she would not forget principles. That’s the message of hope to all of us who feel locked out of our broken, detached, cynical political system.

Written by Luke Akehurst and first published at Our Kingdom

Green Party manifesto 2015: policies for a 'peaceful revolution'

Party leader Natalie Bennett and Caroline Lucas, the Greens' only MP, described their policies as an "unashamedly bold plan to create a more equal, more democratic society".

Bennett argued that "austerity has failed" and that the country needed a "peaceful political revolution to get rid of it", while Lucas promised "real leadership" on tackling climate change and investment in the public transport system. "Our plans will make a positive difference to people's lives, create new jobs and help protect our environment," Lucas said.

Support for the Greens has increased since 2010, and it now boasts more members than Ukip. The party is still only expected to win just one seat, in Lucas's Brighton Pavilion constituency, but it is likely to have a wider impact on the election by taking votes from former Labour supporters.

Speaking on Radio 4's Today programme before the manifesto launch, Lucas said the party is also promising a nationwide insulation programme and an end to "cold homes", in which families are unable to afford heating.

She ruled out the idea of backing a Conservative budget under any circumstances, but said the party would potentially deal with Labour on a case-by-case basis.

The party's political broadcast, depicting the other party leaders as a spoof boy band, has been watched more than 1.2 million times on YouTube and Facebook.

Here's what the Green Party is promising in its manifesto:

Economy

Closing the deficit will no longer be the main objective of the UK's economic policy, with an end to austerity. The manifesto requires borrowing of £338bn over the next parliament. Public sector jobs will be "restored" and spending will be increased to almost half of national income.

Tax

Taxation loopholes will be closed through a "tax-dodging bill". The richest one per cent will face a two per cent wealth tax, which will help reduce employers' National Insurance. Corporation tax will be increased from 20 per cent to 30 per cent for bigger firms and a "Robin Hood" tax on banks' financial transactions will be introduced. People on salaries of more than £150,000 a year will be taxed at 60 per cent of their income, and the bedroom tax will be abolished.

Business and employment

One million "good" jobs will be created, all paying at least a living wage. Minimum wage will be increased to £10 by 2020. Zero-hour contracts will be banned and the highest wage in any organisation will be limited to ten times the lowest. A maximum 35-hour working week will also be introduced to combat unemployment and improve life quality.

Families and housing

At least 500,000 social rented homes will be provided by 2020. Rent will be capped, longer tenancies introduced and landlords required to have licences. Mass council house sales and the right-to-buy scheme will be stopped, and letting agents' fees would be abolished.

Health

The overall NHS budget will be immediately increased by £12bn and the coalition's Health and Social Care Act 2012 will be repealed, with an end to privatisation of the NHS. The health service will be publicly funded and free at the point of use. Mental health will be given greater priority and resources, while the elderly will be given free social care. Prescriptions will be free for all.

Education

University fees, SATS, league tables and Ofsted will be scrapped. Education and childcare will be free, but voluntary, for all children up to the age of seven. Free schools will be brought into the local authority system and all teachers will be qualified.

Environment

Tackling climate change will be a major foreign policy priority. The UK's nature and wildlife will be given better protection. Fracking will be banned, while coal power stations and nuclear stations will be phased out. An investment of £85bn will be made in a public programme of renewable energy, flood defences and building insulation. The badger cull, factory farming and animal testing would be banned. Local sustainable agriculture will be given more support and strict animal welfare standards will be introduced.

Immigration and the EU

The EU will be reformed to give powers back to local communities and a referendum will be held on the UK's EU membership. Restrictions on foreign students will be removed and asylum seekers will be given more rights. Overseas aid will be increased to one per cent of GDP within ten years.

Security and defence

The UK's nuclear weapons will be scrapped. Police stop and search powers would be restricted and privatisation of the police would be prevented. Drug addiction would be treated as a health issue, not a criminal issue, and offender rehabilitation would be promoted.

Benefits

A consultation will be held on introducing a "basic income", a fixed amount paid to every individual. Rules under which the unemployed must work for benefits will be scrapped. Child benefit will be doubled and pensions will be increased to an amount that "people can live on".

Government

Proportional representation will be introduced for elections. The House of Lords will be elected for five-year and ten-year terms. Local authorities will be given more powers on education, transport and other services.

Extras

Equality and diversity lessons would be made mandatory in all schools. The tens of thousands of men convicted under former anti-gay laws would be pardoned. Retailers would be encouraged to ban "lad mags" in a bid to tackle media sexism.

The voting age would be lowered to 16. The railways would be renationalised, High Speed 2 would be scrapped and public transport fares would be immediately cut by ten per cent.

First published at The Week

GE2015 - Lesser Evilism or Voting For What You Believe In

What a dismal general election campaign 2015 has been. The mainstream politicians and media pompously announce that this year’s election is the ‘most important ever’, whilst treating the voters with utter contempt. Policies? We have barely heard any of them, beyond some vague spending or cutting spending ‘pledges’. Instead, we have been fed a diet of irrelevant, negative rhetoric about who will wreck the country if the other side wins.

This unedifying spectacle began with the Prime Minister, David Cameron, doing his level best to avoid a televised debate, effectively throwing  spanners into the works at every opportunity and eventually conceding only one, and that even before any party manifestos were released.

And so it has carried on, with the important issues dodged and the national debate reduced to scare stories mainly about the Scottish National Party (SNP). UKIP voters have been told they risk letting Labour in (with the SNP) and Green and SNP voters that they will let the Tories in (maybe with the Democratic Unionist Party, (DUP), and UKIP).

Party leaders have been studiously kept away from the voters, other than invited party loyalists, amounting to the most risk averse and stage managed election I can remember. Voters are there only to be intimidated into voting for the least worse option.

The Tories and their many friends in the media, sensing that an outright win is beyond them, have started a campaign of sucking up to the Lib Dems and howling that a Labour/SNP government would be ‘illegitimate’. Although, there are significant factions in both parties, who are against another Con/Lib coalition.

If the Tory/Lib Dem coalition does fail to get a governing majority in Parliament as is expected, they will clearly try to pressure Labour against an arrangement with the SNP. There would be nothing, in our albeit imprecise constitution, illegitimate about whatever collection of MPs forming a government, if they can agree a package of policies and win a majority for a Queen’s Speech. End of story, or so it should be, but the Tories are terribly bad losers.

The real issue of legitimacy in this election is that the mainstream parties all offer broadly the same policies and in an electoral system where it is near impossible for any real alternative to break through. Except in Scotland, where the Scots have clearly had enough of 35 years of neo-liberalism and are making a bold attempt to change the agenda.

Over one million people in the UK use charitable food banks in a country that is the sixth wealthiest in the world. Engineering a housing bubble in the south east of England is the only strategy for growing the economy, even though this caused all of the trouble we have still not recovered from in 2008. And we are offered more austerity economics in the years ahead, when the rest of world has abandoned the idea in favour of fiscal stimulus.  

Some very big new thinking needs to be done to put our economy on a sustainable footing, to deliver fairness and equality, and real democratic renewal to a corrupt and discredited system, in which MP’s line their pockets by maintaining the status quo. If ever there was a chance to really break the mould of British politics, then this is it. It will not come though, by voting Tory, Labour or Lib Dem.

If you really want political and economic change, in England at least, then you need to place an X by the name of the Green Party candidate in your constituency. We will only win a handful of seats at Westminster this time, Brighton Pavilion, Bristol West and Norwich South are our best chances. But, if you really want our policies, and surveys show you do, then vote for them. You'll never get them otherwise. A big shift towards us will cause the other parties to adopt more of our policies, and we can position ourselves more credibly for the next election, which may not be far away.

If people keep voting for the lesser evil party of the establishment, then you surely will always get evil in the end. Make a stand, Vote Green in the general election this year. For The Common Good.

Greens Are Voting SNP. Will SNP Voters Return the Favour?

By Justin Kenrick, First Published at Bella Caledonia

As we’ve all noticed, there was no Yes Alliance for this election.

Many of us (in the Greens, SSP, RIC, Women For Indy, non-aligned) argued for such an alliance. Many say it would have muddied the water – “Who are you really voting for?” – and anyway clearly, in the short term of this particular election, the SNP didn’t need us.

Or so it would seem. 

But the overwhelming majority of fellow Green Party members I have asked are planning to vote SNP this election. Greens may poll 5 to 15% at the 2016 Holyrood election – time will tell – but it appears that the vast majority of these are going to be voting SNP on Thursday. 

So the SNP do need us after all, if they are going to achieve a wipe-out of unionist parties.

Greens are adding 5 to 15% to SNP candidates’ tallies. Greens are lending the SNP their votes en masse, (and not only this, I’ve just been canvassed for the SNP by an SNP party member accompanied by a local Green party member!) – and that’s a really intelligent response to the Westminster election system, and to this phenomenal historical moment. 

The opinion polls signal an overwhelming victory for the SNP in Scotland.

Is that situation going to change in the next week?

Yes, the SNP’s vote will get more and more solid.

Why? Because, as Murray McCallum has said elsewhere on Bella, the way the powerful (such as the Westminster parties and the corporates of the City of London and its media) dominate us is by “creating the conditions, and then criticising the actuality”. They create poverty, insecurity and division – nationally and globally – and then claim it’s the peoples’ fault, and that only they, the powerful, can impose the solutions needed.

Meanwhile their solutions – whether ‘war on terror ‘ or austerity – just make matters worse. Austerity accelerating the transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich; the  ‘war on terror destabilising and demonising entire countries or regions, ensuring that their resources are dirt cheap and controlled by us, or that their reaction justifies our elites’ power.

But whenever we collectively realise what they are up to (as here and now in Scotland), then every move they make in this game – every lie the ‘Scottish Labour’ or the ‘Conservative and Unionists’ tell – digs them deeper into oblivion.

And they can’t understand – not one bit – why it isn’t working. It’s worked before (the big lies under Thatcher, the big deceits under Blair), so why isn’t it working now?

Let’s not tell them.

Let’s just enjoy the fact that if they could put themselves in our shoes and see why it isn’t working, then the act of doing so would involve them seeing the world as it actually is, and switching sides.

at this election, reverse rules apply:

the louder they lie, the harder they fall.

the more they scaremonger

the fewer scared mongers remain

But not in England, where there is not yet a credible movement against the elite (the Greens alone being too weak) and so there the lies still work a treat: scaring voters back into the Tory fold, and scaring Labour into being as Tory as they dare.

As we all know, behind the ‘reasonable’ face of the independence movement, behind the SNP, there is a far more radical movement. If Nicola Sturgeon and Stewart Hosie’s focus on abandoning austerity, Trident and other status, poverty and fear-generating games seems radical to the Westminster/ Corporate elite, it emerges from and is energised by a far broader and deeper movement (many of whom have joined the SNP). A movement focused on independence, not only for Scotland from the UK, but also for all of us from a system that is cannibalising the social and ecological fabric in the pursuit of unhinged profits.

Preparing the way for the best possible 2016 Holyrood election result:

What matters just as much (or more?) than who goes to Westminster, is what kind of Government and what kind of Opposition we want to vote into Holyrood in May 2016.

Many SNP members locally speak of wanting the Greens to lead the opposition to the SNP Government that looks certain to be elected in May 2016.

If, as looks inevitable, the SNP goes from strength to strength under a leader who is in touch with what people need, then the SNP will clear up on the constituency vote in 2016.

So in 2016, just as most Green voters will almost certainly continue to vote SNP on the constituency vote, will SNP voters waste their list vote on the SNP (when their having won so many constituency seats will mean a vote for SNP on the list will for the most part let Labour, LibDems or the Tories in), or will they instead vote Green on the list?

Will SNP voters in 2016 return the favour to Green voters in 2015?

Time will tell, but doing that would mean that our constituency vote will decide the Government, and our list vote will decide who heads the Opposition. 

It’s not who wins a debate, its what we debate, that matters

If we continue the stale debates determined by the media’s masters who want to focus only on how fast the deficit is cut, how many missiles we need, and how we are ‘swamped by immigrants’. If we continue these sterile debates then we’ve lost, however many seats we’ve won. (The exception to the rule has been the UK-wide leaders debates, because those running the system were focused on manipulating the UK level, on destabilising Milliband, and so didn’t see the space they’d open up for Nicola Sturgeon to shine).

Moving on from SNP vs Unionist, to (social democratic) SNP vs Greens (focused on social and ecological justice), means moving on to dealing with the real hard issues; where none of us can simply point and say you’re wrong, but all of us have to work out how best to reconcile conflicting truths. Is that not a politics worth (SNP and Green) voting for?

Of course, whether the Greens manage to powerfully articulate the need for a radical transformation of our system or, whether if they cannot, they are replaced by an ecologically conscious SSP or Radical Left party next year, we’ve yet to see.

The debate we need is between those, such as the SNP, who advocate making the system we live in fairer and greener, and those who argue that – although such steps are welcome – they are not enough, not for those living in poverty now, nor for the way this system is driving a stake through the heart of all our futures.

There is no easy answer in that debate.

One side is not wrong and another right. But the dynamic of that debate can rapidly drive positive solutions, in the way that the social democratic independence movement having to argue with the deadness of an austerity mass-destruction addicted unionism can never do.

Here are a few key Green propositions that are practical and transformative and contentious: free public transport, a basic income for all, green reindustrialisation.

Such a green reindustrialisation would include no to fracking and yes to a rapid transition from fossil fuels to renewables, partly driven by a scheme such as cap and share (where huge tariffs are levied on companies bringing in fossil fuels, and the money raised is redistributed to all the population, thus rapidly increasing the wealth of the poorest while driving renewable energy and helping underpin a huge expansion in green infrastructure).

Such proposals, like the Green case for shifting taxation from taxing the producing of social value (work) to taxing processes that stop social value from being produced (for example, the proposed land value tax), are ones which will help the SNP Government to think freshly and consider how its actions can ensure a future for all, while considering: how can this be done in a way which can work in the realities of the world we are living in now?

So, Greens are voting SNP on Thursday to, but will SNP voters return the favour next May?

This Thursday matters, but the outcome looks pretty certain: whether the Tories ‘win’ by demonising Scotland, or Labour ‘win’ by denying Scotland, their actions have broken the Union.

We need to vote on Thursday, but we also need to keep it in proportion. Whatever happens in Westminster, what ultimately matters is what happens here.

If Westminster wants to bury itself that is its choice. Let’s continue to birth the new politics. 

5 Lies about NHS Privatisation

5 lies about NHS privatisation. A video by 38 Degrees.

Vote to keep the NHS public on 7 May.

“We’re about to make history”: Polls suggest Green Party will beat Liberal Democrats in London

• Latest polls put Green Party on 11% in London, 4 points ahead of Liberal Democrats
• Support for Green Party is surging just before election day
• Big swing from Labour and Liberal Democrats over to the Greens

With just four days to go until the general election, polls suggest the Green Party could be about to make history in London by beating the Liberal Democrats into third place.

Polling by IpsosMORI gives the Green Party 11% amongst those certain to vote in the capital with the Liberal Democrats trailing on 7%.

The poll demonstrates a huge rise in support for the Greens in London since 2010 and cements their position as the third biggest party in the capital following their strong performance in the 2012 Mayoral and London Assembly elections.

The surge is being driven by the movement of former Labour and Liberal Democrat voters over to the party. Of those respondents who said they would be voting Green in Thursday’s election, one in six had voted for the Liberal Democrats in 2010 and one in ten had voted for Labour.

Tom Chance, Co-Chair of the London Green Party and candidate for Lewisham West and Penge, said:

“Of course this is exactly the news we want to be hearing just before the election but it reflects the feeling we’ve been getting on the ground throughout this campaign when our members have been out and about meeting voters. People are feeling let-down by politics in Britain and they’re hungry for an alternative to the austerity message being served-up on a daily basis by the “established” parties.

“What is so exciting is that here in London we already have a great basis from which to deliver that change for voters. We finished third in the last Mayoral election. We have two assembly members, an MEP, and four councillors. This is giving us the base we need to build our influence and our presence. Voters can go out to the polls on May 7^th knowing that by voting Green, they’re contributing to a rapidly growing movement in London. We really are on the verge of making history.”

Support for the Green Party in London has surged in the past year. Membership of the party has more than trebled and now stands at over 11,000. The party recently announced that they will be standing candidates in every seat in the capital and that they have achieved a 50-50 gender split amongst their candidates.

Re-elect Caroline Lucas, Green MP for Brighton Pavilion – Her Achievements and Parliamentary Voting Record Deserve It

What a fantastic MP Caroline Lucas has been. She has won recognition awards including, being named the 'Most Influential MP' in 2012 by the Political Studies Association, 'MP of the Year' in the Scottish Widows and Dods Women in Public Life Awards 2011, and 'Newcomer of the Year' in the Spectator's 2010 Parliamentarian awards. In 2013 the Patchwork Foundation named Caroline MP of the Year for her work with deprived and minority communities in Brighton and across the country.

And she introduced a Private Member's Bill to re-nationalise our railways.

If you are a voter in Brighton Pavilion, please make sure you re-elect Caroline on Thursday so she can continue her outstanding work as an MP. She would be a grave loss to the House of Commons.

Below is a selection of the way Caroline Lucas, Green MP voted in the last Parliament:

Defence Policy

Voted very strongly against use of UK military forces in combat operations overseas

Voted very strongly against replacing Trident with a new nuclear weapons system

Voted moderately for strengthening the Military Covenant

Welfare and Benefits

Voted strongly against reducing housing benefit for social tenants deemed to have excess bedrooms (which Labour describe as the "bedroom tax") 

Voted very strongly for raising welfare benefits at least in line with prices 

Voted very strongly for paying higher benefits over longer periods for those unable to work due to illness or disability Details

Voted very strongly against making local councils responsible for helping those in financial need afford their council tax and reducing the amount spent on such support 

Voted strongly against a reduction in spending on welfare benefits 

Voted moderately for spending public money to create guaranteed jobs for young people who have spent a long time unemployed

Taxation

Voted strongly for increasing the tax rate applied to income over £150,000

Voted very strongly against increasing the rate of VAT

Voted moderately for a banker’s bonus tax 

Voted very strongly for an annual tax on the value of expensive homes (popularly known as a mansion tax) 

Voted very strongly against allowing employees to exchange some employment rights for shares in the company they work for

Business and the Economy

Voted strongly against reducing the rate of corporation tax 

Voted strongly against measures to reduce tax avoidance

Health

Voted strongly for restricting the provision of services to private patients by the NHS Details

Voted strongly against reforming the NHS so GPs buy services on behalf of their patients

Education

Voted strongly against greater autonomy for schools 

Voted very strongly against raising England’s undergraduate tuition fee cap to £9,000 per year Details

Voted moderately against academy schools 

Voted very strongly against ending financial support for some 16-19 year olds in training and further education Details

Voted very strongly against university tuition fees

Constitutional Reform

Voted strongly against reducing central government funding of local government

Voted very strongly for a more proportional system for electing MPs 

Voted moderately for a wholly elected House of Lords

Voted moderately for more powers for local councils

Home Affairs

Voted very strongly against requiring the mass retention of information about communications

Voting record from They Work for You website.