Why I'm voting Green

Hello to all my readers!

We have a general election coming up this week, and I have not written about it as much as I was going to. I feel slightly guilty about this, but on the whole perhaps this is a good thing. I have of course seen a lot of rhetoric about most of the parties over the last few months, bordering from the highly interesting to the 'I can't believe they're writing about that' (Nicola Sturgeon and doll's hair, anyone?) Generally though, whilst I have been keen to inform myself about people's views and opinions and a lot of them have been interesting, many of these debates have neither influenced who I am likely to vote for, nor stood out as being worthy of discussion amidst what I consider to be the most pressing matters. So in the run-up to the first UK general election since I started writing this blog, I am going to explain why I intend to vote for the Green Party.

There are many policies that the Green Party have that the whole of my approach to social change actively supports - aside from the obvious environmental reasons (which would be good reason to vote for them in and of itself) there are numerous other things that they stand for which I am very passionate about, such as their approaches to forward-thinking education, protecting the National Health Service, raising the Living Wage, decommissioning Trident, working to help Palestine get recognition as an independent state and numerous other things. To be honest, I could write an essay on each of these things and more besides (and have to certain friends) but I really think that doing the same here would do more harm than good. I shall leave a link to the Green manifesto if anyone would like to take a look, but I am going to stick to my previous resolution to make these blogs a little shorter, and stick to why I myself am voting for them, rather than preaching things that people can read in numerous locations other than on my blog.

The bottom line is that I intend to vote Green because I am tired of the rate of social change in this country. In the last five years, I have worked hard on numerous campaigns intended to benefit people in the long-term, and whilst I like to think that I have been reasonably successful, it seems that our present Government has been so blinkered about the decisions that they have made that they are unwilling to take on board pressure from any sides that don't involve a large cash settlement. As an activist, this is frustrating and demotivating - not that I'm hardening to this game, because I still think that if I don't do it, I have no right to complain about others not doing it either. I want a Government which I believe will represent the interests that I stand for, which the Green Party would seem to do. I have been impressed by the likes of Caroline Lucas and indeed Natalie Bennett (I realise that the latter has received quite a bit of criticism which I may respond to another time, but I personally believe that although she has become uncomfortably flustered on occasion, she talks a lot of common sense.) I do not believe that Labour, the Conservatives' biggest rival, are entirely likely to sort out the problems that we have in a particularly efficient way - although the Conservatives are largely responsible for the issues with welfare and inequality, the Labour Party were paramount to us getting into that situation in the first place, and although I will admit that a Labour Government would be better than the alternative, I feel that they would be too slow in sorting things out. I feel that we are swiftly reaching a stalemate with all of the leading parties as a matter of fact, and right now it is time to think radical.

One thing that the Greens are largely criticised for is the fact that they are apparently 'too ambitious', i.e. promising things that are far too much both economically and socially for them to deliver. I will concede that there is likely to be an element of truth in that, but no more than there is with each of the other parties. I don't believe that there is a political party in any country in the world that can totally live up to its reputation after coming to power, not least because there is always more red tape to work around in practice than there is in theory. There has also been criticism of their economic understanding. Economics is my weakest point when it comes to political debate, so it is not something that I can comment on too technically, but it strikes me that their economic plan cannot possibly be worse than the plan that the Conservatives are working with. We are living in a country run by a Government that cuts vital funding to public services, leaves working people relying on charity to survive, whilst spending inordinate amounts of money on its own interests, including bonuses and bailouts received by wealthy individuals who really do not need them and ceremonial events which help no one and we could easily do without. Bearing this in mind, I think that if taxes were firstly raised (and yes, I do agree with raised taxes) and, more importantly, enforced fairly and proportionally to individual wealth, it would be a very good idea to spend money on the sort of things that the Green Party proposes.

Another thing that I would like to bring up is the subject of tactical voting. Many of my friends and colleagues have said to me that they support Green policies, but intend to vote somewhere a bit safer such as Labour due to the Greens' smaller chances of coming to power. Now, I will be the first to admit that our democratic process is appalling, and does not reflect the changing times and smaller parties whatsoever. It is extremely unfortunate that the Alternative Vote referendum of 2011 was lost, and I sincerely hope that we will have another chance for Electoral Reform in the near future. Having said that, I think it is extremely important to vote from one's heart. I recently heard Caroline Lucas say, 'The only wasted vote is a vote for someone who you do not believe in,' and I agree with her absolutely. Our democratic process may be biased against up and coming parties, but every tactical vote makes this problem more profound. I seriously doubt that the Green Party will come into power at this election, but I hope that they will get enough seats in Parliament to make the next five years a lot more bearable than the last. As a matter of fact, the Green Party have been fantastic in Parliament even with just one seat. I have been genuinely very impressed with Lucas, and I hope that we have many more like her to come. And for those people who have (possibly justified) concerns that the Greens may be slightly out of their depth economically, perhaps the knowledge that they are highly unlikely to reach a Parliamentary majority in this election can be a source of comfort. Perhaps if they get a few more seats, by 2020 they will be more equipped to take the helm than they are today.

Here is the Green Party manifesto, it's well worth a read:

https://www.greenparty.org.uk/assets/files/manifesto/Green_Party_2015_General_Election_Manifesto_Searchable.pdf

I must also clarify that I do not work for the Green Party, nor am I a paid-up member. I am supporting them at this election, because at this point in time they seem to represent what I stand for. I am not loyal to them, and it is entirely possible that my allegiance will turn somewhere else in the future. And for the record, were I not voting Green I would be voting Liberal Democrat, because I think that although their position on tuition fees was a massive mistake on their part, generally they have not been too bad in this coalition, and I have heard that there have been some quite dangerous Conservative Party bills that the Liberal Democrats have blocked.

This will likely be my last blog before the election; it will be interesting to write after it is over! I have a new regime for this blog - I won't go into it here, but suffice it to say that over the next few months it will be updated on a more regular basis than it has been in the past. Also, over the summer when I have more time, I am seriously considering a rebrand, because I think that I look a little outdated and I could do with promoting myself a bit more. I shall say no more here, but watch this space!