That the Greens are linking environmentalism and progressive thinking on social issues is something to be welcomed. We need a party in Britain which stands to the left of the neo-liberal consensus.
I don't worry too much about Green conferences and manifestos including "elements of silliness" because it is exactly these excesses which will disappear in any any coalition administration containing Greens in the future.
I welcome the shift in Green thinking.
19 April 2010
18 April 2010
The Liberal Democrat Straitjacket
If the Tories and New Labour are today cheeks of the same arse, then the Lib Dems are the thing in the middle.
Clegg’s party is straitjacketed by its own support base. Across much of rural England and in the small towns of the south, the Lib Dems are a catch-all anti-Tory Party. In the cities they often function as substitute Tories against Labour. If Clegg were to make a clear policy announcement or signal a choice of coalition partner he would lose half his party.
The goal of progressive voters is to prevent a Tory overall majority. Therefore, in those seats currently not held by the Tories but winnable by them, people should vote for the candidate best placed to defeat the Tory. In all other seats they should vote for the most progressive serious candidate, usually Labour or Green.
Clegg’s party is straitjacketed by its own support base. Across much of rural England and in the small towns of the south, the Lib Dems are a catch-all anti-Tory Party. In the cities they often function as substitute Tories against Labour. If Clegg were to make a clear policy announcement or signal a choice of coalition partner he would lose half his party.
The goal of progressive voters is to prevent a Tory overall majority. Therefore, in those seats currently not held by the Tories but winnable by them, people should vote for the candidate best placed to defeat the Tory. In all other seats they should vote for the most progressive serious candidate, usually Labour or Green.
Slate Elections
Slate elections are anti-democratic nonsense. The leadership puts together a slate in which it has a majority and perhaps includes a couple of independent patsies. If that slate wins, the leadership retains total control of the organisation. If the it loses then a whole new leadership comes into office and the old leaders cry foul and split off to form a new group. A total waste of time.
9 April 2010
No to labour service for young people
In the early 2000s working class youth were supposed to be mopped up by flexible employment in the debt-driven service sector of the British economy. Today the economy has crashed and reactionaries are suggesting that young people be press ganged into unpaid labour.
So-called broken Britain has nothing to do with the young who are nothing but victims of circumstance. If anybody needed to be forced into unpaid labour to reimburse the community, it is the bankers and their ilk who caused this crisis, but this layer of profiteers and parasites are the backbone of the Tory Party.
Military conscription in the rest of Europe is a left-over of a Napoleonic order, and country by country is being abolished.
So-called broken Britain has nothing to do with the young who are nothing but victims of circumstance. If anybody needed to be forced into unpaid labour to reimburse the community, it is the bankers and their ilk who caused this crisis, but this layer of profiteers and parasites are the backbone of the Tory Party.
Military conscription in the rest of Europe is a left-over of a Napoleonic order, and country by country is being abolished.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)