Finnegan
I like a bit of a cavort
I‘ll wager London to a tangerine that I’m one of the few contributing here who have actually lived under a Green administration and been represented by a Green MP. I’ve said all this before, but I’ll keep banging on.
The Greens are essentially a party of middle class reformists. Their policies sound radical when compared to the established parties. In power however, they are
characterised by, at best compromise, if not outright betrayal.
Caroline Lucas was an exemplary constituency MP, lending meaningful support to, inter alia, the local anti-NHS privatization campaign and anti-fracking campaign. But as a lone voice in Parliament she could afford to be a maverick. If you want a portrait of what happens when Greens compromise with reformism, the most cursory familiarity with the trajectory of the German Green Party will provide you with a dispiriting example.
The Green led Brighton council attacked the refuse workers, did not oppose the academisation of a local school, and the Green council leader was instrumental in the closure of the only two in-patient drug and alcohol detox beds in a city that regularly tops the league table of drug deaths, insisting that the entire community drug and alcohol treatment service was tendered out to the private and third sector, against the wishes of the staff team.
Some individual Green councillors were excellent, as were certain cohorts of local activists. But at core they are no different in composition to a party like the LibDems, progressive on some issues, reactionary on others. So you elect a Green government who try to execute similar policies to those advocated by Corbyn. The vested interests of the establishment put every imaginable impediment in the way. Then what? The Greens have no answer whatsoever, neither do they have any strategy to confront and overcome those vested interests.
You can disregard all this if you wish, and continue to advocate for a Green vote. But don’t be surprised if you find that citizens of both Germany and Brighton take issue with you.
The Greens are essentially a party of middle class reformists. Their policies sound radical when compared to the established parties. In power however, they are
characterised by, at best compromise, if not outright betrayal.
Caroline Lucas was an exemplary constituency MP, lending meaningful support to, inter alia, the local anti-NHS privatization campaign and anti-fracking campaign. But as a lone voice in Parliament she could afford to be a maverick. If you want a portrait of what happens when Greens compromise with reformism, the most cursory familiarity with the trajectory of the German Green Party will provide you with a dispiriting example.
The Green led Brighton council attacked the refuse workers, did not oppose the academisation of a local school, and the Green council leader was instrumental in the closure of the only two in-patient drug and alcohol detox beds in a city that regularly tops the league table of drug deaths, insisting that the entire community drug and alcohol treatment service was tendered out to the private and third sector, against the wishes of the staff team.
Some individual Green councillors were excellent, as were certain cohorts of local activists. But at core they are no different in composition to a party like the LibDems, progressive on some issues, reactionary on others. So you elect a Green government who try to execute similar policies to those advocated by Corbyn. The vested interests of the establishment put every imaginable impediment in the way. Then what? The Greens have no answer whatsoever, neither do they have any strategy to confront and overcome those vested interests.
You can disregard all this if you wish, and continue to advocate for a Green vote. But don’t be surprised if you find that citizens of both Germany and Brighton take issue with you.
