Why is the Green Party not more popular?

[HarryBoa]

I mean if there were ever a time that they should be relevant it's now, no?

Was talking to the DC about political parties and they asked why people weren't supporting the Green Party because of global warming.

I wanted to reply "Because people want what they've got" but resisted the urge to make a trite reply.

Wondered what other people thought? For myself I'm actually seriously considering moving my support to the Green Party but the ultimate concern is that the voting system that we have means that they're fighting a losing battle.

Because people believe the ‘climate crisis’ is over-hyped by lying politicians, hypocritical virtue-signalling celebrities (eg Harry & Meghan) and vested interest pressure groups.

Because people fear that Greens want to restrict their freedoms to (in normal times) travel wherever & whenever they want and inflict punitive taxes on people who rely on their cars to get to work.

Because people believe that Greens want to make flying unaffordable for ordinary people so it reverts to being a privilege for the rich.

If the Greens want to become more popular they need to address these fears and come up with workable methods of protecting the environment which don’t clobber ordinary working people. An obvious example would be for every city to have public transport as good and as cheap as London’s is today, so that using it becomes a no-brainier.

They are disorganised fruit loops with no obvious leadership or command structure

Their safeguarding precautions are still dire, even after the Challoner debacle.

The 'TERF floaters' in the social media toilet video (now made private on YouTube)

londongreenleft.blogspot.com/2021/08/why-i-resigned-from-green-party.html?m=1

happydays2345
You think women's rights are silly
More fool you

And up here none of this matters to the SNP - none of it - because its ultimate goal is independence at any cost.

@gingernaut the 'TERF floaters' video can apparently be viewed here -

twitter.com/bloominanna/status/1428051884854628359?s=20

Second video down.

Lots of reasons really - to caveat though I haven't voted for other parties either recently (naturally left-leaning and usually would consider Labour or Greens)

My reasons are:

Women's sexed based rights and failure to understand how that impacts on everything
Sanctimonious local party reps who are all about issues that do not interest me
The belief that if you vote Green you agree with "it all"
A believe that environmental activism is routed in class struggle and over-throwing existing economic models
A feeling that the "we can all do our bit" is mindless drivel that negates the above
The lack of any proportional representation
The absolute disregard for safeguarding as evidenced by Challenor etc
The gaslighting
The failure to understand what the Brexit vote meant in terms of divided political spectrum and genuine concerns of disenfranchised
The patronising "we are right" monologues and dismissal of those who have an other opinion - including not seeing that those who may have voted for Brexit are also equally invested in Green issues
That it is a party that will not survive this theoretical divide - so why waste my time?

I expect for most people first past the post means that they end up voting for the Conservative or Labour Party except in a few constituencies, because they don't want to let the other party in. Noticeable how for the Scottish Parliament and to an extent the devolved assemblies in Wales and London, more people vote for smaller parties.

@AtlasNeverShrugged

Because they hate women.

Because they're more concerned about pronouns than the environment.

Because they cancel and silence anyone who dares disagree with them.

This in a nutshell.

They jump on every trendy wagon

That's an excellent list @gorgeousjewel. The Greens used to have some economic thinking underpinning the environmentalism. So much is so fucked up now - housing, education, employment rights - it's hard to imagine that there is a way back from it all. Decades have been lost op, to no purpose.

Sanctimonious, annoying and worthy ( in a bad way).
Not for me.
Also a wasted vote and the woman thing is a handy hook to disguise the above.

I'd like to think they would have more votes if we had proportional representation rather than first past the post. In a stronghold, what is the point of voting green.

It's a shame as we are so stuck in the cult of the charasmatic leader style of politics. Lots of interesting worthwhile ideas don't get looked at.

@Frazzled2207

I’d vote for them happily except that nobody does round here. I vote for the candidate most likely to beat the tory incumbent. Which is usually Lib Dem.

I’d love there to be a progressive alliance at the next election. Only way we can beat the tories as things stand.

Not sure what is "progressive" about removing sex based protection from women. I wasn't asked about my dresses at my first job interview I was asked what my plans were for getting pregnant.

I loaned my vote to the LibDems once - they used it to get into bed with Cameron and austerity politics. No thanks.

I am politically homeless due to the way that women have been treated.
If Shahrar Ali gets in as leader, they will get my vote because he wants to protect sex-based rights.

Women's issues. If they sort that then it would go a way to securing the votes of the politically homeless. It would have to be more than platitudes though.

Maybe they are still viewed as too left wing by some people. Way too left. Considerably further than you might expect. They don't talk about that part of their manifesto all that much.

@TruelyonelastSchlep

Ali is unvotable. For one thing he thinks all Jews are the Israeli government or responsible for the Israeli government. Just like Corbyn does! The pair just stay one step inside the line. So they can't be caught out.

Here is part of a speech by Ali.

“Just because you observe the niceties of Holocaust Memorial Day, does not mean that you have learned the lessons of history…

“Listen up warmongers…just because you switch off your TV set to avoid upsetting your children, does not mean that you have not killed our children.”

Bloody charming that isn't it. How offensive can you get!

He has also deleted a whole load of his Facebook posts that incriminate him. You can still find them on the internet if you look hard enough though.

@TruelyonelastSchlep, I’ve just rejoined the Greens with the intention of voting for Shahrar Ali. Please could you share the incriminating Facebook posts? When I looked into this myself, I found one comment by Ali apparently criticising the Israeli government, which then appeared to be taken out of context to imply it was aimed at the Jewish people.

If I’m wrong, I will stand corrected. But I’ve noticed that it’s quite common for critics of Israel’s role in the conflict with Palestine to be labelled anti-Semitic, (or, if the critic is Jewish, as a “self-hating Jew”), so I tend to be sceptical. However, this accusation is very worrying and I want to know the truth.

I left the green party when a man took a woman's position

*I’ve just joined the Green Party, purely to vote for Sharar Ali in the leadership elections.

If he doesn’t win I shall be leaving straight away as they generally seem to loathe women*

I could have written the above.

@TheFnozwhowasmirage

As they had a man running the Women's group and appear to hate women ( sorry,non men),I don't think that they'd want this woman's vote. Nothing would induce me to become a member or vote for a party which would happily silence women and do away with their rights.

This! Otherwise I would support them wholeheartedly. Have always voted green. No more (unless this Ali guy wins).

@AtlasNeverShrugged

Because they hate women.

Because they're more concerned about pronouns than the environment.

Because they cancel and silence anyone who dares disagree with them.

Yup

@Berthatydfil

Because they don’t know what a woman is, which is pretty basic science and if they can’t understand biology how can they understand more complex issues.

Yup

Because...

My ex was a Green Party member and is still a fairly prominent and active party member. He had an affair with a 19 year old member of the Young Greens when he was 32. Then he cheated on her for another party member. It’s a big dirty beardy lentil filled knocking shop

My reason probably won’t apply to many more people. It’s quite specific to me really