AIBU to hope the greens do very well today?

[ForGreenHiker]

That’s it really. go Zack! 💚

Well, yes, that's the stance I took. I wouldn't have voted Green in a GE, though. I felt a bit yukky that I was giving the impression I support ZP and some of the Green Party policies I'm not on board with, though.
Locally, it"s easy enough when you know the people involved, and know who has served the community well. In a GE, sadly I'm not a fan of any party. Unless things change, I'll end up voting tactically for the least bad in the next election, but when they're all pretty awful, so who could that be?

I don’t mind hearing their proposals but agree with you just side stepping on the how many can we take questions doesn’t help.

After a bit of Googling, I’ve found out the documents you’re mentioning are not necessarily leaked, as there’s no mention anywhere of that.

They’re a report by Simon French, the chief economist at Panmure Liberum investment bank, and not publicly available. The report apparently says a Green election win in 2029 would increase the population from around 71.5 million to 75.9 million by 2034 via annual net migration of about 900k.

Annual net migration is NOT the same as ‘5 million immigrants per year’, which is what you said.

Honestly, that's ok. You're voting for the local green councillor because they're the right ones for where you live. I would also feel weird about that decision, but for local elections you really need to think about what's best for you.

We had a labour councillor here a few years ago who was absolutely incredible. She has since become an independent, but even before that she had people who would normally vote to the right voting for her. She was just quite simply the best person for the job 🤷🏻‍♀️ She got things done and did so kindly and with empathy.

Lebanon has actually always been a diverse society and it’s generally worked pretty well. It’s been invaded a few times by Israel, has undergone an economic crisis for the last five or so years and is also at war now. That may explain why it’s not doing well. That’s nothing to do with its immigration levels. The U.K. is being invaded or not at war or in an economic crisis, so it’s crazy to compare us to Lebanon.

I have voted Lib Dem’s in our area to keep reform out 🙏

I'm in Glasgow often. It can't take anymore. Glasgow already takes over 400% more than it has to.

*replacing the state pension triple lock with a double lock

Aye. And how did you come to that 400% figure?

Absolutely not. I live in a very diverse area, and in the last locals the Green Party were bringing up the rear. But now due to their pledge of helping the people of Gaza, we suddenly see a surge in their popularity. Must admit I’m not sure of what the support for Gaza is going to look like if they get in here. It’s local elections, supposedly for local issues like pot holes and bin collections. Not for using council tax for focussing on issues outside my city, or indeed outside the UK. I assume all hell will break loose here if a penny of our council tax (10% increase this year) goes to any pet projects of the Greens outside our region.

Ah, those poor farmers, forced at gun point to build profitable solar and wind farms on their own land by the evil Ed Milliband.

I would have thought that Conservatives would be supportive of landowners’ using their own land as they see fit but apparently not.

I've always believed that you can have open borders or a welfare state- but importantly not both.

The moment you do, then you send out an invitation to all the impoverished of the world to come to your country and live on welfare. And to be blunt if you were living in poverty in another country then why wouldn't you?

It's simply not sustainable and to be honest we are already nearly there as welfare spending is already in excess of income tax revenue.

They won’t be available for people to start taking. They would be available to registered addicts on prescription, along with counselling and other therapies. The policy is ‘legalise and regulate’ however this has been turned into ‘pick up some crack cocaine with a pint of milk’ by the press.

https://www.thenational.scot/news/25574561.glasgow-houses-4-times-more-asylum-seekers-uk-plan-allows/

The real issue at hand...😁

How much crack would be prescribed to crackheads? That's the thing with crack-its very more-ish. You can't just take a prescribed amount, you'll take what you can get prescribed and get more on the side. There's a crack epidemic in the UK because there are no therapeutic drugs like methadone for heroin. And with crack you want more and more, as soon as it wears off-more.

Yes they will be supplying drugs to the public.

And how do you think the ‘maintenance therapy’ for heroin and crack cocaine will play out? If someone wants to get hard drugs on prescription, how easy will it be to just claim dependency (or find an existing addict to give you your first dose) and get free drugs from the state?

There are so many issues with this I don’t know where to begin. The effect on society as more people take up this offer. The effect of the state messaging on the dangers of these drugs - if the state is giving them out, many people will take it that they are not a serious health risk.

The unintended consequences around the existing drug barons and dealers - do you think they are just going to quietly go out of business and get a job in Tesco? Or might they use their considerable entrepreneurial skills to find some way of exploiting this state sponsored drug party?

And how is this Green Party ‘government’ going to acquire the heroin, crack, cocaine, amphetamines etc they want to supply to the general public? Are they proposing to become actual drug manufacturers? Or just buy them off some drug lords?

I just can’t fathom why presumably otherwise sane members of society support this utter lunacy. It’s like the Young Ones wrote their wish list and it’s coming to life.

From the Green Party:

The Green Party proposes different levels of access based on the risk profile of each substance:

• Specialist Pharmacies: Licensed pharmacists would dispense recreational drugs like powder cocaine, MDMA, amphetamines, and psychedelics after a consultation including safety information
• Medical Prescription: Highly addictive drugs like heroin and crack cocaine would be available via prescription from doctors as maintenance therapy for dependent users

……

• Adult Autonomy: The party believes adults should be free to make informed decisions about drug consumption, provided these are balanced against public safety.

leeds.greenparty.org.uk/2026/03/26/green-drug-policy-closer-look/

How is it disingenuous? It’s quite a straightforward question.

You’re not just calling it disingenuous because you can’t answer are you?

That is a small harm reduction by helping to prevent transmission of blood borne diseases. It’s not addressing the actual drug problem though.

I asked first. You were telling us about your support for the GP immigration policy, surely you know something about it?

Oh jeez. I don’t know how many people we can take because I’m not an emigration expert. But I think we can and should continue to take in migrants and refugees. How many do you think we should take in?

Agree with all this. Before you had to go into the pharmacy to get methadone daily addicts used to sell their methadone...and buy heroin instead!
I don't know if anybody who believes in these policies has lived around addicts or known any in real life. They understand nothing about the realities.

The Netherlands had liberal drug policies and a few years ago politicians there were saying Amsterdam was a "narco state". Gangs taking over everything. Drugs and prostitution.

Do you know that still means approx 340,000 new residents each year though? Over 10 years that’s another 3.4 million people. Our second biggest city, Birmingham, has 2.7 million residents. So another Birmingham and a Leeds every 10 years.

We currently have a housing crisis, the NHS is winter flu bout from collapse and we have 5 million unemployed. Oh and our benefits bill exceeds income tax revenue. This is not sustainable or remotely good for the environment.

Of course I realise that.

However, to counter that, we have an ageing population and our birth rate has been below replacement rate for many decades. Given that, we probably need all of those new people to help keep our population stable and economically viable.

Most migrants will be coming here to work and will be contributing economically, as they cannot usually claim benefits as they have "No Recourse to Public Funds". Asylum seekers can get either £49 per week (or £9 per week if their accommodation includes meals), which is very little in the grand scheme of things.

Our housing and NHS crises, and unemployment rate, is nothing to do with migrants. Most of our NHS staff are, in fact, migrants.

I think you are conflating several issues here.

The near collapse of the NHS is due to the aging population not immirgrants who generally speaking are young and healthy.

Similarly most immirgrants want to work and pay taxes frequently much harder and in jobs which white British people can't or won't do. So are not the main cause of the incresed benefits bill that is:
a) Pensioners
b) Increase in 18-25 year olds claiming PIP for anxiety ADHD etc
c) 50-67 year olds unable to work due to life style related disabilities

Nothing to do with migrants.

I agree we have a housing shortage and high unemployment.