Webchat with Green Party leader, Natalie Bennett, Weds March 4th, at 1pm

[JustineMumsnet]

I'm very pleased to say that the leader of the Green Party England and Wales, Natalie Bennett, will be joining us for a webchat this Wednesday, March 4, at 1pm.

The Greens have been under the spotlight over the last few months, with a surge in membership, and controversy about whether they should be included in the pre-election TV debates.

Now's your chance to ask Natalie about leadership structures, the record of the Green council in Brighton and Hove and Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas, whether there's a long-term movement towards smaller parties in national politics, Green policies on housing, benefits, health, the economy and the environment - and what it's like to be at the eye of a media storm. Plus anything else that takes your fancy of course.

Natalie was born in Australia and worked as a journalist there and in Thailand before settling in the UK in 1999. She worked for The Guardian, among other UK newspapers, before becoming Green Party leader in 2012. She's standing for Parliament in the 2015 General Election in the constituency of Holborn and St Pancras.

I am on the verge of voting green mostly because the Greens have the most socialist agenda. However I am put off that of the 4 green candidates being fielded in local constituencies all are male.

Do the greens have a plan on getting equal representation in candidates?

@SoccerFunDays

Hello Natalie

Commiserations on your bad week last week. We all have terrible days at work but usually they don't get broadcast to the nation.

Now that I've been nice to you... what. in. the. world. is going on with Green Party policies wrt women and sex?

Your sex work policy in particular (about halfway down that page) is just horrible libertarian bollocks.

Do you actually believe this nonsense or do you just have to go along with it because your groovy stupid young activists have got you in a vice?

Do you have any idea how many genuine feminist votes you've lost over this?

Hi SoccerFundDays

Thanks for starting and your commiserations :)

I strongly support our sex work policy, which was written in consultation with sex worker representatives and their unions years ago now, but still I believe matches the best international and British evidence.

I understand and accept that this is an issue on which people of goodwill and excellent intentions have formed different views.

But I have listened to the workers, and read extensively around the academic evidence and I believe that the New Zealand model (full decriminalisation) is far better in keeping vulnerable women and men safe than the Nordic model of criminalising clients.

This is also the position of the Royal College of Nurses, the National Association of Probation Officers and the Zacchaeus 2000 Trust.

I’ve recently written more about this here: greenparty.org.uk/leaders-blog/2014/11/01/pushing-prostitution-into-the-dark-is-no-way-to-keep-vulnerable-women-and-men-safe/

later school starting is also an awesome plan. I really am a Green at heart - I just can't see myself getting involved at a local level with all male candidates.

Ooh, look at that, my welcoming cuppa for Natalie delivered at 13:00:00
small pleasures and all that

@GrouseAndMagpie

Hi Natalie,

I tend to be in agreement with most Green party policies but I'm not sure whether it's actually worth voting Green in May. I don't live in one of the key areas you're targeting, and looking at my local green party website I couldn't find the details of who is running (although I did find this elsewhere on the internet). Plus the list of policies for my local area included stopping all road building projects - when we clearly have traffic issues I don't see how that attitude will help.

So if I can't find out much about my Green party candidate and I'm not sure I agree with their local vision anyway, it seems best to me to vote labour and reduce the chance of the Tories getting in.

Can you say anything to persuade me to vote Green?

Hi GrouseAndMagpie,

Thanks for checking out Green Party policies.

If we most closely match your views, then I’d urge you to vote Green: Britons have been trained by the first-past-the-post system to vote tactically, but that’s given us the kind of politics we have now, with the two largest parties in particular taking tens of millions of voters for granted and focusing their policies on swing voters in swing seats, making their policies out of touch with most.

Not too many people are happy with British politics as they are now: if people vote for what they believe in politics will have to change.

Yes, I confess to self-interest in this advice -- the Vote for Policies website
voteforpolicies.org.uk/ works out well for us – but I think the belief in the need for change is very widespread.

On roads policy, there’s clear evidence that building new roads generates new traffic or at best moves traffic jams around, and magnifies our serious problems with air pollution, congestion and makes our towns, cities and villages less pleasant and attractive for walking and cycling, and as community spaces. (I’ve written more on this: ) www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/natalie-bennett/new-roads-uk-economy_b_6132894.html

@Isitmebut

G'day Natalie .... please correct me if I am wrong, but up until this general election the Green Party, in the main, has nationally concentrated on green issues and locally got into more wider local issues.

So my question is, although the Green Party politics tend to be identified as more left of centre, after the early media rounds trying to now produce a manifesto for all issues, in hindsight, was trying to do this from scratch a mistake - as even some of the main parties who have stood for wider issues over decades are now struggling to come up with joined-up-policy thinking in a budget deficit economy?

In other words, should the Green party STICK to what they know best, as it is such and important niche, that already crosses many other policy issues you don't need to have all the answer to - as the Greens for years to come are unlikely to be the largest parliamentary party forming the next government/coalition and key policies - so why not feel the Green powder dry for your main policies within a loose coalition?

Otherwise like the Lib Dems, who never caused the student tuition fee situation, or was able to get that policy into a key policy coalition agreement with a larger party, THEY get the 'manure' (how green was that?) for not delivering one of their own policies.

HI Isitmebut

Sorry to contradict, but the Green Party has always had policies across the total range of government areas (our education policy for example is particularly popular - policy.greenparty.org.uk/ed.html) – and in 2010 we for the first time had a fully costed manifesto covering the full range of government activity, as we’ll have this year.

Those policies are developed and democratically decided by our members – in consultation with experts and NGOs.

We’ve always regarded social and environmental justice as indivisible and if you look at Green Parties around the world, from Australia and New Zealand to Canada and continental Europe, nearly all occupy a very similar position on the political spectrum to we do.

@VoyageOfDad

What is your fave biscuit ?

Macaroons! (My range is limited because I can't eat gluten, so an easy choice.)

Why all wonderfully rational approach to legalising sex work and promoting renewable energy but the deeply irrational plan to limit animal testing? Why do you want to prevent the uk from being a world class centre for medical research?

Interesting to hear your support of the New Zealand model on sex work/prostitution, and I like your acknowledgement that it is something where those of goodwill and excellent intentions have formed a variety of views.

I did warm to the Nordic model when it was discussed on MN a while ago, but that was partly the aspect of de-criminalising the sex workers themselves (on which we would agree)

@IceBeing

I am on the verge of voting green mostly because the Greens have the most socialist agenda. However I am put off that of the 4 green candidates being fielded in local constituencies all are male.

Do the greens have a plan on getting equal representation in candidates?

Thanks for asking IceBeing. As the founding chair of Green Party Women this is an issue close to my own heart - we set out with a target of 50% female candidates. Sadly we're not going to make that - it will be about 38-39%, but I hope we can improve that in further elections.

For this election we brought in a rule that if after initial nominations close there are no female candidates, the nominations have to be reopened for further people to come forward - I'm pleased this has resulted in some female candidates coming forward in that second round and being selected.

Our spokesperson are 50% female also, I'm pleased to say.

@BreakingDad77

Which parties would you not form a coalition with?

Hello BreakingDad77

Thought I’d pick this one of your questions since many ask it.

To start: we would not in any way prop up a Tory government.

If there were a possibility of a minority Labour or Labour-led coalition government, we’d consider supporting that on a vote-by-vote basis.

That would mean we would retain the right to vote according to our manifesto and principles on say, for example, university tuition fees.

Ooh, macaroons, good choice

Natalie, I'm a Green voter, but I'm troubled by your response to IceBeing. Can you explain why it's important that 50% of candidates are female, when the Green Party's only peer, only MP and leader are all women?

I feel the party is already open, democratic and inclusive. To impose quotas surely undermines this ethos.

Natalie why have the green party come out in favour of legalised prostitution?

We know that the vast majority of women in prostitution have been abused and are trafficked and pretending that "sex work" is a job like any other is rubbish - it doesn't remove the stigma or the danger or the abuse, it just validates a view of women as being there for men's use - it does nothing for women's equality and the countries which have the highest levels of equality between men and women, don't have legalised prostitution. Have you looked at the Nordic model and why it works and why haven't you adopted it?

@Littleham

Hello. I'm quite curious about your policy of having a Citizen's wage for every adult (including students).

Have you done an economic analysis on this policy? How it would be funded and would it replace other benefits?

Thanks.

Hi Littleham,

The commitment to the Citizen’s Income or Universal Basic Income as it is also known will be included in our manifesto, although this massive change to the welfare system we think would take more than one parliament to implement. (See Iain Duncan Smith’s troubles with Universal Credit). We’ll be releasing detailed consultative costings of that around the end of the month – it is a priority for us to ensure that no low-income person is worse off under it.

In short, its advantages include the very low cost of administration (because of its universality), the removal of benefit traps, and the end of the fear of being left penniless (as benefit sanctions and insecure employment – including zero-hours contracts – are leaving so many now).

I'm really pleased that in the past year or so discussion of UBI has jumped up the agenda - it's been Green Party policy for decades.

Don't worry everyone, I'm here!

Echoing Isabella I see families day in day out struggling with

1. a disabled child and
2. the authorities to get what the law entitles them to.

I LOVE the idea of assessing every child, but could you also make the LAs accountable for breaking the law?

Some fines, please. Maybe a points system like a driving licence?

At the moment the break settled law with impunity.

eg therapy must be quantified (how long, how often)
Language therapy is an educational not a medical need
deadlines must be met

Natalie ... I stand corrected, but I still suspect if long on the range of policies, you are leaving yourself (and the Greens) short of detail.

Anyhoo, keep up the Green good work, we need a party to keep governments environmentally honest.

Thank you for answering.

Thanks for your answer, as in my mind I could see the next election most likely being a coalition with either a Kip-Con or Green-Lab.

It would be nice to address some of the transgender questions people have proposed if you can.

@Babycham1979

Natalie, I'm a Green voter, but I'm troubled by your response to IceBeing. Can you explain why it's important that 50% of candidates are female, when the Green Party's only peer, only MP and leader are all women?

I feel the party is already open, democratic and inclusive. To impose quotas surely undermines this ethos.

Hi Babycham1979
Just to be clear, this is a target not a quota, but we are operating in a hugely male-dominated, horribly unrepresentative political environment (I'm sure you know less than a quarter of MPs are female), and we aim to ensure that we at least provide balance in our reps.
I'm proud of the Green Party's culture, which as you say has helped us look and sound different to the others, but we operate in our unequal society, and we have to keep working to keep Green Party culture that way.

Thanks Natalie - I must just live in a statistical fluctuation. As usual I am getting on board to late to make a difference - but maybe I would be in a position to put myself forward in 5 years time!

I think the Green party talk a lot of sense on education, especially children starting school later. Can I ask for your support for all the hard working Independent Registered Childminders in this country who feel as if we are being side-lined & not listened to. There is very little support for childminding agencies within the Childminding world, so why do the politicians continue to see them as a good thing?

Thanks for the response Natalie. I'm still not convinced though. I'd rather see the Commons filled with progressive, liberal, egalitarian male MPs than with reactionary, conservative, venal female ones.

Still, maybe that's just me.

@GibberingFlapdoodle

Another feminist chiming in. I am a long-term green party supporter, since they are the only party that's ever really tried to address the coming potential environmental collapse and associated socioeconomic problems. However like many I am seriously concerned about the party's position on transgenderism, not to mention the recent comments from benali hamdache about 'terfs'. It is insulting to women, and worrying politically, to suggest that any woman with opinions about what are women's affairs can be dismissed by name-callng and that 'the green party doesn't need such'. I had previously been neutral about the stance on prostitution since I can see arguments on both sides, but the anti-feminist talk on transgender makes me question that too.

We really would like these questions answered please. You are losing support here.

Hello GibberingFlapdoodle and the other posters who've asked questions on this topic...

I find the term "terf" offensive and wouldn't even think of using it myself. I'm disappointed this has happened, but ensuring that there's full awareness and understanding of LGBTIQ issues among all candidates and representatives is something we're working on in the party. There's a panel "About trans" issues at Green Party conference (which starts in Liverpool on Friday). This is a public event, 12.45 Sunday, if anyone would like to come along.