The Green Party

[eileenrose1]

The Green Party's leader Nathalie Bennett gave a poor radio interview but was brave enough to admit it and apologise. She came back well on this week's Any Questions - and on her Radio 4 profile.

The Green Party has a good record of promoting strong women like Nathalie and Caroline Lucas and my town of Wolverhampton will have female candidates in all three constituences at the General Election, depending on funding. Any support would be much appreciated. Please visit the following link and forward it to others to give us the chance to vote Green. Thanks.

www.crowdfunder.co.uk/wton-green-party-2015-elections-fundraising/

I would truly have to lose my mind to vote Green who are a far left party with no experience of Government so will be voting Tory as usual

So you will go on supporting Tory policies like this?

www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/26/eight-year-old-with-rare-disorder-has-personal-care-benefits-rescinded

I've been a supporter of the Green party since the early 1980's, I'm naturally a social conservative, but I feel right at home with the greens, the greens are a party commited to protect the enviroment and to create social justice.

The greens are a friendly bunch of people with fresh ideas and a belief in making things better, I would say get in touch with your local party, you might like what they have to say.

After reading about some of their plans this weekend for their manifesto they are obviously absolutely bonkers, anyone who voted for them is erm... Slightly deluded to say the least.

Free social care for the over 65's, free university education, 500,000 social rented houses and minimum wage of 10 per hour by 2020, oh and renationalising the railways and getting rid of trident, your view of bonkers isnt the same as mine.

The Greens also want a publicly owned NHS and a fair taxation system. It's the other parties that have bonkers policies - rewarding tax dodgers and bankers who caused the financial crisis while punishing the most vulnerable people in the country.

Watch Michael Sheen:

www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/mar/02/michael-sheen-defends-nhs-against-bland-politicians

Everybody says they will have a fair taxation system.

It's just that fair is relative.

Its interesting the way people make all these assumptions about the greens, without actually looking at their policies and costings. According to voteforpolicies.org green policies are most popular, and in theory they should be running the country. I think peoples instinctual reactions to a political party, and the reality are quite different. Its like all these people who still think Labour are left wing...

That's because it's easy to be popular when you don't have little things like reality to worry about.

UKIP's policies have been watered down a lot since they have started to have a chance to actually get a few seats.

I'm sure the monster raving loony party policies are wicked!

To the people saying you have to be bonkers to vote for greens can you please elaborate as to why?

At this point in time I feel that anyone who votes Tory or UKIP must have sociopathic tendencies. This is because trickle down theory has been completely disproven, therefore there must be an element of 'survival of the fittest' reasoning in wanting policies which syphon money from the poorest in society. In order to turn a blind eye to the suffering caused by inequality and deprivation you must either be completely sheltered or slightly sociopathic. I don't want to think like this, everyone is of course free to vote for who they want, but I'm really struggling with the harsh selfishness of voting Tory when theyve already destroyed so many lives in their last term.

eileenrose, have you seen the other Green Party threads?

here's the one with the Natalie Bennett webchat. www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_live_events/2322266-Webchat-with-Green-Party-leader-Natalie-Bennett-Weds-March-4th-at-1pm?

And here's a current one discussing the Green proposals on prostitution. www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/2323538-The-greens-and-prostitutes?pg=1

To cut a long story short, there's a goodly number of women who should be your natural voters, but who are put off your party by some of the policies on women, and some of the pretty misogynist men in the party (like the, uh, equalities spokesperson). What was really interesting in the webchat thread was that a Green activist man came on and told us all off for bothering about policies that affect women, when we should be focusing on more important things. It really did confirm a lot of my fears about the men in the party.

Do you recognise that there's a real problem with sexism in the party? (And I know quite a few brilliant Green women - how do you all stand working with these horrible men without running amok?)

There's misogynists in every political party, the Tories and ukip especially! Not only are some of the members individually misogynistic, the policies of both parties (in their manifesto) actively promote sexism. I'm thinking of the UKIP maternity pay fracas, and the tory tax break for marriage off the top of my head.

There may well be misogynists in the greens, and that's totally unacceptable, but they are the only party with a female leader, and their only active mp is a strong female. So far I think they are head and shoulders above the other parties on that front.

I don't actually vote green but I've got a lot of time for them atm.

Oh, I agree, Fuckup - but I'm crosser at my ostensible friends for shitting on me than my enemies, if you see what I mean. No reasonable person would look towards UKIP for women-friendly policies, but if "socially progressive" is one of your central selling points, as it is with the Greens, then it's fair to look at that.

My point to eileenrose was that there is a constituency out there that would vote Green, but are being actively put off, eg by the likes of Benali Hamdache who actively says he doesn't want women he disapproves of ("TERFs") voting Green, despite the fact that he's the equalities spokesperson.

Oh I see, sorry yes I get your point. You would think that the greens would be stepping in over that. But then again I think thats the problem with the greens, there are a few contradictions within their policies as they have quite a wide appeal. Without being outright anticapitalist I'm not entirely sure that they can hope to effectively tackle climate change without penalizing the economical disadvantaged. They attract all sorts if support from misoginist Eco warriors to socialists, in that sense its hard for them to take a very hard line.

I've been a supporter of the Greens for some time and have never come across any kind of misogyny. Quite the opposite, in fact. Do you really think that the likes of Nathalie Bennett and Caroline Lucas would lead a party that didn't promote the interests of women? All three Green election candidates in my city are strong-minded women, and over 40% of Green candidates nationally are female. This is a far better record than any other party.

Why not attend a meeting of your local Greens and see for yourself?

I've already mentioned the places I've come across misogyny from Green men, eileenrose - I already have seen it for myself, and you could see it too, if you looked at the social media output of some prominent Green men.

And I agree with you re Natalie Bennet and Caroline Lucas - and other brilliant Green women I've come across, too. That's why I've found it so baffling!

Welp, I've just read the Greens policy on abortion (led there by a reference in a Sarah Ditum article). It's in here: policy.greenparty.org.uk/he.html

It would not have occurred to me to think that the Greens, of all people, could come up with a confused and muddled policy on abortion, but they seem to have managed it.

There's some good stuff in there - working towards more widespread provision even when your own GP is anti-choice, etc, but it's all very half-hearted. The worst of it, though is that there is no mention of a woman's right to choose, and the policy section leads with "many people's moral discomfort" with abortion.

As I learned to say here - that really doesn't work for me.

They're a joke party. I laugh at them and anybody crazy enough to vote for them.

Vote Green for the policies that most people prefer. Half a million can't be wrong:

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/pennie-varvarides/green-party-policy_b_6241234.html

If you genuinely want to get undecideds who are broadly on your side to vote Green, eileenrose, it might go better if you engage with their concerns rather than just ignore them and repeat rote political slogans.

To ArcheryAnnie. The Huffington Post link shows that most people support Green policies if they keep an open mind. No doubt there is room for improvement but it's a new party and very open to democratic debate.

I would be interested to know which political party you think meets all your expectations.

Well, the Green party might, if it engaged properly with the people most likely to support it but who currently don't.

I don't think I'm going to get very far with you as you don't seem to understand political campaigning, or that it's usually not a good idea to imply that undecideds are not open-minded. That's not the way to get people on board.

Of the nine categories in the survey, Green Party policies were voted best in four of them: crime, education, health and environment; and second best in four more: democracy, economy, immigration and welfare.

I'm still not sure which party you prefer instead.

The (Scottish) Green party are good, and I am a member. However, I will not be voting for them in the coming election.

There is no proportional representation in Westminster, and the Greens do not have a large enough supporter base to win m/any seats under FPTP. In Scotland I have the luxury of voting for a likely to be successful left of centre party instead. Unfortunately rUK do not have this option so a Green vote is likely to be little more than a protest vote.

Hopefully, an influx of SNP MPs will be so abhorrent to WM that they change the voting system to a proportional one.