How can people vote Green?

[RobinStrike]

The Greens are no longer the ecology party. They have been taken over by people who want to leave NATO, legalise drugs and don’t recognise women. I understand the attraction of a far left party but surely the original Greens don’t agree with all this.
Plus they expel people for refusing to recognise some members as fairies?
https://labourheartlands.com/the-green-partys-war-on-reality/

Are you for banning alcohol then - as that is easily available for many young people in shops and causes huge damage.

Tactically, to keep Reform out, I would. I don't like the Greens at all, and I'm firmly GC, but I'll compromise at this historical moment if it helps to block an actual fascist.

I consider myself Politically homeless but will likely swing for Green in the next election.

Tories- 14 years of Tory leadership ruined the country
Labour- Yes they inherited a mess, but they haven't exactly done much to make it better? In fact under Labour things just seem to have gotten worse, it's been over a year since they got elected and cost of living is through the roof, bills are soaring, unemployment is up. It reaches a point where they need to stop blaming the Tories and take accountability for their actions.
Lib Dem- I don't know much about them in general but our current experience hasn't been great, our local MP is Lib Dem and she doesn't ever seem to do anything? She's almost impossible to get hold off but will pop up every few weeks to pose next to a pothole.
Reform- Basically a mini MAGA party, they want to scrap the equality act?!
Green- I don't agree with all of their policies but they seem to be the only party actually for the working people?

What's the party that care about the squeezed middle, will fix the roads, will tax the million and billionaires, will review the current pension/triple lock issue and will actually make life worth living again?

I say this as someone who is late 20s with a decent household income, I don't see retirement ever being an option, prices of everything seem to be just going up forever, and we're all getting poorer as we all know prices never come down..begs the question what exactly is the point?

I don't drink so wouldn't bother me at all. However I would rather my teen had a cider, than a crack pipe or a shot of heroin.

@booksareforlife I understand your frustration

But we've only got about 150 billionaires in the UK. They could all leave. And then the funding is gone.

Also, the amount of insane government waste - at a local and national level - would pay for an awful lot.

also, where is your income generation in this model?

Same. Which would you prefer @thedramaQueen?

Hannah Spencer explains their policies perfectly here!!

Why am I not surprised…comments like this are usually made by people with little experience of addiction. I don’t need to say anymore…

It’s sadly not that simple, another person who thinks they know it all.

Your assumption about my 'experience' is wrong I'm afraid, but I'm not about to share details with a random on the internet. Perhaps it is you who thinks you know it all.

Do you have children? Specifically teens? Its extraordinary that any parent would support class A drugs being sold in shops.

Like you I'm not about to share details with a random stranger on the internet but some of the comments on here by those criticising the Green view on drugs are full of self-righteousness.

The fact that we allow access to alcohol is hypocritical - one could make a strong argument for alcohol being a class A drug.

That is ridiculous. A shot of alcohol won't kill you. One shot of heroin can.

Actually it’s not, do some research you will see professionals in this area have been debating this for sometime.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/nov/01/alcohol-more-harmful-than-heroin-crack

Perhaps you might want to start with this @ThatBlackCat

When they mean more dangerous regarding alcohol, they mean over time. It's a fact that one shot of heroin can kill you if you overdose and don't know it. One shot of alcohol WON'T kill you.

This really should not need to be explained. You don't need Narcan for one glass 'shot' of alcohol.

Get back to me when someone taking one single glass shot of alcohol overdoses and dies.

The tax burden on those with the highest income has increased. The problem os the tax base has got smaller and welfare has expanded that you now have to earn 40k+ to be a net contributor. Whatever your feelz about this, ot’s not sustainable.

But heroin is extremely addictive, I once had benzos prescribed and I really would have appreciated more, it was glorious, I completely see why some things are controlled substances.

We see what drug legalisation has done in the USA and it’s not great. Why legalise a date rape drug, it was banned for a reason. Men aren’t any less rapey, the situation has not changed.

What exactly is the triple lock problem? Older people having dignity in retirement.

Billionaires and millionaires can move. The number of payroll jobs have decreased under Labour because of taxation of businesses. It will only get even worse under the greens. Putting up taxes on millionaires and billionaires only works of you can stop them leaving or moving operations, which you can’t.

Working people actually like having jobs.

I think a lot of people think like you and are in the same position as you.

Lets look at your on the face of it fairly reasonable wishlist.
The middle has to be squeezed tax wise because 48% of income earners pay no tax, 1% pay 30% of tax, 10% pay 60% and 25% pay 75% of tax revenue. The only way not to squeeze the middle is to tax the lower paid which simply isn't going to get you elected.

Fix the potholes- well councils basically have no money to fix them due to a massive rise in statutory care home fees and adult and children social care. Whereas councils are only obliged to fix potholes if they are aware of them and then have 28 days to do so, so they deliberately delay as much as they can because they simply don't have the money.

Tax billionaires and millionaires - firstly there are only 156 billionaires in the UK and that figure is decreasing rapidly as they move abroad due to higher taxes. As for millionaires- do you mean in income or in wealth, if income then they are already heavily taxed and will either move abroad or more commonly reduce their hours / retire early. If wealth then there are a lot of people with assets (houses) that exceed one million, so this is not going to be a popular policy.

Getting rid of the triple lock - old people vote and young people don't. So having a political party with a policy of getting rid of the triple lock means that they aren't going to get elected.

To make life worth living you need a few fundamentals; employment opportunities, affordable housing, to be able to provide for your family and hope. For employment opportunities you need a growing economy which means lowering taxes. For affordable housing you just need to build a shit load more houses so that supply meets or exceeds demand. To be able to provide for your family means keeping inflation low and increasing productivity so that real incomes increase.

Lastly as for hope, my best advice is to stay away from social media (says me posting on MN!).

@thedramaQueendon’t even need to look at heroin and crack and the one hit deaths. Comparison of cannabis and alcohol is also stark given the average strength used today. Also, the fact alcohol has dangers doesn’t mean we should extend the range of dangerous legal substances.
<a class="break-all" href="https://www.rethink.org/factsheet-download/?f=www.rethink.org:80/Factsheets/9014/Cannabis%20and%20mental%20health%20factsheet" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.rethink.org/Factsheets/9014/Cannabis%20and%20mental%20health%20factsheet

I wouldn’t ever vote Green. They’re a mixture of weirdos and infantile half-wits.

But I doubt they’ll get very far on either the local or national level. They just collect protest votes and student votes. These evaporate as quickly as they appear.

Still, the Green by-election win should halt Labour’s idiotic notion that 16- and 17-year-olds should be allowed to vote.

I absolutely think 16 and 17 year olds should be able to vote. If you’re old enough to drive (17), have a child, go out to work, join the forces etc, then you should have a say on those who make the decisions. We really need to stop “dumbing down” our teens.

So why are we increasingly enacting laws that, for example, prevent them seeing things on the internet, smoking or buying lottery tickets?

12 year old girls can have a baby. Should they vote?

16 and 17 year olds have no real world experience.