AIBU: The Green Party

[LegoToast]

So, tomorrow is the local elections. There are five candidates in my ward: Labour, Conservatives, an independent, UKIP, and the Greens.

I will be spoiling my ballot.

Ten years ago, I would have voted for the Greens. Their views were the closest to my own. But now, I’d rather vote UKIP as a protest vote than give the Greens anything at all.

Out of all the parties, I feel that they have been hit the hardest by the Kool Aid. A tiny party that was unknowingly dominated with a challenging ideology. They didn’t stop and think. They saw new people with new ideas and accepted them gladly. The lost good genuine people over this issue as well as tons of voters.

The Greens were the party of science and logic. But now they’re nothing more than meaningless “woke” statements hidden behind a veneer of environmental activism.

I couldn’t join even if I wanted to. I’d only be expelled for having the wrong facts.

Yes, other parties rushed into the woke cookies too, but they’re slowly edging backwards. The Greens can’t come back from this. It will haunt them.

I mailed my local greens, and pressed them a little on the local gyms

They said that facilities such as showers /toilets were a “fly in the ointment” and probably would need to be “self contained private cubicles”

Which to me rather recognising the tension and differences

The Greens sat on allegations of Will Duckworth's sexual misconduct with children for years. Will Duckworth was the second most senior Green at the time. The only action they took was to protect Duckworth.

They simultaneously actively assisted Aimee and David Challenor to get an injunction against Andy Healey for raising safeguarding issues with respect to transgender ideology.

Those episodes tell you everything that you need to know about the Greens.

They are not incompetent. They are corrupt.

The most recent manifesto from the Green Party doubles down on their belief that TWAW and TMAM

They called the police to their Annual Conference saying that there was an anti-trans protest that was making them unsafe. Police had to be diverted from other operations in the City Centre to find three pleasant and polite women handing out leaflets about the GRA. Sian Berry, the Party leader, wanted the women removed forcibly and the police shrugged and said 'Nah. Perfectly lawful. Go well."

They have disciplined and silenced and suspended gender critical members who wanted to see change in the wake of the internal report on Challenor.

Not only would I not vote for them, but I will actively campaign AGAINST this party.

Yes. When you put it like that, they sound just as bad as UKIP, maybe even worse in some ways. That’s what hurts me. I voted for the Greens ten years ago. I feel so betrayed as a woman.

The Greens sat on allegations of Will Duckworth's sexual misconduct with children for years. Will Duckworth was the second most senior Green at the time. The only action they took was to protect Duckworth.

They simultaneously actively assisted Aimee and David Challenor to get an injunction against Andy Healey for raising safeguarding issues with respect to transgender ideology.

Yup. I could have voted for the Greens but the way they dealt with these cases says it all. They are corrupt and/or extremely hard of thinking. No way.

We only have 3 chooses- Cons, Labour and Greens.
Not a single one has even bothered to send a leaflet never mind come and knock on the door.

I cannot vote for any of them.

It's next year I worry about in the general elections. Locally I spoke to my independent councillor about new swimming pool not going to have female only changing and he said if elected he would support me on this.
But next year what will the choice be nationally? I don't really want to spoil my vote but it is looking that way.

Does anyone know how to spoil the voting card so it is counted as “spoilt”.

From www.votenone.org.uk/protest_votes_count.html

The Electoral Commission's guide for those who count the votes requires that rejected votes be classified and counted under four reasons for rejection:

• absence of official mark [polling station stamp];
• voting for more than one candidate;
• writing or mark by which the voter could be identified;
• unmarked or void for uncertainty.

So you could just write your name on it.

Go along to your local polling station, or send your postal vote, and make it a spoiled ballot.

So long as you are careful not to make any mark on or near any of the tick-boxes, that could imply even tenuous support, then you should be OK.

Write whatever you wish to express, across your ballot paper.

The point is, at election counts in the UK, there are always officials and volunteers from all parties scrutinising the spoiled ballots for any possible credible indication of a vote. So a few people, from various parties, will look at and read carefully your spoiled ballot, because that is their job.

Does anyone know how to spoil the voting card so it is counted as “spoilt”

Anything which makes it impossible to determine that the voter has cast a vote for a single candidate means the paper is spoilt. That can range from ticking none or 2 or more or all the boxes or writing whatever diatribe you want.

There is nothing magic about a spoilt ballot paper. All ballot papers are counted because the number of ballot papers issued is a known number. The presiding officer knows that a ballot box contains say 500 papers. The tellers have to produce a figure which matches 500 e.g 400 Conservative, 75 Labour, 20 Lib Dem and 5 spoilt.

Nobody is interested in the spoilt papers unless the final result is say 50,000 votes and say 2000 Lib Dem , 23,988 Labour, 23,988 Conservative and 24 spoilt. The candidates and their agents would want to examine the 24 to make sure it was impossible to identify a vote for a single candidate.

I am happy to vote for the local elections on the basis of the opinions of the local candidate, as it is those people who will have an impact. The local council level is much less influences by party politics

I have a choice of green or Labour here

if the Tory or Lib Dem candidates get in they would support TWAW policies , the other two would want to balance TW and women’s rights. Seems daft to give the Tory a chance given they could do harm thatbthe green/labour would prevent

I completely agree OP

In Scotland, they are also supportive of the SNP and independence.

It leaves those of us against Scottish independence but with climate at the heart of our concerns absolutely nowhere to go

Can’t stand Caroline Lucas who thinks she is a people’s representative yet anything but

Thanks for the info on Spoilt papers.

I may write something about their current wokeness in the vain hope it is read.

Why can't you vote for the independent?

To spoil your ballot you draw a diagonal line across all the candidates and write 'none'.

Find a space on the paper margins and write whatever you want there.

At the risk of being flamed, I've voted Green in our local elections today. It's twisted my head in knots to do so. I've gone over and over the issues, and I do feel like I've let myself down as a woman.
However, the more I know about climate change the more I feel like, at some point, environmental issues will have to take precedence over any other issue for there to even be a future for my children.
I know the green party have diluted their environmental stance massively with a load of green wash, but at their heart they seem to have the environmental ideals in the right place.
Still feel a bit sick though.

I voted Green too. I cancelled my membership after the Challenor case and I'm not satisfied with the Veritas report conclusion either but climate change is real and if we don't have some power behind the Greens then we're all going to suffer and die sooner rather than later so there really will be no debate as we will all be ill or dead!

I don't for a moment think they will win a landslide of Green councillors but there is general dismay with the main parties and paying lip-service to climate change by announcing a climate emergency is not enough for me.

I'm politically homeless but leaning towards SNP because of the few brave women like Joan and Joanna. Totally against independence though.

Would not vote green although have a long time ago. They need renaming to the woke party as their policies overide green issues in favour of woke group thunk 😕 also don't like Lucas, find her condescending and fake.

What are the Greens actually doing about climate change, though?

I don't mean talking about doing, but actually doing.

All I've seen is pointless wittering before they get back to their real business of identity politics.

They’re getting my vote in the EU elections because they’re the only Remain option here. It’s a one off expedient loan.

The truth is Popchyk they can't do much as they aren't in government and they only have lost MPs in the last election. CL is trying to get the Green New Deal through (she co-founded it 10 years ago) and there is support for it but I doubt it will pass and the impact on fossil fuel suppliers would be massive and, as always, it comes down to money.

I don't think it is all talk, I think they have sound policies but don't have the power to do anything with them and our current policies are too little too late so any changes have to be dramatic in the time we have left.

The Greens are not perfect, far far from it, but in my view they are the best of a very bad, rotten bunch in a time when we are at a tipping point.

When I finally get out later, the ballot will be spoiled. I am so disillusioned I can't bring myself to do anything else.

"The truth is Popchyk they can't do much as they aren't in government and they only have lost MPs in the last election".

Of course they can do things.

They can launch local initiatives (pick up rubbish, volunteer with schools, wildlife protection etc.). You don't need to be elected to do any of that.

There was a local campaign here for better public transport in rural areas. Conservative and Labour members attended, but no Greens. Too busy pissing about on Twitter waiting for the great day that they get elected, I suppose.

Please look at how the Greens have treated their gender critical members. It's been a witch hunt against them. I cannot vote for that.