A Green Party representative seems to think their policies are better thought out than the major parties. Um. This is what I say:
@Ade Jones I respect your points but I was merely pointing out that the LibDems were once the protest party just like the Green Party are now. They all think they are impregnable when they are merely running on principle but you need to have friends in high places to get anywhere in this world, and that's a mere fact of life. The further political parties get to power, the more they seek it. That's what happened to the LibDems, and if the Green Party gain any more power it will happen to them too. It's unavoidable because in order to get your policies through you need power, and to get power you usually have to sacrifice a few of your principles.
There are always a handful of politicians who remain clean. My last MP, Andrew MacKinley, was one of them. He had a loyal following in Thurroch because he did his duty by us, not just the party. He always lived in the area; he lived down the street from me in my childhood. He didn't fiddle his expenses, he always had surgeries, he took up our cases... and he was Labour. When he retired at the last election hardly anyone voted because we foolishly believed Labour would get in anyway, and we ended up with a lazy do-nothing Tory whose only there as one of Cameron's straw women who won by the skin of her teeth. We hate her and she'll be gone at the last election.
MacKinley was one man - and there a other MPs like him - but when a party gets power it become about using power than that having simple principles. The Green Party are new, fresh and "want to save the world", which is geat... but the closer they get the power, the more "group-think" they'll become. It'll be more about keeping the party powerful and less about policies the higher they climb. I'm sure the Green Party polices are better thought out - but so were the LibDem policies once upon a time. And why? Because they had no chance of putting them into practise. They had a lot of time to think about it.
I am a socialist through and though. I vote Labour because they are the left-winged party in our area and I am a member of the party. We are a Labour area - but unfortunately our representative isn't as well liked as MacKinley because he's an ex-councillor. But at least we know him. I wouldn't know any of the other candidates from Adam, including our current MP. The Greens don't even stand here. My own political views are far more to the left than Labour is these days.
But short of a nuclear holocaust wiping our the current society and the need to rebuild it from scratch, I know the chances of my views ever being realised by those in power are zero. I'm a socialist but this Con-Dem government has blown all the faith I have change being made. I foolishly believed that the LibDems would keep control of the Tories, but they haven't. That's why I don't believe the Green Party would be any different given half the chance. If they were offered power, they'd take it... and bend to superiors. It's just the way things are.
I support Labour simply they are the leftist party out of a selection of ultimately centralist parties. They are an opposition to the Tories and therefore get my vote. I won't waste my precious vote on parties that will just allow the Tories to stay in. That's my principle as a voter; keep the Tories as clipped as possible. I don't care as long as they are losing.
And it's true. I'm slowly starting to realise that to get power to make the slightest changes, you can't think you're above corruption. Even if you are the Green Party. :p
@Ade Jones I respect your points but I was merely pointing out that the LibDems were once the protest party just like the Green Party are now. They all think they are impregnable when they are merely running on principle but you need to have friends in high places to get anywhere in this world, and that's a mere fact of life. The further political parties get to power, the more they seek it. That's what happened to the LibDems, and if the Green Party gain any more power it will happen to them too. It's unavoidable because in order to get your policies through you need power, and to get power you usually have to sacrifice a few of your principles.
There are always a handful of politicians who remain clean. My last MP, Andrew MacKinley, was one of them. He had a loyal following in Thurroch because he did his duty by us, not just the party. He always lived in the area; he lived down the street from me in my childhood. He didn't fiddle his expenses, he always had surgeries, he took up our cases... and he was Labour. When he retired at the last election hardly anyone voted because we foolishly believed Labour would get in anyway, and we ended up with a lazy do-nothing Tory whose only there as one of Cameron's straw women who won by the skin of her teeth. We hate her and she'll be gone at the last election.
MacKinley was one man - and there a other MPs like him - but when a party gets power it become about using power than that having simple principles. The Green Party are new, fresh and "want to save the world", which is geat... but the closer they get the power, the more "group-think" they'll become. It'll be more about keeping the party powerful and less about policies the higher they climb. I'm sure the Green Party polices are better thought out - but so were the LibDem policies once upon a time. And why? Because they had no chance of putting them into practise. They had a lot of time to think about it.
I am a socialist through and though. I vote Labour because they are the left-winged party in our area and I am a member of the party. We are a Labour area - but unfortunately our representative isn't as well liked as MacKinley because he's an ex-councillor. But at least we know him. I wouldn't know any of the other candidates from Adam, including our current MP. The Greens don't even stand here. My own political views are far more to the left than Labour is these days.
But short of a nuclear holocaust wiping our the current society and the need to rebuild it from scratch, I know the chances of my views ever being realised by those in power are zero. I'm a socialist but this Con-Dem government has blown all the faith I have change being made. I foolishly believed that the LibDems would keep control of the Tories, but they haven't. That's why I don't believe the Green Party would be any different given half the chance. If they were offered power, they'd take it... and bend to superiors. It's just the way things are.
I support Labour simply they are the leftist party out of a selection of ultimately centralist parties. They are an opposition to the Tories and therefore get my vote. I won't waste my precious vote on parties that will just allow the Tories to stay in. That's my principle as a voter; keep the Tories as clipped as possible. I don't care as long as they are losing.
And it's true. I'm slowly starting to realise that to get power to make the slightest changes, you can't think you're above corruption. Even if you are the Green Party. :p
