The Green Party has announced its candidates for Caerphilly and Islwyn ahead of next year’s General Election.
Katy Beddoe, a mother and youth worker, will be standing in Caerphilly, while Peter Varley, a computer scientist, will be looking to get elected in Islwyn.
Ms Beddoe said: “I hoped that Ed Miliband would bring socialism back to Labour.
“After three years of disappointment and the same old neo-liberal agenda with sprinkles of pseudo-socialism, I gave up.”
Mr Varely said: “We must ensure that everyone can afford nutritious food to eat, clean water to drink, and a home to live in.”
Already I dislike Ms Beddoe. ‘Pseudo-socialism’ does not exists. Socialism is such a broad category that incorporating multiple views and ideals it’s difficult to not call Labour socialist. They’re socialist, they’re just not in the same branch as socialism as your ideology. It’s not difficult to understand, I though a potential MP would have remembered this.
That, and I am not a socialist so instantly we are at odds with each other.
I agree, I won’t be voting for them. Socialism does indeed have a broad spread and I remember thinking during the first years of this century that several prominent Tories on the left of their party sounded much more socialist than prime minister Blair, with his adulation of big business, his fawning attitude to the President of the USA and love of military conflict.
The Green Party obviously has a lot to be afraid of with your razor-sharp analysis Dean. Socialism is just organised compassion. The Labour Party has become a vote chasing machine that has lost touch with its core principles. The Green Party is way ahead in its thinking and aligned with the best of modern economic and scientific academic research. It is the better and only practical radical alternative. Study its policies. It is business friendly where business values the humans it is supposed to serve. Behind countries like Germany, Britain is late to the table in future-proofing innovative energy diversification technologies, still scrambling around in a pompous post-colonial daze.
The Green Party obviously has a lot to be afraid of with your razor-sharp analysis Dean. Socialism is just organised compassion. The Labour Party has become a vote chasing machine that has lost touch with its core principles. The Green Party is way ahead in its thinking and aligned with the best of modern economic and scientific academic research. It is the better and only practical radical alternative. Study its policies. It is business friendly where business is environmentally responsible and where it values the humans it is supposed to serve. Behind countries like Germany, Britain is late to the table in future-proofing innovative energy diversification technologies, still scrambling around in a pompous post-colonial daze.
I agree with you about the Labour Party. The problem is, I have studied the Green’s policies. I still do not like them. I shall be more specific though and go through my biggest gripes:
Page 3: Under ‘A real change’ they call for nationalisation, no austerity and welfare cuts, to more subsidies on green energy. I believe in austerity as I think lots of government spending is wasteful or pointless. E.g. foreign aid, EU membership fee, child benefit, and rent subsidies (the bedroom tax does not go far enough). I also believe publicly owned services are inefficient more concerned with box ticking than they are providing a decent service. Using the NHS as an example, socialist healthcare has always been light years behind the equivalent found in most private hospitals. If the government had sense there would be a single-payer system or a voucher system to use privately owned hospitals. Healthcare would be free but the quality far higher.
Page 4: The Greens would end factory farming and animal testing. Firstly factory farming is one of the big things allowing food production to be at a steady level. There isn’t enough land for free rage animals everywhere to fulfil today’s demand. Secondly, india is building two new coal-fired power stations a day to satisfy the Indian population who is starting to demand the things we take for granted. TV’s, dishwashers, lights, internet, cars etc… all require massive amounts of energy. Renewable technology can’t currently satisfy demand.
Page 6: The Greens want a national living wage. the problem is though, companies want to make the same profit. A living wage increases total costs, as a result the company increase prices. the living wage then become rather low. The wage will need to be increased to make it a living wage once again. The cycle repeats. ‘Living wage’ is nothing but a political tool to get votes from gullible people. The Greens also want to scrap the welfare cap allowing an already spiralling welfare budget to further spiral out of control. The Greens want to allow the thousands of migrants in Calais into Britain. Where will they live, I hear you ask? Under the Green administration you would pay taxes to fund a house for them and an education for their children (along with healthcare, roadways, extra benefits, English language classes, job searches, and skills allowing them to get a job). I don’t want that! The Greens want to end animal testing. All medicine must be tested on animals before humans. If we don’t animal test the research will go abroad eliminating Britain’s scientific community.
Page 7: The Greens want to waste money buying back industries sold off by the government. The Greens want a return to the 1960’s and 70s with unwieldy, not-profitable industries being subsidised by the taxpayer. Thank goodness for Thatcher’s economic reforms. The Greens also want to end academies creating more comprehensive schools which do not work. The answer is grammar schools selecting for talent and not the the lowest common denominator.
Page 9: The Greens want to ban fracking and stop nuclear power stations. Considering nuclear power is the only form of energy production able to meet our demand and not produce CO2 it seems silly to ban it (I would however like to see it more tightly regulated and under state control for safety. Nuclear security to the lowest bidder doesn’t seem like a smart idea).
Page 10: Nationalising the railways and building more trams. Nationalised railways never worked before, private railways don’t really work now. The railways in Britain have always been useless but the way forward is further privatisation with maximum prices and more subsidies with tougher controls on quality/delays. The Greens want to give buses priority space on roads but doesn’t want to build more roads. The existing roads will only get busier as a result of this. The Greens want to push up the price of petrol and diesel to cut consumption. Driving will become the preserve of the rich (it’s nice to know where the Greens lie on equality). Finally, one I agree with, the Greens want to scrap HS2 (Hooray! Though, UKIP do too).
The Greens live a utopian world detached from reality. They say things with no real thought behind them but people vote for them without thinking through their policies. Look at Brighton as an example of Green work with the Green MP and council. Council tax has risen, rubbish has not been collected for weeks. Inevitably the rubbish ends up being fly-tipped.
Now let us examine some of the more advanced stuff I dislike on their policy website:
Justice: Their long-term aim is to reduce all sentencing to save money in favour of rehabilitation. Rehabilitation does not work. We need tougher sentences. I want solitary confinement and a bigger prison population. The Greens want to eliminate and outlaw all hate crime motivated by hatred and discrimination based on ethnicity, colour, gender, trans, sexual orientation, religion, social origin, age, disability including learning difficulties or any other prejudice. Sounds great but this will only eliminate free speech. If you called a banker a “rich toff” that would be illegal. You would be fined (well actually you would have community service), community service for expressing an opinion, sounds fair, yes?
Culture, Media, and Sports: The Greens want to tax professional sports people to fund the local community. All of our Gold medal Olympians will be punished with a tax because they have worked hard to get good at a sport. The whole thing will just put people off competitive-level sport. The overall aim is to take the emphasis of science and put it on arts, or cultural studies. I say we need science more.
Economy: The Greens don’t want to measure the health of the economy by GDP, inflation, interest rates etc… but instead measure progress and happiness. this is also the section where they call for more taxes on the middle-classes and wealthy people, more APD, more council tax and the renationalisation of industries.
Schools: in the Green world education should start at 6. I believe the extra two years before that are vital to teach basic skills. Citizenship will be added and pushed for on the national agenda along with other things such as practical skills, which I actually agree, but UKIP wants to do that too so the Greens are not unique. However citizenship is another word for government indoctrination of school children. The left-wing ideology will be forced onto children as young as 6. Schools need to be neutral for the most part past core morals to allow children to decide for themselves. As for more policy in this area, abolishing league tables, abolishing SATS, abolishing selective education, abolishing OFSTED, delinquents in mainstream education as opposed to borstal, removing charity status from private schools, asking private schools to train teachers, mixed-ability classes in schools, abolishing faith schools, free school meals, lessons on where food comes from, opposition to performance related pay for teachers, forced equality i.e. positive discrimination among teachers (forget about hiring the best teacher), and taking the emphasis of qualifications are all on the Green agenda. I despise it all!
Energy: Tax this, tax that, charge for this, charge for that. Need I say more? It’s long, it’s complex, and it’s mind numbingly boring but everything that doesn’t come from the wind or the sun will be taxed and charged for. Furthermore, businesses will be forced to consider their environmental impact further driving up costs. The consideration in itself will be nothing but tickboxing.
International: All foreign debts owed by countries officially defined as “Least Developed” should immediately be written off by concerted international action, as well as those of all other countries which need such support in order to meet their MDG targets. The British Government should take a strong international lead in pressing for this objective. British aid should become 0.7 percent of Gross National Product (GNP) within five years and 1.0 percent of GNP within ten years. Emergency aid, aid to dependent territories and debt relief should be an addition to this. The British Government should: institute capital controls to ensure money made by TNCs in Britain is re-invested here. The TNCs should be forced to observe ecological restraints and labour standards, as suggested by the International Labour Organisation, worldwide. Failure to observe these conditions must mean that the TNC concerned should no longer be allowed to operate in the European Union. Transfer pricing activities by TNCs to reduce tax and export duty costs should be made illegal. – I disagree with all of this. Charity starts at home and TNC’s policing their environmental impact is political grandstanding. How will that even work or be monitored?
Immigration: We will work to achieve greater equity between the UK and non-Western countries. In step with this, we will progressively reduce UK immigration controls. – NO! The equality is reduced by kick starting an industrial revolution or colonisation; not by allowing anyone in. Ultimately the Greens believe Preference should not be given to those with resources or desirable skills. I do not think that is a good idea? We will become a cheap-labour country forcing down living standards for all increasing the wealth gap. We will abolish the ‘primary purpose’ rule under which partners are refused entry if it is thought that the primary purpose of relationship is for them to gain entry to the UK. Migrants illegally in the UK for over five years will be allowed to remain. Transport providers must not be penalised for bringing people without the required visas, etc. to the UK (talk about condoning people smuggling). Every asylum-seeker should have the right to legal advice and representation, supported by legal aid, for asylum applications and appeals. – Why should my tax money be spent on legal aid for people applying for the privilege of entering the UK?
Nationality: In the long term, the Green Party wishes to see the concept of legal nationality abolished. In the long term the Greens will work to create a world of global inter-responsibility in which the concept of a ‘British national or citizen’ is irrelevant and outdated. In my opinion this is a fiction dream based on ideology and no serious debate.
Defence: Commitment to a large standing army, a navy of large warships around our coastline, squadrons of fighter planes and a cripplingly expensive missile defence system is therefore unnecessary. Similarly, the Greens believe unhelpful and aggressive concept of nuclear deterrence (with the inherent dangers of handling concentrated radioactive substances) is also redundant. As such, immediate nuclear disarmament would be a priority of a Green Government. – You can thank nuclear weapons for preventing the cold war becoming an actual war. If the USA never had nukes you can guarantee Russia would have fired, the reverse is true for the USA. The Greens never respond to the concept of ‘mutually assured destruction’. Individuals will not be detained instead they will be released to continue their claim in the community. – This doesn’t seem like a good idea. If they are free what’s the point in claiming asylum. The Greens want a true open door Britain to anyone.
I despise 95% of what the Greens stand for. Can you justify all of the above policies I particularly hate? Can you answer my questions surrounding them?
Well thanks for long and pertinent list of questions. And yes, I shall try to answer them, though I’m a little busy right now. It’s a pity that you end with ‘despise’ and ‘hate’ and not just firm disagreement, but I do welcome a rational exchange of views.