Green addendum

Simon Oliver, a former insider, on LibDem Voice confirms my recent assertion that the Green Party is as much socialist as ecological these days. He does pay tribute to their attention to human rights, but argues that Liberal Democrats are in a better position to deliver green policies.

The Green Party, which I was a member of briefly in the late 80s, has hard left socialist roots and is widely considered both anti-capitalist and paradoxically authoritarian and localist. It has a wide range of policies, all of which take note of environmental concerns (which do not begin and end with climate change, any more than ours do) but only reference those concerns where necessary. Lately it has been adopting a less hard line approach and on many matters, such as human rights, is decidedly liberal.

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Preserving biodiversity with local nature reserves allows us to take our kids out for a day, usually free, to explore and become familiar with nature. These are the kinds of things Lib Dem councils and councillors have always done.

The Green Party get all this, up to a point and, thanks to the Lib Dems breaking the two party duopoly of national power, are in with a shout at more MPs and a greater say in national decision-making. I’m hoping that more people vote Green than UKIP (who have shown repeatedly an ignorance of and opposition to environmental issues). But if you really want action on environmental issues, vote Lib Dem.

I still believe that, if we are to have leaders' debates on TV, that Natalie Bennett should have the same exposure as Nigel Farage.

By the way, the claim by the Greens that they have overtaken in LibDems in membership is misleading, as their figures include Northern Ireland which ours do not. If you add in the numbers from Alliance, our sister party in Ulster, then we are still ahead. But more positively, the fact that both we and the Greens continue to add members must be a good thing.