Green Party

Tories lose votes in spite of Starmer's drift to the right

Discussing the 4 May local election results, pollster John Curtice told the BBC: “Perhaps there is a message here that voters are not yet fully enthused about the Labour alternative even if they are clearly disenchanted with the current Conservative government” The Tory vote was down to rhe equivalent of 26% in a general election, from 30% in last year’s local elections. The Tories lost 1,058 council seats, and that after losing over 1,330 when the same seats were contested in 2019. This despite their attempt at voter suppression through new voter ID laws . For the first time in almost three...

“Cityclean is a powder keg”

A shop steward from Brighton bins tells us about their victory in their recent dispute . Firstly, congratulations on winning the dispute, I wouldn’t have expected anything less! Haha, yeah, it’s a brilliant outcome, to come out of a dispute with something even better than what we were demanding in the first place is just brilliant, but it shows you our strength. So can you tell me a bit about the deal? What does it mean for the workforce? So as you know, the dispute was about round changes, changes to working patterns at very short notice and without explanation, about management unilaterally...

Why the Greens are drifting right

With the climate emergency rising in public consciousness across the world and a shift towards anti-capitalist politics among younger people, we might think the Green Parties would be presenting themselves as radical anti-capitalist forces to win people from Labour or Social Democratic parties which have become wedded to neoliberalism and dwindled into bureaucratic husks. However, in practice the opposite is happening. The German Greens were founded in 1980. The designation “green” was drawn from Australian building workers’ “green bans” of the mid-70s, and the party drew into many would-be...

Labour's youth support plummets, Greens' surges

Voting intention among 18-24 year olds, +/- since 2019 general election (YouGov, 9-10 June): Labour: 35% (-21) Green: 27% (+23) Conservative: 21% (-); Lib Dem: 12% (+1); SNP: 3% (-3); Reform UK: 1% (-) Other polls have also suggested sharply rising Green support among young people. The big shift is, surely, one result of Keir Starmer’s attempts to chase after mainly older voters (reckoned, rightly or quite often wrongly, to be tied to socially-conservative attitudes), by taking nationalistic and regressive positions, while having little to say about issues of economics and living standards...

Labour’s climate policy: the fine print

The environmental section of Labour’s manifesto is more ambitious than previous policy announcements, but less so than sections of the policy passed at this year’s Labour conference . It has received much hype but less attention to detail. This article unpicks some of the finer points. The rhetoric, at least to start, seems refreshingly left-wing, it suggesting a direct working-class approach. “Just 100 companies globally are responsible for the majority of carbon emissions”, they recognise. They thus commit to “work in partnership with the workforce and their trade unions in every sector of...

SNP backs Heathrow third runway

An open letter to those on the left who support the Progressive Alliance. Okay, your pals in the SNP have just announced official support for a third runway at Heathrow. Yes, I know what you’re going to say: “It’s only been reported in the MainStream Media. ‘The Canary’ hasn’t confirmed it. And even if it is true, the third runway could be a Mossad-inspired false-flag operation.” But take my word for it: it’s true. And I think we can safely rule out any involvement by Mossad. The timing of the announcement simply couldn’t be better. Only five days ago the leaders of the SNP, the Greens and...

The left and the General Election

The post-mortem on the 2015 election ought to rage on the British left, though it is doubtful whether there will be much contrition from the main protagonists. Rightly, assessments will examine how the ruling classes’ first team did it, the limitations of Labour’s leadership and politics, why the Liberal Democrats collapsed, UKIP’s four million votes, the SNP’s tsunami and the Green ascendency. But one unavoidable question is the responsibility the left for this class-wide defeat. The left might appear marginal, but it is not irrelevant. The left is a political school for young people, an...

Green Party says “consume less” not “nationalise energy”

The Greens’ proposals on energy involve phasing out fossil fuel and nuclear power and promoting renewables through a number of changes to the subsidy and tax regime. There is no opposition to private ownership of energy production. It is odd given their opposition to privatisation of the NHS and railways. If they ever won political power, then the plan is for their government to act as green consumer par excellence, creating incentives to persuade private industry to go green while preaching frugality to the masses. Given the amount of air time the Green Party had during the election period...

Defeatism and a deficit of agency

Len Glover's response to my article 'Why I'm not voting Green' ( Solidarity 356) seems to sidestep my argument. I wondered at the time of writing if I was too repetitive in places. Obviously I was not repetitive enough! Yes Len, I agree, Labour's programme is inadequate and lacks inspiration, that's why I explained that we are socialists fighting within Labour for a working class programme. Your letter appears to begin by arguing not against me, but against the Labour front bench, from whom I have already distanced myself when I argued that to socialists, Labour is an arena for our...

The “good old days” are gone

It’s ironic that Andy Forse begins his article “Why I am not voting Green this May” ( Solidarity 355) by saying that the world he wants to live in “would have things ... like rail...socialised”. He then goes on to advocate NOT voting for a party that DOES propose the socialisation of the railways and voting FOR a party that not only does not want to socialise the railways but actually ignored its conference policy when it voted for renationalisation! This party (Labour of course) also continued the selling off of industries started by Thatcher, even the RAF air and sea rescue service wasn’t...

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