How green is Green? Green Left Rejects Pact with Lib Dems.

Gallery

Posted on by

This is the Climate Election which will decide the future of our planet. Labour is committed to The Green New Deal. With floods, hurricanes and bush-fires becoming more frequent, the Tories short-sightedness as demonstrated  by their recent U-turn on fracking is astonishing.  Johnson’s temporary pause has actually facilitated fracking and fracking is now as easy as building a garden wall as Rebecca Long-Bailey (Labour, Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) reports. The Tories published a document which,  in spite of the supposed moratorium,  recommends loosening planning restrictions to prevent councils blocking new fracking applications.

Climate is the most important issue at this election, while issues such as child poverty, homelessness and future of the NHS are crucial issues which must be addressed immediately. Lives are at risk. No time can be wasted.   

I see the Liberal Democrats as the ‘Remain’ wing of Tories, and Conservatives as the ‘Leave’ wing of Tories. On closer inspection, you really can’t see the join. People are beginning to realise that Brexit  was an idea concocted by Establishment,  (including the Tories and Lib Dems)  to keep a Labour government out of power, by distraction, confusion and division. Gaslighting tactics have clearly been used.  ‪This underestimates the intelligence, compassion and anger of voters who really care about each other, the NHS, homelessness, the  Climate  Emergency, our children‬, and  their children yet unborn.

This is not a Brexit election, The Tories and Lib Dems wish it to be all about Brexit to detract from real issues, but this election is about so much more. 

Labour are committed to The Green New Deal, and other parties need to be on board too. The majority of people support Labour’s target. Labour wants the UK to hit zero carbon by 2030 as part of its Green Industrial Revolution agenda, the Green party also has a target date of 2030, and the Liberal Democrats have set a target of 2045. Even Tory voters don’t agree with the Tories’ target of 2050.

Aliya Yule, a co-founder of Labour for a Green New Deal, which campaigned for Labour to adopt the 2030 target, said the polling showed next month’s vote was becoming the UK’s first “climate election”.

For the Greens to be in an electoral pact with Liberal Democrat is astonishing, where Labour’s Green New Deal is much more in line with Green policies than the Lib Dems. Furthermore, Jo Swinson, leader of the Liberal Democrats, recently, in interviews has been embracing the use of nuclear missiles. So how does that equate? The only thing ‘green’ about Jo Swinson is her naivety.

Candidates for the Green Party in Chingford and Woodford Green (Iain Duncan Smith’s seat ), and in Bradley Stoke,  have stepped aside to favour the Labour Party, which seems to make sense. Another five years of Tories ignoring climate change would be devastating, and this is something which just will not wait. Labour will not wait. Labour need to be in power and addressing this now. However, The official policy of Greens to support Liberal Democrats, and the Green Left rejects this. Green Left is much more aligned with Labour.

“Green Left says ‘no’ to supporting Jo Swinson’s second rate Tories. The Liberal Democrats nationally oppose our Green values.”

Green Left Statement:
“Green Left believes a step for the green movement in the UK has taken place recently, with many people joining both the Green Party and Labour Party, reflecting real concerns about the threat of climate change to our very existence on this planet.
Green Left welcomes the fact that the Green New Deal is gaining support on the left, especially in the Labour Party, and we believe that Greens should engage with others who share the same policies as us, to build the green movement for change which is the only way to save the planet.
Green Left believes the mass movement of Extinction Rebellion and the Youth Strikes shows up the pro capitalist parties for what they are – gambling with the planet. The Lib Dems are part of the problem not the solution.
The Liberal Democrats are a party whose leader, Jo Swinson, received funding from a major fracking company and voted for fracking. She and her party also voted for the bedroom tax, benefit cuts and the introduction of Universal Credit, the scrapping of the education maintenance, increased tuition fees, opposed increasing the tax rate on those earning £150,000, supported cuts to the police and emergency services, supported zero hours contracts, supported the badger cull and did little to challenge climate change, preferring instead nuclear power.
The Lib Dems are also uncritical supporters of the EU, unlike the Greens who want major democratic reform and accountability. The Lib Dems reject a proper further referendum that allows people a democratic say on any EU deal or no deal.”

Caroline Lucas recently warned of dangers of the Lib Dems position of ignoring the Referendum result. She described the Lib Dem position as arrogant, self-indulgent, cynical and very dangerous. The Green Party policy has been for a second people’s vote, and that it is closer to Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party, who also support a second referendum, than the Liberal Democrats’ Revoke position.

That does seem to be more in line with Labour’s policy, so why are they standing down for Lib Dems? Many in the Green Party reject the alliance with Lib Dems, and feel support for Labour should be their policy. The ‘UniteToRemain’ pact contradicts the Green Party’s initial position that this should be a Climate Emergency election. Instead the pact makes it a Brexit election.

Tories want it to be ‘all about Brexit’, just ‘Get Brexit done’, to detract from the damage inflicted on our people by austerity from the Tories and Lib Dems, and from Tory plans to privatise and sell off the NHS to insurance based health companies, which the Lib Dems have also refused to rule out. 

Labour believes that this election is about far more than Brexit. Labour is determined to rebuild our society. It will be interesting to how the Green Party proceeds from here. How green is Green?

‪🌹#VoteLabour2019 #RealChange🌹‬