I have just heard that Vaughan has resigned from the party because of our stance opposing the governments cuts programme, stating:
With some regret, I am leaving the Green Party. I support the parties core environmental views, but can not concuur with the widely shared view in the party that all cut to spending should be resisted no matter how wasteful. The general populus of this country enjoy a standard of living way beyond that to which we are entitled, and the Greens seem to be committed to encouraging people to expect and demand these ridiculous levels of consumption, whilst I agree that equality is a major issue, I consider very few to be in real poverty as opposed to relative poverty (which does exist), if the Greens adopt a more realistic stance on public expenditure, I may rejoin at some future date
Apparently a (very very small) number of Party members unhappy with our position of opposing the cuts are being drawn to the Liberal Democrats.
The cuts cause real suffering, they are not about good living or consuming within our means to protect the Earth as the assaults on libraries and forests show.
They are about making the richer richer and the rest of us poorer.
Great that Caroline Lucas is fighting hard against the cuts.
Social justice, ecological necessity....one struggle one fight!
If you love Clegg give into your passion on Valentine's day and leave us, we won't mind!
4 comments:
The Green Party's stance, as is often the case, is absurdly blinded by ideology. Serious cuts to government expenditure need to be made in the long term interest of everybody, although the coalition is also guilty of ideological excess rushing too fast into austerity measures that are undermining the economic recovery.
Also, leaving the Greens is hardly a declaration of love for Nick Clegg. Perhaps Mr Brean might be interested in Green Liberal alternatives to both the Greens and the Lib Dems.
Vaughan Brean here, I now work in a private sector manufacturing company after redundancy from a large multinational, I recently spent several months on the dole too and would be considered by many to be a "low income" family as I am the sole earner (not my definition, I consider myself to be OK in absoloute terms but I am in relative poverty compared to many in the UK).
I began to question my stance whilst unemployed, I was paying nothing for school trips, school meals, dental treatment, opticians,I recieved reduced council tax, free travel to interviews, and no end of other dispensations, my benefit level (headline) was low, but when all of the above were factored in, I was actually no worse off than I am now, as I now pay full whack for all of the above from my below national average salary. My private sector employer can genuinely not afford to pay me more (I really believe that), and so how do we incentivise work....a tricky question, I may also add that I have very little pension whatever and I am almost 50 years old. I began to wonder if there were a "any" cuts to expenditure (other then defense and roadbuilding) that the Greens would ever support, apparently not it seems.
So, we now have 50% in higher education (it was 10% when I was younger), we all live longer and our manufacturing base has whithered to a token, whilst the welfare demands and expectations of the population have grown hugely. The inflated salaries of many in banking and a few at the top of corporations are a red herring, that is outrageous, but it distracts us from the real problem which is the chronic overspending of the state when compared to the national income (which btw is generated largely by small employers like the company that I work for)
For those who are paid from public money, it may well be hard to see the reality of the situation, remember Ireland has just gone totally broke, and were it not for a bail out (we even borrowed the money for that!!) I can only assume that they would not even be able to pay their civil service....a failed state infact, thats where excessive borrowing and public expenditure ends up
Vaughan Brean again, thanks for the link to Liberal world blog, that guy has articulated my view very nicely. I have 2 sons living with me, both in higher education, and I am a fairly low income family (total family of 4 household income £23,000pa). As far as I can see, there is nothing whatever in the governments reforms of tuition fees that will disadvantage my sons or discourage them from attending university, infact,there are no upfront charges and if they only ever achieve my (pitiful) income, they will pay hardly anything back, I lost patience with the Greens parroting the "only the rich will be able to go to University" rhetoric, it sounds good, but the reality is rather inconvenient, we have huge numbers in H.E, many in overlong courses of questionsble value, I have studied many courses through the teaching company and we now have the internet, video and audio, its a lovely idea to have millions enjoying the "university experience" and "discovering who they really are" which is what I have been told by the Greens a large part of the value of H.E, but ultimately much of the cost falls on the poor Proletariat. I still think the coalitions proposals are flawed in that the income generated will not meet the costs, but I cant see that they are unfair to the lower income groups, the greens need to get their facts right, those protesting are often middle class students from relatively affluent families, that will have to pay a higher proportion of their higher salaries in future to pay for the benefits of their education...sounds fair enough to me. The Green Party will get nowhere unless it can engage the thinking private sector man/woman, it seems to me that the greens are largely composed of public sector workers and anti-capitalists, and the unemployed, I would suggest that the party needs people like me to inject a hint of reality into the debate, but I am drowned out by those that just oppose any form of moderation in public expenditure....and btw, I really am a green at heart, I really do think that persuing never ending growth is madness, I really do support local economies and local production and manufacturing, but I am not impressed with the naivety of much of the discourse that I have heard (good blog btw)
Vaughan
Thought you might like this, many in the public sector imagine thjat they are underpaid and undervalued, thinking that they could earn more "outside"....check this out
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12521580
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