No party in Europe that runs on a manifesto like the Greens achieves much more than a small radical support. They gain more influence in other countries because they have PR, whilst we can relegate a party like the Greens to a single seat and ignore them. In Norway their copy and paste equivalent is not the "Miljøpartiet" (environment party) it's in fact "Sosialistisk Venstre" socialist left. They appeal to the exact same people, it's an interesting comparison when you look into it. 6-8% is definitely their ceiling.
The Greens have a bit of an identity problem in this country; being a single issue ecology party will only get you so far. Not sure how embracing the anti Zionist lobby will help them in the long term…
They're left of the Labour Party on many issues and aren't just single issue. But environmental policy certainly is their ground work, the Greens are not just the loopy NIMBY left party. They're also what many in this world would consider woke as ****. Like how they don't allow, in principle a "leader" as its not right. And must have a female and male leadership structure to avoid a patriarchy. Now imagine if they actually were mainstream On the anti-Semite thing, they have to be ****ing careful tbh. If they dont do their controls right they might get some serious dangerous folk in that party, it might destroy them.
I actually think their manifesto makes a lot of sense, and their policies would probably be more beneficial to most of the voting public as it would tax the rich and spend massively on public services. But as per the convo we had the other day, it's just to radical for where mainstream politics is right now and like Ern points out, the Greens will get no corporate backing, which includes the mainstream media, who are also owned by the corporate rich.
Yeah but you're particularly left wing on these things, so of course you'll agree with it. It's like Saxton saying Reform make some good arguments. I think it's bonkers that people would consider a lack of corporate and media backing to blame people finding the Greens unappealing. They're way out there, they really are. Labour have displayed under Blair and now Starmer people crave a sensible party positioned in the centre. The majority don't want a Reform and they don't want a Green. They don't want a Liberal either btw. I include my bias in there
I take your point about them being more aligned with my ethics. But their massive public spending agenda would benefit a huge number of people, just not the rich. Also it's far from bonkers to mention the lack of corporate and media backing, it plays it's part. And that's a long term cultural issue that ultimately paints the Green agenda as 'a bit wacko' Although that said, I think brb made a good point about the actions of people like just stop oil tarring the agenda of the Greens. Ultimately though, I do think you're right in mentioning that the majority of people want a stable centre ground party .
I would love to see a genuinely left wing Labour Party, committed to the sort of policies Jeremy Corbyn endorsed. That Labour Party is never getting elected in this country though. And in any case Corbyn, a decent man himself, was a terrible leader. So I have to hope that Labour under Starmer will still prove more radical than Blair, while avoiding illegal wars.
I'm 67 (for retiring) as well mate, we should have both of been two years away but it is what it is and no political party is going to change that. A couple of people on here are 66 I know, but we just fell wrong side of the line. Tbph I never ever expected to reach this age, so consider myself lucky to still be here, lost many a people I know along the way, some who died really young.
66 next month and start drawing my pension Must admit for most of my life i expected to retire at 65 old and knackered like folk used to be. Now i am planning to carry on working for a couple more years if i can because i feel young/fit enough to do so. OAPs are not what they were years ago and many now carry on working well into their 70s with no fuss at all (my oldest sister is 74 and has no intention of retiring any time soon).
I retired at 72 (and deferred the State Pension until I retired) and it was only after I retired that age began catching up with me If you cant retire on a big pension at 50 - 55 when you are young enough to make the most of it the best bet is to work as long as you can and keep the money coming in
I have had this pension deferrance chat with quite a few people and i will tell you my view. Others, D if you take your pension now and carry on working for two years you will pay tax on it. Me, if i defer it for two years until i retire i will not live two years longer so i will not have just lost tax but two years pension. I would rather have most of it than none of it.
I defered it for 7 years and with an increase of 1% every 5 weeks I got an increase of 75% when I retired so along with my private pension I am pretty comfortably better off, I wanted a higher monthly income above a short term cash gain
