and neither do the BNP or UKIP supporters. Just pointing it out to those of you (of us) tempted to register our dissatisfaction with the current regime by splitting the left/liberal vote. It was protest votes against Labour that allowed Boris to become Mayor. Let’s not screw up again.
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Not Writing But Blogging 
I think I have been persuaded by this link ( which was twittered by @ RealBillBailey yesterday.)
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Oops!
http://tinyurl.com/pp272f
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but you see, it’s EXACTLY that headline “Only a vote for the Greens will send a clear message to the political class that you want action on the environment” that makes me not want to vote Green, in any election : what about everything else? health, education, class, sexism, racism, local and global poverty, etc etc … as long as the Greens are still (primarily) a one-issue party (and I think the clue is in the name!) then I’m going to have to keep voting Labour because at least Labour have a (only very vaguely these days) left-ish stance on all the things I ALSO really care about.
It has never been enough to only deal with one issue – it wasn’t enough when Marx thought it was only all about class, it is not enough when LGBT activists always think it’s only about LGBT issues, and it’s not enough to only think it’s about environmental issues.
We DO have to want to fix it all, or none of it will work.
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The way I read it was that rather than voting for the one policy Green party it would be a way of signalling to the powers that be how discontented the public is with the existing party’s so that hopefully they would scrabble to find more pleasing policies in time for the general election.
I have always voted Labour, and never seen a viable alternative. I still don’t, but rather like the idea of doing something to say, hang on, this is rubbish.
Completely agree with you about the problems with one issue. You hit the nail on the head when you say “Labour have a (only very vaguely these days) left-ish stance on all the things I ALSO really care about.” It’s the idea that perhaps they could be forced a little lefter that appeals!
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yes, but it doesn’t work that way. None of the parties ever pay attention to protest votes as a way to force them to make changes. Change is (sadly, but this is the way of democracy) quite a slow process. It can’t be forced overnight. what happens with these divided loyalty votes is that Tory voters keep on voting Tory (while smiling joyfully at all the old-Labour type angst over who to vote for), Labour then gets forced out, idiots like the BNP and UKIP get in, leaving the path wide open for the Tories at the next (and probably quite soon) election. sigh.
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If you check out the Green’s manifesto
http://www.greenparty.org.uk/
you’ll see they’re not in anyway a one policy party.
On most of the issues they are far more left wing than New Labour. I vote green because I’m a Socialist. If it wasn’t for our voting archaic system, the Greens would be a major force in politics like they are in many other European countries.
First past the post turns our democracy into a two party dictatorship, which is a terrible shame. I don’t want either of them in power. The Tories are as reactionary as ever, and Labour has lost it’s soul.
Hopefully when Labour get routed, they will go back to their roots. Only then will my vote turn red.
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I did an online quiz a while back that purported to tell you which party matched your ideals. I expected to be Labour, but was Green.
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