Thoughts about the Green Party?

We're going round in circles now but:
You're going to vote Labour, even though you think they're "not brilliant" - not really a very meaningful use of your vote.
And every election is the election to push the Greens, if you believe in their policies. When is it an appropriate time to do so, if not now? The more close-call a general election is going to be, the more impact voting for a smaller part will have, surely?
Of course, the real solution to all of this tactical voting malarkey is to introduce proportional representation. Not that Labour or the Conservatives have that on the agenda though. I wonder why...

What have you been smoking? Hopefully one day you'll grow up and realise spend, tax and debt isn't the way forward.

QFA

Firstly, Thatcher is reported to have said that Tony Blair and New Labour were her greatest achievements, which is unsurprising considering their deregulation of the banking sector.

Secondly, I think it's the pathetic free-market worshippers who need to grow up and realise that their whole religion has been exposed as a sham on multiple occasions - humans are not rational agents (read the Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman's work for more on this) ; the market cannot take care of itself; and everytime the market has been deregulated, we've seen recessions and depressions.

Everytime a party wants to increase regulation on the banking sector, the bankers squeal and say "we'll be better next time", but they fail, again and again and again, as Channel 4's economics editor was exasperated about seeing as he's had to do reports about how the bankers have been involved in another scandal or they've ruined the economy yet again, on countless occasions.

Furthermore, is it really Thatcherite not to have debt? George Osborne, who was seen crying at Thatcher's funeral, has increased debt faster in four years than Labour did in 13.
Hopefully, one day you'll grow up and learn to evaluate the evidence, rather than making utterly ridiculous, unsubstantiated assertions.

=
As somebody who just insulted somebody else for not evaluating evidence it's interesting that you've chosen to ignore the fact that we had the largest deficit since the second world war, that's why debt is still accruing so fast. The important thing is that as a percentage of GDP he's just about halved it. What do you want him to do, cut even faster? The Darling plan would have debt levels about the same given that both parties planned to make the mistake of cutting capital spending which i believe was a major contributing factor to the low growth seen in 2011 and 2012.

It's not what I want Osborne to do, it's about the mistake of assuming that Thatcherism necessarily entails massive cuts in debt and socialism entails increasing debt. In Bolivia, under the socialist government, debt has been massively cut and they've run a surplus for many years.

Under Labour, who the person to whom I was replying believes were all about debt, the debt-to-GDP ratio fell from its point at the end of the Conservative government in 1997 by 2007.

A load of nuts, unfeasible populist policies and, somehow, less fiscal responsibility than Labour. Where Labour want to pull a tenner out of their arse the greens want to pull out a million.

Firstly, Thatcher is reported to have said that Tony Blair and New Labour were her greatest achievements, which is unsurprising considering their deregulation of the banking sector. Secondly, I think it's the pathetic free-market worshippers who need to grow up and realise that their whole religion has been exposed as a sham on multiple occasions - humans are not rational agents (read the Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman's work for more on this) ; the market cannot take care of itself; and everytime the market has been deregulated, we've seen recessions and depressions. When Thatcher was in power, unemployment was at a record high; poverty was on a scale not seen since the Great Depression and inequality rose at the fastest rate in history. Everytime a party wants to increase regulation on the banking sector, the bankers squeal and say "we'll be better next time", but they fail, again and again and again, as Channel 4's economics editor was exasperated about seeing as he's had to do reports about how the bankers have been involved in another scandal or they've ruined the economy yet again, on countless occasions.

And, if we look at the countries which have high, but not too high, taxes and have a high rate of public spending, then you'll see that it is the way forward. Denmark, for example, is in the top two most equal societies in the world, has a top rate of tax of 61%, high trade union membership; a high minimum wage, and so on. And, surprise surprise, it's also the happiest society in the world. Furthermore, is it really Thatcherite not to have debt? George Osborne, who was seen crying at Thatcher's funeral, has increased debt faster in four years than Labour did in 13.

Hopefully, one day you'll grow up and learn to evaluate the evidence, rather than making utterly ridiculous, unsubstantiated assertions.

I think Labour spending plan looks pretty sensible, as do the Tories. Though i haven't looked much into it, i just read a paper saying Milliband was adopting the centre ground. Centrist policy with leftist rhetoric is the way for labour to go imo.

To be fair tyhe Greens policy isn't pulled out their arse. They want to tax you every time you want to take a dump. They don't seem to understand that when people have no money to spend everybody suffers. They're a middle class guilt driven ignoramous housewife Party. Nothing to do with inequality at all. BUT, they do plan to fund their policies.

I haven't actually looked much into what Labour are proposing, from what I hear of Balls they sound as if they're trying to become even more Tory, but even under "new labour" they hardly have the best record of fiscal responsibility, from 2001 they were managing to run at a deficit to fuel their little pet projects to make things look better than they are, and I very much expect the same will happen if Labour come to power again; I expect them to ride the wake of Tory action to turn a surplus and then, if given the chance (which they probably would) resume where they left off.

I would say that the continuing existence of Labour stands testament to the power of large numbers of stupid people. Time and again Labour makes a mess, Tories clean it up, cleaning it up is unpopular so they vote Labour back in to make a new mess. Still not as bad a mess as I expect the Greens to make. I wouldn't be surprised to see national debt to rise to early post war levels if given a term or two and/or see the economy enter depression.

I don't think that's fair. Blair and Brown were operating their fiscal policy within a period of economic growth, and it's pretty sensible to have a deficit then. You have to remember that they were working under the assumption that they had solved boom and bust; the belief, I think, was that boom and bust occurred because neoliberal policy couldn't lead to sustained growth without investment. It is worthwhile to note that deregulating the banks contributed to the recession: this is a fundamentally Tory policy by nature.

Now that we have a recession, their policy will be done under the assumption of our situation, so it isn't reasonable to think that they'll continue their economic policy from during the boom.

I disagree, to me it seems to be highly irresponsible to operate at a deficit at a boom time, to me the responsible thing to do is to try to reduce the debt given that you're in a good position to do so and then, hopefully in the long term, eradicate it completely, and then you can start building cash reserves for the inevitable bust. And I'm not suggesting that they will keep the same policy as during the boom, I said I expect them to do the same as last time, balance the books and then go and be good ol' Labour. But at least good ol' Labour seems to treat most people at least moderately fairly, whereas from the little I have seen, read and heard of the Greens it almost seems to be drag everybody down to pull a few up

But to be fair, he thought that there wouldn't be a bust. His policy would be different if he thought that a bust was happening. And practically no one did see it coming. He did several great things, such as keeping us out the euro too.

So as Green party supporter you can choose to compromise (as I have done and several other lefties in Labour) and accept getting some of what you want through with a view to pushing more through OR you can cut your nose off to spite your face in the all or nothing approach of the Greens and end up with NOTHING, except more cuts and more poverty.

And on what basis was that idea floated, especially since they had just come out of a rough patch? And surely the idea that there cannot be a bust would still lead to the idea of eliminating the debt, or at the very least balancing the books, rather than letting the debt grow and grow. After all,reducing the debt means lower debt interest which means more to actually spend on the taxpayer. If, say, they ran at a £20bn surplus instead of a £20bn deficit, the debt would have been gone by the end of this parliament and over that time that £20bn would have doubled due to the loss of the interest, as such you could look at it as over that time that surplus would tend to nil as the interest savings would offset the surplus, we would then have no debt and thus no debt interest. They can then say that they should be praised for eliminating our debt and consequently be able to increase spending by 5%

They want to give prisoners the vote (need I say more?).