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Can the Greens take their 2021 opportunities? – politicalbetting.com
Can the Greens take their 2021 opportunities? – politicalbetting.com
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There will be young people making the point that they have made sacrifices to protect the older generations from their emergency; now is the time for older people to step up and address the emergency they may face down the line. There will be Corbynites, and some LibDems, looking for a new home.
The problem I have with the UK Greens is that they are an authoritarian rather than a libertarian party, even in the way they (try to) run themselves before you get on to policy. On matters concerning the climate this is perhaps a consequence of their objectives, but I feel they’d have greater appeal if, beyond climate protection, they were stronger on freedom and and liberty. Caroline Lucas often said the right things, but behind her there are a lot of authoritarian socialists.
In the last council election they won a seat here, giving them a potential platform on the island, which after all is supposed to be a target of theirs. But when the new councillor realised that internal Green Party policy is that the local party has the right to direct how their representatives must vote on key issues, he promptly resigned and has sat as an Independent. It will be interesting to see if they do any better this time.
Round here the opposition on the District Council is "Green & Independent" and although we haven't by any means got the full list of candidates there are certainly some under that title.
Which could turn out to be difficult, given Mr B2's scenario.
There are several environmental issues locally which embarrass the ruling Conservatives, both at Distraict and County level. Interestingly I had occasion to speak to a local Cons. councillor the other day on a non-political matter and remarked that I was surprised to find them in; thought they'd have been canvassing and was told that yes they'd been leafletting; did I know if Labour were standing and volunteered that the Greens seemed to be active and it was pity they seemed all over the place on policies!
I must admit I bit my tongue instead of saying something about a leader who was all over the place on everything; I had other things to do. It will be interesting to see how things turn out.
From an OKC with a sore arm from his second Pfizer vaccination! Bu who doesn't mind at all!
The Holyrood elections are surely a fourth opening for Greens to exploit with them able to play a part in the constitutional future of the UK? Or will they be relegated to the SNP’s useful idiots whose existence should be ignored? Damned when you play the conventional political party game, damned when you don’t.
If only someone could have predicted that...
"The combination of a 3-4 month suspension of elective surgery, reduced availability of operating theatre space and reduced throughput on operating lists will greatly lengthen surgical and diagnostics waiting lists. I suspect this productivity will drop by 50% or more for the duration of the coronavirus, so likely to be for 12-24 months. Within a year patients waiting over a year for treatment in England and Scotland will be common, they are already in Northern Ireland and Wales. Within 2 years we will see some patients waiting 24 months. Non surgical specialities including mental health will be similarly affected, though these get less media attention."
From:https://www7.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2020/05/17/28-weeks-later-the-coronavirus-aftermath-for-the-nhs-and-its-political-implications/
(Though I was wrong about a second wave)
R4: The BBC just caught up with our conversation about the Timpson's new ex-con employee.
To be fair - good on them for the coverage and naming Timpson.
There wasn't any election organisation that I could recognise as a LibDem, and I have been in a lot of election HQs both winnable and very unwinnable, so I know what an organised campaign should look like. If they were using a computer it wasn't obvious. There were no maps, no instructions for volunteers, not even any questions asked of a stranger who had basically walked off the street, to check that I was genuinely offering help rather than spying them out and stealing leaflets. They never checked afterwards that I had delivered anything; I had signed in and provided my contact details, but I have never heard from them again.
Bear in mind this was supposedly their number two target in the whole of the UK, into which the national Green Party had apparently directed money and help.
(Easter present sent to the PB funds via the donate tab, keep up the good work Mike)
But this is Wales NHS under labour
Given Salmond is trying to outflank them, it’s not quite straightforward either. But if they can do it, they should be pretty happy and will probably once again have significant influence.
We do have by far the highest median level of education of any political party though so we'll comfort ourselves with that.
Not a rally fan, but apparently ExtremeE's current time sheets have teams Rosberg and Hamilton at the top...
"Hopefully it will serve as a salient lesson for the next time Downing Street is tempted to place greater value on modelling than real-world data"
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/02/apocalyptic-schools-covid-spike-predicted-scientists-simply/
I do wonder a bit how he reconciles green credentials with his love of classic vehicles and adrenaline junky behaviour. But since he’s funny and well informed and has never to my knowledge lectured me about my own driving habits I’m not bothered about it.
Greens need to sort a few things:
They are today's 'We are all doomed' people - just like their anti nuclear CND predecessors, who more or less vanished once the new doom came along. It is not credible that there is exactly one trendy existential threat at a time.
They regard people with some interesting views as opponents not friends. The Matt Ridleys and Bjorn Lombergs are marginalised.
They have huge fundamentalist baggage.
They make heroes of ghastly celebs who have no intention whatsoever of adopting the lifestyle they espouse and want to compel for others. This is Polly Toynbeeism souped up. As retail politics this is catastrophic. Enquiring minds always want to know what groups really mean.
Where I live there was a mile of ice above our stone age heads only a few thousand years ago. For all I know global warming is exactly what will prevent that happening again. They are not agnostic enough.
E2A. I am mainly a Greens member as they are the only party that makes more than a token effort on animal welfare issues so I support them.
They're still light years ahead of the poor Greens though. Poor tartan sock puppets, they suffer from the classic problem of being the junior partner in a coalition, without actually being the junior partner in a coalition - though at least they've not gone down in flames like the UK Lib Dems did. If they do end up going backwards rather than forwards this time, it will be because Salmond's entry into the race has hobbled them.
The rest was intended as a compliment
Speaking of bicycles, there’s one in the lobby with my name on it. Have a good morning.
Matt Lynn on Biden's huge spending plans.
"A Biden Bust is on the way - and it may arrive a lot sooner than anyone yet realises"
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/04/03/biden-bust-looming/
This is when local councillors have to donate part of their income to the political
For Lib Dems for example it is in the Constitution of the English party.
https://www.libdemvoice.org/10-tithing-not-only-will-i-defend-lib-dem-councillors-but-my-running-mate-and-i-pledged-to-do-it-too-50489.html
Others do similar.
(I believe she drove a Jag, which was therefore used very little.)
The cost is still dropping like a stone - and as we’re seeing at the end of the pandemic, even the US is recognising how to think about deploying it systematically.
Will change the world.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/03/25/magazine/genome-sequencing-covid-variants.html
Speaking more broadly, the reason why the position of the German Greens has grown so strong is, of course, down to 1. PR elections and 2. migration into the political mainstream. Our lot are a disparate collection of activists, loosely attached to an anarcho-socialist structure, which appears simultaneously to advocate the distribution of social security benefits generous enough to allow recipients to abandon paid employment and the abolition of economic growth. It's unsurprising that they typically struggle to expand their appeal beyond the small fraction of the electorate whose overriding concern is the Climate Emergency.
What will they do in May? Alba may be a threat to them given it is a different second vote option for those committed to independence. On the other hand some disillusionment with Nicola might lead other Nats to tend their way. I suspect that they will end up pretty similar to where they are now. It is possible that they will continue to hold the balance of power too. What are they going to do with it?
Although the warmest compliment I have ever been paid on pb.com was NPXMP's observation that he could imagine me commanding a Chekist firing squad.
He saw the surgeon last week through his employer's bupa scheme and has the £15,000 knee replacement operation in a fortnight
So yes Malc
Has any of this had a measurable effect? It may be that this is too short a term but you'd expect something, wouldn't you? What if we all end up working from home a couple of days a week cutting out the commute? What effect might that have? Is white van delivery man a step back or better? Would it be better if he or she drove an electric van?
I for one have an enhanced appreciation of the countryside that I have spent so long walking in over the last 15 months. Can the Greens use that to seize the agenda?
In the same way as if we were to detect a large asteroid on a collision course in fifty years’ time, we can’t dismiss it simply because the consequences are remote and some of us won’t live long enough to suffer the consequences.
Similarly, if we’re going to do anything about it, we have to start putting a great deal of resources into dealing with the problem now.
It's frustrating to see human-concern arguments packaged as green ones. Climate change is used to bash western democracies (the real target) but who is to say whether a change in climate will inconvenience post agricultural revolution humans more than than non-human nature. You hear little talk of stopping deforestation and other habitat destruction and no talk at all of the issue of human overpopulation and measures to counteract it.
It's a tragedy that deep green naturalists struggle to find a home in the Green Party.
Remember the global warming enthusiast scientist who reckoned snow in the UK would become a thing of the past, shortly before we had the two coldest and snowiest winters for a century?
Republicans haven’t even begun to work out their messaging on this.
https://twitter.com/dickersondon/status/1378161609839800322
The cold winters are largely the result of disruption to the polar vortex, which keeps arctic weather in the Arctic.
You are confusing weather with climate.
Stop habitat destruction, start re-wilding en masse and come up with a plan to reduce human footprint on our planet including the appalling pollution. Such things require a global government or at least a powerful agency run for nature, not humans, but whenever I suggest this it doesn't go down well.
All NHS.
I've owned over 100 cars but I've never had one - obviously. Although I've often though an XJS 'ute' would be cool as the flying buttress C pillars very much lend themselves to that style.
Really sinister stuff
But the consensus can't decide whether to shout between "lots of not-emissions yippee !!", or "yes but we are still going to dyeee so you have to live in knitted hemp and we are still banning cars and beefburgers", and no one want to mentionn that we are on a 3% year on year decline for nearly the last decade anyway.
https://twitter.com/dtaylor5633/status/1378256379690037250?s=21
If that prediction had been corrected, it'd be cited as evidence of the theory being proven correct, and that the 'climate' had changed.
And, for the other weather watchers, snow has been removed from our local forecast; just seems cold and cloudy, except Monday which will cold and sunny. Sleet is a possibility on Tuesday evening Apparently.
The real, intractable issues we have to grapple with are habitat destruction and overpopulation, and those (especially the latter) are deeply problematic for the left. Who's going to tell people in developing countries to stop chopping down forests and making huge numbers of babies? It's racist-imperialist-colonialist-hypocritical-capitalist oppression - yet howling about all the -ists and -isms in the world won't make these problems go away.
If the two largest economies in the world rework their energy systems for zero net CO2 generation, the world will follow - if only because such technologies will become cheaper than the fossil fuel alternatives.
The rest is, as you say, complicated.
However, our GP practice has greatly improved under covid as everything is done by telephone and if necessary a specific appointment time at the surgery where you wait in your car and are called straight into the consultation
I do not see a return to the old way at anytime in the future
The Green Party needs a paramilitary wing.
However, I don’t believe not doing it makes you somehow less British than somebody else. Each to their own
Snags: their commitment to the Compass agenda (progressive parties standing down for each other) ean they're not standing at all next month in lots of places - in my patch I think they're only contesting 1 division out of 8. COP will probably be postponed or cancelled, I gather from various sources. And they really lack a major figurehead - Lucas is the only one who maybe even half the population would have heard of.
As I said above, I’m not in favour of pulling down flags and burning them. I just am against the idea that if you don’t fly a flag or don’t wish to take part, that’s somehow a bad thing.
But you’re correct that more prosperous countries tend not to breed.
I’ve never flown a flag in my life from anywhere and I don’t intend to start. To me it’s all a waste of time