Vote Green… Our policies are ‘moronic’ but if we win we might change them!

It has to be one of the strangest reasons for voting for a political party – vote for us because if we win we are more likely to change our poorly thought out policies than if we remain unelected.  But that essentially is what Patrick Harvie MSP says in a comment responding to an article on The Times website:

I recognise that the Green movement has taken some time to develop from a single issue group, and perhaps in some areas we’ve some way to go yet… The best way of supporting our continued development is to subject us to parliamentary scrutiny, so that our policies can be tested alongside the rest.

This article is also accompanied by comments from other Green party activists who argue that their policies might be poor, but they are still fairly new.  I have no problem with parties developing and changing policies due to changed circumstances.  That is why I don’t agree, as some have advocated, that party manifestos should be legally binding.   All parties develop their policies as time goes  by as they come up with better ways of achieving the same result or simply events move on.  But to argue that your policies are poor because you are a fairly new party is ludicrious.  And anyway, the Green Party was formed in 1985.  1973 if you include its predecessor as the Ecology Party.  That is long enough to come up with a coherent set of policies.

One comment made about the article is also surprising:

I am an active member of the Green Party, but this policy is frankly moronic. It is not a manifesto commitment, so MEPs elected this year will not be pushing for it. Please consider what Greens parties are going to prioritise rather than some out dated policy the party hasn’t got round to changing.

The Liberal Democrats have been attacked over the years by other parties who either cite out of date policy or simply take MPs questions on a subject in the House of Commons as a statement of beliefs when all they are doing in asking a question.  But at least the Liberal Democrats don’t put outdated policies in its manifesto or make them available on their website.  The priorities argument is fair enough, but saying “don’t worry about our stupid ideas as we won’t ever carry them out” is still worrying.

What makes the above quote even more worrying is that it is apparently from an Adrian Ramsay (as is the very similar comment after it that appears to be from a different person but somehow has his name on too – is this a botched attempt at sockpuppetry?).  Is this the same Adrian Ramsay who is Leader of the Green Party in Norwich and their PPC for Norwich South?  If so, then describing his own policies as moronic perhaps won’t do him any favours.

Despite this, I am however slightly suspicious of the number of people who make comments along the lines of “I was thinking of voting Green, but now I know this I won’t”.  But despite that, it is time for the Greens to get more scrutiny as many of the people who vote for the party because they are small ‘g’ greens would actually be appalled at some of the things they believe in, as I discussed in my previous post which went on to explain why liberals shouldn’t vote Green.  I have long been interested in environmental issues and they are one of the first things that made me political, but at the end of the day I am fundamentally a liberal and that is why I am a Liberal Democrat and not a Green.  Reading articles like this one from The Times reminds me that I am in the right party.

Hat-tip: Mark Pack on Liberal Democrat Voice