By turns authoritarian, bizarre or just highly unrealistic, this manifesto shows up the rather obvious flaw in the Greens approach, they want to be radical, but in the present democratic climate (which they have no wish change, other than tamper round the edges) the reforms they propose range from ludicrous to laughable.

Their Manifesto for a Sustainable Society is riddled with holes, which I hope to outline in this over long document (you think this is boring, try reading their manifesto)

The main plank of the Green’s drive towards an ecologically sound, sustainable society is the Citizens Income scheme

"A Citizen's Income sufficient to cover an individual's basic needs will be introduced, which will replace tax-free allowances and most social security benefits. A Citizen's Income is an unconditional, non-withdrawable income payable to each individual as a right of citizenship. It will not be subject to means testing and there will be no requirement to be either working or actively seeking work."

They further claim

"When the Citizens' Income is introduced it is intended that nobody will be in a position that they will receive less through the scheme than they were entitled to under the previous benefits system."

This is where alarm bells start ringing all over the shot (and believe me they don’t stop ringing throughout their manifesto)

The Greens claim that this scheme

“will make full-time paid employment less necessary, and will encourage home-based and part-time employment, and work in the 'third sector' People will be able to choose their own working lifestyles.”

The most obvious question here is why will this scheme make full time employment less necessary, if the scheme is only set to pay people current benefit rates?

Do the Green’s honestly expect people to live on fifty quid a week for the rest of their lives whilst contributing to righteous social enterprises. It seems in the middle class Green world the only hassle about being on benefit is having the job centre on your case all the time trying to encourage you to get a job. Unfortunately in the real world unemployment is a blight on the working classes, and most working people will not be satisfied with a benefit rate income to raise their families and lead meaningful lives.

The Greens fantasise about a world in which money becomes less important, and we can all spend our lives doing voluntary work and tending our allotments - this is offensive .. the bottom line is that most people work because benefit levels only inflict poverty and hardship, so for the average individual this scheme would need to offer a payment way above the current benefit rates to have any impact whatsoever.

The reality is that we already have a citizens income scheme in this country, it’s called the welfare state, and piss poor as it is this plan will do little to improve things, other than give middle class layabouts an excuse to lounge around on the dole for even longer after spunking the working classes tax money at posh universities.

Whilst it may, and it’s a big may, encourage people to take up part time or flexi-work, the Working Tax Credit scheme already facilitates this. In fact it’s a common feature of Green Party Policy that many of the thing’s they demand actually already happen, but most Green’s are too alienated from everyday society to even be aware of this.

The other feature of Green Party Policy which stands out consistently across their manifesto is an avoidance of hard facts and figures explaining how all of the new services, regulatory bodies etc are actually going to be paid for.

It seems that they live in that naïve adolescent world where the government has an unlimited budget (bit like their parents), failing to realise that money doesn’t actually fall out of the sky and public services are paid for by the hard earned taxes of the working people of this country (of which there would be substantially less if the Greens got their way).

The Greens make little noise about corporation tax only stating that corporation tax “will be banded, with higher rates payable by larger companies in order to encourage smaller businesses.”

So where’s the fucking money gonna come from then? Without labouring the point, as you read on, which I hope you will, it fast becomes apparent that most of this Manifesto is actually pie in the sky which could have been knocked up by any idealistic teenager with no grasp of even the most basic of economics.

With regards to VAT, well the money ain’t coming from there as the Greens “would phase out VAT over a period of time and replace it with a system of environmental taxation “

Well one fundraiser sure to hit the poorest and most vulnerable in society is their proposed tax on fossil fuels, guaranteed to make life that little bit harder for struggling families and senior citizens alike.

As for those on a pension the Greens propose to rename the national pension scheme a citizens pension scheme in much the same way they’ve rebranded the dole. Neatly sidestepping the looming pensions crisis by ignoring it completely the Greens plan to do away with compulsory retirement, making it unclear as to when the Citizens Pension Scheme (which they say will pay more than the Citizens Income scheme) will kick in. Once again, how this will be paid for is sadly ommitted.

Welcome to green Britain, where no-one has a job ‘cos it rains pound notes.

Leaving economics aside (let’s face it, it’s not their strong suit) the Green’s social policy is equally riddled with inconsistencies and misconstrued gibberish.

Take drugs (go on kids), for example, whilst the Greens attempt to be down with the kids they are unequivocal in their pursuit of dealers

"Unauthorised production, importation and marketing of all drugs controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act (1971) would remain criminal offences. Fines, confiscation of assets and prison sentences would continue to be imposed for serious drugs trafficking offences."

However in the same breath they claim

"Prohibition is counter-productive; it is more damaging to the drug user, the community and society than the drug use it seeks to eliminate."

So which is it to be then?

Whilst they do claim that they would set up a Royal Commission to look at drug reclassification, they remain firmly on the fence when it comes to issues of whether ecstasy/mushrooms and the like should remain in the same class as heroin. What does seem sure is that under the Green’s they would still remain illegal, placing them firmly in the camp of the prohibitionists.

Meanwhile the Greens authoritarian streak extends to banning smoking in all public places, banning all alcohol advertising and sponsorship, as well as advertising cannabis, if and when it becomes legalised. So say goodbye to Weed World, The Carling Cup and quite possibly the independent brewing industry, who without the ability to advertise their products would never be able to compete in terms of distribution against the big breweries.

How the Greens policy of Dutch style cannabis cafes squares with their policy of banning smoking in all public places is anyone’s guess, coffee shops where you’re not allowed to skin up I guess, how strange.

On to education, and the first big news

“No publicly-funded school or learning centre will be run by a religious group.”

Further stating that schools shall be “prohibited from delivering religious instruction in any form or encouraging adherence to any particular religious belief.”

Which will not only mean the closure of thousands of schools across the country, but also centralise even further the educational strategy in the hands of the Green Party government.

In the same breath the Greens promote alternative education systems including home schooling but also Steiner Schools, that pseudo-scientific nonsense based on the musings of a low grade fascist and his obsession with anthroposophy.

So clearly crypto religious tuition is acceptable to the Greens, but only the religions they like.

With the emphasis on home schooling one has to wonder whether parents will retain the right to educate their own children in their own religion, the Greens seem to have concerns about the role of parents stating

“Parents are important educators of their children, but we need to recognise that they do not own their children, and may not always act in their children's best interests. Like schools, parents may act as inhibitors of learning.”

So there you go, your kids belong to the Party (I think we’ll drop the Green prefix from now on).

Oh yeah, forgot to mention the Party are set to do away with schools all together,

We foresee the institution we know as "school" evolving until the name "learning resource centre" will be more appropriate.

Whatever…

On to some good news though

"LEAs will fund schools to employ more paid teachers and classroom assistants, and to recruit more parents to assist in schools. Pay of teachers and other staff should be improved."

The Green will also do away with tuition fee’s and re-instate grants.

There’s that never ending stream of cash again.

The Party ain’t gonna be tolerating any nonsense from the kids though

“some behavioural problems may require temporary segregation to respect the wishes of the child involved and to protect other children. "Special" schools will be opened up to enable any child to benefit from staff and facilities.”

On animal rights, well I can’t complain about the Green’s decision to ban animal testing (although they’ll have a fight and a half on their hands), but they also plan to re-introduce dog licences, license all animal breeders and ban all blood sports including shooting.

Now I didn’t shed any tears when fox hunting was banned, but to my mind to go out and shoot and eat a pheasant is the ultimate free range farming.

For all their talk of living off the land and local sustainable production, this seems to be hypocritical and overtly sentimental. They keep quiet on the subject of fishing, but pigeon fanciers, expect to be visited and registered with your ‘Local Animal Rights Officer.’

The Party doesn’t like guns (no plans to get rid of the army though) which I guess is fair enough, but to “prohibit the use and private ownership of firearms and lethal weapons, such as air rifles, crossbows, etc., except on registered premises” seems to be going a little too far, as does the proposed legislation that children’s toy guns should only be permitted if made out of see through plastic … I shit you not.

On health, well I guess you could write the script yourself, prescription charges to be phased out (oh look a fifty pound note just landed in my lap, must be raining money again) as well as providing

Community Health Centres (which) will be the focal points for self-help and community-based initiatives and will also provide a full range of services including primary health care, and health education and health promotion programmes.

So what exactly is that clinic at the end of my road then?

The Party stays on the fence yet again regarding alternative healthcare, only stating that they will set up yet another legislative body “with responsibility for natural medicines, including nutritional supplements, medicinal plants and herbal remedies, essential oils and homeopathic remedies.”

On mental health (and mines starting to suffer after a day of reading Green Party policy) the poor old party seems incapable of challenging the draconian mental health act, preferring instead to introduce (yet more) legislation to “prevent the ‘demonisation’ of clients of the mental health services in particular by the media.”

Which frankly sounds like a load of unworkable nonsense similar to the current dictatorship’s plans to outlaw religious hatred.

On housing, well really it’s when the party starts to talk about homelessness that their ignorance of the complex issues surrounding this epidemic problem kick in. They plan to integrate housing benefit into the Citizen’s Income scheme, which will leave people responsible for paying their own rent … which is all well and good until you consider that many of those homeless or vulnerably housed often suffer from multiple depravations such as substance misuse issues or mental health problems (pay the rent … buy some crack … pay the rent …buy some crack … what’s rent?).

More importantly no social landlord (or local authority for that matter) is likely to house anyone with a history of long term homelessness without some kind of guaranteed rent payment which the current system provides (flawed as it is).

So bypassing the fact that this alone may well lead to mass homelessness amongst the most vulnerable sectors of society, the Party has come up with the cosy plan to move all homeless people into empty properties, offering loans to groups of homeless people to take over empty properties (what the actual owners of the property may make of this is anyone’s guess).

All well and good in theory, until you look at the facts and the stark reality that without intensive support many long term homeless people abandon shiny new flats within weeks of moving in, as the pressures of living and maintaining a tenancy become too much.

The homeless sector has long used hostels and the like to prepare vulnerable people for independent living, offering resettlement and tenancy support sometimes for several years after they may take on a tenancy of their own.

The party has no truck with any of that nonsense and plans to do away with hostels and temporary accommodation altogether, nah, just chuck ‘em in a squat, give ‘em a wad of cash and run for cover.

In what would be good news for almost everyone the Party also plans to amend legislation to “give local authorities the same duties with regard to single people and childless couples as to families.”

Now this writer would love to see social housing for all, but fails to understand where the 5 to 10 million properties would come from to facilitate this (after all, who’d rent privately or even buy when you can have a cheap flat off the council).

It’s getting late and I’m growing weary. I feel like I’m nitpicking, the Greens do have some good ideas on the environment, but when it comes to social policy it seems to be just fantasy piled on top of fantasy devised by people who have no idea how society actually operates.

Whilst social housing for all, and the citizens income and all the other initiatives sound great, they just don’t stand up without a radical overhaul of the principles of society and the people in that society at large.

The Greens want to have their cake and eat it, they want to be anarchists in government, to do away with capital whilst simultaneously spending wads of cash., to be libertarian whilst introducing more and more laws.

Perhaps they should remain a single issue party, perhaps they should become more honest and move closer to the centre, allowing their natural authoritarian streak to take hold, whilst pushing the radicals back out onto the margins where they wouldn’t be so constrained by the desire to be elected.

Perhaps they should just call it a day, with a paltry membership of around 6,000 people they’re hardly a powerful force in British politics anymore, and I would suggest that’s largely due to many of the policies mentioned here, which are unlikely to inspire people to go out and vote for them.

I started so I’ll finish though…

On crime the party promotes the “principle of ‘restorative justice‘, which while denouncing the crime, deals constructively with both the victim and the offender.”

In practical terms this seems to mean that those with the cash to make ‘reparations’ to their victims will walk, while those without the cash get slung in the slammer, once again punishing the most vulnerable members of society.

The Party seeks to set up two new ministries:

1)Departments of Crime Prevention: in addition to traditional modes of crime prevention, these departments will also promote social crime prevention.
2)Departments of Justice: in addition to responsibility for the judicial system, sentencing policy and practice, these departments will also sponsor services such as assistance to victims.

Err, why? Spend some more money ‘innit. So along with the home office, the cops, the judiciary, the magistrates courts, the criminal injuries compensation boards, the prison service, the probation service, victim support and all the rest the party seeks to introduce yet more bureaucracy into an already over-burdened system.

They also wish to recruit yet more community and part-time police, who presumably will spend most of their time getting picked on by teenagers if the Hackney experience is anything to go by.

On immigration the Party hopes for

“Long term global vision is of an international economic order where the relationship between regions is non-exploitative, each region is as self-reliant and economically self- sufficient as practicable and the quality of life (social, political, environmental, cultural and economic) is such that there is less urge to migrate.”

I think we can all spot the subtext there…

In fact looking at the Party’s website it seems that they might be more accurately named the White Party.

Whilst other parties are falling over themselves to encourage more minority candidates this doesn’t seem to be a point of concern to the Greens who consistently field white middle class candidates in working class areas where the majority of the population is from ethnic minority, and working class backgrounds.

The Party does have one interesting line on immigration

“A residual role for military personnel would exist in detection and apprehension of criminals attempting to by-pass customs and immigration.”

Cool, the militarisation of our borders, get a grip guys.

And on that bombshell I’ll sign off, just to say that this sorry alliance of dreamers, idealists, authoritarians and useless hippies is far from coming close to being a serious political challenger in this country and urgently needs to rethink their direction before becoming lost completely, with marginalized voters turning to the equally pointless and unrealistic Respect or SWP parties.

This country would do no harm from having a strong political environmental lobby, sadly we seem further away from it than ever.