Five reason for not voting in Britain that aren’t true because of the Green Party.

One: Not wanting to support a corrupt system

There is far too much corruption, deceit and outright lying in politics today. But while the system is arguably broken, you have to ask, broken compared to what, normal people have much more of a voice in politics than 100 years ago? Was there some kind of golden age of politics they didn’t teach us about in history? And exactly what is it that not voting in an election does to undermine tackle the corruption in the system anyhow? It’s always been the case that you should at least spoil your ballot if you think the system is broken. This is just what tons of people did in the police and crime commissionaire elections.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/the-northerner/2012/nov/05/police-and-crime-commissioners-police-spoilt-ballot-paper-north-yorkshire

If we all know our political system is broken then we should get on and fix it. Even though they are certainly arcane and arduous the means to change our political system exist within it. Alternatively we could try violent revolution, but I think it might be worth voting in a few elections first, just as a last resort before we take to the hills to wage all vegan ethical guerrilla warfare on the state. Maybe we do have to accept the our current broken political system, but only as a starting point, we can do and demand better. When it comes to changing that system I can think of any better ideas than the ones that are current Green Party policy, including this rather nifty proposal.

http://policy.greenparty.org.uk/pa

PA254 Government at all levels should be accountable to electors between elections. Accordingly, necessary legislative steps will be taken to provide for any representative’s electors to be able to petition for the recall of any elected person. Specifically, a petition signed by 40% of the registered electors within an MP’s constituency will trigger a recall by-election. Until this legislation is passed, Green MPs will voluntarily resign and trigger a by-election, if they are presented with a valid recall petition signed by 40% of the registered electors within their constituency. In the event of the elected representative having been elected by the Additional Member System, the recalled representative would be replaced by the next person on their party list not to have been elected..

TL:DR If you don’t like a politician, just get 40% of the electorate who put them in power to sign saying they suck and that politician is done, none of this once your elected do what you want and break all your promises without any worries for years.

Anyhow if you really think the system is broken beyond repair figure out how to fix it better and then take your idea to your nearest Green party meeting and watch that become Green Party policy, then go out and vote for it.

Two: Voting doesn’t make a difference.

This just isn’t true, especially in the elections taking place in the UK during 2014. These will be the 2014 Local Council and European Parliament elections. Lets take a quick look at voting patterns last time the European Parliament elections happened.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Parliament_election,_2009

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Parliament_election,_2009_%28United_Kingdom%29

UK turnout was 34.48% with 15.1 million people turning out to vote. Lets say out of those roughly 45 million non-voters just third had turned out to vote for the same party. That would give that party 15 million votes, that’s more than three times the 4.2 million votes the conservatives had, and makes the 2.5m nutters UKIP had look insignificant. Our present 72 euro MEPs could look very different. The idea that voting makes no difference is nonsense, with such low turnouts in the UK, everyone’s votes matter much more than they would do in a country with a high percentage of turn out.

Turnout to local elections is normally even lower, and in these interestingly people registered to two addresses, like students at university can vote twice.

http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/faq/voting-and-registration/i-have-two-homes.-can-i-register-to-vote-at-both-addresses

So overall non voters, especially student non voters, are potentially incredibly influential. This was true even in the last general election in 2010, which had only had a 65% voter turnout. Non voters in the UK are a sleeping giants who could stand up and reshape this country overnight if they decided over the next few years.

Three: The parties are all the same

The parties are not all the same, even between Labour and the Tories there are some small differences. The Green Party however is without a doubt very different to all the rest. They have radical evidence based scientific policies on education, health, transport, culture, arrived at rationally through an open and inclusive (if rather boring formal and bureaucratic) process. I’ve just plucked out a few gems that I cannot vision any other party offering in the UK.

http://policy.greenparty.org.uk/

http://policy.greenparty.org.uk/ed

ED178 Opt-outs from equality and diversity legislation will not be allowed for faith schools and they will not be permitted to promote homophobia or transphobia on the grounds of religion.

TL:DR No more pandering to homophobic and sexist religious nuts and letting them set up free schools to indoctrinate kids into hateful belief systems.

ED264 There will be a minimum requirement to provide free education for adults to learn essential literacy, numeracy and life skills including Parenting programmes, and to acquire skills and qualifications which will help them directly gain employment. This will include provision for distance and e-learning, following models such as that of the Open University

TL:DR Give adults free essential education and training.

http://policy.greenparty.org.uk/he

HE104 Healthcare is not a commodity to be bought or sold. The National Health Service must provide healthcare, free at the point of need, funded through taxation. It must be a public service funded by, run by and accountable to local and national government and devoid of all privatisation, whether privatised administration, healthcare provision, support services or capital ownership. The NHS is concerned with healthcare provision and should not be subject to market forces either internal or external.

TL:DR No more creeping privatisation of the NHS which you’ll see under Labour and the Conservatives.

HE317 The Green Party is opposed to the development of “Foundation Hospitals” which, although argued to be locally controlled, could actually result in reduced democratic accountability given that they will be unanswerable to parliament or local authorities.

Foundation Hospitals are in fundamental opposition to the Green Party policy of the public health service remaining fully funded by public taxation (see HE104), given that they are required to produce a profit and are able to seek commercial partnerships. This is likely to result in charging for ancillary services (disadvantaging the worse off), the reduction of medical education and training, the non-treatment of specialist or rare illnesses and early discharges. Foundation Hospitals risk undermining the principles of the NHS, creating a two- or multi-tier system of uneven provision. This also threatens de facto privatisation because the amount of commercial borrowing and diversification away from key NHS functions will be governed only by the interpretations of the regulator and not by clear rules.

We would abolish Foundation status, fully reintegrating any such hospitals into the NHS system.

TL:DR central government won’t be able to shut down hospitals that the local community wish to remain open.

http://policy.greenparty.org.uk/tr

TR230 The Green Party believes that the rail system, including track and operators, needs to be publicly owned, and would seek to bring the service back into public ownership.

TL:DR Nationalise the railways.

TR270 The current state of the bus industry is the perfect example that deregulation of public transport leads to a substandard service. The Green Party would re-regulate the bus industry, with local authorities having responsibility for ensuring that bus services reflect all the principles for a public service as stated in TR200, including the setting of routes, frequencies and fares. Local or regional authorities would also ensure that all settlements that are not connected by rail services had bus routes that gave good connections to the rail system.

TL:DR regulate the bus industry in favour of service users rather than service providers.

It’s revolutionary that the Green party want public transport back in public ownership and under democratic control. Here is a wonderful article on how excellent public transport and be when it is run by the public.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nationalised-east-coast-rail-line-returns-209m-to-taxpayers-8866157.html

These are radical things that no other party is willing to even consider. And finally, I found this, I guess they don’t call it the Green party for nothing

http://policy.greenparty.org.uk/du

DU405 Cannabis would be removed from the 1971 Misuse of drugs act. The possession, trade and cultivation of cannabis would be immediately decriminalised, roughly following the Dutch model. The trade in Cannabis would be the subject of a Royal Commission (see below), with a view to establishing a fully legalised, controlled and regulated trade. Small-scale possession of drugs for personal use would be decriminalised. The starting point would be advice to policing authorities to caution rather than prosecute for offences of drug possession for personal use and to refer offenders to the health-care services (see DU411). Subsequently, regulations would be brought forward removing criminal sanctions for simple possession of controlled drugs for personal use. The recommended sentences for small-scale supply would be non-custodial options. The possession of pipes made for the use in connection with smoking of opium would no longer be a criminal offence. A Royal Commission or similar body would be established to review currently controlled drug classifications, within a legalised environment of drug use. This commission would, after wide consultation, consider and recommend frameworks of social, economic and health conditions for drug use and supply.

TL:DR Legalise the Herb.

Four: Politicians are all the same once they get in power.

In the past there has always been very little differences between the MPs in our two mainstream political parties and after they are elected they grow even more alike. Even though the mainstream parties have slightly different polices and arguably act differently in government (we probably wouldn’t have had the minimum wage under the conservatives) they are all pretty similar. You might be interested to learn that our MPs earn a rather sweet £66,396 annually. They are mostly chaps with only 22% of Parliament female and 34% of MPs went to fee paying private schools, compared with the national average of around 7%. The overwhelming majority of MPs are university educated with 24% having had a spiffing time at Oxford or Cambridge while preparing to run the country. Our cabinet MPs are worth a combined £70 million when you add their various millions together. Even our rather drippy shadow cabinet contains a horde of upper class wealthy twits led by millionaire Ed Miliband (his ‘Marxist’ father built up millions in property) and privately educated Harriet Harman is who thought to be a millionaress. Here is a lovely study on who runs our country at the moment along with some other information on the super rich who were born to rule us.

Click to access Who-Governs-Britain.pdf

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9290520/Exclusive-Cabinet-is-worth-70million.html

http://order-order.com/2010/10/11/shadow-cabinet-of-millionaires/

The corruption and unrepresentative nature of our political classes is caused and maintained by the corrupting influence of too much money sloshing about in our mainstream political parties. Labour and the Conservatives both receive millions of pounds in donations every year, and the Liberal democrats receive a healthy wedge these days as well.

http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/find-information-by-subject/political-parties-campaigning-and-donations/donations-and-loans-to-political-parties/overview-of-donations-and-loans-since-2001

http://democracydistorted.wordpress.com/2010/01/06/where-do-political-parties-get-their-money-from/

This isn’t an excuse not to vote when there are radically different candidates also running UK elections now. Normal people are starting to get more involved in politics through activism and organisations like the Green party, organisations which don’t receive or want this dirty money. Green candidates are not career politicians looking to get on the political gravy train but people driven by concern for the future. Green party campaigns are run on a shoe string budget raised with raffles and vegan bake sales, while the other parties are funded by the 1% looking to maintain their control of government. As the Green party don’t rely on ‘donations’ from media moguls and greedy business men they don’t have to kowtow to this kind of influence. This is why you’ll see a real difference when you look at the list of Green Party candidates for the Euro elections, or when you look at the candidates for the local elections in your own area.

http://greenparty.org.uk/news/2013/10/17/green-party-announces-list-of-candidates-for-euro-elections-2014/

By the way this list includes Jean Lambert who is a current MEP for London, you can check her site to see what she’s getting done, and compare that to her conservative counterpart if you really still think all politicians have to be the same.

http://www.jeanlambertmep.org.uk/index.php

http://www.charlestannock.com/index.asp

You can see that the corruption hinted at by the scandal, failure and disaster that dominates British politics is something that only the Green party wish to tackle because the Green party is the only party with polices like this.

http://policy.greenparty.org.uk/pa

PA307 UK political parties will be funded by the State. Such political funding will be calculated and administered on a regional basis, and funds allocated in proportion to the number of votes cast in the region in the last round of proportional representation elections held across the entire region. Parties would need to exceed a threshold of 3% of the vote to become eligible for this funding.

TL:DR parties no longer get massive donations from rich donors and unions to influence them in undemocratic ways.

Five: There are no good candidates in my area

The Green party is run in a very egalitarian fashion, and not as hierarchical as the other political parties. If you don’t have a Green candidate, then get along to the next Green party meeting in your area. If you have the energy to support a campaign then the party will do it’s best to stand a candidate, you might even end up having to stand your self get lumbered with the job of cleaning up city hall. The Green party is undoubtedly changing the face of British politics as we speak.

Lets just take a moment to think about how different things could have been recently if the Greens had triumphed at the euro elections in 2009. Remember this is something they would have done if only half of the current non voters worked together and voted for them. The manifesto for the euro elections last time around is still available here

Click to access EU_Manifesto_2009.pdf

There is a section from it on the economy. It’s a long section you can read it in full below. However this campaign pledge on what should be done using through European Parliament jumped out to me so much I had to mention it.

“Using European influence to tackle the loopholes that allow some £10 billion a year to be diverted from the UK tax system through the use of tax havens. Many of the tax havens are former European, or indeed UK colonies, or Crown Dependencies such as the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man;”

Another interesting pledge was to do something about taxation at the UK level as well.

We must tighten up tax enforcement to collect the £12 Billion avoided annually by the largest corporations and the £13 Billion avoided each year by wealthy individuals.

How different would the world be now if maybe 40 of our 72 MEPs had been Green party candidates, working to bring this type of thing about? Would we have news stories like this?

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/dec/05/chancellor-tax-avoidance-autumn-statement

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/vodafones-84bn-tax-avoidance-bonanza-nothing-for-taxpayers-in-verizon-deal-while-bankers-share-500m-in-fees-8794169.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/vodafone-pays-no-uk-corporation-tax-for-second-year-running-despite-earning-5-billion-in-sales-8650027.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20560359

http://www.theweek.co.uk/business/tax-avoidance/53052/amazon-tax-avoidance-%C2%A33m-tax-%C2%A34bn-uk-sales

Below is a lovely graphic on how the £502 billion currently collected in tax is spent from http://www.wheredoesmymoneygo.org Only £8 billion is spent on unemployment benefit, something that would probably shock the average Daily Mail reader. Lets take a moment to think about some of these numbers.

The Green party were looking to simply collect the estimated £35 billion that is currently lost due incompetence and a lack of political. This would have been enough to almost negate the £48 billion currently spent on disability, sickness and out of work benefits together. Alternatively it could have virtually doubled the amount these claimants received, transforming the lives of some of the most vulnerable people.

It’s also more than the £32 billion currently spent on ALL education, maybe this could have been used to scrap tuition fees, a goal of the Green Party http://policy.greenparty.org.uk/ed#Higher

ED234 Under a Green government there would be no student loans as there would be no tuition fees and living costs would be met by Citizen’s Income. In the short term we will reintroduce student grants to meet living costs.

How likely were the Green to have actually achieved this goal though? Back in 2012 HMRC was behind on getting back £10 billion owed on a backlog of 41,000 cases involving individuals and small businesses alone, ignoring larger businesses, corporations and the very very rich.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20417221

This data set for 2013 puts tax lost in the UK through evasion as high as £66 billion. To put that into perspective, that’s half the annual cost of the NHS.

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/sep/27/tax-evasion-how-much-does-it-cost-a-country

This article in the telegraph is talking about £100 billion lost in tax revenue,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/tax/10071507/100bn-lost-in-tax-avoidance-by-individuals-Oxfam.html

The independent article here talks about a figure of £4 billion lost through legal avoidance and another £4 billion through illegal avoidance.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/revealed-47bn-corporation-tax-lost-through-evasion-and-avoidance-as-royal-mail-is-sold-for-650m-less-than-it-is-worth-8874873.html

This article in the New Statesman comes up with a figure of £69 billion, taken from a rather methodical piece of research.

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2011/11/tax-avoidance-justice-network

Click to access Cost_of_Tax_Abuse_TJN_Research_23rd_Nov_2011.pdf

Maybe I’m wrong though, maybe voting wouldn’t have made a difference and it won’t make a difference now. Even so it’s still worth the effort, if you’re not voting because you feel it does more harm than good, please contact me before I do something stupid next May, but heck you better have a better plan. If not check out these sites and we’ll celebrate as the results come in next year.

https://www.aboutmyvote.co.uk/register_to_vote/electoral_registration_applica.aspx

http://www.greenparty.org.uk/