RobertSnozers wrote:Tizme1 wrote:I agree this was a stunt by Osborne. A pretty piss poor 'trap' for Labour. In political/tactical terms [from the point of view of Labour], I think Miliband made the right choice. In making that choice, he will have been fully aware that the Greens, Plaid, and SNP would attack him for it. In voting with the government [regardless of the actual vote being meaningless really], Labour were saying they agree with the need for austerity. As Greens, we oppose that - hence Caroline's tweets. Twitter doesn't really allow for much nuance does it. Besides, as I say, we absolutely disagree with the Tories and Labour about the need for austerity, regardless of their different approaches. That said, Natalie has already said that as a party, we couldn't work with the Tories but we could work with Labour. I hope that does come to pass.
Do the Greens agree with the need to bring the deficit down? I'd be interested to see how they intend to do it if so - entirely on economic growth or some other way? If not, I'd be interested to see how they intend to run the economy. I mean this genuinely - no one wants to see an alternative to capitalism more than me.
The Green Party have such an alternative view that the question kind of becomes redundant I think. That said, obviously Greens accept the deficit can't just be ignored. The following is what was in the Green 2010 manifesto;
Our programme has to be paid for, and we accept that the Government borrowing of 12% of GDP is unsustainable. Like the Government, we would aim to more than halve the deficit by 2013, and the programme of taxation and spending in this manifesto is designed to achieve that.
• Raise taxation from its current very low level of only 36% of GDP – for example it exceeded 40% in all Mrs Thatcher’s years in office.The fiscal gap is not caused by too much public spending but by taxation dropping to unacceptably low levels.
• Ensure that those most able to pay bear their fair share, and introduce a much-needed increase in environmental taxation.
• Regulate the financial sector more strictly, preferably at the international or EU level, but if necessary just in the UK. In particular, separate retail from investment banking.
• Support new institutions like a green investment bank and local community banks in the financial sector, and new ways of investing in the green economy, such as green national savings bonds.
• Reverse the trend towards an economy ever more dependent on financial services, and build a new and sustainable agricultural and manufacturing base to the economy.
• Protect basic public services, which are the foundation of an equitable society. Modest efficiency savings may be possible(perhaps £2–3bn, or 0.25% over the entire public service each year, and in particular by improving energy efficiency in schools and hospitals), but nothing on the scale relied upon by the other parties to make their figures add up. Cuts to health and education services will hit the poorest and most vulnerable first. We must help the poorest pensioners and children in particular.
• Abandon gross domestic product as the key measure of economic success, and seek instead to increase our overall welfare.
• Encourage greater sharing of intellectual property by reducing, but not abandoning, levels of patent and copyright protection. In particular we would legalise peer to peer copying where it is not done as a business and make it impossible to patent broad software and cultural ideas.
Below is a link to Green Party Economic Policy. Be warned - its a long read. Realistically, it would take many years to bring it all about. The Green Party approach is holistic so it's difficult to consider one policy area without taking into account all other policies.
http://policy.greenparty.org.uk/ec.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative.
) so hope it makes at least a little bit of sense 
