i’ve just joined the green party! come on in the waters lovely!… tho i expect, as often the case with pond life, may prove somewhat lurid green algae hued
£31 a year fully waged, £10 low waged, bargain
it’s actually somewhat of a suprise to me that i’m not a member already (never been of any particular party)
despite campaigning for the greens for my mate henners in the vauxhall byelection back in very early 90’s, that was a hoot, and first green ever to retain the deposit!
like many progressives in this country turned off politics primarily as its a bit crap always being on the losing side… bludgeoned by the repressive hegemony of the right ever since i can remember! tho obv relative affluence has shielded me from the worst of it
anyway being positive i think the green party is ideal for me… single issue focused on the climate change … the juggernaut hurtling towards human civilisation, yet also with the sense of an overview, whilst realising the importance of, and even cherishing connectedness
i have immense respect for local mp (sadly not my mp) caroline lucas… who is to my mind: passionate, dignified and pragmatic… and yeah i appreciate its easier when your the only mp and would struggle to schism with yourself
like everyone i’ve been thinking about politics a lot since the referendum… the green party is the one i have most congruence with, it concurs with many (but not all) aspects of my identity
in that i am progressive, white, english, middle class, middle aged, graduate… which is very much not the same as saying you need to be any of these things to support the green party
truth be told, had the world, my world, stayed the same as the 1970’s Surrey one i grew up in, then i would quite happily have been a liberal, Orange is a great colour, wandered around well meaning in my socks and sandals, supporting anyone who is to the left of the tories…
the referendum result is to my eye a disaster, i feel angry and hurt about it, but yeah, need to move on, its just damaging and exhausting
In May the tories have found one of the few people in their camp who will pull the trigger and have no scruples about it yeuchhhh!
I can’t imagine there will be an election for 3 years, Scotland will leave, and Rump Britain will be, if possible, more Right wing than ever
to a large extent its my kids generation who will have to find their way through the mess… sorry
my main concern, like many folk, is the rise of a populist ‘working class’ right wing movement… i would dearly love to see a strong left wing alternative to that… wish corbyn well with it… for various reasons, i don’t feel thats my fight…
somewhat concerned by my ability to ‘other’ those who don’t agree or are different to me… particularly the white working class… it goes back to school… we should all be mindful of those tendencies
its importance to acknowledge the limitations and bias in our own position, yet still say what we feel to be true
permaculture, yoga, buddhism, ecstatic dance, hugging, singing… will these save the world? probably not, depending on your perspective, i doubt if you’ve grown up in the shanty towns of the developing world you’d think that,
or for that matter many parts of britain away from the luxury of the cozy cocoon of brighton
but these things are a lot of fun and might, if we’re mindfull and try to remain open and optimistic, actually do some good
valueing words (whilst misspelling valuing!) , i’m not a big fan of slogans, ha, my fave from the student demos when i was young was the gay rights one ‘we’re up, we’re out, we’re not going shopping!’
anyway thats enough of politics from me… said… as always… exactly what you’d expect me to say… and somewhat long windedly
but yeah ‘see you on the barricades’… i’ll be wearing glitter and waving a flower and a dayglo buddha, and probably won’t last long, but see you on the barricades
https://my.greenparty.org.uk/civicrm/membership/joining
