Green Party



The Green Party of England and Wales (The Green Party) are a green-issues party with strong aspects of social progressivism. It currently has one Member of Parliament in the House of Commons, Caroline Lucas, who is the representative for the Brighton Pavilion, as well as being the party leader. The party has marginally more success in the European Parliament with two MEP’s. They also have 147 local councilors across England and Wales.

They are known for the liberal views on drugs policy, as well as their general left wing ideologies. In test that took place in 2010, 23.68% of the UK population preferred the policies of the Green party, the highest scoring amongst all the parties, when not told which political parties polices they were.

Policies
They mainly aim to counter threats to the environment, as outlined by the document ‘Policies for a Sustainable Society’, but they also deal with many issues such as social equality.

Economy
The Green party does not see economic growth to be a good indicator of progression as it believes the planets resources are finite. This leads to the party being against consumerism and the capitalist lifestyle due to their unsustainably.

They aim for a network of informal economies on a local scale, which will be supported by a network of publicly owned banks. They believe that the actions of the banking system and of the current government in the UK, of bailing out the banks with tax payers money but failing to force them to give credit to families and business, were irresponsible.

They believe in a non means-tested and unconditional weekly payment, the ‘Citizen’s Income’ to replace jobseekers allowance to allow people to enter paid work without falling into the poverty trap. In other words, to prevent situations in which people get more money staying on benefits rather than seeking poorly paid work. This is a way to achieve a level of prosperity within a zero growth economy.

As well the typical socialist aim to increase the top band of taxes, they also aim for eco-taxes following the principle of ‘the polluter pays’.

Tuition Fees
The Green party opposes tuition fees and aims for universally free education to increase social mobility. The party also wants more emphasis on vocational education.

Health and the NHS
The Green party aims for an entirely free healthcare system which is publicly funded within the UK, with no service charges.

Pensions
Under their government a completely non-means tested pension would be provided, as well as free care.