I am an environmental socialist. As such my allegiance is towards the Green Party and the Labour Party.

 

As the contest for power in Britain is between Labour and Conservative I would tend to focus on that rather than to support the Green party in elections.

 

I am a Labour supporter because:

 

1. I do not support any of the Tory aims or philosophies:

 

• I do not believe in god. I am an antitheist.
• I am not a monarchist. I do not recognise the right for any persons to rule us and I do not support the huge amount of public money spent on the Royal Family. They are among the wealthiest in the world because of the assets they seized from the people of this country. They have more than enough to support themselves. They have been reduced to a quaint pageant.
• I am not a patriot. I believe in all humanity and have a global perspective. There are good and bad things about our history and culture and I’m not a nationalist – I’m an internationalist.
• I do not believe in a free market economy where the rich exploit people for profit and become obscenely rich while the poor suffer. Particularly the way this operates on a world-wide market and creates poverty, starvation and death. I believe it is morally wrong.
• I do not believe in ‘trickle down’. I think history shows that the rich are quite happy to live in extreme luxury while working people live in slums and starve. Paternal obligation fails.
• I do not believe in deregulation. We saw the effects of that when Thatcher deregulated the cattle food industry. They promptly lowered the temperature in the processing plants to save money and increase profits. The result was BSE and a devastated beef market. It cost billions. History shows that deregulation results in cutting corners, putting health and safety at lower levels, putting profits first and lives at risk.
• I do not believe in privatisation. I cannot see how putting someone in charge to cream of profits for themselves can possibly make anything cheaper. I simply do not believe in competition.
• I do not believe in a flexible labour market. It results in poor pay, zero hours contracts and poor conditions.

2. I do support most Labour beliefs.

• I do believe that a man or woman deserves fair pay for a fair day’s work.
• I do not believe that bosses deserve huge multimillion pound salaries and multimillion pound bonuses. I find that obscene. They do not work harder that a man or woman down a pit or a teacher in a classroom.
• I do believe in a much fairer distribution of wealth.
• I do believe in environmentalism, feminism and liberalism.
• I do believe in reform and change.
• I do believe in higher taxes to pay for good social services – schools, hospitals, council services, roads and infrastructure.
• I do believe the government should intervene and insist on fairness, standards, health and safety, good management, good practice and no unlawful practice.
• I do think that the state should run our national services. I would have the NHS, all Schools, Rail, Roads, Water, Electricity, Gas, Postal services all run by the State. The sale and fragmentation of the rail network, water, gas, electricity and postal service is a stupidity and has not benefited anyone. It does not make any sense to me at all.
• I believe privatisation puts more money into the hands of the rich.
• I believe that private schools give privilege to those that can afford it and maintain the establishment, old boy network and the gulf between rich and poor. The state system needs more funding.
• I do believe that the huge difference between rich and poor is responsible for a lot of social unrest and misery. It needs addressing. I would do that through taxation. We desperately need to redistribute wealth.
• I do believe the rights and working conditions of ordinary people need protecting.
• I do believe we need a welfare state for those in need. Though I do believe that it has gone far too far. It should be a safety net for those in real need and not a hand-out for the work-shy and scroungers. It is one area that I have some sympathy for Tory policy. Though I do believe that we should provide basic short-term housing, care and support.
• I believe we have to discourage people from having more than two children. There should be no child benefit and punitive taxation. The population explosion needs curbing.
• I believe that no social change or beneficial conditions for workers has been freely given. Fairness, pay and justice has come about through struggle and blood.

 

As far as I’m concerned it is a no-brainer. I vote Labour.

 

If I had my way the world would run on socialist values and everything would be hunky-dory, fair, just and harmonious. There would not be poverty, poor education, poor health or grotesque wealth differentials.

 

Now, as a pragmatist I can see the downside. Nationalised industries do become flaccid and complacent. Having investment and industrial competition creates some vitality.

 

The values and philosophy of the parties is diluted by pragmatism.

 

In order to get elected neither of the two main parties can fully put its policies into operation.

 

The Tories have to give a standard of living to the workers or they won’t vote for them. I believe they give as little as they possibly can and put a spin on it through the media they control.

 

The Socialists have to reduce taxes and support business in order to create the wealth needed to have the level of social care.

I’m sure you all have your own views on this! I’d like to hear what they are.