Are The Greens the new Raving Loony Party!

Just had a response from the green party candidate in my constituency.
I bet you know what he said.

Thanks for the link about NHS Jen, I have completed it and forwarded to MP and Prospective Parliamentary Candidates.

Caroline Lucas has managed to get a debate on Wednesday about the NHS.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-31768259

Okay, it might not make any difference, but it's interesting that the government says that the CCGs do not have to put out to tender. They are lying again.

How to find out what your parliamentary candidates think about the NHS.

nhap.us7.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=937c3e62bc24fa37708920cc9&id=f8b15d84ed&e=716bee6853

m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31778342

Whether independents or small parties can make a difference.

Of course the Scottish voters know.
That's why so many of them are voting for SNP, so they at last have power in Westminster. And why not? All the main parties said they wanted them to stay part of the union, so they have and are now going to use their power. Good on them, I say.

You have the same background as myself then Gill and I'm thinking the Scottish voters do know the impact it might have on the rest of the UK but feel that's a bridge that needs to be crossed - and even explored further.

British politics is entering a new phase. It's going to be very interesting at least to see where all this will lead.

Yes Anya I dont have a problem with the SNP as representative of people living in Scotland, even as a Scot living elsewhere as I am. But, I am not certain that Scottish SNP voters appreciate the impact of their vote, the impact on the rest of the UK which could be left with no major party in opposition. I understand that a lot of the SNP vote is more anti-Westminster/London Tory party than anything else, but it could have very long standing implications for the rest of the UK. This is going to be a very important election for more than the usual reasons, I feel as if we are at a bit of a crossroads and the direction we take will impact more than just the next five years.

But that's democracy in action in Scotland. The will of the people.

I too am concerned about the role of the SNP in a future government.

The greens have moved on from their loony hug-a-tree mode of yesteryear and could represent a viable antidote to the potential excesses of other parties.

Me too Anya Disenchanted and undecided here. And worried. I wonder if SNP will continue making their lavish promises now that oil revenues have halved? It bothers me that SNP could wipe out Labour party in Scotland and thus severely affect balance in UK as a whole.

I dont think any party should be making pledges that they havent thought through properly. Or worked out the finances for it. Or dont have enough knowledge about. I call that shoddy at best.

It is rather like a prent saying to a child, "we will go to the sunny seaside tomorrow", without working out that whether they have enough to pay for petrol, or having bothered to look at the weather. Not good enough.

I do wish there was a viable alternative to Labour and Conservative. I'm totally disenchanted with both. No wonder the SNP are running so high in the polls in Scotland.

Having read reports of the Green Party Congress, or whatever it was called. I am sadly left with the conclusion that voting green is, in the language of the title of this thread, leaving the running of the asylum in the hands of the lunatics.

An interesting take on voting Green that I've just read. It will not be a wasted vote because you are voting against a 3-way coalition of people who have betrayed the NHS and the tax payer.

Who decides? Well each individual decides and we may not all agree. I am no apologist for this government but the financial crisis facing the country and the size of the budget deficit in 2010 meant that when they came into power cuts in expenditure were inevitable, unless we were to end up like Greece. Any party coming into power then would have had to instituted a programme of expenditure cuts. One can then argue over which cuts where and how they were done and there I would totally part company with the present administration.

But there are many people who do support what the government is doing, or at least on balance they would rather have this lot than the other lot. If that wasn't so fewer people would vote for them.

Throughout my voting life I have lived in safe conservative constituencies. Four of them, one after the other. No, I do not know many people who vote conservative, or rather admit to voting conservative but they must be there. I think most of us tend to know and be friendly with people who share our ethical views, not exclusively, but preponderantly and this can lead us to make judgements about the majority from a rather skewed sample.

So who decides?
Everybody I know is against what they have done to the NHS, and TTIP.
There's nothing in what they have done there that does not need attacking. However, they do not take any notice of the majority consensus. In fact if anything, they laugh at those attacking them. Politics to this government is like being a member of a club.

No, I am not. What I am saying is that if a government fails to honour a an election pledge we need to look at its reasons for doing so and recognise those that are valid and those that aren't so that when we attack them for not keeping pledges we attack them for the ones they have egregiously ignored and not ones that circumstances made it impossible for them to fully or partially fulfil.

Gracesgran, our expectations are based on the manifesto promises. If our expectations are ridiculous, then so must the promises be. That's not the voters fault.

So what you are saying, Flickety, is that any politician can promise anything s/he wants and and then do exactly the opposite when they get in.
No wonder people can't be bothered to vote if that's what's acceptable.

I have to agree with FlicketyB. As I see it we are intelligent and educated so need to look at the conditions under which all the promises made. They are made firstly on the assumption of power. After all we don't castigate the opposition for not getting their promises through. Then they are made on the assumption of complete power and not shared power. As soon as you have to share, some promises will be watered down and some will not be at all possible and we have to accept that as we vote in our representatives. Then we have to accept that conditions which made one decision the right one can change. As Keynes said "When the facts change, I change my mind".

The problem is our expectations are so far into the ridiculous at times that we are bound to be disillusioned by the reality.

It was not even put before parliament properly. Cameron said NHS safe with him. Hunt puts convoluted bill through parliament to introduce GP commissioning. All this outsourcing of NHS services was snuck in as part of the regulations at the last minute without proper debate.

Ther mess made of the NHS was deliberate deception. It had been planned for a good few years.

Definition of the word pledge seems to be "a solemn promise".
They should stop calling them pledges if that is what they are still doing. Because they are not worth the paper they are written on.

Or maybe sometimes the dropping of manifesto pledges does not arise because of deception, incompetence or unforeseen circumstances, but simply because individual and party ambitions override honour.