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Green Party Manifesto and the Citizen's Pension

(40 Posts)
Gracesgran Tue 14-Apr-15 17:32:54

I know not all Gransnet members are pensioners but all will be one day so I thought this may be of interest. This opens out as a pdf document so you will need Adobe to read it. The Adobe reader is free and is on most devices these days. I reduced it to 100% as it took a while to scroll through otherwise.

https://www.greenparty.org.uk/assets/files/manifesto/Green_Party_2015_General_Election_Manifesto.pdf

The bit about the Citizen's Pension is on page 56.

Citizen's Pension
The bedrock of our pension policy is the Citizen's Pension which, unlike the new flat-rate pension, would be paid to all pensioners regardless of their contribution record, and to existing as well as new pensioners, so no pensioner will live in poverty. We would introduce this in 2016. It will pay £180 a week to a single pensioner, or £310 for a couple taking all pensioners above the poverty line. Increases will be at the higher of the increases in the prices of basic goods and services or in average earnings.

The existing State Pensions and Pension Credits cost £90 billion a year, while the new pensions above will cost £116 billion. The net cost is therefore £26 billion. We will fund this by reducing tax and National Insurance incentives for private pensions by one half, raising £20 billion (see the Older People and Pensions' section in Chapter 5) and using a further £6 billion available from abolishing the National Insurance upper threshold (see the Child Benefit section above)

NB: I couldn't copy and paste so I have typed this up so do look at the original to ensure accuracy. There is more about Older People and Pensions on page 29.

rosesarered Wed 15-Apr-15 14:43:27

Well GracesGran I feel that many who applaud Labour may live to regret that too! the Conservatives and the Lib Dems together have done a good job of bringing the country back from the brink of disaster, which is why I think they deserve a second term.The Greens can say any old thing, as they won't ever, thankfully, be in power.The Lib Dems, who thought they would not be in power last time had to rein back from the tuition fees debacle, because once they were actually in power, they could see that it could not be accomplished.

Gracesgran Wed 15-Apr-15 16:25:32

No mollie65 I agree that Labour has moved to the right too. In fact the only parties that are really left of centre now are the SNP and Greens.

Gracesgran Wed 15-Apr-15 16:29:27

The Lib Dems, who thought they would not be in power last time had to rein back from the tuition fees debacle, because once they were actually in power, they could see that it could not be accomplished.

It's always nice not to be so partisan that we ignore the truth rosesarered. The Lib Dems could not have carried the vote so had to compromise as did the Conservatives whose manifesto said they would have completely uncapped tuition fees. If the Tories can, I have no doubt they would do this in the future.

Ana Wed 15-Apr-15 16:36:47

I can find no reference to uncapping tuition fees in the Conservatives' 2010 manifesto, Gracesgran. Nor have I heard of it ever being proposed, by any party.

Mishap Wed 15-Apr-15 16:36:56

As I have said before - parties make promises that cannot be kept once the realities of being in government (especially a coalition). By making promises they set themselves up for hatred and anger when they fail to keep them - even if they had no choice, and had to reach a compromise. The Lib Dems unwisely got themselves into this bind and are paying the price. But they, and all the other parties, are still making promises in this election campaign. They know they cannot all be kept, we know that too - so why make them? Why not just say these are the principles we wish to follow and we will get as close to this as we can, given the circumstances we might find ourselves in. I would vote for any party that said that!

GrannyTwice Wed 15-Apr-15 17:45:20

Grace - the proposal for uncapped fees was in the Browne Review which I'm sure reported after the election. But on the wider topic, I have never ever ever and never never would vote on the basis of what is in a manifesto. I never bother to read them as I can't be doing with so much fiction. And as we face another coalition government, manifestos are even more unreliable, if that's possible. Mishap I couldn't agree with you more- very well said. It's all about basic principles and values. And I could never in a thousand lifetimes espouse those of the Conservative Party.

durhamjen Wed 15-Apr-15 17:51:55

The libdems have just gone and lost a lot of wavering voters, by saying that Labour voters do not have a brain.

Ana Wed 15-Apr-15 17:57:55

Nick Clegg said that in any future coalition the Lib Dems would be the Tories’ heart and Labour’s brain.

Not exactly what you are making out, durhamjen.

Ana Wed 15-Apr-15 18:02:36

As you told someone else on another thread, you really should not exaggerate to make your point!

rosequartz Wed 15-Apr-15 23:34:37

He definitely did not say 'labour voters'.
Ana has posted the correct version.
Indeed, it may have made up the minds of wavering voters - to vote lib dem!

rosesarered Thu 16-Apr-15 10:19:48

Yup, he did'nt say Labour voters don't have a brain, I listened to that speech and thought it was very good.He said the Lib Dems would be the Conservatives heart and Labours brain.

Gracesgran Thu 16-Apr-15 11:26:18

I can find no reference to uncapping tuition fees in the Conservatives' 2010 manifesto, Gracesgran. Nor have I heard of it ever being proposed, by any party.

You are right Ana. I broke my own views on forum debates and didn't check on this. I believe that I heard this mentioned when one of the members of the Lib Dems. who was involved with the post election conversations with the Conservatives, was interviewed but I have no reference and I may have misheard about the timing.

Ana Thu 16-Apr-15 12:04:55

Thank you, Gracesgran. I looked up the Browne Report as mentioned by GTwice. The main points are summarised below, but the proposals certainly were not just as simple as uncapping tuition fees, which would still be subsidised by the government in any event.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11519147

(I know this has nothing to do with the thread, just a point of interest perhaps)

Pension60 Sat 25-Apr-15 01:30:53

The Greens stopped offering the Citizen State Pension after Ms Lucas' interview on BBC Four.

Also the citizen income also got kicked into the long grass, as did the Living Wage policy.

The Greens offer the poor pensioners nothing at all now.

www.anastasia-england.me.uk