My refutation of Owen Jones' article of 22 February

Owen Jones, left-wing journalist and loyal supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, and most famous for authoring "Chavs: The Demonisation of the Working Class", has recently claimed that the Greens should join up with Labour: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/22/greens-labour-jeremy-corbyn

It is clear that Owen is demonstrating the same sense of entitlement as so many left-wing Labour members and supporters, who spend more time trying to unseat who they see as rivals on the same side rather than Labour's natural opponent, the Conservatives.

He is also entirely wrong about the Progressive Alliance: it was not responsible for depriving the Conservatives of their majority; on the other hand it was a clear disaster for the Green Party and was not a real alliance at all since Labour never intended to reciprocate. The Greens' best performances were mostly in areas with a strong Liberal Democrat vote or naturally progressive vote-a strong Labour vote was and is not a significant factor here. And even when such an idea was being put into action for the snap 2017 general election, the Conservatives were at that point still on track for a landslide victory anyway, due to UKIP tacitly lending support to their "hard Brexit" plan. It was the Conservatives' own fault they lost their majority-their 2017 campaign was one of the worst in British history and they could not stand up to genuine scrutiny. The electoral system needs to be changed as well-Labour (along with Owen of course) is as decidedly uninterested in electoral reform as the Conservatives.

This is of course not the first time I have mentioned these truths or myth-busted pro-Labour propaganda-but to some the message has not sunk in yet. A red-green alliance is not necessary or useful at all and the Green Party, if it is to remain true to its core values and in bringing about a new green way of life to everyone, should never ally with Labour under any circumstances, especially after Labour has spent so much time and money trying to oust Green councillors (as shown in Private Eye regarding Islington council).

Comments

  1. Ricky Knight25 February 2018 at 18:29

    Good contribution, Alan - it's unclear to me to what extent Jones is trying to undermine the Greens - he (like Brand) has been really supportive in the past - but then along came the Saviour, JC. Nonetheless, he is at least prolonging the 'dialogue' and his article has been a reasonable 'success' on some of the political 'chatter' sites.

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