Going Green

Soooo I’m thinking of joining the Green Party.

There have been plenty of reasons against joining until now.  For a long time, the Green Party seemed to be a one-issue venture, and I was unconvinced they had much to say about more than the environment – which is, let’s face it, a MASSIVE issue.

More to the point, there were other viable parties to vote for.  In my first election, back in the day, I voted Green because it was a safe Labour seat and I figured… why not?  Vote with your primary issue of concern.  In my second election I was in a marginal seat and, god help us, I voted Lib Dem – fat lot of use that turned out to be.  My third general election was a resounding Labour vote, for even though I didn’t think very much of the Labour party by then, I figured every little counted against the Tories.

And now?

Now I am in a safe Labour seat again, although in the local elections I hope my vote helped contribute to the election of a Green councillor to the local town hall.  And I want to vote Labour, because of my above-mentioned despair at our present government, but then I listen to what Labour are saying and how they behave and well… it hurts.  It just hurts.  Perhaps somewhere beneath the banal, empty faff, they genuinely do have some policies which aren’t knee-jerk reactive ‘please elect us’ nonsense, but they’re so busy being led by the nose by the Tories and… horror… UKIP… that it’s almost impossible to see anything of much meaning.

Oh yes.  And then there’s UKIP.  A party which lies and gets away with it because it just puts its fingers in its ears and shouts ‘lalalalala go away’.  A party of blame and fear, a living proof that the media needs a sharp kick up the bum.  I’ll say no more about it, except this: that I am still just about optimistic enough to believe that apathy about the political process gets us no where, and if you want things to change, you may as well try and get involved.

So.  I’m thinking of joining a political party.  I’m not sure what this might entail; I suspect it’s somewhat like joining a charity, only less rewarding emotionally.  The party may well be riddled with faults, but with luck, democracy means members can change it, and of all the parties currently standing, it seems the only one that in any way, shape or form, supports anything I believe in.

And here we are, stuck between a rock and a hard place.  What to do?  To despair with a cry of ‘government’s always government, so why bother voting?’ or to quite possibly waste your time striving for the opposite?  It might make me angry, it might achieve nothing at all, but this is my country and this is my planet and I figure, for that, it might be worth a try.