In light of Labour abandoning its £28 billion commitment to a ‘Green New Deal’, it appears that neither of the parties that form the British political establishment have the means or the ambition to seriously address the most stark political challenge facing global politics.
In a time when the climate crisis is an existential threat to human existence, one is left to question the wisdom of a party who seeks desperately to prove its fiscal responsibility by self-flagellating for the suburban middle class and the other which lambasts climate change as another fixture of the work agenda which, dare to imagine it, tries to stave off our own self-destruction.
However, creating a constituency for change is hard. To paint a very reductive map of centre left British politics, the logic of the past 30 years of Labour’s election strategy has been to appeal to two quite different constituencies: a middle class centre left who care about broadly progressive social issues but resent substantial tax hikes; and Labour’s core working class constituency, an increasingly disaffected constituency that has dwindled in size but, as 2019 showed, can have a substantial impact on electoral outcome. This means that it is very difficult to commit to a radical climate agenda: one constituency seems to care about climate change but does not want to make significant sacrifices and the other feels economic hardship severely but is sympathetic to climate scepticism.
Although Labour seems fairly noncommittal on a radical green policy, Chatham House still predicts that, under Labour, £5 billion more a year will be invested into green policy. On the environment, Labour seems to be the preferable choice to the Conservatives.
Additionally, the Greens are very unlikely to win any seats in Scotland in the upcoming general election, winning 4% of votes across all of Scotland in 2019. This means that voting for the Greens is unlikely to lead to a different outcome in the election and thus it must be understood that voting for them is almost entirely a protest vote. Since the Scottish Greens, by their own admission, are a party for the environment first and independence second, by voting Green, one does not commit oneself to independence but rather demonstrates a disaffection with both major parties over the climate crisis.
It would be ideal, therefore, if Labour won but on a very small margin, with a portion of the left defecting to the Greens. Of course this is all just speculation, yet as a member of the Labour Party myself, we cannot afford to be complacent about climate change anymore. The loss of a few seats because of the climate crisis will unlikely cost Labour what is likely to be a sizeable majority in the next election but, if these seats are lost because of Green defections, alarm bells will start ringing in the minds of the Labour leadership and compel them to pursue a far more radical climate policy.
“Carla Denyer cheering with Green Party activists, placards and banner” by Bristol Green Party is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
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Balancing independence and green values
In light of Labour abandoning its £28 billion commitment to a ‘Green New Deal’, it appears that neither of the parties that form the British political establishment have the means or the ambition to seriously address the most stark political challenge facing global politics.
In a time when the climate crisis is an existential threat to human existence, one is left to question the wisdom of a party who seeks desperately to prove its fiscal responsibility by self-flagellating for the suburban middle class and the other which lambasts climate change as another fixture of the work agenda which, dare to imagine it, tries to stave off our own self-destruction.
However, creating a constituency for change is hard. To paint a very reductive map of centre left British politics, the logic of the past 30 years of Labour’s election strategy has been to appeal to two quite different constituencies: a middle class centre left who care about broadly progressive social issues but resent substantial tax hikes; and Labour’s core working class constituency, an increasingly disaffected constituency that has dwindled in size but, as 2019 showed, can have a substantial impact on electoral outcome. This means that it is very difficult to commit to a radical climate agenda: one constituency seems to care about climate change but does not want to make significant sacrifices and the other feels economic hardship severely but is sympathetic to climate scepticism.
Although Labour seems fairly noncommittal on a radical green policy, Chatham House still predicts that, under Labour, £5 billion more a year will be invested into green policy. On the environment, Labour seems to be the preferable choice to the Conservatives.
Additionally, the Greens are very unlikely to win any seats in Scotland in the upcoming general election, winning 4% of votes across all of Scotland in 2019. This means that voting for the Greens is unlikely to lead to a different outcome in the election and thus it must be understood that voting for them is almost entirely a protest vote. Since the Scottish Greens, by their own admission, are a party for the environment first and independence second, by voting Green, one does not commit oneself to independence but rather demonstrates a disaffection with both major parties over the climate crisis.
It would be ideal, therefore, if Labour won but on a very small margin, with a portion of the left defecting to the Greens. Of course this is all just speculation, yet as a member of the Labour Party myself, we cannot afford to be complacent about climate change anymore. The loss of a few seats because of the climate crisis will unlikely cost Labour what is likely to be a sizeable majority in the next election but, if these seats are lost because of Green defections, alarm bells will start ringing in the minds of the Labour leadership and compel them to pursue a far more radical climate policy.
“Carla Denyer cheering with Green Party activists, placards and banner” by Bristol Green Party is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
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