At their recent conference, the Scottish Greens took their latest step in the direction of left-wing populism. Under their watch, council tax would be scrapped, while bus travel would be brought into public ownership, and made free for all Scots.
Across the rest of the UK, the Greens motor headlong into the dizzying heights of moderate notoriety, supplanting the Conservatives as the third-largest party in the UK — rather like beating the Quakers in an arms race — polling at an unprecedented 15 per cent. 25 years ago, those were Lib Dem numbers. Zack Polanski should be optimistic; a promising future of underwhelming coalitions awaits.
The Scottish Greens’ policy announcements are laudable in several respects. Council tax is outmoded: Paul Cheshire points out that a single occupant of a £2.5 million home could end up paying less council tax than a small family in a one-bed flat. There’s a case to be made for nationalising buses—it’s worked in Manchester, and free bus travel could mean fewer cars, reducing environmental impact.
But simultaneously, Lothian Buses is run by local government, and is, in my experience, pretty flaky: it’s remarkably painful waiting and waiting for a bus that doesn’t come, eventually deciding to walk, before being greeted by the number 3 shooting past you. Hardly transport for a modern city.
More broadly, the Greens are working within a British left-wing tradition which has died, along with the notion of government competence. A left-wing populism should give people power, rather than simply using power in the people’s name—there’s no empowerment in ringfencing control beyond the grasp of those you’re working for, the so-called “left behind,” those Donald Trump called “the forgotten men and women of our country,” in whose interests he also claims to act.
Nationalisation of key infrastructure might be one step towards returning control to ordinary people, but it’s not the silver bullet. People need control outwith huge companies who have abandoned communities, and politicians who have let it happen and will do again. Social enterprises, grassroots welfare support, support for local businesses. Why not co-operatise the buses, let locals become members, and put profits in their bank accounts? The Greens’ old-style Leftism is a prescriptive, you’ll-get-what-you’re-given approach that has worn people out. They say they want to “bring back hope.” Perhaps they’ll make a department for it.
Across the country, the Greens are claiming new territory. But it seems they’re still treading old ground.
Photo by Teya Taylor for The Student
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The Scottish Greens: Can Left-Wing Populism Deliver?
At their recent conference, the Scottish Greens took their latest step in the direction of left-wing populism. Under their watch, council tax would be scrapped, while bus travel would be brought into public ownership, and made free for all Scots.
Across the rest of the UK, the Greens motor headlong into the dizzying heights of moderate notoriety, supplanting the Conservatives as the third-largest party in the UK — rather like beating the Quakers in an arms race — polling at an unprecedented 15 per cent. 25 years ago, those were Lib Dem numbers. Zack Polanski should be optimistic; a promising future of underwhelming coalitions awaits.
The Scottish Greens’ policy announcements are laudable in several respects. Council tax is outmoded: Paul Cheshire points out that a single occupant of a £2.5 million home could end up paying less council tax than a small family in a one-bed flat. There’s a case to be made for nationalising buses—it’s worked in Manchester, and free bus travel could mean fewer cars, reducing environmental impact.
But simultaneously, Lothian Buses is run by local government, and is, in my experience, pretty flaky: it’s remarkably painful waiting and waiting for a bus that doesn’t come, eventually deciding to walk, before being greeted by the number 3 shooting past you. Hardly transport for a modern city.
More broadly, the Greens are working within a British left-wing tradition which has died, along with the notion of government competence. A left-wing populism should give people power, rather than simply using power in the people’s name—there’s no empowerment in ringfencing control beyond the grasp of those you’re working for, the so-called “left behind,” those Donald Trump called “the forgotten men and women of our country,” in whose interests he also claims to act.
Nationalisation of key infrastructure might be one step towards returning control to ordinary people, but it’s not the silver bullet. People need control outwith huge companies who have abandoned communities, and politicians who have let it happen and will do again. Social enterprises, grassroots welfare support, support for local businesses. Why not co-operatise the buses, let locals become members, and put profits in their bank accounts? The Greens’ old-style Leftism is a prescriptive, you’ll-get-what-you’re-given approach that has worn people out. They say they want to “bring back hope.” Perhaps they’ll make a department for it.
Across the country, the Greens are claiming new territory. But it seems they’re still treading old ground.
Photo by Teya Taylor for The Student
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