The British Green Party is both great and retarded

More Than Mortal · October 17, 2014, 12:49:47 PM

I'm going to search their policy website, and pick out at least one seriously retarded policy from a few categories (because there are so bloody many) - just to underline how goddamn retarded this party can be. In order to not be too opinionated, I'll also include a decent policy in further spoilers, just to show the best and worst. Form your own judgement about the Green Party.

Animal Rights

Spoiler

The Green Party would ban all experimentation and research which harms animals, including harmful procedures used to obtain animal-derived materials. 'Harmful' is defined in this context as 'having the potential to cause pain, suffering, distress, lasting harm or death in animals, except where it is designed to benefit the individual animals concerned

Spoiler

The Green Party opposes all lethal or harmful uses and treatment of cetaceans (whales, dolphins, porpoises). In particular, whaling is a premeditated, deliberate and unnecessary cause of animal suffering.

Crime and Punishment

Spoiler

In a just society everyone should be protected from crimes motivated by hatred and discrimination based on ethnicity, colour, gender, trans, sexual orientation, religion, social origin, age, disability including learning difficulties or any other prejudice. A comprehensive strategy will be adopted to tackle, significantly reduce and ultimately end hate crime.

Spoiler

Wholly unacceptable levels of men, women and children are currently imprisoned at great cost to their future rehabilitation, as well as to their families, the taxpayer and society in general. The Green Party is therefore committed to significantly reducing the prison population.

The Economy

Spoiler

Interest rates on the lending of money should be capped at a reasonable rate linked to the Bank of England interest rate.

Large and medium sized companies will be required to pay a living wage.

In the interests of economic and financial stability, strict controls should be placed on lending by all banks, including lending to individuals.

Spoiler

A Citizen's Income sufficient to cover an individual's basic needs will be introduced, which will replace tax-free allowances and most social security benefits

A system of Land Value Taxation (LVT) will be introduced to replace the Council Tax and the National Non-Domestic Business Rates. LVT rates will be set at a local level, and will be based on the annual rental value of the land.

Science and technology

Spoiler

The Green Party accepts that certain uses of genetic engineering may be benign and may lead to enhanced quality of life, but believes that the release of GMOs (genetically modified organisms) into the environment potentially poses substantial risks to biodiversity, human health and animal welfare and that there is currently insufficient research to quantify risks.

Spoiler

Scientific research requires proper funding. We value basic research and will ensure it is properly funded. We believe that it is important to have a wide body of research that is not funded or controlled by large corporations.

We will increase public spending on R&D to at least 1% of GDP.

Energy

Spoiler

We will accelerate the deployment of both onshore and offshore wind power generation at rates sufficient to ensure the change to a stable electricity-based energy system of 87GW by 2030, but stabilising thereafter.

We will cancel construction of new nuclear stations and nuclear power will not be eligible for government subsidy; the Green Party opposes all nuclear power generation

Spoiler

We will support the rapid commercialisation of tidal stream and wave-powered generators to ensure they are able to contribute at least 5GW each by 2030, and a combined input of at least 20GW by 2050.

Rapid deployment of solar photovoltaics will be fully supported, as a key source of decentralised generation, making full use of domestic, commercial and industrial roofspace and limited deployment of ‘solar farms’.

That's all I can be arsed to do at the minute.

PSU · October 17, 2014, 12:52:46 PM

Every party has great and retarded stances tho.

More Than Mortal · October 17, 2014, 12:55:28 PM

Quote from: PSU on October 17, 2014, 12:52:46 PM

Every party has great and retarded stances tho.

I know, I'm just surprised at the extent of bipolarity I feel.

It's as if the policies it does well are absolutely fantastic and simply necessary for our society, but the ones they get wrong are just as spectacular in their atrocity.

Nascent Email · October 17, 2014, 05:41:27 PM

Quote

Trust a snake before the conservatives, trust the conservatives before labour but never trust the greens

A quote from Orwell that I fiddled with a little.

Dustin · October 17, 2014, 06:12:20 PM

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challengerX · October 17, 2014, 06:40:20 PM

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Dustin · October 17, 2014, 06:50:45 PM

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challengerX · October 17, 2014, 06:51:55 PM

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More Than Mortal · October 18, 2014, 04:33:08 AM

Quote from: Dustin xBasedGod on October 17, 2014, 06:12:20 PM

Can you start putting "IMO" or "I believe" in front of your edgy statements from now on?

I guess you didn't read the OP because you clearly didn't see this part:

Quote

Form your own judgement about the Green Party.

Flee · October 18, 2014, 04:53:17 AM

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More Than Mortal · October 18, 2014, 05:00:27 AM

Quote from: Flee on October 18, 2014, 04:53:17 AM

There is a real lack of data and scientific research in that field

I'm going to have to disagree with you there.

Quote

Although there have been more than 2,000 studies documenting that biotechnology does not pose an unusual threat to human health and genetically modified foods are as safe or safer than conventional or organic foods, questions remain in the minds of many consumers.

[. . .]

But we don’t need to depend on anecdotes to address these concerns. Writing in the Journal of Animal Science, in the most comprehensive study of GMOs and food ever conducted, University of California-Davis Department of Animal Science geneticist Alison Van Eenennaam and research assistant Amy E. Young reviewed 29 years of livestock productivity and health data from both before and after the introduction of genetically engineered animal feed.

The field data represented more than 100 billion animals covering a period before 1996 when animal feed was 100% non-GMO, and after its introduction when it jumped to 90% and more. The documentation included the records of animals examined pre and post mortem, as ill cattle cannot be approved for meat.

Here's the study itself.

Flee · October 18, 2014, 05:09:51 AM

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More Than Mortal · October 18, 2014, 05:18:43 AM

Quote from: Flee on October 18, 2014, 05:09:51 AM

If I go to the section on scientific research I find this:

Quote

A 2013 review of 1,783 papers on genetically modified crops and food published between 2002 and 2012 found no plausible evidence of dangers from the use of currently marketed GM crops.[84] Biofortified, an independent nonprofit organization devoted to providing factual information and fostering discussion about agriculture, especially plant genetics and genetic engineering,[85] plans to add the studies found by the Italian group to its database of studies about GM crops, GENERA.[86][87]

Independence in research has been studied by a 2011 analysis into conflicts of interest which found a significant correlation between author affiliation to industry and study outcome in scientific work published on health risks or nutritional assessment studies of genetically modified products.[88]

I'm not saying GMOs are the be-all-and-end-all, they could well have problems. However, the Green Party has been embodying the worst of the environmentalist movement for a long time, and I really don't trust them to not restrict scientific research into the area. If we restrict GMOs too much, we won't be able to determine their efficiency in comparison to other methods, like hydroponics, or even how they could be combined with other methods. As far as we know, however, they post very little threat.

Super Irish · October 18, 2014, 10:52:08 AM

Most of it makes sense to me, except the GMO's and their complete denial of accepting Nuclear Power stations.

6 Nuclear Power stations could substitute ~50,000 wind turbines, and seeing as there's too many NIMBY's in Britain, the less eyesores, the better.

And as for GMO's they already take precautions. GM crops are sterile to prevent breeding (which on the plus side stops native plant life being overwhelmed, but also monopolies the GM Business as you have to buy the GM seeds/plants from the company like Monsanto ).

I'm kinda meh on the animal testing thing. I get that less essential research i.e. makeup and soap testing doesn't need animals to be tested, but medicinal research usually needs lab rats and a human substitute (like pigs IIRC) to test vaccines and cancer treatments, and inevitably that means that they will be hurt in the process and may have to be infected with a disease or cancer to test treatments. It's not pretty and I don't like to dwell on it, but I think that is a necessary evil in the wider scale of things.

The Lord Slide Rule · October 18, 2014, 03:14:11 PM

>wants to protect environment
>therefor they want to place thousands of wind turbines all over

gg

Turkey · October 18, 2014, 05:37:57 PM

Quote from: Flee on October 18, 2014, 04:53:17 AM

What is so retarded about their stance on GMO's? There is a real lack of data and scientific research in that field, so being cautious with spreading GMO's is pretty commendable.

Scientific consensus, bruh.