My altitude, orbiting over the Green party

My altitude, orbiting over the Green party: 2009-10-17: There's a marketing rule, maybe not a rule, maybe a 'saying', that you have to be where the people are. If they're on Facebook, you'd better be on Facebook. And when they move, you move too. Because they're talking about you, and you need to be there to hear it.; I'm a mild mannered guy. Really. I've lost my temper on average once per decade. Right now though, if someone Green came to my door I fear I'd lose it. I mean really axe attack -> prison lose it.; Just as when communism fell almost exactly twenty years ago, free market capitalism fell recently, but we don't want to acknowledge it.; On Wednesday a GM report is due out that will probably say we need GM to feed the earth's population in the face of global warming. That'll be the global warming to which large companies, hegemony and monoculture have contributed. Population control anyone?; I'm sure I'm not the only one feeling rage about politics and business. We are ripe for a Bastille moment. There is so much wrong I'd be surprised if more people come out to vote next year than turn up underneath parliament with gunpowder.; And what does my local Green party do? They write to ask for my help, and to talk about the great success they've had with allotments.; Well, I offered my Internet marketing expertise at one gathering and no-one took me up on it. Fair enough. Bit weird that they preferred to print leaflets. But hey, that's my personal thing, the point is not "I was rejected", the point is they are asking the same question again which I've already answered. They are not listening.; It was the allotments thing that got me though. Look, I know local food is important. I know growing our own is pleasurable and important .. I've had four allotments in my time. But there's a general election coming.; I think it might have been Thatcher who started talking about the importance of a party's manifesto. Perhaps before her, parties didn't keep too well to their promises. And by the way she argued, successfully in my case, that with our current system you can elect a party and that party will implement the manifesto the majority voted for. With proportional representation, you elect people and they bargain in leather-chaired rooms and you never get anything you voted for. So she definitely had a strong manifesto thing going.; And I also think it was her who wanted to talk about 'the things people are bothered about': schools, the NHS, whatever that list is (but it doesn't include allotments).; Now, I like the Green party in principle. I've been a Green voter on and off my whole life. But I am simultaneously repelled and attracted by them and the balance of those forces holds me in orbit around them. I don't get too close, yet I'm also always aware.; I believe in Green politics, as much as I know about them. Well OK there are nagging doubts .. like what would the Greens do if the Germans invaded and I'm a long way from rejecting free market economics .. I need to be guided slowly.; I'm repelled by the idea that if I turned up at a Green meeting I would be 1) judged by the car I turned up in, the clothes I wore, and whether I'd got a brick in my cistern (I haven't), and 2) they would want something from me .. like shoe leather (ha ha) delivering leaflets. I'd turn up to a meeting to find out about Green politics and be expected to chip in. So I don't turn up.; Here's another. Imagine a room full of Greens. Do you like them?; "No", I think is the answer you're searching for.; For one thing, they are mostly fringe dwellers. These are not normal people. It's OK, they'll never read this, they're down the allotment. And I think I'm a fringe dweller too, I don't mean it as a bad thing. I just mean if you're a political party you've got to occupy the top of the hill in the middle of the playground or it's all just chinwag.; Greens need more 'normal' people around to dilute the repulsion effect. Then I (and thousands like me) will orbit closer.; But here's the key thing. This is really important. I think Greens favour the environment over people.; And if you do that, you'll never get into government because it's people who vote and "no, you can't" isn't a very good slogan.; So what is the point?; And I really, really don't want to feel that way. I want to feel the hope that Green politics could provide.; I said some of these things on Facebook one day when it got to me and I got more than the usual response. Almost all agreed and had followed very similar paths. The one person in defence said in support of the letter "but local food is important". Yes. Very. But in the face of it all, it doesn't speak to me.; Who was missing from that discussion? My local Green party member who I've voted for and who is one of my Facebook friends. Also missing was our local Green party councillor who doesn't seem to be on Facebook at all.; So I wrote to the Green party about my frustrations and got a nice note back from their press officer asking what I'd do differently. So I've been pondering.; He was happy about the Green Party Facebook Page that now has 3,283 fans. It doesn't feel like a huge achievement to me but .. The Conservatives don't seem to have one at all, and Labour have 3,675 so maybe it is.; So here's what's coming out of the Green Party Facebook page:; I haven't clicked any. They don't grab me. I'm a satellite, remember, equally repelled and attracted by the Green party. I don't want to invest time in Green politics (yet). I just want to know what Greens want to do and I'll make a judgment when I come to vote.; These stories are aimed at existing Green voters and members. Their votes are already in the bag.; One way or another, Green policies have to reach out in a way that makes people go "oh, thank goodness someone's got their head screwed on". It rests on a single sentence and everyone's magic sentence is different: "them, I voted for them, they're for British jobs", "what, the BNP?", "was it? Oh, well anyone who stands for British jobs, that's what I believe in".; There is a beautiful place Green politics is trying to get to. An Eden where children can play, sweet fruit ripens in the garden, we chat to our neighbours, where craft and skill and experience are respected. An African friend told me how hard it was to come to England where no-one says hello, no-one smiles at each other, no-one talks. There is a world within our grasp where we don't dump minority world toxic oil waste on a weak majority world country poisoning 10,000 people and then try to gag the resulting investigative report, where, instead, we all actually like each other, we trade nicely and everyone takes on board their own consequences.; That's my Green dream anyway. My problem is, that's a people dream that suits my personality. I worry the Greens are not people people. And that not everyone is like me. I imagine Rupert Murdoch might see things differently.; So Green politics has to have a dream, and have the power to take us there. Not just give us the option .. to take us there. That's why it's called being in power.; Anyway, I've no clue what the Greens would have done on that weekend when Brown knew if he did nothing, the cash machines would be turned off on Monday. I've no idea what the Greens would have done after 9/11. I've no idea what the Greens would do with the NHS. Or with the road outside my house.; Through this whole crisis of capitalism, the Greens haven't reached me with a single message. Yet I have an eye for them. So. It. Is. Not. Working.; My own personal contribution to the solution is this. Firstly, it's unforgiveable that key local Green party members are not actively on Facebook. Here in Scarborough there's a local person bringing local news to Facebook and stimulating debate every day. We have the 'threat' of a supermarket development within earshot of my home in the middle of town just a year after all the road disruption and expense of a park and ride scheme development aimed at cutting traffic into town. Local businesses are up in arms. Others are baying "ASDA! ASDA! ASDA!" Greens? Nowhere.; I guess it's a hard slog to convince a Green candidate to spend time updating Facebook. But simply .. you have to go where the conversation is. This isn't a choice. It's an imperative, we've a world to save for chrissakes. Talking to people down the allotments, on marches, at meetings .. those are already converted. Carry on, and the Tories will be in this time next year. This at the moment Green politics should be providing the emergency lighting from our crashed system.; And the conversation is on Twitter too. I would expect Green candidates to be on Twitter. Really.; The deal is .. both of those systems part the beards and peek out into the real world where people commute and have big TVs. Also, the people on Facebook and Twitter are tech-savvy. They know how to re-Tweet, how to blog. They spread the word. The messages that reach out need to pose the possibility of a different, better life. I don't give a hoot about the details of politics. I care about me. I want to hear, over Twitter and Facebook, stuff from the Greens that gives me hope and makes me happier without feeling like I have to write a letter of complaint, march to Trafalgar square, or wear three jumpers.; And there's part of the problem too. I fear if Greens get on Facebook and Twitter, their messages would be somehow cold, maybe preachy. It needs to be done right.; Green Party. I don't care about you. I don't care about your members or your candidates. I just want you to do your job, make this fucked up system better, and do it fast before the Tory's get in and we all slip off into hell together.; If you want my help, you know where I am.; Having said that, I'm still smarting that when the Green Party held their conference in Scarborough Spa my partner and I were in Scarborough Against Genetic Engineering (SAGE) and we had a stall in the foyer and my g/f hand-made chocolates (she's very good at that) from the best organic ingredients and her friend, who was staying, turned coloured card into presentation sandbuckets. We packed them with chocolates, she calligraphed a message on each and we presented them as take-home gifts from Scarborough to the delegates' loved ones.; We sold none over the whole weekend.; Fine. Might have been wrong in a number of ways (in assuming they mostly had a loving partner and a job so they could afford anything to accompany their chick peas, perchance?) But none! Where was the warmth, the humour, the love, the embrace, the thank-you, the recognition of our locally produced efforts .. the support of SAGE. What were they going to take home from Scarborough?; Yet when it comes to candidate time, there's always someone knocking on my door when I'm in the middle of something wanting a quorum of signatures.; Yes Green Party, we have a history. Look out one starry night and you might if you have good vision see me orbiting. Am I friend or foe? I'm potentially both. It's up to you. Please, please, please get it together before I really do get annoyed.

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