Argument for voting green...

The Green party’s time is now, but it needs to stop being polite – and start picking some fights | Owen Jones https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/28/green-party-left-social-media-presence

I agree with a lot of this (particularly criticism of Labour) but I suspect in the short-term the progressive vote will get split - which would be a disaster - even if the greens do get more shithousey. Interesting to see what folks think

 

one of the main problems for the Greens Liberals and all the smaller prties is that the mainstream media are Farage/Reform sycophants. It really annoys me the way they persist in letting him spout his views and blatantly ignore other opposition parties who have just as much right to hold the government to account. First past the post doesn't help either

 

As the article says though, they're not loud enough or aggressive enough. They should get in the media's face

 

Go hug a tree

 

Absolutely. They have a similar representation at Westminster to Reform - and no prizes for guessing who gets most air time.

I've voted for them in previous elections - but voted Labour this time as I just wanted the blue lot out.

 

Lib Dems have around 20 times more seats than Reform and hardly get a look in.

I get the discussion around PR, but I can't think of a worse time to introduce it with the march of the far right letting their veil slip more each week.

I think the next time around, unless there are some huge shifts back to sense in the next 4.5 years, it will come down to which coalition you want. A tory/reform one, or a lib/lab/green one. Strategic voting again will be critical.

I voted Green at the last election knowing Labour had one of the safest majorities and was pleased they finished second. Where I'm likely moving to, I think is far more marginal so I'll have to consider carefully in keeping reform/tories out.

 

Bit of a rock and a hard place situation that.
FPTP, doesn't help the Greens but it does help keep Farage and the loons out.

 

We voted the same for the same reasons. Went with heart over head, but only because Labour were a dead cert here. Was pleasantly surprised that Green came second ahead of the rest.

Likely to be moving to Skipton in the next few years, which the Tories held onto. So I’ll have to vote strategically there unfortunately.

 

Owen Jones is hardly best placed to be giving advice here is he?

 

As a party member, I agree that they should stop being quite so polite - up to a point, I like the fact that they represent a more civilised brand of politics. Their policies have a lot of similarities with the Labour party when it was socialist. I get that some might worry about a split in the progressive vote but Labour is now more of a centre-right party. What we really need is electoral reform with proportional representation so that we can have more of these decent people representing us (sorry if I'm repeating myself ).

I know that we'd also get more of the fascists in parliament but then they would be held to account and be seen for what they are.