Thursday, June 23, 2016

Brexit - how to make the best of a bad vote.

Right folks. How can we make this work ? Jenny Jones's comments obviously come to mind. I did not hear any Green say that her views were wrong, just that, because they did not match with what Conference had decided she should keep quiet about them. One of her major points is that Greens are and have always been firmly against Globalisation - of industry, the economy and commerce in general. The not opposing Remain argument put greater weight on the environmental and social aspects of staying within the EU - which has always been an economic grouping and not an environmental one - despite the best efforts of very many Euro Greens. All their work and that of so many other groups that have been aimed at correcting that error are now in terrible danger of being wasted. But, we should now remember that they were the best we could do from the position we were in then. Now we have moved.

We always wanted, needed and campaigned for an environmental union and we can still have that - now freed from the commercial concerns imposed by having to meet the ever more difficult problems of equating different countries and societies in the pretence of them being a single entity. Environmentally the world is indeed one place and every action one group makes has an impact on many if not all others, we have always known that and now the people have chosen to have our collective noses rubbed in the realities of our similarities and differences.

Now that the UK, for as long as it can be called United, is cutting itself away from financial ties with Europe, it shall have to run on a wartime system - living with vastly reduced imports. Land will have to be put in to food production and people shall be needed to tend the processes. Raw materials will be in short supply too, but, the UK, like all 21st century economies has generated huge quantities of waste and these can be recovered and reused - probably at a far lower eventual cost than would be expended rebuilding infrastructure to cope with the as yet utterly unpredictable import export systems that must now be redeveloped. There could be a maximum of only two years in which to do this, possibly far less time than that. Greens know what to do, we have been trying to get societies to be self sufficient for decades. Now, the UK has forced itself in that direction this is a great opportunity if approached correctly. Produce locally. Consume locally. Export only what the rest of the world can not make, import only what the UK can not make.

And now the good news. We all need water, food, space and resources to sustain life and the quality of life we have come to expect and hope for. Too often in the past these have been won through invasion and wars. Today though things have moved on. The last few decades of planet wide technological and social growth and unification of information and scientific effort have resulted in exponential increases in the capability of every technology humanity has to hand - and has even created the probability of artificial assistance - Robotics. These changes are no shock to anyone who has been watching, but most people have not had the time, they have work to do, they leave that sort of thing rightly to elected representatives to do that job while they get on with their's. This 'Leave' vote tells politicians that the public thinks they have been caught with their hands in the till - sleeping or partying on the job. The Public has spoken and said - enough - we deserve better. Well, Greens are better.

Win Win ? No - the transition could be dreadfully painful. That is why the Green Party did not advocate it in the first place. We knew how hard it would be, we feared the xenophobia that could result from a 'them and us' 'Leave' vote, but hey, you asked for it, now here it comes. It's the job of the Greens to reunite a shattering country in to sustainable - environmental self sufficient small groups that can work together country and planet wide for the benefit of everyone and every thing.

2 comments:

  1. Conference shirked a proper democratic debate on the matter.

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  2. Interesting. I did not attend but I heard that it had been talked through fully. Hum, so that's Jenny fully of the hook. Good news.

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