VOTE GREEN

Terry Eagleton:

The prize for stylishness goes to the Greens, whose manifesto usefully reminds you of all the enlightened policies that should be in Labour’s policy statement but aren’t. Of all the parties, they are the only ones unafraid of what George Bush Sr once called “the vision thing”. “Imagine a government,” they begin, “that believes in society, in our common humanity, in a culture of hope, and in our capacity to govern ourselves.” The market, we read later, “makes us impatient with the suffering of others, tolerant of inequality, prone to prejudice, suspicious of difference … we need finally to realise that consumer capitalism is the problem, not the solution. The solution lies in a democratically managed economy that operates within the Earth’s resource limits.” The Greens would abolish student fees, create a free universal childcare service, oppose military adventures and require 40% of all members of public company and public sector boards to be women. The humane intelligence that informs their politics is reflected in the quality of the writing. As always, you should vote for the best read.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/apr/24/which-party-manifesto-most-nicely-written-general-election-2015

The Green Party Manifesto argues that we should increase public spending to almost half of national income.

See the following article for a table showing those European countries that spend more than half:
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/apr/15/tories-reduce-uk-public-spending-estonia-imf-figures