Just in case anyone was considering voting Green!

[Torque Tonight]

The cringingly painful train-wreck interview on LBC this morning grabbed most of the attention but the following is perhaps more relevant to the military forum. That Mr Putin seems like a reasonable chap after all. :D

Video: Natalie Bennett: Greens believe Britain should appease Russia?s President Putin - Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/green-party/11431296/Natalie-Bennett-Greens-believe-Britain-should-appease-Russias-President-Putin.html)

[NutLoose]

It's worse than that

PD313 An imaginative programme of arms conversion could use many of the skills and resources at present tied up in military industry, to create new jobs and produce socially useful products. Conversion would also free research and development expertise and capital. New renewable energy industries, for instance, could be set up in the same area and use the same skills and resources as the existing arms industries e.g. wave power (shipbuilding), wind power (aerospace) and tidal power (power engineering).

Defence

PD302 On inspection, there is little or no threat of direct invasion of the UK by any nation. Commitment to a large standing army, a navy of large warships around our coastline, squadrons of fighter planes and a cripplingly expensive missile defence system is therefore unnecessary. Any threat of invasion that might arise in the future is so remote that realignment of the UK military and defence preparations would be possible long before any invasion occurred.

PD303 Similarly, the unhelpful and aggressive concept of nuclear deterrence (with the inherent dangers of handling concentrated radioactive substances) is also redundant. As such, immediate nuclear disarmament would be a priority of a Green Government.

PD304 The role for military personnel in defending sensitive establishments would also be reduced by the fact that they would be severely reduced in number. At present the military has a sizeable commitment to defending itself, particularly facilities related to nuclear weaponry.

PD305 A residual role for military personnel would exist in detection and apprehension of criminals attempting to by-pass customs and immigration. Green Party policy on drugs and migration, along with its contribution to a more equitable world society, would diminish this role too. Other duties would include policing fishing quotas, piracy and oceanic environmental regulations.

PD306 Such standing forces as are retained will sign up to a formal contract, which will include the following points:

In exchange for putting their lives on the line when necessary for the security of the country, or in the protection of civilians of other countries in pursuit of the UN Responsibility to Protect, the State undertakes to respect and look after injured service personnel giving them decent living standards, whether serving or not serving due to their injury, and to their dependents in the event of their being killed.
All serving personnel will be required to sign a pledge that they will not obey any order which would entail any breach of international law. In particular they will be able to disobey any order that required them to fire on unarmed civilians of their own or any other country.

The Green Party | Peace & Defence (http://policy.greenparty.org.uk/pd.html)

I especially liked the paragraph

Similarly, the unhelpful and aggressive concept of nuclear deterrence (with the inherent dangers of handling concentrated radioactive substances) is also redundant. As such, immediate nuclear disarmament would be a priority of a Green Government.


Go tell that to the Ukraine, they followed that route and look where it got them!

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

http://www.random-badge-emporium.com/ekmps/shops/randombadges/images/Dagenham-East-London-Underground-Sign-Fridge-Magnet-Choice-Of-Sizes-District-Line-Tube-245500-p.jpg


4 stops beyond Barking

[sandozer]

So Green outside and red in the middle, a real Python sketch, listen to this !


Incredibly Awkward Interview With Natalie Bennett | LBC (http://www.lbc.co.uk/incredibly-awkward-interview-with-natalie-bennett-105384)

[ShotOne]

The bit about opening fire on unarmed civilians (which, clearly, they think we do all the time) would legally bar any rogue airliner shootdown, and allow prosecution for murder of any pilot ordered to do so.

[Doobry Firkin]

Give her a break.

She showed us exactly what she knows..... the square root of sod all.

Personally i'd never vote for the greens, hopefully she's scaring off a few who possibly would think about voting for them.

[A and C]

I think you have hit the nail on the head, the Greens are just very naive people with good intent who just bury their collective heads in the sand when they encounter the likes of Putin, Mugabe, Asad and a few others I could mention.

They have no answers to such people and think that just being nice will absolve them from any responsibility for what happens when the dictators of this world find there is nothing to stop them.

The Greens have just about convinced the electorate that they are a joke without any realistic chance of being able to goven the country........ And this before the electioneering hots up.

[LoeyDaFrog]

The penultimate sentence...

"In exchange for putting their lives on the line when necessary for the security of the country, or in the protection of civilians of other countries in pursuit of the UN Responsibility to Protect, the State undertakes to respect and look after injured service personnel giving them decent living standards, whether serving or not serving due to their injury, and to their dependents in the event of their being killed."

Oh thank you, Ms whateveryournameis, am I supposed to feel valued with such a firm offer of 'being looked after'!

As for the final sentence...
"All serving personnel will be required to sign a pledge that they will not obey any order which would entail any breach of international law. In particular they will be able to disobey any order that required them to fire on unarmed civilians of their own or any other country."

I don't even know where to start in dismantling that; I'm sure my Oath of Allegiance (taken many moons ago now) carries more weight than a signed 'pledge'! How about you as the Politician (who would be the one sending my and my ilke off to finish your dirty work) make 'a pledge' to not make such a mess that you need to resort to the military. Oh why am I bothering, I'll just raise my blood pressure....

[mmitch]

They are already at work in Brighton....
Brighton's Green Party has a storm in its harbour - Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/11380517/Brightons-Green-Party-has-a-storm-in-its-harbour.html)
mmitch.

[Wander00]

See where "care in the community" gets you.

[Wokkafans]

Reminds me of her interviews yesterday :E

http://38.media.tumblr.com/2f56295bd418b3210d8d8b2fbacbd60a/tumblr_mv90jchh5o1syppsfo1_500.gif

[Martin the Martian]

A lot of smaller parties who have never needed to have their policies scrutinised as they never stood a chance of being elected are now realising that because this time around they may win a seat or two their manifestos are being shown to have more holes than the average colander.

[P6 Driver]

Reminds me of her interviews yesterday

It wasn't as successful as that...

[victor tango]

Can any one explain what the hell she is doing in this country spouting all this bull ???
We havn't upset our Ossie friends that much that they export her here, surely ?

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

'fraid so, Wales sent them Julia Gillard (and she did make PM over there!)

[jindabyne]

Fox,

But Jooliah was a primary school-age emigrant. This Green lady is relatively new to these shores, arriving at the age of 33 (now 49). A typical Sheila. Chocolate Aussie female twang (I like Aussies!), bright but lacking intellect, and espousing her greeny views here, rather than her homeland, where she'd be very much put down. Shades of Tatchell! She'd be better off trying to improve things in Zimbabwe.

[Fareastdriver]

the State undertakes to respect and look after injured service personnel giving them decent living standards, whether serving or not serving due to their injury, and to their dependents in the event of their being killed

The Japanese govenment is still honouring its contract with Kamikaze pilots.

[Whenurhappy]

These 6th Formers just don't realise that the world outside of the UK (oh, OK, other English speaking countries as well) is Hobbesian:

The condition of man... is a condition of war of everyone against everyone.

or my favourite:

and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.

True 300 years ago, true now.

They make the school boy error of assuming that everyone thinks like them in their comfortable, middle class, liberal rules-based world.

[NutLoose]

PD310 Non-conscripted soldiers (and military sailors and air-crew) will still be required for permanent defence duties and participation in international peace-enforcement. The minimum age of recruitment to the Armed Forces will be 18 or older. All members of the Armed Forces will be entitled to the same rights as any civilian employee, including the rights to refuse orders on grounds of conscience and trade union membership. The responsibility and complexity of the military role envisaged by us will require a higher level of training than offered at present.

PD311 Expertise in the UK military in disaster support will continue to be offered for UN operations and harnessed in the training of civilian volunteers. We will aim to put a standing body of unarmed units, under the aegis of the UN, ready to respond to civil disasters such as floods, earthquakes and hurricanes.

Hahaha, can you please come back and attack later, I am on my mandated trade union coffee break

PD420 The relationship between armed conflict and the environment involves many different domains: from environmental modification as a deliberate objective in war , to the environmental consequences of particular weapon systems. The Green Party unequivocally renounces these means of waging war. We will support (and seek to strengthen) all international conventions on the issue. The horrendous damage that conflict can wreak on the environment is a strong driver toward more effective peace building (PD 300-301). The use of nuclear weapons and weaponry hardened with depleted uranium (DU) creates radioactive pollution with unacceptable long-term effects.

Is this geek speak for you can no longer bomb or shell the crap out of a target?

[4mastacker]

The Green Party's new logo:

http://www.silver-mg.com/Halloween/HalloweenGraphics/wolf2.jpg

[BARKINGMAD]

4mastacker ! ! !


This is an insult to my fellow canines, please desist at once ! ! ! !

[NutLoose]

If you read other bits they talk of banning the mine as a weapon internationally... Hang on I thought it was..

Ohh and abolishing the road tax disc and replacing it with an insurance one.... Well the former has already gone and the latter I said that too, however plate recognition that made the tax disc obsolete also has also taken care of the need for a insurance one too I believe

[Bigbux]

I object to them calling themselves the "Green" party. I studied environmental science; our Chair, Dr Andrew Porteus, specifically rejected the emotion-based, ideologically-driven and environmentally-illiterate rubbish that eminates from them and their ilk.

As for their stance on defence - it's archetypal Loony-leftism (noting of course that the real communists in this world operate some of the most brutal and corrupt regimes and are currently arming themselves to the teeth).

I don't disagree with their desired end-points, Utopian as they are. Its just that when the diagram of how to get there is an empty box - then that is a big clue as to the likelihood of them being successful in achieving their aims.

[Willard Whyte]

The Green Party is basically the NKVD run by lesbians.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

:D:D:D..................but with a simpering guitar-playing hippy in recycled clothing on the reception desk of the Lubyanka (foyer now done out in hessian, with marijuana as authentic pot plants).

[Thelma Viaduct]

At least they're not sub-human filth like the tories and their supporters.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Or the ignorers of mass child rape that is the Labour Party.............a fine crop of Parties to choose from this year!

[Thelma Viaduct]

Thatcher had plenty of paedo friends and paedo government colleagues, Jimmy Saville just being one, not to mention the Hillsborough cover up/stitch up.

Margaret Thatcher 'personally covered up' child abuse allegations against senior ministers - Mirror Online (http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/margaret-thatcher-personally-covered-up-3848836)

She's a fine example for all sub-human tory ministers/supporters to follow.

[ShotOne]

"Fine example?" If I supported a party which for decades used all the machinery of government to cover up hundreds of cases of child abuse and rape I might just wind my neck in right now!

[denachtenmai]

PP
:hmm: using the Daily Mirror to substantiate anything against Margaret Thatcher is like me citing the Daily Mail in an article about Tony Blair, who we all know was a fine and upstanding labour MP :yuk:

[Wensleydale]

Not an exactly pious remark. I always find that when personal insult is used then the argument is already lost! Enough said on the subject really.

[Willard Whyte]

A post-LBC press conference was interesting too:

Sketch: ?She?s not going to answer that!? Natalie Bennett, the Green Party, and the weirdest meltdown of the 2015 election so far - Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/green-party/11432400/Sketch-Shes-not-going-to-answer-that-Natalie-Bennett-the-Green-Party-and-the-weirdest-meltdown-of-the-2015-election-so-far.html)

A brief excerpt from an amusing piece...

“First question?” demanded Baroness Jones. “No questions?”

A man from The Sun raised his hand.

“Is there a woman?” asked Baroness Jones disappointedly. “A woman who’d like to ask a question?”

Apparently there wasn’t. Oh well. The man from The Sun would have to do. He asked how many Labour seats the Greens expected to win. Ms Bennett didn’t seem to have an answer to that – well, it was a question about a number – so instead she talked about how Green voters hated Ukip.

[Thelma Viaduct]

Where have i said i support Labour, I despise them all with equal measure (apart from the sub-human cons) not that it is any of your business.

What kind of sick depraved individual could actually support what they 'stand' for. I wouldn't piss on their like if they were on fire.

IDS says you can live on £7 a day benefits whilst claiming £39 for a breakfast, hundreds of £s on wet wipes and his family taking £1.5m in public funded farm subsidies over the past 10 years, scum of the lowest order.

Just bringing balance to the debate.

[ShotOne]

Bringing balance?? Assuming you're not now being carted off by libel lawyers over your paedo comments, how do you justify branding the majority of the UK electorate as "sub-human filth"? Child abusers have come from all walks of life, including that of RAF Officer. But if you really must drag party politics into this, ask your fellow Mirror readers from Yorkshire. That case went far beyond a rogue abuser, however depraved, in that leaders ignored overwhelming evidence to allow children to go on being raped for years, rather than upset the Labour agenda of open-door mass immigration and political correctness.

[Willard Whyte]

£7 a day?

Try £1 a day (http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-1641364/How-I-lived-on-1-a-day-for-a-year.html)

Are MPs subsidies capped? No idea, but if they're allowed to claim £39 for breakfast then I don't blame them. I would do the same.