quincytwo
09-07-2009, 05:42 PM
This is a thread I have taken from the P.ie site dealing with how one member of the UK Green Party view their Iriish colleagues. It must be said that one person posted that Mr Wall is a friend of Patricia McKenna so presumably that means he is biased towards her view of things.
Derek Wall is a very prominent UK Green, and a guy I have a lot of respect for.
He recently wrote this about the Irish Green Party. Some of it is very telling.
From the article ...
"Here are my most recent thoughts on the Irish Green Party:
A calamitous coalition
The Irish Green Party has provided a textbook example of how not to do green politics. Who would have thought a Green Party would cut bus services and support motorway-building through a heritage site? Who would have believed that a Green government elected partly because of its opposition to the Iraq war would allow US war planes to refuel in Ireland at Shannon?
However, after the May 2007 general election, Sargent resigned as leader and 80 per cent of party members voted to join a Fianna Fail government in coalition. The results have been catastrophic.
In Mayo, local people believe that a gas pipeline and processing plant being built by Shell will create pollution and bring no benefit to the local community.
The Irish Green Party, which once strongly supported the Mayo protesters, has become silent since joining the government.
Worst of all from an environmental point of view, the government is building a motorway through Tara, perhaps Ireland's most important political landscape.
In June's elections, the party lost nearly all its councillors, failed to get any MEPs elected and was nearly beaten in Dublin by a former member Patricia McKenna, who had left in disgust.
The Green Party now looks likely to stay in government, even if Fianna Fail were to import nuclear weapons and declare war on Scotland or introduce pesticides into school milk. The Green MPs know that if they left government, there would be a general election and they would lose their seats and salaries.
It looks likely that the party will disappear for perhaps a generation.
This is tragic given the urgency of problems such as climate change. The damage done to Green politics internationally is too large to measure."
Derek Wall is a very prominent UK Green, and a guy I have a lot of respect for.
He recently wrote this about the Irish Green Party. Some of it is very telling.
From the article ...
"Here are my most recent thoughts on the Irish Green Party:
A calamitous coalition
The Irish Green Party has provided a textbook example of how not to do green politics. Who would have thought a Green Party would cut bus services and support motorway-building through a heritage site? Who would have believed that a Green government elected partly because of its opposition to the Iraq war would allow US war planes to refuel in Ireland at Shannon?
However, after the May 2007 general election, Sargent resigned as leader and 80 per cent of party members voted to join a Fianna Fail government in coalition. The results have been catastrophic.
In Mayo, local people believe that a gas pipeline and processing plant being built by Shell will create pollution and bring no benefit to the local community.
The Irish Green Party, which once strongly supported the Mayo protesters, has become silent since joining the government.
Worst of all from an environmental point of view, the government is building a motorway through Tara, perhaps Ireland's most important political landscape.
In June's elections, the party lost nearly all its councillors, failed to get any MEPs elected and was nearly beaten in Dublin by a former member Patricia McKenna, who had left in disgust.
The Green Party now looks likely to stay in government, even if Fianna Fail were to import nuclear weapons and declare war on Scotland or introduce pesticides into school milk. The Green MPs know that if they left government, there would be a general election and they would lose their seats and salaries.
It looks likely that the party will disappear for perhaps a generation.
This is tragic given the urgency of problems such as climate change. The damage done to Green politics internationally is too large to measure."