Did you vote Green and will you again?

irishsurfer

The Greens went soft:
On Shannon
On Tara
On Shell
On corruption

I do realise that to make change, you need to be in power, and to be in power you need to compromise,
But with all the above to me thats not a compromise, its a collapse.

Lets hope they can deliver on something progressive

gbh

I don't think the German Greens compromised that much. Granted they had a bigger party and therefore could have more influence in government. But they drove a hard bargain with the Socialists. Closing all your Nuclear Power plants with the loss of thousands of jobs must have been tough for the Socialists to deal with. The Greens also had reservations about the Kosovo conflict. To be honest I have yet to hear the Irish Green party drive such a hard bargain. They could press for 50% renewable energy within 10 years, things like that. I think there is a disconnect now between the party leadership and ordinary people interested in Green issues.

Múinteoir

gbh wrote:

I don't think the German Greens compromised that much. Granted they had a bigger party and therefore could have more influence in government. But they drove a hard bargain with the Socialists. Closing all your Nuclear Power plants with the loss of thousands of jobs must have been tough for the Socialists to deal with. The Greens also had reservations about the Kosovo conflict. To be honest I have yet to hear the Irish Green party drive such a hard bargain. They could press for 50% renewable energy within 10 years, things like that. I think there is a disconnect now between the party leadership and ordinary people interested in Green issues.

The German Greens capitulated completely on sending NATO forces into Kosovo and Joschka Fisher took a lot of abuse for it from Green supporters. You can argue about whether or not he was right to do it (I think he was), but it was a massive compromise to make on Green principles.

Incidentally how many people here have actually read the programme for government themselves, rather than just take soundbites on it from partisan commentators?

Voipjunkie

M&#250 wrote: »

The German Greens capitulated completely on sending NATO forces into Kosovo and Joschka Fisher took a lot of abuse for it from Green supporters. You can argue about whether or not he was right to do it (I think he was), but it was a massive compromise to make on Green principles.

Incidentally how many people here have actually read the programme for government themselves, rather than just take soundbites on it from partisan commentators?

Also on the Nuclear energy thing it was an agreement to phase out nuclear after 32 years lifespan and the CDU has started to reverse that decision so they achieved nothing on that front

gbh

Phasing out nuclear power whether it is in 5 years or 32 years is still a major decision of strategic national importance.

Surely the Greens can't be held accountable for CDU policy?

Joska Fischer took a lot of pressure mostly from his own party and if I remember correctly the Green party wanted a quick end to the war.

As for reading the programme for government, there's no point. Its delivery that matters not words on a page and hopefully most people will judge them on delivery.

is_that_so

M&#250 wrote: »

The German Greens capitulated completely on sending NATO forces into Kosovo and Joschka Fisher took a lot of abuse for it from Green supporters. You can argue about whether or not he was right to do it (I think he was), but it was a massive compromise to make on Green principles.

Incidentally how many people here have actually read the programme for government themselves, rather than just take soundbites on it from partisan commentators?

It is not all about the programme for government but a reasonable observation. The Greens played dubious semantic games in advance of the talks. Now if that was FF we'd shrug our shoulders but the Greens are supposed to stand, by their own admission, for higher standards in public life. Hardly the way to start off in government and endear yourself to that portion of the population who voted for them on that basis alone.

I am less than convinced by them so far.
IMO they did not get a good enough deal, unless it was just ministries they were after. That and running away from Tara so quickly, especially when there may now be European dimension makes me wonder who's pulling the strings and makes one question what it is they think they stand for.

Voipjunkie

gbh wrote:

Phasing out nuclear power whether it is in 5 years or 32 years is still a major decision of strategic national importance.

.

Except if they had done it within the life of the Government then they might have achieved something but as it was over a period far longer than the life of a government the decision was open to be overturned by a subsequent government with little or no cost.