Last week, I left the Liberal Democrats to join the Green Party. These are the main reasons for my decision, even though I still support the vast majority of their policies.
Steadfast support for Transgender People
The Green membership is strongly unified on the rights for transgender people. 90% of party members believe people should be able to identify as a different gender than that recorded at birth, while 80% think the law should allow people to change their legal gender more easily. These figures compare to 49% and 34% respectively among the wider public.
Zack Polanski, the new Leader of the Party, has also voiced very strong support for the transgender community. When asked by Pierce Morgan, a right-wing pundit, in typical fashion, if a woman can have a penis, Zach didn’t hesitate and said yes.
While listening to Zach’s podcast Bold Politics, he was speaking to a drag queen about being allies to the LGBT community. He mentioned transgender people and said, “I would like to point out that we should have a transgender person on here. We’re talking with Shon Faye, the author of ‘The Transgender Issue’ and ‘Love In Exile’, and a transgender woman, to get her on the show. But we’re talking here in relation to being allies.”
That meant a lot, that here is the leader of a political party, noting that transgender people are not usually in the same room when they are being talked about.
Zach has also come out in support of all minorities, not just transgender people, but people of any sexual orientation, colour, or gender.
For me, as a transgender woman, this would be enough for me to join them.
Re-Joining the EU
The Green Party as a whole wants to rejoin the EU. Now, I will admit that I voted to leave the EU, but I was deceived by the lies propagated by the then Conservative government.
Leaving the EU is the worst decision our country has ever made. Not only is it costing us at least 4% of our GDP per year in lost trade, but in this uncertain world, which is vastly different from the one when we voted to leave, we are all alone.
Yes, we have a £2.56 trillion economy, the sixth largest in the world, but we are still nothing compared to the USA (first), the EU (second), and China (third). In the case of the EU and China, the difference is 4.4 times, and in the USA’s case, it’s 7.7 times.
We only have 3 advantages I can see in the world compared to most countries:-
- We are a nuclear power.
- We are a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.
- We are the head of the British Commonwealth.
But even all those advantages pale in comparison to being in the EU.
Greens Social Media Use
The Greens under Zach Polanski have made very good use of social media. The Lib Dems are nowhere near as good at this.
One of the advantages the limited company that is Reform UK has over other parties is its excellent use of social media. They are one of the best parties at using it and building hype around their leader, Nigel Farage, who I might add I think is the worst politician since Margaret Thatcher.
The Greens seemed to have learnt from this, getting Zach, the greatest asset for the Greens, as any party leader should be, on the TV, on BBC QT and Sunday with LK. Yes, those programmes are very right-wing biased, but having Zach put out the message of the Greens, so the left of politics, is so important as a lot of the British public still watches them.
Proper tax on the wealthy
The Greens recently announced they would tax people with over £10 million 1% and billionaires 2% on their wealth.
I think this is a fantastic idea. Although people say, “Well, they will just leave,” most very wealthy people have assets in the UK, so that cannot be easily moved if at all.
Also, a lot of the wealthy have said they will be happy to pay more tax.
Conclusion
While I still support most of the policies of the Lib Dems, I feel like the Greens under Zach very closely support my beliefs.
I really hope they can break through to the public with their message.
It’s very encouraging that they now have more members than the Tories already.
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