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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Catherine Bennett

Modern tribes: the Green convert

Modern tribes: green convert
Illustration: Ben Lamb for the Guardian

Sorry, am I missing something, where does it say you can’t be Green if you have two houses? I bet if our candidate – no, I’m just about to find out – knew about our solar panels and the ground-source heating, and what a total nightmare installing the entire thing has been, they would probably be thrilled that at least one supporter is prepared to hand over an absolute fortune on a point of principle, because that’s what being Green is all about, isn’t it? Kind of looking at the bigger picture and doing the right thing, however mad that looks to people who are still stuck in the old two-party mindset.

It’s not like I’m the only one, we had a show of hands at yoga and over half of us had gone Green. No wonder there’s this surge, people are searching for something different, that’s bigger than pathetic party posturing; you’ll see when they have the debate. Of course, it’s not our fault if the Tories get in, it’s the system that’s wrong, do you really want me to go in the voting booth and lie? Just because I don’t pay the bedroom tax means I can’t vote sustainably? Maybe if more people voted with their hearts not their heads the world would be a better place. At least we’re sending out a message to the big parties that if they want our votes they’ll have to start talking about sharing.

It’s completely realistic, what about the living wage, it’s been precision-costed, just bringing back dog licences could raise billions. But it’s typical of the other parties to keep going on about money, they don’t realise Natalie Bennett is the reason most of us joined, we’re sick of politicians who pretend they’ve got all the answers. Homeopathy? Really? It’s got to be a smear, look, I don’t care what happened in Brighton, this just feels right for me is all I’m saying. Actually, I’d be perfectly happy to buy a G-Wiz if it helped save the planet, we hardly ever use the Range Rover in town, the thing is, it can’t really happen, can it, so it’s all about principle, do you want a lift?

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