Another post about why we’re voting Green, this time from Jack Parker in Cardiff. We’ll be running posts on this subject until the local elections on May 5th, so if you’d like to contribute email 200-300 words on the subject to younggreensblog@gmail.com .
Why am I voting Green? It’s difficult to sum up in so few words, but in summary I guess it’s because my generation is being increasingly burdened by decades of short term thinking. When we as a nation dream of the future we see tall shiny buildings, super-fast computers and space tourism. But whilst our generation has cheap and accessible technology to look forward to, we also have to worry more about the basics – things like jobs, housing, water and oil.
When it comes to young people right now, it’s education that’s on the political agenda. The average graduate facing the upcoming £9000 a year tuition fees can expect to be paying back their loans beyond the point at which their own children graduate 25 to 30 years later. That’s if they’re able to have children so young- too many of us are going to be stuck living with our parents for years as we save for a deposit on a house, the price of which is unjustifiably high because of previous financial speculation and a lack of affordable home building.
Maybe living cheap with your parents and saving some cash wouldn’t be so bad, if it wasn’t for the fact that we’d paying out such a substantial portion of our wages on petrol, food and other vital resources that are rapidly going up in price. We’d best get used to these levels of expenditure though- climate change is only going to exaggerate them in the medium and long term future.
The solutions to these problems are complicated, sometimes harsh, and sometimes involve sacrifice, but they’re solutions that we desperately need. The political parties of the UK, and seemingly every other major country, are dealing only with the short term issues that are going to pop up between now and the next election- short term economic woes, the NHS, and intervention in Libya. These are important issues that require our time and effort. But the Green Party goes one step further, and considers the long term too. Whether it’s tackling tax dodgers to pay for our education, building sustainable new homes and making better use of empty ones or improving public transport, the Greens suggest real, affordable solutions, rather than saying whatever looks good on an election leaflet. As young people, we’re going to be around for the longest. We need our politicians to think long term and at the moment, it seems as though only the Greens are doing so. That’s why they get my vote.
