This morning, the New Statesman published a story claiming that Caroline Lucas MP, the Green Party’s Leader was undermining the prospects of a “progressive majority” government.
The comments string to this piece shows pretty clearly what was wrong with the analysis. As Ms Lucas herself had said to the New Statesman:
“I think we would rule out a formal coalition, but we’re very interested in talking about ways we might co-operate.”
In other words: she is ruling out being part of a formal coalition that might be formed between Labour and the Lib Dems, but openly contemplating a more informal arrangement, which could make a “rainbow” government viable.
The Green party confirmed this through its twitter account this afternoon:
“Misleading hdline … fr @newstatesman – @CarolineLucas happy to consider confidence/supply w/ reform-oriented coalition.”
This confirms my piece for Left Foot Forward on Saturday which suggested that, “a Lib-Lab coalition, with a ‘Confidence and Supply’ arrangement with the smaller Parties including the Greens – might just work.”
Now that Brown is going, and calling explicitly for a “progressive coalition government“, there is a real window for the Green Party and Caroline Lucas to play a leadership role, along with Alex Salmond and others. The Greens and the SNP are in a particularly good place to advance this agenda – because the Scottish experience of stable government operating without an overall coalitional majority, but with a “co-operation agreement” between a governing Party (in this case, the SNP) and a much smaller loosely co-operating party (in this case, the Greens) offers exactly the kind of blueprint that could see a “progressive majority” government in the whole of Britain attaining a working majority in the House of Commons.
It is notable that some Scottish Green voices have already been raising this possibility volubly, notably over at Bright Green Scotland. Scottish Green activist Ellie Pant also warns eloquently against the dangers of not seizing this progressive moment.
As this blog has been reporting, most voters and members see the Lib Dems as left-of-centre party so a progressive majority “rainbow” government would reflect the democratic popular will. The SNP and Plaid Cymru appear to be on board, ditto the Alliance Party, and the SDLP already caucus with Labour.
It is time for a progressive majority government, as Brown has boldly called for today.
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52 Responses to “Greens on board for a progressive government”
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Mark Lightwood
I don’t think adding a party which took 37 years to get 1 MP into the coalition would make it look any less like one of “losers”, it will add to that impression – a coalition of all the losers and little irrelevant parties.
But Morus is right, Lucas may vote with the coalition but she is not needed to form any part of any kind of agreement, so yeah, this whole post is a bit self-aggrandizing – “wow, Caroline has so much power, wow!” No, she doesn’t. If she has any progressive leanings she will ensure the government doesn’t collapse. But otherwise she has nothing to offer. She cannot influence the coalition in any way. If it does come down to her 1 vote, and she thinks her own career or concerns are more important than those of the 99% of the electorate that didn’t vote for her and all the other MPs, there will be hell to pay.
Short version: she’s not needed, but if she ever is, she better not try to bring down the government.
Liat Norris
@mycrippledeagle Moar on it haha https://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/05/greens-on-board-for-a-progressive-government/
Billy Blofeld
Should the headline not read “Green On Board”? There is only one Green afterall…………
Rupert Read
I’m with Adam – we need at this time to be looking for common ground. I’m surprised Morus that you ‘couldn’t care less’ who forms the next govt. That suggests that you may be on the wrong blog, here. LeftFootForward is with Lord Ashdown and many others, including it seems most LibDem members and certainly most LibDem voters in thinking that the LibDems are a Party of the centre-Left (see https://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/05/lib-con-coalition-would-be-an-electoral-gift-to-labour/ ).
If you want PR, and you want to stop the dismantlement of the welfare state, then you should want a #progressivemajority rainbow alliance.
The Green Party (and the Alliance Party) are the only Parties that gained seats, outside the Conservatives. This is a small but real way in which they help break the ‘coalition of losers’ tag, and offer something fresh and now, something with momentum.