Eureka! - I've seen the light...

This week I experienced a pivotal moment. The final realisation that none of the leading political parties fit the bill - including my hitherto preferred option, the Labour Party.

I faced a decision - do I withdraw my vote or find an alternative party to back? Certainly, withdrawal of my vote is anathema to me. People fought long and hard for the right to vote and in my book we are doing wrong if we don't exercise that right.

UKIP has always been a no-no for me, and the realisation that the majority of UKIP supporters favour very explicitly socialist ideas (in a major survey, 78% of UKIP supporters responded that they supported outright renationalisation of the UK energy market, and 73% of them supported renationalisation of the rail network) only underlines the futility of following that line! UKIP is essentially a right-wing Tory group - would they implement Socialist ideas? I think not.

So, what was the solution to my dilemma?

As a 70-year-old pensioner who looked very closely at the Green's policies (when it was the Ecology Party) nearly 40 years ago. I was impressed then, but as a life-long socialist who had been inspired by my forefathers in the Socialist movement, I always felt that those issues should be dealt with by the Labour Party.

In the 1990s I even became a ward party chairman for Labour but I was immensely disaffected by their purely Blair-ish attitudes of the time. I left the party and have since returned to my roots in Birmingham.

It has taken me untiil this year to realise I was wrong in expecting Labour to embrace what the Green movement stands for. I became severely disappointed - they are clearly a party (like the Liberals) who have had their time and now something fresh needs to grow in today's world. For the first time I voted for the Greens this year (in the European elections) ... only the second time I have not voted Labour (the previous occasion was a protest vote in favour of the Liberals in the early 80s).

It is the principles and ethos of the Green movement that are the only political relevancy in today's world. I retain a sympathy towards Labour, but their views are entrapped in yesterday's thinking to some extent.

We certainly need a system of politics that is centred on the idea of unity - of the planet, mankind and everything that lives - and their connection to the cosmos. Governmental policies need to derive from that concept.

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