‘Other parties will ridicule Green policies up to the point where they steal them’

Universal Basic Income is the radical proposal that human beings should have enough money for basic food and shelter and shouldn’t have to beg for it.

It is a proposal that has recently made the quantum leap in the eyes of mainstream economists and politicians from misguided Utopian nonsense, to a serious option being discussed by several major parties and piloted in several countries.

This Friday, I will be attending a discussion at the council, hosted by Bristol mayor Marvin Rees, on the idea of Universal Basic Income, also known as Citizen’s Income.

Attendees will include councillors, council staff from across the organisation, and an expert from the University of Bristol.

This follows an event in September about asset-based community development, where I asked the mayor to look into the possibility of Bristol becoming a pilot city for Basic Income. (I do not know whether my request was the sole trigger for this Friday’s event, but I believe it was a factor.)

Basic Income is not a new idea. It was mooted by Thomas More in 1516, and proposed by Bertrand Russell in the UK 1918.

In 1920, the British Labour Party conference ‘definitively rejected’ the proposal, but it has been a core part of the Green Party’s economic policies since the party was founded in 1973.

An experiment in guaranteed income took place in Canada the following year. And several independent research institutes dedicated to the topic have been working since the 80s, including the Citizens Basic Income Trust and Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN).

This is a phenomenon we are used to in the Green Party.

In my experience, three things in life are certain: death, taxes, and that other parties will ridicule Green Party policies right up to the point where they steal them and use them to get elected.

A call to add a tax on disposable cups was initially proposed by the Green Party

Examples:

·         Renationalising the railways (Green Party TR230).

·         Abolishing university tuition fees (but Green Party policy goes further than Labour, including writing off existing student debt).

·         Taking ecological sustainability seriously (the founding of the Green Party’s predecessor was inspired by the findings of a 1972 report called The Limits to Growth).

·         Taxing products which are pollutants, such as single-use plastics and disposable coffee cups  (the #LatteLevy) (Green Party policy EC785).

·         Proportional representation (well OK, we haven’t persuaded Labour yet, but public opinion is ahead of them).

Why am I saying this? It’s not to be bitter about the present ‘borrowing’ of historic Green Party policies (although I am, a little) but to highlight the trend and use it to predict the future.

I am not arguing that the Green Party had your favourite Labour Party/Lib Dem policy before they did, so you owe us your vote.

My point is that the Green Party consistently proposes the progressive policies first, so you can count on us to be at the forefront of progressive politics now and in the future.

So if you want us to continue to have that influence, you need to vote Greens into town halls and Westminster.

While we may not be running the government any time soon (and you may not even want us to), our power to inspire the other parties (and sometimes drag them kicking and screaming) in the right direction means that just one or two Greens in the room can make a world of difference.

Now, back to preparing for that Universal Basic Income meeting…

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