by frog
Now I’m a fan of Garth George. He says it plain and seems to like a good argument. His columns are always a good way to get the debating circuits ticking first thing in the morning. But nobody apart from probably Garth himself was as surprised as I was by what he wrote for his latest comment this morning:
Dr Norman’s dissertation on the state of our water supplies and Ms Fitzsimons’ exposition on world and local food production, processing and sale brought me to an inescapable, albeit somewhat uncomfortable, conclusion: that the Greens do have a vital part to play in Parliament…
But that’s not all, Garth goes even further:
Sure, the Greens are idealists and a lot of them are eccentrics. But in a nation desperately short of idealism and eccentricity that’s no bad thing.
It doesn’t matter a damn which major party they attach themselves to because the major players are, as Dr Norman says, as much alike as Coke and Pepsi, and whichever one wins the most seats will need the sort of passionate, principled input only the Greens can provide…
Has Garth had an epiphany? Have the Greens gone mainstream? Did the world start spinning the other way? Maybe, but don’t worry. It’s small, conservative steps for Garth to start with, as he shows by the way he finishes that last paragraph above:
…Just so long as there aren’t too many of them
Published in Campaign | Environment & Resource Management | Media by frog on Thu, June 5th, 2008
Tags: , Frog, frogblog, Garth George, Greens. Green PArty, Jeanette Fitzsimons, new zealand, Russel Norman
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
I was totally gobsmacked to read it. A crusty old conservative like Garth George expressing, albeit qualified, support for the Greens.
Could this be the start of the breakthorugh that sees the Greens getting beyond the 5%-9% polling that has, despite their having more answers to the key issues than either Labour or National, always curtailed their success and kept them in the “minor party league”?
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Wow. Not that I’m unhappy that Garth has had this epiphany but has anyone checked to make sure he’s actually alright?
Jokes aside. It’s remarkable how quickly people realise how sensible, informed and important Green policy is when they hear the policy and the rationalisation first hand as opposed to the sensationalised and dumbed down versions we often get from the press.
Policy based on the basis that we live on a finite planet is a pretty reasonable assumption to make these days but it’s surprising how little that fact comes into play in a journalists mind.
Well done George, I enjoyed reading your column for perhaps the first time in my life!
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What interested me was how up front he was about his INTENTION to bag the Greens……and the only thing that stopped him was……the evidence.
I guess that is how grumpy columnists need to think….but the order seems wrong to me. At least he heeded the evidence.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to get grumpy about things you KNOW to be wrong or stupid?
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Garth George likes your politics and his following might change allegience from NZFirst so I guess congratulations are in order. You appeal to conservatives.
I have never liked Garth George – still don’t. Because Garth George has not had an epipheny, the Greens have changed, the Greens are now selling what he likes.
From Fitzsimons:
“During the first 5 year Kyoto period ordinary workers in South Auckland will be subsidising dairy farmers who last year increased their gross incomes by an average of a quarter of a million dollars each.
So much for the reality. What about the politics?”
Garth George likes reality as the Greens describe it and likes the politics it serves. That reality is deeply flawed.
Further into the speech Jeanette notes NZ farms are really good at producing milk and doing so in a relatively carbon efficient manner. Those dairy farmers are efficient. However somehow overlooked is the fact that ordinary NZers have carbon footprints 300% greater than the global average. Those “South Auckland” consumers are wasteful.
Garth George appeals to an audience of NZ consumers, our 300% polluters, railling against change. The Greens have moved into sync with Garth George by demanding that our 300% polluters do not have to pay for their pollution, that the cost is borne by others.
What will come next from our newly Conservative Greens? Perhaps the Greens will demand that the Chinese (who pollute 1/3 as much as our consumers) face punitive sanctions. It would make Garth happy, he has always said Asians are a problem.
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Yup, that Russel’s just a Garth George clone. How did I miss it until now? Bloody trojan horse taking over the Party…
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Indeed. If only everyone looked at the actual evidence, the political game would be far more reasonable.
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unaha-closp Says:
June 5th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
> However somehow overlooked is the fact that ordinary NZers have carbon footprints 300% greater than the global average. Those “South Auckland? consumers are wasteful.
> Garth George appeals to an audience of NZ consumers, our 300% polluters, railling against change. The Greens have moved into sync with Garth George by demanding that our 300% polluters do not have to pay for their pollution, that the cost is borne by others.
No they haven’t. The Green Party has also been advocating for the inclusion of transport, electricity generation and other energy use in the ETS, and these are the main things that would lead to a cost for ‘ordinary new zealanders’.
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One of things that fascinated me in Canada last year was how many conservatives had gone to te Green Party there. There is much in Green values that appeals to conservatives, apparently: democracy, local action, conserving resources…..
The conservatives I met in Canada who had gone green had also done so to get away from the religious fundies and “family values” groups that have taken over the Canadian Conservative Party when it reformed a few years ago. Prior to that, conservatives had framented into three groups in he wake of Brian Mulroney’s utter destruction of the original Progressive Conservative Party.
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