Owen Jones is just another Unionist.

Left Foot forward report that the-Green Party members threw out suggestions that they should merge with Labour this weekend, voting against the idea at the party’s spring conference.
Owen Jones is just another  Unionist.
They report

The suggestion to the Greens was made most prominently by journalist Owen Jones – bringing scorn from Green Party members, and now officially from the party as a whole.
Owen Jones suggested that a merger of the parties ‘would end a pointless division on the British left’ and would ‘unite the English and Welsh left under one banner’ – but Green Party members aren’t so sure.
The Green’s spring conference voted yesterday to reject the idea of affiliating to Labour – and then went on to censor Labour’s policies and “woeful” internal democracy. The motion passed noted:

• Elected Greens are often the only viable opposition to Conservative administrations,
• Labour’s policies and actions on HS2, nuclear weapons and power, airport expansion, homelessness, libraries, estate demolition, the scapegoating of immigrants, tree felling, and more are not compatible with Green values,
• Labour does not support Proportional Representation, which is a high political priority for the Greens,
• Greens do not believe large broad coalition parties give voters enough choice nor that they produce effective government and are therefore not conducive to a good democracy,
• Labour’s internal democracy is woeful and not compatible with our members’ expectations of democratic policy making

 Owen Jones’ called for a Red/Green alliance between Labour and the Green Party has stimulated quite a debate – not least on the pros and cons of the electoral alliance that has existed between the Labour Party and the Co-operative Party seem rather hollow.

I wonder how many of the electorate realise that the Co-op party exists and have MPs

Of course if we had examples when they voted on bloc differently from Labour in Westminster he might have a case.

 Ever since Jeremy Corbyn became  Labour leader Owen Jones has changed from a progressive voice a total Labour Loyalist attacking the SNP in Scotland for the government there because he claims they have not tackled austerity enough.

He responded to criticism of this  with

What particularly riled my antagonists was Munro’s reference to “SNP and Tory austerity”. This is an argument made repeatedly by Jeremy Corbyn himself. “Scots have a choice in this election,” said Corbyn in May. “A Labour government which will govern for the many not the few, or the continuation of Tory and SNP austerity.”

The reason Corbyn’s Labour make this argument is that the SNP refuse to use their tax-raising powers to reverse Tory cuts: their argument that it would cause the rich to flee is the standard right-wing objection to progressive taxation. Furthermore, they enforced a council tax freeze for many years that caused cuts to services in Scotland.

The SNP would be more reliable allies of Corbyn, I’m repeatedly told. Odd, again, given Munro — who I was campaigning for — is a Corbyn supporter. Odd, too, given Nicola Sturgeon’s own publicly expressed view is that Corbyn’s Labour is “pitifully ineffective.” Odd, also, given the SNP wishes Scotland to leave a country potentially led by Corbyn.

In the coming months, I’ll be campaigning in Tory-held seats in England: Labour can take constituencies held by the likes of Iain Duncan-Smith and Boris Johnson. But I’m glad to have combined a visit to my parents with a campaign in a nearby marginal. That’s because I want Labour to win with left-wing candidates in Scotland, England and Wales so that we can have a left-wing Labour government — maybe even by the end of the year.

On a personal note, both my father and grandfather depend on Scotland’s NHS. I want a Scotland free of the devastating cuts of the last few years — and only a Labour government can deliver that.

Finally: a word on political culture and debate. The fury unleashed on my timeline by my campaigning as a left-wing Labour supporter for a left-wing Labour candidate is utterly astonishing. It is disturbing, as well. It is not healthy. If the aim was to intimidate or deter (because there was certainly little attempt to persuade), then I’m afraid it will have the opposite.

He mentions  Wales but fails to address the uncomfortable argument that Labour in Wales despite running the Assembly since its inception has totaly failed to protect Wales and make the SNP government  look like a socialist Utopia by comparison.

His argument that the a merger of the Greens  in England and Wales
 

 ‘would end a pointless division on the British left’ and would ‘unite the English and Welsh left under one banner’

may  in part be because there is no separate Wales Green party unlike Scotland, but it reads like old fashioned left-unionism to me.

How can you have a united-left by ignoring Plaid ?

I have long argued for a progressive alliance  against the Tories but even under Corbyn as the Greens' have pointed out Labour can not be described as a progressive party. 

By the way where does Owen Jones stand on Jeremy Corbyn's support for May's hard brexit?

The trouble with Left-Unionists like Owen Jones  is that they believe all that's needed is a Left-Labour government 

But that will be as London centric as previous UK governments

Real change can only come with real devolution of power throughout the UK and an acceptance that if sone parts want independence they be granted t.