Anyone who has canvassed for the Green party will recognise
the truth in the statistics that form the basis of Harry Lambert's blog post
for the New Statesman:
It is certainly the case that young voters are more open to
our policies. Mind you they generally have longer to live with the consequences
of not implementing them!
But there is no reason for older voters to be less attracted
to the Green party. In fact our policies for older people are much better than
those of the three main parties.
In particular our Citizen's Income policy of a simple,
non-means-tested state income of £170 per week would
lift many out of poverty. Those questioning whether the policy is affordable
should note that it is very similar to the reforms the Coalition Government is
implementing from April 2016. But shamefully the Coalition policy will only
apply to those reaching State Pension Age from April 2016. The Green party's
policy would benefit existing as well as future pensioners. This is important
because rates of pensioner poverty are highest amongst the oldest pensioners.
It is often stated that Greens want to increase the cost of
energy and this might be a reason older people are less open to voting for us.
But we actually want to help people with the cost of keeping warm by paying for
the insulation of millions of homes and prioritising those on fixed incomes
such as pensioners.
Older people have as much to gain from Green policies as
younger people. We obviously have a lot of work to do to get that message
across. That is one of the reasons I helped to found the Green seniors network.
If you are a pensioner and interested in knowing more about our policies please
get in touch!
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