THE UK Independence and Green parties could not be farther apart on the political spectrum; the first on the right, the second on the left. In fact, however, they share many more views than you might think. Here are 10 policy statements from the two parties’ manifestos, launched today and yesterday. Can you spot which is from UKIP and which from the Greens?
(The full answers are below.)
1. Elitism
a) “Our current politics (is) dominated by a small social group and the power of vested interests”
b) “Rebalance power from large corporations and big government institutions and put it back into the hands of the people of this country”
2. The NHS
a) “Invest an extra £12 billion into the NHS; put £5.2 billion more into social care”
b) “Immediately increase the overall NHS Budget by £12 billion a year; provide free social care as well as free healthcare for older people”
3. Higher education
a) “Waive tuition fees for students taking a degree in science; technology; engineering; maths or medicine”
b) “End(ing) undergraduate tuition fees”
4. The bedroom tax
a) “Abolish the bedroom tax, which has saved less than £400m a year”
b) “Scrap the bedroom tax (which is) clearly unfair and is not working”
5. Housing
a) “Housing charity Shelter reports there are 279,000 privately-owned long-term empty homes in England alone, while other bodies, such as the Empty Homes Agency, put the figure much higher still. The most obvious way to create new homes is by bringing these empty homes back into use.”
b) “Take action on empty homes to bring them back into use. There are about 700,000 empty home. Halve this number through Empty Property Use Orders”
6. High-speed rail
a) “HS2 will blight thousands of homes and wreak irreparable environmental damage across large tracts of central England. It must face the axe.”
b) “Not support HS2 (the proposed high-speed network). The money to be spent on this hugely expensive project, which will at best reduce journey times for a few passengers, would be much better spent on improving the conventional rail connections between various major cities.”
7. Political reform
a) “Introduce recall reforms on MPs and other representatives if 20% of electors request it.”
b) “Give voters real power to sack their MP and scrap the bogus Recall measures introduced by the Tory-led Coalition. Under our proposals, if twenty per cent of an MP’s constituents demand it, within a period of eight weeks, a Recall ballot will be triggered.”
8. Electoral reform
a) “Campaign for a new, proportional voting system that delivers a Parliament truly reflective of the number of votes cast, while retaining a constituency link, so every vote really does count”
b) “Bring in proportional representation (PR) using the Additional Member system for parliamentary elections”
9. Foreign policy
a) “The UK’s recent history has been scarred by involvement in ill-advised military interventions that have undermined our national and international security”
b) “(Military) interventions have stretched the UK’s armed forces to the limit and damaged our reputation in the international community. They have caused social problems here at home and jaded the British public’s attitude towards involvement in future conflicts.”
10. Animal welfare
a) “Triple the maximum jail sentences for animal cruelty and torture. Impose lifetime bans on owning and/or looking after animals on any individual or company convicted of animal cruelty or torture”
b) “End government funding of animal experimentation, including any that is outsourced to other countries"
Answers
1 a) Green b) UKIP
2 a) UKIP b) Green
3 a) UKIP b) Green
4 a) Green b) UKIP
5 a) UKIP b) Green
6 a) UKIP b) Green
7 a) Green b) UKIP
8 a) UKIP b) Green
9 a) Green b) UKIP
10 a) UKIP b) Green
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