Work To Live

They can be allies on certain issues, but the Greens, as such, are not part of the Left. They believe in zero economic growth, and it is impossible to be further from the Labour Movement than that. 

Their enthusiasm for population control at home and abroad originates with the kind of megarich Far Right cranks who now run the American Republican Party and who are trying to take over the British Conservative Party. Of course, in Government, all three main parties have been funding it forever.

And then there is the Greens' answer the Yes-No question, "Do you regret the defeat of the miners in 1985?"

But that brings us to the four-day week, which is now entering the mainstream after more than 20 years as the signature policy of Arthur Scargill's Socialist Labour Party. 

Even The Economist and the Adam Smith Institute are now in favour of the Universal Basic Income, which was once proposed by Richard Nixon. And even the Government at least pretends to have introduced the Living Wage, which is of Papal origin.

So if the Greens make similar progress with the Free Time Index, then good luck to them. "Eight Hours Labour, Eight Hours Recreation, Eight Hours Rest" read the old miners' banners. But who can say that now?

The four-day week has brought out the shrieks of the "relentless work is a moral obligation for other people but not for us" brigade of trustafarians with academic sinecures. For that is what right-wing think tank positions are. Private academic sinecures. But academic sinecures nonetheless. 

If anyone comes out with that line, then remember that no one in his family has done a proper day's work since they stole the monasteries' land under Henry VIII, or in some cases since 1066. Ask what, exactly, the "Director of the Genghis Khan Institute" does all day, never mind for four days of the week.

They always pretend to have an understanding of "business". But they never do. Or if they do, then it is impossible to see how they can have acquired it. That they are paid by commercial interests applies, and applies rather more directly and transparently, to a very large number of people who most certainly do not enjoy their level of access to politics and the media.

Another hung Parliament is coming, however, and our people need to hold the balance of power in it. My crowdfunding page is here, or email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com for other options. That address accepts PayPal.