There was no shortage of realism at the special Green Party Convention to discuss the revised Programme for Government at the RDS on Saturday. As the result of votes on two Motions indicate, a significant minority (31 percent) held out against support for NAMA, while an overwhelming majority (84 percent) sided with the Party’s leadership in their determination to…fight the next election having given themselves time to deliver in Government and begin to address some of the deep flaws in the political system, notably in planning, the influence of corporate donations and banking regulation.
The new PFG focuses on reform because everybody knows that some aspects of the new Programme could still be held hostage to the forthcoming tsunami of a Budget, which may well have a few FF backbenchers weighing up their own plans for an early exit from Government.
I am a lecturer in sustainable development and governance at the School of Law, Queens University Belfast. I also conduct work at United Nations negotiations on the environment for the International Institute for Sustainable Development.
My book on the attention economy and mindfulness as commons was published by Routlege in June 2017. See A Political Economy of Attention, Mindfulness and Consumerism: Reclaiming the Mindful Commons (Routledge Studies in Sustainability)
My research interests include consumerism, green politics and the economy. I locate myself firmly to the left of the political spectrum. I write in a personal capacity.
Born in Donegal, I was raised in Derry and now reside in Belfast with my family.
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