TANCZOS CRITICISES THE GREEN PARTY

Former Green MP Nandor Tanczos has started up a blog. It's called Dread Times, and in one of his first posts he takes a bit of a confused swipe at the Green Party's election strategy.

He criticises his former colleagues for ruling out any cooperation with the National Party and for fastening their lifeboat to the 'sinking ship' that was Labour.

While co-leaders Russel Norman and Jeanette Fitsimons were quick to describe the Green's election campaign as a success, Tanczos says that the party's election results were disappointing and says:

'The Green Party might well have won their biggest caucus yet, if they had been prepared to stop licking Labour's hand.'

So was Tanczos hoping for a deal with National?

He appears to be in two minds about this. On the one hand he says it was possible that National would not of paid the Green Party any attention anyway - but in the next sentence he says that John Key's approach to the Maori Party indicated a 'new openness'.

He concludes:

'There was never a better time for the Greens to see if they could forge a new political space, genuinely independent of Labour and National. Unfortunately for us all, they lacked the courage to try.'

But what would this 'independent' Green Party look like? He doesn't say.

The question that Tanczos doesn't address is the Green's support for market-led environmentalism. This is not altogether surprising since, as an MP, he faithfully followed the Russel Norman pro-market line.

If Tanczos is sincere about wanting a 'independent' Green Party then he should also be calling for the party to abandon market environmentalism.