I just got “greenmailed” – no, not threatened with extortion by environmentalists, but emailed one of the Greens’ press releases. This is far from infrequent, but this one seems really well timed as it allows me to complete my trilogy of comparing the Greens to the Big Three political parties of the moment.

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In advance of the Liberal Democrat tax vote, the Green Party today highlighted the party's appalling record on the environment when in office

Green Party Principal Speaker Keith Taylor commented: "The Lib Dems cannot be taken seriously on the environment. You only have to look at their record in office, in Scotland where they are actually in coalition government and on local councils across the UK, of expanding motorways, expanding aviation and even campaigning against congestion charging.

"Sir Menzies says he is ready to make tough choices, but when it comes to the crunch the Lib Dems fall at the first hurdle. The gulf between their rhetoric and the reality couldn't be greater.

Commenting on proposals to drop the 50 per cent tax rate for those earning above 100k, Keith Taylor said: "This is the Lib Dems’ flagship re-distributive policy. Dropping it is a clear move in the wrong direction - putting the Liberal Democrats squarely in the post- Thatcherite consensus built by New Labour: the soggy centre ground.

"Their aim with these free market tax cuts is just to entice the richest voters away from the Tory Party - but they have not thought about the whole picture. Revenue from the 50p rate was earmarked to pay for policy commitments on long-term care and higher education. Now they breezily dismiss the £15 billion shortfall, proposing to find it in 'existing low priority or wasteful spending.'

"The Green Party, in contrast, support a 60 per cent tax rate for incomes above 100k. Our 'green taxation' policies are part of a massive program of economic change, shifting from a carbon based to a renewables based economy. These are backed by our proposal for DTQs - Domestic Tradeable Quotas for carbon, ensuring everyone plays a part in tackling climate change."

“The Lib Dems are trying to have their cake and eat it. In dropping the 50% tax rate on high earners, they are effectively allowing the better-off more disposable income to carry on their polluting lifestyles.

“Once again the Lib Dems are trying to be all things to all people, signalling open for business to the corporate sector whilst waving a green flag in an attempt to appeal to the nation’s growing concerns over global warming.”

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That pretty much covers it. There’s loads more stuff comparing the Greens to the Lib Dems in a report called Too Yellow To Be Green, if you’re interested.

The other thing I wanted to do in this short blog was to clarify some comments I made here regarding the BYC’s annual general meeting and no one from our own AR/AF Campaign Committee being there when we were discussing the no platform policy. By holding their AGM on a Saturday, the BYC excluded (whether through ignorance or malice) practicing Jews from participating, so I apologise to Sam for any inference people may have made that he couldn’t be bothered to attend.

I say again: it was absolutely not my intention to imply anything of the sort. I guess I was just conflating my frustration at us having eight empty delegate spaces and losing a key vote with none of those places being filled by anyone from AR/AF. While I’m certainly on board with the AR/AF agenda (as an egalitarian and a Green, I’m pretty much always going to be!) I’m not a specialist in the area and it was unfortunate that it fell to me, rather than one of the twelve NEC on the Committee, to present it.

Anyway, back to work for me. Expect my NEC report early next week. I took fifteen A4 pages of notes so it may be a little lengthy…

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