Voting Green is about feeling morally superior to lesser mortals

In this, as in all things, Paul Keating was right.

It was the former Aussie Prime Minister, a Beethoven of political invective, who called his country’s Green Party ‘a bunch of opportunists and Trots hiding behind a gum tree trying to pretend they’re the Labor Party’. Keating’s acid scherzo could apply just as readily to our own Greens, self-appointed conservationists of righteousness. Caroline Lucas, their only MP, has been at the forefront of calls for a ‘progressive alliance’ between left-wing parties. On Wednesday, she wrote to Jeremy Corbyn and Tim Farron proposing ‘some form of cooperation in a handful of seats to create the best possible chance of beating the Tories,’ adding:

Many of the public want us to join forces to help stop the Tories from further wrecking our country for generations to come and we hope you will be willing to at least take the first step and meet with us.

Lucas appreciates that not everyone can be as virtuous and selfless as Greens but urged her ethically compromised opposite numbers to try really hard.