Green policies are designed to make sure that private enterprise can prosper over the long run.
I have no idea of his politics but Sir Ian Cheshire the Group Chief Executive of Kingfisher which includes B&Q puts it really clearly.
"Commitment to sustainability is driven by a strong commercial logic. Social and environmental concerns are actually beginning to impinge on business models and the reality of business today. We are already seeing that commodities are hard to extract and hard to find."
Business needs support from government if it is to research, develop and implement effective new technologies. It also needs a fair playing field across international boundaries. We cannot have a situation where responsible companies are undercut by heavily polluting rivals. Without realistic financial encouragement and sensible rules about the environment all that happens is the best businesses are undercut on price by the worst.
The other thing business needs are some customers. It is very difficult for business to be successful in the teeth of continued austerity. The great myth of the modern age is that our problems stem from the Euro or from excessive government spending. Our problems stem from a 2008 banking crisis and the dangerous assumption that the best way to deal with it is austerity.
If you cut people's real income then they have to cut their spending. People can't buy as much when their real income is being reduced and, aside from the very real hardship people have experienced, low spending has to be very bad for business sales.
Both Labour and Conservatives are committed to austerity cuts. The autumn statement calls for cuts 50% bigger than those already made this parliament. What will that do for business sales? What will it do for public services that we all need? What will it do for family incomes?
Austerity is a tried and tested strategy. It was tried and tested in the 1930s and it produced the great depression, 25% unemployment across the UK, record business failures, the rise of fascism and the Second World War. There is an alternative.
At a time of deflation what we need is for governments and central banks to counteract the downturn. We have survived the last round of cuts via £400 billion of expansionary quantitative easing in Britain and expansion on a similar scale in the USA. Unfortunately that money was then pumped into the banking system instead of invested in long term sustainable growth.
But there is one grounds for optimism. As a result of quantitative easing £350 billion of our national debt is owed to the Bank of England which we own. At a time of deflation and a strong pound this debt could be cancelled overnight and the money invested into a strong well balanced economy.
If you want another five years of desperately hard times then vote Labour or Conservative.
If you want an end to austerity - vote Green.
reens is that we are opposed to private enterprise. As I see it, the opposite is the case.