The first ever Green-governed council? It could happen soon
On 9th September local elections in Norwich could lead to Greens becoming the largest party on a Principal Authority Council.
If they then form a minority administration, it would be the first time they would have an opportunity to govern in their (in our) own name.
OK, it would would be a minority Green administration in a City Council with relatively few powers and desperately strapped for cash. Challenging times. How would the first Green administration in Britain attempt to rise to the challenge?
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Why we chose to criticise Caroline Lucas over Homeopathy
A couple of weeks ago we published a blog post by Adam Grace titled: Why Caroline Lucas should drop her support for Homeopathy. It generated huge interest and got us some criticism from lefty greenies.
Tamsin Omond was one of them:
This is not an apology for Lucas, nor a demand that she be beyond criticism. It is only a request that we control our harping voice, especially when our voices are the only ones raised in outrage. Moral outrage should be confined, as much as possible, to the Daily Mail rather than seeping into our criticisms of the Left.
It’s not a position I disagree with, actually.
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The Green party needs a big debate about its direction
It’s been a few years now since the Green Party made its decision to adopt a leadership model. At the time it was a hotly contested issue and, in a high turnout, the referendum resulted in more than 70% voting to reform the old system.
However, since then there has been little discussion of how to implement the new system, I believe in order to help heal some of the wounds and concentrate on politics, funnily enough.
That’s all very sensible but the fact is with poorly contested elections the party has essentially allowed inertia decide for it what we want from our leader.
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Why Caroline Lucas should drop her support for Homeopathy
contribution by Adam Grace
Caroline Lucas, the member for Brighton and Hove and leader of the Green Party, has put her name to a Parliamentary Early Day Motion (EDM) which “expresses concern” about the following;
…. motions 301a-301f at this year’s British Medical Association’s (BMA) Annual Representative Meeting, which call for no further commissioning of, nor funding for, homeopathic remedies in the NHS.
Homeopathy is, to many minds, a perfect exercise in charlatanry. Despite the BMA voting last month “overwhelmingly” in favour of kicking the alleged charlatanry out of public health care, Caroline Lucas and her co-signatories are not happy, claiming that proper consultation did not take place.
This wrongly suggests that there is still a public debate to be had on alternative medicine.
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The Greens still have much to worry about
contribution by Climate Sock
Away from Brighton, the Greens’ scores weren’t spectacular; the significance of yesterday may be less the results themselves, and more the opportunity they’ve given the party to build on its current position.
Nationally, the Greens won 286k votes: up about 30k on 2005. But in 2005 they contested 200 seats; this time they were in 334 constituencies, and there was an overall small national swing away from the Greens. Overall, UKIP got 3 times as many votes, and the BNP got twice as many.
Away from Brighton Pavilion, their results in the constituencies they targeted were mixed. In Norwich South they gained 7.5pts, and in Cambridge Tony Juniper gained 4.7pts, but in both they remained in fourth place. In both Lewisham Deptford and Oxford East, they lost ground, falling by 3.3pts and 2.1pts respectively.
So even where the party is making gains it’s still a very long way from being able to win more constituencies. Only in Norwich South are they in touching distance of the winning party – and Labour and the Lib Dems will be fighting tooth and nail over it.
There’s an argument that this election came at a difficult time for an environmentalist party: the focus on the economy squeezed out most coverage of green issues. But other factors may have helped, since the Tories and Labour were so unpopular, and the Lib Dems look to have been less popular than the polls had suggested.
All this suggests that the extra money, airtime and credibility that Caroline Lucas MP will bring is unlikely to be enough alone to help the party make further gains in Westminster. The only answer for the Greens looks to be electoral reform.
But it can’t be any kind of electoral reform – in fact I suspect that the Alternative Vote system (which is the limited reform that both Labour and the Tories may push for) may even be unhelpful for the Greens.
To do well in AV, you need not only to be disliked by relatively few, but you also need a decent number to choose you as their first choice. In Brighton Pavilion this shouldn’t be a problem, but I suspect the party would continue to struggle to find enough people putting them as first choice in other constituencies.
The only system that would allow them to take advantage of their broad but thinly-spread support (about 1% of the electorate under the current system – though it should increase under a changed system) would be a more proportionally representative system.
A system like the ones in Wales and Scotland, which elects both constituency and regional Members, may be the most realistic and helpful answer for the party.
Go Caroline Lucas!
Thank you, people of Brighton for making history!
I have sympathy for the Labour candidate but this is a massive result for the Green movement and for left-wing politics in general.
Well done to all the greenies who busted their guts campaigning in that constituency. The Green Party should be very happy with itself tonight after this breakthrough.
Why it’s important for Greens to win Norwich South
contribution by Adrian Ramsay
I read Adam Ramsay’s piece on Norwich South with great (admittedly vested) interest.
It is true that a victory over Charles Clarke here in Norwich would show that there is public opposition Labour’s lurch to the right: their encroachment on our civil liberties, their commercialisation of the NHS with crippling PFI repayment programmes, and their rendering of higher education more exclusive through top-up fees.
Charles Clarke either supported or was instrumental in implementing these policies, and has publicly mentioned his support for increased fees and user-charging on the NHS.
However, it would not only send a message to New Labour. It would also be the opportunity to vote positively for policies we believe in, rather than settling for less with parties that have let us down again and again.
So what will Green MPs achieve at Westminster? Firstly, Green MPs bring fresh ideas. For example, we propose a scheme to insulate every home in the country for free. Paid for by a windfall tax on the oil companies, we could save households around £150 per year on their fuel bills, create new jobs and reduce carbon emissions by insulating every home.
Secondly, we will hold the other parties to account over their failures to act on pressing issues, such as clean energy, job creation, unfair trade, biodiversity loss, bankers’ bonuses, animal welfare, inequality in education… the list goes on.
Thirdly, Green MPs will oppose damaging policies. Here in Norwich, we see the consequences of the failed Private Finance Initiative (PFI) at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital.
Everyone values our hospital, but it costs the taxpayer £19m more every year under private borrowing than it would have done under public borrowing. This money is going into the deep pockets of private finance companies rather than helping our hospital care for more people.
It’s true that you would be sending a message by voting Green, but not only that.
In our strongest constituencies in the country, such as Norwich South, Brighton Pavilion and Lewisham Deptford, we have a great chance to get people elected who will fight for social justice and fairness every day Parliament is in session
——-
Adrian Ramsay is deputy leader of the Green Party and their candidate for Norwich South.
Could Norwich South be the referendum on New Labour?
contribution by Adam Ramsay
So, I’d better ‘fes up from the start. I am a Green Party activist. I’ve been a party member for nearly a decade. It’s not surprising that I am writing about why one of the top target seats for the party is significant.
The election in Norwich South is unique in England. It is the only place I can think of where a right wing Labour incumbent faces a serious challenge from their left.
The seat has come down to 2 candidates: Green Party deputy leader Adrian Ramsay (no relation); and former Minister now right-wing rebel, Charles Clarke. Greens have the majority of councillors across the seat.
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Vote Green
Guest post by Peter Tatchell. Originally at Hagley Road from Ladywood.
Labour has lost its heart and soul. It has become the party of war, privatisation and the erosion of hard-won civil liberties. The Lib Dems support free market capitalism, use dirty tricks during election campaigns, and when they get into office they always drift to the right. The Conservatives are split between modernisers and the reactionary old guard. Their green-friendly image is contradicted by their anti-green policies of supporting new motorways, aviation expansion and more nuclear power stations – just like Labour.
As I see it, the Green Party is the most progressive force in British politics, with a visionary agenda for democratic reform, social justice, human rights, global equity, environmental protection, peace and internationalism.
With an empowering new political and economic paradigm, the Greens offer the best hope for radical reform, as set out in our Manifesto for a Sustainable Society. continue reading… »
The Greens have changed their approach to science
There has been an ongoing “re-evaluation” of Green Party policy around scientific evidence recently. This came about mainly due to a few journalists helpfully letting us know that there was some deeply dodgy stuff in policy.
It certainly came as a shock to many of us who had not thoroughly read our voluminous policy documents.
This conference saw the first swath of re-orientating our policy on a more science friendly footing. We passed the motion on abolition of the science pledge – a policy so offensive to scientists and ‘technologists’ that it makes me wince just to think of it. Anyway, it’s gone. Hurray.
This was quickly followed by the passing of the science chapter enabling motion which means that the party has officially endorsed a review and rewrite of our entire science and technology section of the PSS, our core policy document.
That’s going to take some hard work and we’ll be looking for people both inside and outside of the party to help us with that process.
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2010: A crunch year for us progressives
[image by Gary Barker]
A General Election which always is a watershed moment in any countries political history.
This one will see a resurgent Conservative Party face an increasingly tired looking Labour Party and a Liberal Democrat Party that has aspirations to greatness.
Meanwhile, the Green Party could well be on the cusp of a breakthrough moment in Brighton Pavilion.
It is my sincere belief that David Cameron is wrong when he says that people throughout politics share a commitment to progress and that all the signs indicate the election of a Conservative government (with or without assistance from AN Other in the form of a coalition) will damage the cause of progress dramatically in this country.
Given that the question becomes for progressives; how do we stop this occurring? Do we look to Labour, the Lib Dems or the Greens?
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The vision thing
Guest post by Matt Sellwood
“The very least you can do in this life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance, but live right in it, under its roof. What I want is so simple I almost can’t say it: elementary kindness. Enough to eat, enough to go around. The possibility that kids might one day grow up to be neither the destroyed nor the destroyers.” – Barbara Kingsolver
British politics is in a mess. That much is obvious to anyone who has spent any time speaking to people about politics over the last year. The issue of expenses was simply an explosive symptom of a much deeper-rooted cause, rather than the cause itself.
The cause, simply, is that very few people are inspired by politics any longer – and even fewer believe that electoral politics has any transformatory potential to offer. This is not limited to the left or the right – politics as a whole is being damned by millions of people. The most common reaction that canvassers of all parties in my constituency receive is “not interested, mate”, followed closely by “what’s the point?”.
And who can blame them? British politics has, it seems entirely lost the understanding that politics is about vision. Its about improving people’s everyday lives, yes – but its also about being able to look to the horizon, and beyond, for a promise of something better. It’s about being able to identify with a party because that party embodies what you believe in – your ideals. continue reading… »
Compass was right to invite the Greens
At the Compass rally last week at the Labour party conference, a bust-up between Caroline Lucas (leader of the Greens) and government minister John Denham threatened to overshadow the heavily-over subscribed event.
Neal Lawson, chair of Compass, invited Caroline Lucas to speak at the Compass rally. This was seen as high treason by many die-hard Labourites because she is fighting for a seat in Brighton and Hove against a soft-left Labour candidate.
John Denham was not happy and made a deeply impassioned speech against the move at the event.
But I think he and many others within the Labour Party miss the point.
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Greens are moving forward on science
As regular readers of Liberal Conspiracy will be aware there has been an ongoing discussion over the Green Party’s attitude to science. While the Greens may have been ahead of the curve on climate change, writers like Martin Robbins have highlighted the fact that “in spite of their sparkling climate and environmental credentials” in many areas “their policies are far out of step with the scientific community”.
He’s right. Whether it’s the pledge, stem cells or alternative therapies there’s plenty of gut churningly embarrassing policy to choose from. What’s been interesting, as a Green Party member, is that the majority of those I’ve spoken to have been equally shocked at these revelations.
I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find that the key task ahead is not to persuade party members of the need for evidence based policy, most of them are there already, but to actually crack on with the work of a serious review of our science, technology and health policies.
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More Bad Science from the Greens
Cast your mind back a couple of months and you may recall that Martin Robbins raised a number of pertinent questions about the Green Party’s views on science and on evidence-based policy making.
At the time, Martin was pretty forthright in identifying the main problem that the party faces. It’s open and democratic approach to policy-making in which any member can put forward a policy, call for vote and get the policy accepted into the party’s manifesto if it prove popular with members too readily militates against evidence.
A prime example of just this kind of problem is currently to be found in Southampton and South-West Hampshire where members of the local Green party are behind a campaign that is attempting to overturn a recent decision by the local Strategic Health Authority to use legal powers conferred on it by the Water Act 2003 to compel the local water company to fluoridate the local water supply.
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Greens: 21st century Stalinists?
Scratch Jean Lambert, get Lavrentiy Beria; Green politicians are totalitarians in the making, just itching to refound a carbon-neutral Gulag Archipelago.
This, anyway, is the position of Times hack Antonia Senior, who has obviously given the matter a great deal of thought. Her stark warning must be heeded at once by anyone naïve enough to cast the odd tactical vote for the Green Party, in the misguided belief that they are a harmless enough functional equivalent for the old-style moderate social democracy unavailable elsewhere on the ballot paper.
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Paskini’s laws of elections (part 1 and 2)
Reading the vastly entertaining whinge by Rupert Read last week over the European elections reminded me that many people are not aware of Paskini’s laws of elections:
1. If you want to win an election, you have to be prepared to work harder and do more disagreeable things than your opposition. “Disagreeable things” for this purpose includes spending time doing things like delivering leaflets, knocking on people’s doors, phoning them up etc etc, but also includes concentrating on telling people about what they are interested in (even if you find it tedious), not what you personally are interested in. And it means working together with people who are on the same side as you, even if you don’t like them or find them annoying.
Whichever party has more people who follow rule 1 will win an election. If, however, despite your best efforts you do happen to lose, then rule 2 comes into play.
2. If you lose an election, you should not spend your time whinging about the people who beat you, no matter how disgraceful their behaviour or how repulsive they are. Instead, you should figure out what you did wrong and put it right for next time so that you are able to beat them next time.
Is the Green Party anti-science?
Last week, Frank Swain and I wrote a piece for The Guardian in which we questioned the various parties on their science policies ahead of the elections. We heavily criticised the Green Party of England an Wales, in spite of their sparkling climate and environmental credentials, and in doing so kicked off a debate that ran for much of the week on blogs and in The Times. On one side, many people thanked us for exposing deeply troubling attitudes.
On the other, Greens angrily claimed we had misrepresented their views. So are the Green Party anti-science; and if so what should they be doing to correct this?
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Are polls underestimating Green support?
Nothing is certain until the votes are cast, but the polls over the last fortnight have been very encouraging to the Green Party, putting us on an upward trend. UKIP last week commissioned a ComRes poll that put the Greens across the ‘South East’ (which includes my Region, Eastern) in third position on 16%, and on 11% nationwide. This week, the Green Party commissioned a ComRes poll that had UKIP on 17% – and us on 15%, only just behind UKIP – and ahead of the LibDems! That hasn’t happened since 1989.
In fact polls ahead of European elections usually underestimate the actual Green performance. It’s worth remembering that before their historic 2.2 million-strong vote in 1989 the Greens were polling at about 7-8%, but the actual vote turned out to be 15%.
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Mocking the Greens and the ‘protest’ vote
by David Birchall
In her Monday Guardian column Madeleine Bunting wrote: “The most useful vote this week would be for the Greens – a protest vote that will help push the environment up the agenda.”
Her mention of a protest vote for the Greens was merely an aside in another aside about the probability of a Labour wipeout, but it represents a common subliminal attack on the small parties for whom a vote is an attack on the larger parties, rather than a true belief.
This is a demonstrably fallacious idea.
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» Cambridge student demo: policeman punched student in the face
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» Why the student protests are unlikely to backfire despite the coverage
» She is free now, but the justice system still fails raped women
» Why Nick Clegg offers a recycled vision of society
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» Why Ireland should default on its debts and start afresh
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» Irish bankers: a modest proposal
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» Guess what? Ireland drank neo-liberal magic potion and it failed
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