Greens in the house

Jim Jepps

After along hard slog the Greens have not only established themselves as a viable party with a significant profile, they have ensured that every other party now feels that they need to have ‘green’ policies.

The Green Party will be contesting over 30% of the seats up for grabs in the Council Elections across England. With a total of 70 sitting councillors and over 1,300 candidates (including 95% of London Boroughs), the Greens are the emerging force in local government, where they have made steady gains despite the first past the post system that makes representation difficult for smaller political parties.

Greens are confident of further gains, particularly in the London boroughs, where Greens are the strongest challengers to Labour and the Liberal Democrats in a number of wards (see London Strategic Voter)

The Greens have a long list of progressive policies, from a clear and unequivocal anti-war stance (unlike the Lib Dems), renationalising the railways and the need for sustainable and renewable energy production (see their manifesto).

However, they are also a broad church and whilst some see themselves as radicals, anti-capitalists and/or socialists others are more conservative. In Leeds the Greens have gone into coalition with the Tories and in Oxford with the Lib Dems. In some areas (like Waveney) the Greens have been staunch defenders of council housing, in others (like Brighton) they have voted for ALMO.

This is not an argument to stay clear of the Greens, if anything quite the reverse. As a growing and important progressive party it will find itself pulled by the same forces that Labour has and it will need strong radical support to keep it on the straight and narrow.



Click here for the Green Party

 

March 2006

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