Today I have cancelled my membership of the Green Party. Many of you may be surprised by this announcement, especially after the success of electing our first Green MP.
Despite our success in Brighton, I do not feel confident about our future growth as a party. Our share of the vote actually fell in the election from 1.1% to 1.0%. This is lower than UKIP (on 3.1%) and BNP (on 1.9%). Out of the 300+ seats we stood in we only managed to save our deposit in 6 constituencies.
We did not fare any better in the local elections. Although we gained a few seats we ended up with a net loss of 4 seats.
Proportional representation may help the Green vote, but I don't hold out much hope of seeing it arrive in the near future. Even with PR, there is no saying that it will help increase our number of elected representatives. The last Euro Elections, carried out under PR resulted in no extra seats.
I do hope I am wrong in my predictions and wish the Green Party ever success in the future. However, after spending 8 years on the political sidelines first with the Socialist Alliance, then Respect and finally the Green Party, I feel the time has come to move on.
I will especially miss my involvement in Green Left. I greatly admire the activists in Green Left and if not for GL I may have moved on earlier.
8 comments:
I think the fall in the Green vote in many places apart from Brighton may be partly a consequence of the strategy of targeting seats and concentrating effort there. Also as most other sane political parties now also recognise the existence of climate change and the urgency gov'ts doing something about it (with varying degrees of sincerity), it is still easy to see a Green vote as unnecessary.
I'm not holding my breath for the advent of PR nor do I expect it to
necessarily benefit Greens. Nonetheless my view is that the Green snail is crawling somewhere so I'm staying on board for the sheer thrill of the ride.
When I was very young, there was no Green party. I felt I had no party to vote for and so I refrained. Many felt like me and luckily in a Democracy it is possible to start new parties. Green parties were started as once worker parties were started.
Not left, not right - just straight ahead! A green party is really about human survival. It is my natural political habitat and I am grateful for its existence. Much green work is done outside of politics, by NGOs, but it is important that the green voice, even if it is only one, is heard inside parliament and this is something worth working for.
I will continue to campaign about green issues. But instead though groups like Friends of the Earth and local campaign groups.
Andy
Sorry to lose a good activist, still, you are not the first to think "what's the point ?" after busting a gut in an election. We have a high turnover.
We got squeezed. People think, vote LD for PR, then I'll vote Green.
I think the solution is, if we go into the next election still under FPTP, the GP should negotiate our way out of marginals, and stand only in safe seats.
Good luck with FoE &c.
What a shame. Your argument seems to be based on vote share. We decided years ago that increasing overall vote share would not help win seats, you need to target the effort in selected seats to win. Coming second in every ward/constituency would not gain anything.
In a way its fortunate that Ukip and the Bnp have not learned this.
So your going just when things are getting interesting. Hope you come back one day.
Surprised and sorry to here it. We were squeezed although not always in Local elections. Many in Labour do not favour PR (and partly scuppered the chance of a deal with "progressive" parties)
Good luck and hope you come back soon!
This isn't as bitter as it's going to sound, but..
It's sad to see someone leaving the progressive movement for the warmongers, ID card-supporters, refugee-deporters, blocks to PR.
that sucks.
well, good luck trying to reform Labour, and I'm sure we'll see you on the right side of the right fights, if with the 'wrong' party's card in your pocket.
Good luck,
Adam
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