You may have read on this and other blogs a couple of weeks ago about the cancellation of one of the Green Party's own internal elections.
There is a new twist to the story the ERO who suspended the election has resigned; he isn't giving much away on his blog, but there is clearly an under-current.
On a more positive note from the Greens, Derek Wall has praised our own blogging peer and all-round good egg Eric Avebury.
9 comments:
Sounds like the infighting of a group I used to know. Better out of it.
Indeed. One of the things I have said, and a local journalist also told me that he shared the same opinion, is that the Greens would eventually discover that they are a political party and will have everything that goes with it.
I "ran" a local Green Party for a year or so, a little after I left the Labour Party in 1987.
The current chi chi from people like the odious Esther Rantzen http://quietzapple-musing.blogspot.com/2009/07/ooooohhhhhhhhhhhh-noooooo.html and a seeming million neo nasties online may outflank the silly attitudes of the Green Party.
They may be forced to behave in a more pragmatic fashion.
A-politics is closet totalitarian plutocracy. How far do any of its admirers/participants deviate from the Daily Mail line?
Billionaires promote it, their multi millionaire followers like David Chameleon http://quietzapples.blogspot.com/2009/08/strange-history-of-mr-chameleon.html serve their interests.
I wonder if the Liberal Democrats are different now to how they were in 1988...?
Far be it from me to fan the flames of your local-politics tribalism, but I'm happy to say a few things on the record:
No candidates in any election were implicated in my decision to void the election for External Communications Co-ordinator.
The undercurrents that you may have detected are to do with unhappiness with some of the grey areas in internal election regulations/mechanisms. Not terribly interesting, and of no interest to more than about 3 people in the most arcane parts of the Green Party. Elections will always be competitive, and I doubt very much that there are elections anywhere for anything that don't involve someone getting stressed somewhere along the line.
I would wager, though, that it is easier to be the stressed candidate, or stressed voter, than the stressed officer in the middle, who must mae executive decisions off their own back.
Anyway, I hope this comment hasn't made life more difficult for my friends in Norwich (or elsewhere in the Green Party of England and Wales), I just wanted to clear up some of the innuendo.
When I criticise the LibDems, I stick to the things they put out to the public.
Thanks for that Gordon. You do have my sympathies.
Whilst no one candidate was implicated, I know only one went in to a form of hiding.
Lord Avebury's work in the Lords to support the indigenous in Peru, who I tend to work with quite closely via Hugo Blanco is excellent....not sure that any other lib dems have been involved in this campaign, I am a green party member of nearly 30 years standing and an ecosocialist but if other parties do good I won't criticise them.
I do feel the glory days of the young liberals radicalism are in the past and Nick Clegg has moved the party futher away from the libertarian left elements which were closer to the Green Party.
Meeting 6.30pm Exmouth arms Euston on alan Garcia's war on the indigenous this thursday 27th August if you want to find out more...
I don't know about hiding.
I know we are in prime holiday season.
I'd encourage tourism to Edinburgh... The fringe has been excellent, even as a semi-local whose city's been under siege.
Sorry Gordon, you are collateral damage in a bit of schadenfreude. Being an ERO in any party is a thankless task, so you have my sympathy.
Derek Wall has indeed been very generous in his praise of Lord Avebury (Eric Lubbock). It should be a wake up call for both parties that we should be making common cause, not with standing our differences, over issues like indigenous rights in Peru. (Anyone care to organise a Peru fringe event at conference with Derek and Eric).
Negative campaigning is ultimately self defeating for both Greens and Liberals, we could end up cancelling each other out at the General Election. Lib Dems loosing MPs Greens gaining none. So it is interesting to see Peter Cranie’s latest blogpost about how the Greens react to the Lib Dems in the GE. In the circumstances of Liverpool politics it is quite brave. You never know a principled agreement to bust our corrupt political system might make both parties more popular.
I agree with you Anonymous. I do believe there are some cases where the Greens should work with the Lib Dems.
In Canterbury, for instance, we have City Council elections in 2011. In the European elections the Greens came ahead of the Lib Dems in the city-wide vote. There are certainly areas of influence that can be carved up between the Lib Dems and the Greens. For instance, in Whistable at the CC elections the Greens polled 22% of the vote, around 2000 votes, beating both Labour candidates and one of the Lib Dems. This is without targeting the area in anyway. It would make much more sense co-operating in strong Tory areas than to stand against and split the anti-Tory vote.
That is my honest opinion, although it may not be shared by all in the local party.
Luke
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