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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/04/the-guardian-view-on-the-green-leadership-an-uphill-struggle-but-worthwhile
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| The Guardian view on the Green leadership: an uphill struggle, but worthwhile | The Guardian view on the Green leadership: an uphill struggle, but worthwhile |
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| Caroline Lucas was elected the first leader of the Green party of England and Wales 10 years ago this week. Two years later, in Brighton, she became an MP. That she remains the sole Green MP makes clear the scale of the challenge facing the party’s newly elected leadership team of Siân Berry and Jonathan Bartley. Despite climate change, which 90% of British people know is taking place, and an international consensus that humans need to wean ourselves off fossil fuels; despite myriad other environmental concerns among which plastic and air pollution have the highest profile at the moment; despite the stellar performance of Ms Lucas herself, acknowledged across the political spectrum – most British people remain unwilling to vote for the party. Its vote share in last year’s general election was 1.6%, down from 3.8% in 2015. By way of contrast, the German Greens won 8.9% last September. | Caroline Lucas was elected the first leader of the Green party of England and Wales 10 years ago this week. Two years later, in Brighton, she became an MP. That she remains the sole Green MP makes clear the scale of the challenge facing the party’s newly elected leadership team of Siân Berry and Jonathan Bartley. Despite climate change, which 90% of British people know is taking place, and an international consensus that humans need to wean ourselves off fossil fuels; despite myriad other environmental concerns among which plastic and air pollution have the highest profile at the moment; despite the stellar performance of Ms Lucas herself, acknowledged across the political spectrum – most British people remain unwilling to vote for the party. Its vote share in last year’s general election was 1.6%, down from 3.8% in 2015. By way of contrast, the German Greens won 8.9% last September. |
| The difference is partly a matter of voting systems. First past the post is designed to make life difficult for small parties. Where representation is proportional, voters have shown themselves far more receptive; Ms Lucas learned her trade in Brussels as an MEP. As a leftwing party committed to income and wealth redistribution, the Greens have also lost support to Corbyn’s Labour. Above and beyond such electoral vicissitudes is the fact that in the UK, as in most of the world, people have yet to grasp the magnitude of the environmental catastrophe that threatens us — not as a nation but as a species. Climate, biodiversity and pollution are simply not most people’s priorities. | The difference is partly a matter of voting systems. First past the post is designed to make life difficult for small parties. Where representation is proportional, voters have shown themselves far more receptive; Ms Lucas learned her trade in Brussels as an MEP. As a leftwing party committed to income and wealth redistribution, the Greens have also lost support to Corbyn’s Labour. Above and beyond such electoral vicissitudes is the fact that in the UK, as in most of the world, people have yet to grasp the magnitude of the environmental catastrophe that threatens us — not as a nation but as a species. Climate, biodiversity and pollution are simply not most people’s priorities. |
| On the plus side, Greens did well in this May’s local elections. Both the new leaders are councillors and should now direct their party’s energies towards energetic local campaigning. In addition, they must complete as quickly as possible the review begun when it emerged that a former member, David Challenor, was appointed as an election agent by his daughter after being charged with raping a child, and act on any findings to ensure that nothing similar ever happens again. | On the plus side, Greens did well in this May’s local elections. Both the new leaders are councillors and should now direct their party’s energies towards energetic local campaigning. In addition, they must complete as quickly as possible the review begun when it emerged that a former member, David Challenor, was appointed as an election agent by his daughter after being charged with raping a child, and act on any findings to ensure that nothing similar ever happens again. |
| The Greens are not a single-issue party. For more than a decade, the party has served as an incubator for ideas that appear leftfield until they go mainstream. Citizens’ income, new rights for renters, land value and wealth taxes were all debated at its conferences long before they made it to Question Time. It has yet to face the test of government, or achieve full control of a local authority, the closest it has come being a turbulent period as a minority administration in Brighton. Despite being strongly pro-European, it made the mistake of supporting a referendum on EU membership in its 2015 manifesto. | The Greens are not a single-issue party. For more than a decade, the party has served as an incubator for ideas that appear leftfield until they go mainstream. Citizens’ income, new rights for renters, land value and wealth taxes were all debated at its conferences long before they made it to Question Time. It has yet to face the test of government, or achieve full control of a local authority, the closest it has come being a turbulent period as a minority administration in Brighton. Despite being strongly pro-European, it made the mistake of supporting a referendum on EU membership in its 2015 manifesto. |
| As well as policies, Greens have tried to showcase a different style of politics. The joint leadership was innovative, as is the system whereby a leadership election is held every two years. Without proportional representation – which this paper supports – and probably some form of state funding, nascent parties will struggle to rise as quickly as they do on the continent. Of course, Greens are not the only politicians to care about nature, or to pass legislation aimed at protecting the environment. If they were, binding carbon emissions targets would not now be UK law. But when the many valid short-term concerns of voters exert such powerful force on politicians, the longer-term view of environmentalists is a vital counterweight. The Green party invigorates the debate about rebalancing the economy around green energy. Our way of living is unsustainable. It is now Mr Bartley and Ms Berry’s job to communicate this. | As well as policies, Greens have tried to showcase a different style of politics. The joint leadership was innovative, as is the system whereby a leadership election is held every two years. Without proportional representation – which this paper supports – and probably some form of state funding, nascent parties will struggle to rise as quickly as they do on the continent. Of course, Greens are not the only politicians to care about nature, or to pass legislation aimed at protecting the environment. If they were, binding carbon emissions targets would not now be UK law. But when the many valid short-term concerns of voters exert such powerful force on politicians, the longer-term view of environmentalists is a vital counterweight. The Green party invigorates the debate about rebalancing the economy around green energy. Our way of living is unsustainable. It is now Mr Bartley and Ms Berry’s job to communicate this. |
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