The UK Green Party – formerly the Ecology Party (1975-1985), formerly PEOPLE (1973-1975) – once rejected the conventional party structure of ‘leader and followers’ in favour of a model of ‘participatory politics’, comprising six ‘principal speakers’. But discipline...
The Queen of the Greens
Ben has an article in today's Spiked on our favourite Green, Caroline Lucas, who was elected as the Party's leader last Friday. The UK Green Party – formally the Ecology Party (1975-1985), formally PEOPLE (1973-1975) – once rejected the conventional party structure...
The Silly-Season’s Soap-Opera Ice-Storm in a Tea-Pot
Explorer Lewis Pugh, self-proclaimed 'Voice of the Arctic' took a break from cold-water swimming to try to become the first person to kayak to the North Pole to raise awareness of himself the shrinking Arctic ice mass: There is one side of me that really hopes I can...
First Against the Wall When the Revolution Doesn't Happen…
The Green Party's other principal speaker is Derek Wall. The party have been unable to decide on a leader over the years (they're choosing one right at the moment), and so have had two: Caroline Lucas and Derek Wall - one for girls, and one for boys. No, we're not...
The Party Without People
Caroline Lucas again again. In the New Statesman today, talking about the Green Party’s upcoming leadership contest, she says, There is another crucial reason why Britain needs Green leadership now. Voter turnout at all elections has been falling. Fewer than one in...
The Relentless Morbidity of Environmentalism
It’s Caroline Lucas again. Caroline Lucas MEP, who is expected to be elected as the Green Party's first leader later this week, said: "People will be literally dying from cold this winter while companies like Shell and BP are making record profits – that outrages...
Watering Down Development
Before the abysmal British summers of 2007 and 2008, a series of hot summers lead to the inevitable speculation that the UK would, in the near future, have a summer climate like that of the Mediterranean. If only! This in turn fuelled speculation that the water supply...
Identity Crisis Politics
According to commentisfree, Ewa Jasiewicz is a writer, journalist, human rights activist and union organiser. In a recent post to the site, she identifies a split in the environmental movement between those who aim to stop climate change through ‘the system’, so to...
Backwards to the Future
Oxfam was once a charity set up to provide famine relief. It was hard to criticise without looking a bit mean. It is now a gigantic international NGO which influences the direction of policy towards and within the developing world. Like many other organisations, it...
We Have Ways of Making You Walk
Recently, we have discussed how Green is the colour of reinventing yourself, to make your washed out perspective seem fresh and relevant to today's world. Gay rights activist and Green Party Parliamentary Candidate, Peter Tatchell, clothes himself in alarmist...