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Green Party | |
|---|---|
.svg) | |
| Chairperson | Tom A. Wood |
| Co-Chairperson | Paul Ekins |
| Founded | June 1985 (1985-06)[n 1] |
| Dissolved | 1990 |
| Preceded by | The Ecology Party |
| Succeeded by | |
| Headquarters | London |
| Ideology | Green politics |
| Colours | Green |
TheGreen Party, also known as theGreen Party UK, was aGreenpolitical party in theUnited Kingdom.
Prior to 1985, it was called theEcology Party; before that, it was also namedPEOPLE. In 1990, it separated into three regional political parties within the United Kingdom,[1][2] those being theGreen Party of England and Wales, theScottish Greens, and theGreen Party Northern Ireland.
Despite the UK Green Party no longer existing as a unified entity, "Green Party" (singular) is still used colloquially to refer collectively to the three separate parties; for example, in the reporting of opinion polls and election results.
The Green Party's origins go back toPEOPLE, a political party founded in Coventry in November 1972.[3][4] An interview with overpopulation expertPaul R. Ehrlich inPlayboy magazine inspired[3] a small group of professional and business people to form the 'Thirteen Club', so named because it first met on 13 September 1972 at the Napton Bridge pub inNapton-on-the-Hill nearDaventry.[5] This included surveyors and property agentsFreda Sanders andMichael Benfield, and husband-and-wife solicitorsLesley andTony Whittaker[3] (a formerKenilworth councillor for theConservative Party), all with practices in Coventry. Out of the original 'club' these four individuals launched 'PEOPLE' as a new political party to challenge the UK political establishment. They called its first public meeting on 22 February 1973 at their office at 69 Hertford Street inCoventry.[6][3] Its policy concerns published in 1973 included economics, employment, defence, energy and fuel supplies, land tenure, pollution and social security, all set within anecological perspective. "Zero growth" (or "steady state") economics were a strong feature in the party's philosophical basis.
Later recognised as the first Green party in theUnited Kingdom andEurope as a whole,[7] the party published the 'Manifesto for Survival' in June 1974, between the two general elections of that year. The manifesto was inspired byA Blueprint for Survival published byThe Ecologist magazine. 'A Manifesto for a Sustainable Society' was an expanded statement of policies published in 1975 published under the newly changed name of the Ecology Party. The editor ofThe Ecologist,Edward 'Teddy' Goldsmith, merged his 'Movement for Survival' with PEOPLE in 1974. Goldsmith became one of the leading members of the new party during the 1970s.[8]
With "Steady State" economics featured in the party's philosophical basis, the all-UK party became a persistent and growing presence in general elections and European elections, often fielding enough candidates to qualify for television and radio election broadcasts.
Membership rose and the party contested both 1974 general elections. In theFebruary 1974 general election, PEOPLE received 4,576 votes in 7 seats. In later years, an influx of left-wing activists took PEOPLE in a more left-wing direction, causing something of a split. In theOctober 1974 general election, where PEOPLE's average vote fell to just 0.7%; much of the difference was made by Liberal candidates entering the fray. After much internal debate the party's 1975 Conference adopted a proposal to change its name to 'The Ecology Party' in order to gain more recognition as the party of environmental concern.[8] This was supported by the Executive, who had found media recognition hard to achieve under the original name.'Green' was not an appropriate name at that time[clarification needed] and 'ecology' had become more publicly recognised as a concept in the party's three years of campaigning.
After much debate, the party's 1975 conference adopted a proposal to change its name to theEcology Party to gain more recognition as the party of environmental concern.[9]
Party co-founder Tony Whittaker noted in an interview with Derek Wall '… voters did not connect PEOPLE with ecology. What I wanted was something that the media could look up in their files so that, when they wanted a spokesman of the issue of ecology, they could find the Ecology Party and pick up the phone. It was as brutal and basic as that. PEOPLE didn't communicate what we had hoped it would communicate'.
Derek Wall, in his history of the Green Party, contends that the new political movement focused initially on the theme of survival, which shaped the "bleak evolution" of the nascent ecological party during the 1970s. Furthermore, the effect of the "revolution of values" during the 1960s would come later. In Wall's eyes, the party suffered from a lack of media attention and "opposition from many environmentalists", which contrasted the experience of other emerging Green parties, such as Germany'sDie Grünen. Nonetheless, PEOPLE invested much of its resources in engaging with the indifferent environmental movement, which Wall calls a "tactical mistake".[9]
The party won its first representation in1976, when John Luck took a seat onRother District Council inEast Sussex, and party Campaign Secretary John Davenport won aparish council seat inKempsey.[10][11]
Jonathan Tyler was elected Chairman of the party in 1976,[10] andJonathon Porritt became a prominent member. At the 1977 Party Conference in Birmingham, the party's first constitution was ratified and Jonathon Porritt was elected to the Ecology Party National Executive Committee (NEC). Porritt would become the party's most significant public figure, working, withDavid Fleming, "to provide the Party with an attractive image and effective organisation".
In 1979, with Porritt gaining increasing prominence and an election manifesto called The Real Alternative, a decision was taken by the party to field 50 candidates in the forthcoming general election. Fielding 50 candidates would entitle the Ecology Party to election broadcasts on radio and television and this, it was hoped, would considerably raise the party’s public profile. There was some risk attached to this strategy. Each of the fifty candidates standing for election would need to be supported by a £1,000 deposit and it was anticipated that none of the candidates would gain sufficient share of the vote to retain that deposit.
With only a few hundred members, the loss of approximately £50,000 in lost deposits could push a small party into serious financial difficulty. Not all party members supported this idea with some suggesting a more cautious approach focusing on specific constituencies where environmental issues were locally very important, would perhaps be a safer plan.
Encouraged by Porritt, The Ecology Party went ahead with the more risky strategy and put forward 53 candidates in the 1979 General Election. The plan worked. The party received 39,918 votes (an average of 1.5%) and membership jumped tenfold from around 500 to 5,000 or more. With this improved membership, a higher public profile and increased public donations, the risk of financial insolvency was avoided. In addition, Derek Wall notes, this meant that the Ecology Party "became the fourth party in UK politics, ahead of the National Front and Socialist Unity"[8].
Following this electoral success, the party introduced Annual Spring Conferences to accompany Autumn Conferences, and a process of building up a large compendium of policies began, culminated in today'sPolicies for a Sustainable Society (which encompasses around 124 520 words).[12] At the same time, according to Wall,[13] "the Post-1968 generation" began to join the party, advocating non-violent direct action as an important element of the Ecology Party vision outside of electoral politics. This manifested itself in an apparent "decentralist faction" who gained ground within the party, leading to the Party Conference stripping the Executive of powers and rejecting the election of a single leader. The new generation was in evidence in the first 'Summer Green Gathering' in July 1980, the action of the Ecology Party CND (later Green CND), and theGreenham Common camp. The party also became increasinglyfeminist.[8]
Due to the recession causing the marginalisation of Green issues,Roy Jenkins leaving theLabour Party to form theSocial Democratic Party in 1981, and the inability of the Party to absorb the rapid increase in membership, the early-1980s were extremely tough for the Ecology Party.[citation needed] Nonetheless, the Party prepared for the 1983 general election, inspired by the success ofDie Grünen inGermany. At the1983 general election, the Ecology Party stood over 100 candidates and gained 54,299 votes.[14][15]
The UK experienced a great deal of political change in 1985. After the formation of theSocial Democratic Party (SDP), there were noises being made that the UK needed a "green" party. In response to the rumours that a group ofLiberal Party activists were about to launch a UK 'Green Party',[3] HELP (theHackney Local Ecology Party) registered the nameThe Green Party, with a green circle, designed by Steve O’Brien, as its logo. The first public meeting, chaired by David Fitzpatrick (then an Ecology Party speaker), was 13 June 1985 inHackney Town Hall.Paul Ekins (then co-chair of the Ecology Party) spoke on the subject ofGreen politics and theinner city. Hackney Green Party put a formal proposal to the Ecology Party Autumn Conference inDover that year to change to the Green Party, which was supported by the majority of attendees, includingJohn Abineri, formerly an actor in the BBC seriesSurvivors who supported addingGreen to the name to fall in line with other environmental parties in Europe.[8]
The next year, an internal dispute arose within the party. A faction calling itself theParty Organisation Working Group (POWG) proposedconstitutional amendments designed to create a streamlined, two-tier structure to govern the internal workings of the party. Decentralists voted these proposals down.Paul Ekins andJonathan Tyler, prominent party activists and leading members of POWG, then formed a semi-covert group calledMaingreen, whose private comments, upon becoming public knowledge, suggested to many that they wished to take control of the party. Tyler and Ekins resigned and left the party but Derek Wall describes how the "wounds" left by the 'Maingreen Affair' lingered on in the heated internal debates of the late 1980s.[8]
Meanwhile, the party gained ground electorally. The1987 general election saw the 133 Greens standing for office take 89,753 votes (1.3% on average), an improvement on 1983. The next two years would see growing membership and increasing media attention. This coincided with greater concern over the environment following theChernobyl disaster in 1986 and concern overCFCs.
The party enjoyed further success. Its Campaign for Real Democracy' launched by the party allowed it to play a part in the Anti-Poll Tax Campaign. The party's biggest success came at the1989 European elections, where the Green Party won 2,292,695 votes and received 15% of the overall vote.[16] European elections in Great Britain were then run on afirst-past-the-post basis, whilst the three seats in Northern Ireland were elected bysingle transferable vote, and the party failed to gain any seats.
According to Derek Wall,[citation needed] the party would have gained 12 seats if they had been running in other European countries who employedProportional Representation. Wall explains this "breakthrough" as a combination of the declining popularity ofMargaret Thatcher, the reaction to thePoll Tax,Conservative opposition to theEuropean Union, ineffectiveLabour Party andLiberal Democrat campaigns and a well-prepared Green Party campaign. That environmental issues were very prominent in UK politics at the time should also be added to this list. At no time before or since have Green issues been so high on the minds of UK voters as a voting issue.[17]
As a result of this success,Sara Parkin andDavid Icke rose to prominence in the UK media, soon becoming two of the four Principal Speakers, a position created in lieu of a leader. Parkin especially was in demand as a Green spokesperson. However, the new media attention was not always handled well by the party as a whole.[citation needed] In the run up to the 1989 party conference, it attracted criticism for advocating policies aiming to reduce the total population,[18] proposals which were subsequently rejected. Further controversies included Derek Wall's rejection of possible alliances to establish PR.[19] Icke too attracted criticism soon after writing his second book in 1989, an outline of his views on the environment.
Mainstream political parties were, however, alarmed by the Greens' electoral performance and adopted some 'Green policies' in an attempt to counter the threat.[8] In this period, the Green Party had representation in theHouse of Lords in the person ofGeorge MacLeod, Baron MacLeod of Fuinary,[8] who died in 1991. He was the first British Green parliamentarian.[citation needed][20]
In 1990, the Scottish and Northern Ireland wings of the Green Party in the United Kingdom decided to separate amicably from the party in England and Wales, to form theScottish Greens[2] and theGreen Party Northern Ireland.[1] TheWales Green Party became an autonomous regional party and remained within the newGreen Party of England and Wales.
Of the Ecology party:
Of the Green Party:
| Year | Chairs | Principal Speakers | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | Jo Robins | Heather Swailes | Lindy Williams | Principal Speakers introduced 1987 | |||||
| 1986 | Jean Lambert | Brig Oubridge | |||||||
| 1987 | Janet Alty | Tim Cooper | Linda Hendry | Jean Lambert | Richard Lawson | 3 Principal Speakers in 1987 | |||
| 1988 | Liz Crosbie | Penny Kemp | Lindsay Cooke | David Icke | Sara Parkin | David Spaven | Frank Williamson | ||
| 1989 | Nick Anderson | Caroline Lucas | Jo Steranka | Janet Alty | Liz Crosbie | Steve Rackett | |||
| Election | Votes | Vote share | Seats | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1974 (Feb.) | 4,576 | 0.015% | 0 / 635 | Hung parliament (Lab. minority government) |
| 1974 (Oct.) | 1,996 | 0.007% | 0 / 635 | Labour victory |
| 1979 | 39,918 | 0.1% | 0 / 635 | Conservative victory |
| 1983 | 54,299 | 0.2% | 0 / 650 | Conservative victory |
| 1987 | 89,753 | 0.3% | 0 / 650 | Conservative victory |
The party stood six candidates in theFebruary 1974 General Election. They received a total of 4,576. The party lost all of itsdeposits by failing to win 12.5% of the votes cast, namely a total of £900 (equivalent to £11,800 in 2023).[n 2] Lesley Whittaker and Edward Goldsmith were two of the six who stood in the election.
| Constituency | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Position[21] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coventry North East | Alan H Pickard | 1,332 | 2.8 | 3 |
| Coventry North West | Lesley Whittaker | 1,542 | 3.9 | 3 |
| Eye | Edward Goldsmith | 395 | 0.7 | 4 |
| Hornchurch | Benjamin Percy-Davies | 619 | 1.3 | 4 |
| Leeds North East | Clive Lord | 300 | 0.7 | 4 |
| Liverpool West Derby | D B Pascoe | 388 | 0.9 | 4 |
Membership rose and the party stood five candidates in theOctober General Election; it cost the party £750. This affected preparations for that election,[citation needed] when PEOPLE's average vote fell to just 0.7%.
| Constituency | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Position[21] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Birmingham Northfield | Elizabeth A. Davenport | 359 | 0.7 | 4 |
| Coventry North West | Lesley Whittaker | 313 | 0.8 | 4 |
| Hornchurch | Benjamin Percy-Davies | 797 | 1.8 | 4 |
| Leeds East | Norma Russell | 327 | 0.7 | 4 |
| Romford | L. H. C. Sampson | 200 | 0.5 | 4 |
