The Green Party

It's disappointing to log on to the Green Party website and discover that it's all so verdant. Couldn't they have surprised as and gone for orange or mauve? There is some blue and a bit of red and yellow scattered about, but it's mostly green. This is the Green Party then. It's very green, don't you know.

THE PARTY

The Green Party was established in 1973. At first called People, it later became the Ecology Party. Under the chairmanship of Jonathon Porritt in the early 1980s, the party became a more prominent feature within British political life. In 1985 the Ecology Party renamed itself the Green Party. For a time at the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s David Icke was one of its most successful spokesman. His fame as a TV presenter allowed him to create interest in the party. Then he realised that he was the Son of God and now thinks lizards in human form run the world.

The Greens do not have any Westminster MPs, but they have won seats in the London Assembley, the Scottish Parliament, local government and the European Parliament.
Currently led by Caroline Lucas, an MEP hoping to win the Brighton Pavilion constituency, the Green Party is more successful than UKIP in portraying itself as something more than a single issue campaign group. 

THE SITE

The website, is, for all the endless green, nicely put together. It has a relaxed and confident feel, surprising in a party that is defined by one idea. You can find out the party's position on the banking system, pensions and housing. There is also information on how to get involved with the campaign.

For the first time the Green Party is contesting all 73 London seats. The party clearly feels it has a chance of winning its first Westminster seat. That must go some way to explaining the calm mood and tone of the site, which is so far removed from the cheapness of UKIP's man-in-pub irritation.

20 April 2010