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The Green Party was a Green political party in the United Kingdom. It has been succeeded by three political parties:
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An interview with overpopulation expert Paul R. Ehrlich in Playboy Magazine inspired husband and wife solicitors Lesley and Tony Whittaker - an ex-Conservative Party activist from Coventry - and others, to convene the short lived 'Club of Thirteen'. Though many in this 'Club' were wary of forming a political party; they joined 2 other members, Michael Benfield and Freda Sanders, to form 'PEOPLE' as a political party to challenge the UK political establishment, in Coventry during 1972/3. Subsequently recognised as perhaps the world's earliest Green party this had the first edition of the Manifesto for a Sustainable Society as its statement of policies inspired by Blueprint for Survival (published by The Ecologist magazine). The editor of The Ecologist, Edward 'Teddy' Goldsmith, merged his 'Movement for Survival' with PEOPLE. Goldsmith became one of the leading members of the new party during the 1970s.[1]
Derek Wall, in his history of the Green Party, maintains 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, like Germany's Die Grünen. Nonetheless, PEOPLE invested much of its resources in engaging with the indifferent environmental movement, which Wall calls a "tactical mistake".[1]
In 1973 policy concerns included economics, employment, defence, energy (fuel) supplies, land tenure, pollution and social security, as then seen within an ecological perspective. "Zero growth" (or "steady state") economics were a strong feature in the party's philosophical basis.
Membership rose and the Party contested both 1974 General Elections. In the February 1974 General Election, PEOPLE received 4,576 votes in 7 seats. Following the election, an influx of left-wing activists took PEOPLE in a more left-wing direction, causing something of a split. This affected preparations for the October 1974 General Election, where PEOPLE's average vote fell to just 0.7%. After much internal debate the Party's 1975 Conference adopted a proposal to change it's name to 'The Ecology Party' in order to gain more recognition as the Party of environmental concern.[1]
The party won its first representation in 1976, when John Luck took a seat on Rother District Council in East Sussex, and party Campaign Secretary John Davenport won a parish council seat in Kempsey.[2]
Jonathan Tyler was elected Chairman of the party in 1976,[2] and Jonathon Porritt became a prominent member. With an election manifesto called The Real Alternative, the party fielded over 50 candidates in the general election of 1979, and so qualified for election broadcasts on television and radio. The party received 39,918 votes and membership jumped tenfold, from about 500 to over 5,000.
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, with David Fleming, "to provide the Party with an attractive image and effective organisation".
With Porritt gaining increasing prominence and an election manifesto called The Real Alternative, the Ecology Party fielded 53 candidates in the 1979 General Election, entitling them to radio and television election broadcasts. Though many considered this a gamble, the plan, encouraged by Porritt, worked, as the Party received 39,918 votes (an average of 1.5%) and membership multiplied from around 500 to 5,000 or more. This, Derek Wall notes, meant that the Ecology Party "became the fourth Party in UK politics, ahead of the National Front and Socialist Unity".[1]
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’s Policies for a Sustainable Society (which encompasses around 124 520 words[3]). At the same time, according to Wall, "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 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 Ecology Party CND (later Green CND), and the Greenham Common camp. The Party also became increasingly feminist.[1]
Due to the recession causing the marginalisation of Green issues, Roy Jenkins leaving the Labour Party to form the Social Democratic Party (SDP), and the inability of the Party to absorb the rapid increase in membership, the early 1980s were extremely tough for the Ecology Party. Nonetheless, the Party were well prepared for the 1983 General Election, spurred on by the success of Die Grünen in Germany. In the 1983 election, the Ecology Party stood over 100 candidates and gained 54,299 votes.
The party formally became the Green Party at the Party Conference in Dover during 1985 after John Abineri, formerly an actor in the BBC series Survivors suggested adding the colour 'Green' to the name to fall in line with other environmental parties in Europe.[1]
In 1986, a new internal dispute arose within the Party. A faction calling itself the 'Party Organisation Working Group' (POWG) proposed constitutional amendments designed to create a streamlined, two-tier structure to govern the internal workings of the Party. Decentralists voted these proposals down. Paul Ekins and Jonathan Tyler, prominent Party activists and leading members of POWG, then formed a semi-covert group called 'Maingreen', whose private comments, on 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.[1]
Meanwhile, the Party gained ground electorally. The 1987 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 the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 and concern over CFCs.
The Party enjoyed evermore success. The 'Campaign for Real Democracy' launched by the Party allowed it to play a part in the Anti-Poll Tax Campaign. The Party's greatest ever success came at 1989 European Elections, where the Green Party won 2,292,695 votes and received 15% of the overall vote.[4] European Elections in Great Britain were then run on a first-past-the-post basis, whilst the three seats in Northern Ireland were elected by single transferable vote, and the party failed to gain any seats. According to Derek Wall, the Party would have gained 12 seats if they had been running in other European countries who employed Proportional Representation. Wall explains this "breakthrough" as a combination of the declining popularity of Margaret Thatcher, the reaction to the Poll Tax, Conservative opposition to the European Union, ineffective Labour Party and Liberal 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.[5]
As a result of this success, Sara Parkin and David Icke rose to prominence in the UK media. Parkin especially was in demand as a Green spokeswoman. However, the new media attention was not always handled well by the party as a whole. In the run up to the 1989 party conference, the party attracted criticism for advocating policies aiming to reduce the total population,[6] proposals which were subsequently rejected. Further controversies included Derek Wall's intervention as a maverick 'Green fundamentalist'[7] and rejection of possible alliances to establish PR.[8]
Mainstream political parties were however alarmed by the Green's electoral performance and adopted some 'Green policies' in an attempt to counter the threat.[1]
In this period, the Green Party had representation in the House of Lords, the (unelected) upper chamber of Parliament in the person of George MacLeod, Baron MacLeod of Fuinary,[9] who died in 1991. He was the first British Green parliamentarian.
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 the Scottish Green Party and the Green Party in Northern Ireland. The Wales Green Party became an autonomous regional party and remained within the new Green Party of England and Wales.
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