Saturday, 24 November 2007

*QUOTED IN YESTERDAY'S GUARDIAN.


http://politics.guardian.co.uk/green/story/0,,2215376,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed


To anyone who is not already aware, the Green Party is engaged in an internal referendum on whether to have a leader. The proposition is opposed by most activists but sounds attractive to the ‘armchair members’ At the recent AGM of the London Federation of Green Parties, the YES side were only able to muster nine votes in the straw poll, despite fielding some very high profile speakers.

My factual comments have brought down the wrath of some of the extremists on the YES side:-)

Here are the websites from both sides:

www.greenempowerment.org.uk
http://www.greenyes.org

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Noel, in the article you said: "The vast majority of the activists are 'no' supporters. What way the inactive members are going to vote, nobody knows." That may be factal in Barnet, but it certainly isn't true in Lewisham, or I suspect Islington, Camden, Hackney or Brighton. I would estimate that approximately 80% of our active members in Lewisham support the leadership motion, and a similar % of armchair members. Anyway, time will tell, I suspect it's going to be close either way . . .

Noel Lynch said...

No, Sue, it may be factual in Lewisham but not in Islington, Camden, Hackney or indeed Brighton! All the hustings that I attended had strong majorities for the NO position from the activists. You youself were at the London Fed debate and you saw the result there.
My experience of the inactive members has been that they have a kneejerk support for the YES position, but usually switched when they heard the arguments. Anyway, it's nearly all over now.
I also disagree with you on whether it will be close - there are a lot more inactive members than active members:-)