Andy D'Agorne

The conference was formally opened on Thursday in the grand setting of the late Victorian Old Town Hall by Rob White, target candidate in Reading, who spoke of how he'd seen the local party grow, from meetings in a members' kitchen to last year getting within 100 votes of a council seat - something that  members are working very hard to achieve this May.

The keynote speech was given by Caroline Lucas, MEP and principal speaker, who received a standing ovation for the speech in which she said: "Never has the muddy middle ground of the grey parties' policies been less up to the job." More: http://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/3326.

Caroline's new website was launched with appropriate ceremony, and some very nice organic chocolate - you can find it, if not the chocolate, at http://www.carolinelucasmep.org.uk/.  Many were also checking out the new website of our London mayoral candidate: http://sianformayor.org.uk/.

Derek Wall, principal speaker, used his speech to outline a vision of a Green economy, which "would be more democratic and more reliable, as well as more sustainable". More:
http://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/3329

The first emergency motion, passed on day one of conference, condemned the 'disgraceful' corporatisation of the NHS, citing the recent health contracts won by American health firm United Health Europe. It called on the Government to engage in proper consultation with main stakeholders in the NHS: British citizens. More: http://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/3323

Among the policy motions, three were passed directing the preparation of new or substantially revised sections of the Manifesto for a Sustainable Society. Conference directed the revision of the population policy, the creation of a gender and equity policy, and work on the details of our citizens' income policy. (If you would like to join an email discussion list on any of these, please contact internalcommunications@greenparty.org.uk - input is always welcome.)

Conference also completed in large part a substantial revision of the party's energy policy, although some aspects of the proposed policy were referred back for future work.

The proposed policy linking our sustainable agriculture policies to the huge climate impact of livestock farming was passed, as was a motion backing reforms to the existing abortion law, and (with a small amendment), a policy on "justice for the Palestinians", and a policy opposing the government's decision to leave hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers without access to funds or healthcare,  or the right to work.

Among the organisational matters, a new post on the Green Party executive, of equality and diversity coordinator, was created -- the first coordinator will be elected at autumn conference - and a decision made that should a change to the constitution be considered through referendum, the result of that cannot be revisited for two years.

Further emergency motions were passed on support for efforts to oppose a third runway at Heathrow (two),  against fluoridation (two), on arts funding (http://www.greenparty.org.uk/emergencymotions/112), ownership of railway companies, on the plan to return child asylum-seekers to their country of origin, and on government attacks on unwaged people.
NB: This is a summary - more details can be found on the members' website and the national site.

(You can also read lively unofficial reports of conference at the Green Despatches blog: http://greendespatches.blogspot.com/. And a decision was made by a group of Green Party bloggers to start a Green Party home joint blog - if you are a blogger who is interested in participating, please contact jimjepps@hotmail.com.)

Power corrupts, so they say, and all the evidence I have seen leads me to support the 'Green empowerment' rather than 'Yes to a Leader' camp in the internal discussion currently underway in the Green Party. The referendum of the membership later this autumn might have to be delayed if Gordon Brown calls a snap election. What is certain is that the debate is drawing away a lot of energy and focus that we should be giving to getting our first MPs elected. If you want an antidote to party conferences, try this little rap, made up of real extracts from the recent party conference in Liverpool (party hacks will be able to recognise a few voices of our lead activists who are always on their feet at conference). A certain ex councillor who supports the notion of a single leader was a little lost for words for once when asked to explain the meaning of 'full responsibility' - it does take a while to load but is worth it!

http://ntt.dyn-o-saur.com/gpconfliver/THE_MIX_AsAtConf.mp3

 www.greenempowerment.org.uk

The hot topic at this Spring conference was the proposal that in order to be treated seriously by the media we have to have someone that has the title 'Leader' This presents a bit of a problem for the Greens who are very keen on participatory democracy, devolved government and doing away with class and hierarchies, and requires us to amend the Philosphical Basis of the party that boldly states that we do not support the notion of leaders, preferring to share responsiblities more equally and empower people to control their own lives.

FOR WORDING OF THE PROPOSAL SEE http://www.greenparty.org.uk/files/reports/2007/CreatingaLeaderandDeputyLeaderorCo-Leaders-Final.pdf

To see the arguments see www.green-empowerment.org.uk

In order to overcome the inability of the Leader lobby to get a two thirds majority for a Constitutional amendment at conference, the constitution has now been amended so that key controversial issues like this can be determined by a ballot of the whole membership, provided that at least 15% of them vote in the ballot.

While some in the party feel strongly that we should ' modernise' and streamline our structures, at the moment the only proposal is to change from having two non voting elected Principal Speakers (Male and Female) to either two 'Co-Leaders' or Leader and Deputy Leader. Once the local elections are out of the way the membership will get until November to debate the Green party equivalent of Labour's 'Clause 4'

Personally it is the political ambitions of the 'Leader' advocates that worry me as much as the change in the structure or title .... We will be in for an interesting debate.

SEPTEMBER CONFERENCE: IS IT IN YOUR DIARY?

The Autumn Conference will be from September 13 to 16 on the Everton campus of Liverpool Hope University (http://www.hope.ac.uk/). The venue is The Cornerstone, Haigh Street, (L3 8QB), just 10 minutes' walk from Liverpool Lime Street rail station, or the National Express bus station. Expected starting time is 12 noon Thursday; closing time 2pm on Sunday.

NOTE: The deadlines for motions etc for the first agenda will be Wednesday June 13. The deadline for amendments and reports for the final agenda will be Wednesday August 1.

The new Conferences Committee are John Norris (convener, venue, general enquiries), Joe Blakesley (conference stalls), Rob Smith (accommodation), John Street (co-opted, treasurer, timetable), Viv Smith (GPRC Friend, future venues), and Peter Cranie (Liverpool GP, bookings). Contact: John Norris, 15 Victor Street, York YO1 6HQ, 01904 640344, conferences@jnorris.org.uk. For more information and future updates, please check: http://www.greenparty.org.uk/nextconference