Finishing fourth

The Greens are decentralised, disorganised and in danger of losing ground in the battle to remain Britain's fourth party
November 23, 2008

Unlike the Olympics, fourth place matters in British politics. This battle is often fought between the Greens and the BNP, and, worryingly, the Greens seem to be falling behind. Even worse, in the high profile 6th November Glenrothes by-election, they aren't even fielding a candidate. Despite the rising importance of green issues, and reorganisation to shed many of the party's sillier anti-hierarchical principles, Britain's Greens remain as woolly as ever.

At first glance, Green influence has grown significantly over the last five years. Elections under proportional representation (PR) in Scotland, Wales, London and Europe now make it easier for Greens to win seats. As a result the party now has 120 local councillors in England and Wales, along with two MEPs and two members on the Greater London Assembly. But despite this success, the Greens still have a real problem with organisation.

Noel Lynch, the co-ordinator of the London Federation of Green Parties, remembers the party's first breakthrough, at the 1989 European elections. The Greens won two million votes but, with the first-past-the-post system, no seats. More oddly, they had no leader. At the time, Lynch explains, Green thinking was that "leaders can be very dangerous"—a single person in charge could become corrupted by power. Instead, the party was represented by a group of six "principal speakers," meant to represent, but not lead, the party. Their task was made more difficult by not being allowed to vote at executive meetings. Equally, the six were voted in annually, a rule seemingly created to guarantee that the public would never be able remember who the speakers were.

This anti-hierarchical structure was defended year after year at Green Party conferences. Eventually reformers were able to cut the principal speakers number from six to two. But fierce disagreements remained. Siân Berry, who ran an admired campaign to be Mayor of London in 2008, claims being one of the party's two speakers hampered her efforts. "The first question in an interview was what was meant by my being a principal speaker," she says. "I had to explain how there was one male and one female speaker for gender balance. It was a waste of time." Berry says the media frequently used the practice to mock the Greens. "It was as if the presenter was saying 'you call yourself a political party but actually you are a bit of a joke.'"

Berry and others will have been relieved when, after a long campaign to change the rules, Caroline Lucas MEP was finally voted in as the party's first ever leader in September 2008. Lucas, a savvy media performer seen by many as the perfect Green pin-up, may yet help the Greens to appeal to voters who have so far opted for the mainstream parties. Yet she may have to buy a pair of Fairtrade boxing gloves to change the culture of her party.

Take the Glenrothes by-election. Generally speaking, all parties stand in such contests, from the mainstream to the Monster Raving Loony. But not, it seems, the Greens. The Scottish Green party wanted to run, but the Fife Greens thought the ex-coalmining area was not natural territory. This inability to take advantage of an obvious PR opportunity speaks to wider problems for Green organisation, specifically the decentralisation and the autonomy of local groups. PR might have provided two seats in the Scottish Parliament—and with it some valuable public funds—but it clearly hasn't provided anything close to a national organisation.

And because of this disorganisation, the Greens risk falling behind. A by-election in October 2008 in West Ruislip in Middlesex showed the danger. Both the National Front and the BNP fielded candidates. Although the Greens finished third last time round, this time they came fifth. The shock of this defeat jolted the party. A more recent by-election, in north London, was more promising, with the Greens finishing third. Even so, there is little sign that recent organisational upheaval will quickly pay electoral dividends.

The Greens now face a double challenge. First, they have to fight for airtime with a resurgent far right. Peter Cranie, a Green Party campaigner in the northwest who works with voters targeted by the BNP, explains that "a lot of these people are hacked off with politicians and they see no alternative. They see the BNP as people who will kick the government up the rear." Perhaps more worryingly, the party must struggle to maintain a distinctive agenda in the face of mainstream parties coming onto green turf. Siân Berry, for instance, notes that the Conservatives are "still using the 'vote Tory get Green' line" even though "they vote against environmental issues at local parties." Meeting both challenges is crucial if the Greens are to hold on to the coveted fourth place in future. Until they do this, the chances of a Green breakthrough seem slim.