The party's manifesto emphasises its belief that local, as opposed to centralised, decision making is the most democratic form of government - it stresses that every decision should be made at local level if at all possible, as this is the best way of achieving direct participation from the electorate.
Elections:
The Green Party has been going for over two decades and has around 200 local branches. There are Green Party councillors on all levels of local government. The Party stood 255 candidates in the 1992 election contested every seat at the 1994 European Parliament elections.
The party had greater success at the European elections in 1989 than previously recorded, winning 15% of the total vote - a result which has not been matched since. At the following Euro-elections in 1994 the Greens only secured 0.56% of the vote.
The Green Party fielded candidates at the Newbury and Hemsworth by-elections, getting 0.4% and 0.7% of the vote respectively.
The 1996 party conference was more controversial than usual. Spencer Fitz-Gibbon had proposed a motion calling for the abstention from, or at least a drastically reduced involvement in the next General Election - in order to save money. Mr Fitz-Gibbon urged the party to take the opportunity to prepare for the European elections, staying out of the General Election, In the end conference voted to contest a wide number of seats but in reality the party have so far selected around 85 candidates and are only likely to stand around 90.
"We are likely to be able to field only 100 candidates. Being there to register at most a protest vote costs us an enormous amount of money. We must conserve resources." (Guardian 26 August 1996).
The Greens face two problems at the next general election. The first, according to a Green Party spokeswoman quoted in The Guardian, is that "the smaller parties may not get a look in...because of the urgency to remove the Conservatives...". The second is that many potential grassroots activists are involved in alternative direct action protests, such as the Newbury bypass.
Party Contacts:
Headquarters:
1a Waterlow Road
Archway
London N19
Tel: 0171 272 4474
Northern Office:
20 Byram Buildings
Station Street
Huddersfield
Tel: 01484 533451
Scottish Office
11 Greenbank Terrace
Edinburgh
Tel: 0131 447 1843
Welsh Office
38 Queen Street
Aberystwyth
Tel: 01970 611226