Green Party councillor quits

The Green Party has a fluffy image but in reality it is a nasty, extremist party. You don't have to take my word for it. David Rogers has just resigned from Norwich City Council where he was a Green Party councillor. He says it attracts the “gullible and the authoritarian”, which he said was a “dangerous combination in party politics”.

Mr Rogers adds:

“I can no longer support the Green Party. I have seen the dangers that the Green Party presents and I must oppose the Green Party.”

There are around 140 Green Party councillors across Britain up from 117 before the General Election. That is modest progress, but out of 21,000 is scarcely a breakthrough. One problem has been defections from their ranks as their true nature is understood. Cllr Paula Black on Devon Country Council defected to Labour saying the Green Party is extreme. Cllr Phil Hardy who was leader of the Green Party group on Norfolk County Council defected to the Conservatives.

Then in Brighton and Hove one of their councillors was expelled for opposing gay marriage.

Last week we had a scrutiny panel of councillors from the same authority which produced a report about transgender people asking: "What needs to change?" and including among its answers "No honorifics." I wrote about this on Friday. This panel includes the Deputy Leader of the Council - which has a Green Party administration. He says such terms are "useless" and so decides he should impose his view on the rest of us by abolishing them.

The proposal is still due to go before the full council in December to be ratified. If it is passed then Council staff would be banned from addressing residents as Mr, Mrs or Miss. How could the proposal mean anything else? What if any Green Party councillors vote against? Will they be expelled as well?

The Green Party has had an opportunity to be an anti establishment alternative to the Lib Dems and the Labour Party for voters who think those parties aren't anti capitalist enough. Given that the capitalist system has been (unfairly) blamed for the recession there should have been some potential for them. Yet instead they are in self destruct mode.