Tamsin Omond to stand against Green Party’s Bea Campbell Labour’s Glenda Jackson in latest act of epic narcissism

“Not all companies get the urgency of climate change yet but their customers have more power than they think. Last week, I left the outer packaging of my shopping on the till at Tesco.” – Tamsin Omond demonstrating her commitment to environmentalism by leaving an underpaid cashier to clear up her mess.
I winced yesterday as [...]

The Greens are a Left-Wing Party

Hat tip to Derek Wall for this report from an attendee of the Green Party conference. Encouraging signs for those of us on the left who see the Green Party as the most promising vehicle for progressive change in British politics and for those who see the party as much more than a single-issue environmental [...]

Barking Green Party Are Right to Make a Stand

As a lefty and an ethnic minority who has always campaigned for the rights of immigrants and against the division of racial hatred, I think it’s fair to say that I have a little bit of a vested interest in Nick Griffin failing to oust Margaret Hodge in Barking to become the BNP’s first MP. [...]

An Interview with George Galloway

Walking through security at Portcullis House, the fabulously expensive building standing adjacent to the Houses of Parliament, is a bit like going through any airport anywhere in the world. But making your way through the spacious courtyard, past green trees and sun-dappled water features under the enormous sparkling glass dome towering overhead, you could be [...]

Second Update: Dana Ali

Since the successful campaign to secure Dana’s release from Oakington detention centre last month, he has been tagged and living under curfew, unable even to go into his backyard for a cigarette after 8pm. However, it seems the Home Office has finally taken note of his case. Yesterday Dana was told to go down to [...]

An Interview with George Monbiot

I’m a Guardian reader. Middle-class, well educated, long-haired and liberal, I don’t exactly dispel the stereotypes associated with the paper whose readers think they ought to run the country. Nor, as one of those lefty, anti-war, environmentalist types who grew up worrying about the state of the world, should it come as any surprise that [...]

An Interview with Caroline Lucas

It’s that time of year again. The silly season has ended, Parliament is getting ready to return from recess and, with swine flu beginning to look like a fuss about not very much and the worst of the recession said to be over, the British media is beginning to turn its attention to the party [...]

Greenpeace Fair Saved

Last weekend saw the 20th annual Waveney Greenpeace Fair. It was a fun day for families filled with hippy arts and crafts, good food, fine ale, decent music and a whole heap of progressive politics. I spent the afternoon serving drinks behind the bar and the evening propping up the bar from the other side. [...]

The Party is Dead, Long Live the Party!

Guest post by Steve Goodrich

Before we get saturated by over-zealous coverage of the conference season it is perhaps time to step back and look at the state of Britain’s political parties. Despite the new logos, leaders and spin, they have undoubtedly been under strain in recent years.
Over the past two decades alone, party membership [...]

Norwich North – Heroes and Zeroes

Heroes

The Tories: Flying high in the polls on the back of Labour’s most crushing defeat in almost a century at the European Elections, it is unsurprising that the Tories came out on top in the Norwich North by-election, overturning a majority of over 5,000 to take the seat from Labour. Gaining close to 40% of [...]