GREENS TO REVIEW WESTMINSTER STRATEGY
Scottish Green Party conference has this weekend backed a call to review the party's 2015 UK General Election strategy in the light both of the referendum result and the party's significant growth in membership.
In 2010 the party stood candidates in 19 out of the 59 seats in Scotland.
Patrick Harvie MSP, Co-convener of the Scottish Greens, said:
"The last time the Scottish Greens fought a Westminster election we had around 1,000 members across Scotland, and now that figure is closer to 7,000. This extraordinary increase in activist numbers gives us the ability to knock on many more doors, deliver many more leaflets, and to continue the much broader discussion about Green values with the public that took place during the referendum campaign.
"We also have to recognise that the promises of further devolution made by the Westminster parties during the referendum campaign will turn this election on its head. What will be proposed by the Smith Commission? What say will the public have? Will those promises be honoured? We don't know at this stage. But we know those issues will be at the heart of May's election, and we need to take account of this radically changed context.
"UK General Elections have historically been the most difficult for small parties, given the weaknesses of the electoral system, and also the way the debates are covered. However, given the referendum result, we cannot ignore the need to send Green MPs to Westminster. No matter what further devolution takes place, that is where decisions will continue to be taken on many important economic and international questions in particular, and Green voices need to be heard in those debates.
"We recognise that it will be an enormous challenge to secure a Green MP in Scotland, as indeed it was for our colleagues in England and Wales to secure the election of Caroline Lucas in 2010. But that must now be our ambition, which is why this review is so urgent."
The text of the motion passed reads as follows:
Re-evaluating 2015 Election Strategy
In the light of the result of the referendum and the significant growth of the party, conference agrees that Elections & Campaigns Committee should re-evaluate the party's 2015 electoral strategy including how many seats are contested, how significant the party's expenditure should be, what new opportunities exist in the changed political context, and what issues and messages should be at the core of the campaign.
The central aims should be to secure the strongest possible Green result and advance our Target To Win plans for future elections at all levels, and win at least one MP.