Friday, March 01, 2013

Forty Glorious Years!!! The Greens at Nottingham, Spring 2013




Made it to Nottingham for Green Party 'Spring' Conference.  Here is the Town Hall.



Why?  You may ask.  Well, I joined The Green Party back in '89.  I had not previously been in a political party, not having been born into 'Labour'.  Discussion with a 'left' Labour man at Coventry Poly while I was failing my second year disastrously about the need to be in the 'Party of the Working Class' had led me to the conclusion that the Green Party was the Party of the Working Class not the Labour Party which at best does not care.  And that was at the time of the Poll Tax where the Green Party supported the struggle against the Poll Tax and the Labour Party were just covering their backs with a fair bit of sectarianism from the 'Left' of the Labour Party.  So, nearly a quarter of a century later, the Tories are the Nasty Party, the Lib-Dems are The Other Nasty Party, Labour are Nasty in Waiting and that leaves the Green Party.

Anyway I first went to Conference at Wolverhampton One in Autumn '89 and last went to Conference at Southport on the occasion of The Party's 21st Birthday.  Where did the last quarter century go....

The East Midlands Conference Center is on the campus of the University of Nottingham.  Out on the edge of town and vast with hardly any facilities.  Give me Leeds any day!!!!!  I am proud to be a Leeds grad!

Had hoped to catch the conference opening and Natalie Bennett's opening speech but alas... hadn't quite calculated the vast distances and relative infrequency of the buses....

It was a conference of highs and lows and most things in beween, a good high to start was that my name tag and folder with agenda, voting cards, timetable etc was there waiting for me.  Have a pic on other camera but am beset by a multitude of hardware and software difficulties here.....  so there are a few lost pics for now.

I made it, complete with a Green Rosette for the County Council Elections.



So next was the plenary session to accept the SOC report (standing orders committee) and other items of vital business. 

Friday Nite was Pub Quiz nite organised by the awesome Young Greens.  Here is a couple of Young Greens.


 Our quizmaster



Then back to the Crash at Nottingham Friends Meeting House where some Greens had brought their bikes :-)


Some of us did head out to try and catch last orders.  Someone has a Horn in Hand.


So good to be back at Nottingham Friends Meeting House where I have stayed once before at least for Young Friends General Meeting (the Quaker Yoof) when I was a bit younger...



Is The Other Nasty Party in town?



I take my seat for Saturday's 10:30 hrs Plenary Session


Here's the best bits of Will Duckworth's speech


Next a meeting of the Yorkshire posse, with Andrew Cooper our Number One Candidate in Yorkshire and the Humber, David Blackburn the first Green on Leeds City Council and Adrian Cruden



Taking a Vote!


Democracy in action innit!


and then, at 1645 hrs we celebrated 40 Glorious Years!  And welcomed our founders!


Here they are



From left to right: Lesley Whittaker, one of the original 4, Freda Benfield, another original, Skoolboy David Taylor chairing (he was still at skool and wrote to the National Secretary Clive Lord), Clive Lord, a true stalwart (blogging at http://clivelord.wordpress.com/about/) and Michael Benfield another of the originals.  The forth Original, Tony Whittaker was prevented through illness and we all wish him health and recovery.

Lesley took us back to a different world... no mobile phones, no world wide web, photocopiers hardly existed, the internet was top secret, typewriting was generally manual banging away on keys, and copy cut and paste was literally that..


Can you imagine it? Nah!

and then it was deemed in right ordering to sing Happy Birthday


meet the new Chairperson


I dig being in charge! hehe    And here's to The Green Party!!

Darren Johnson was compare without compare of the review back at Southport here he is as DJ


Lots of dancing with passion!

Join a New Party!



With notice of poll from when Clive Lord stood as the People candidate for Leeds North East in February 1974.  Leeds North East is still here. 

Transport Spokesperson all the way from MK, Alan Francis with Jonathan Tyler


Tyler X



Meeting the MEPs at breakfast time Sunday....



Left: Jean Lambert MEP (Green London), Right Keith Taylor MEP (Green South East England) dunno who the chap in the middle is.

Two splendid MEPs lets elect more splendid Green MEPs!

And on to plenary



Here is our lead candidate for Yorkshire and the Humber for the European Parliament: Andrew Cooper.  And me.



Then on to a meeting with some of the Brighton Green Councillors, here is Jason Kitcat talking about the struggles of Brighton Council to resist the insane austerity regime of the Nasty Con-Dem government, their mistakes, their failures, their achievements.



Catching up with Mirriam Kennett (second from right) and of course Clive Lord (far left), with Iris Ryder (Hartlepool, second from left)


And so to the evenings ents, open mic

Here Richard Lawson does poetry!


back to the crash and from there to catch last orders here I hit the dancefloor in the alehouse.  I never thought the walk would end...



Here is Friends Meeting House



Monday morning question and answers with leader and deputy leader



I get to meet Natalie Bennett.



A million Green jobs.  Why not?


And home I went.  I first stopped at the statue of Chartist MP Feargus O'Connor, but that shall be another post.  I really ought to publish this and go to bed, this post has been something beyond a labour of love.  An obsession I suppose.  Seems I missed all the important bits out.....

It was a conference of highs and lows.  But on the whole good.  We are the happy party, we have good ideas, good news to sell.  The future, if there is one, is Green.


4 comments:

  1. oh got my comments back

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous1:36 PM

    Isn't every conference one of highs and lows - 4th floor, basement, 2 floors up and down the end of a long corridor for the next talk, where is the next workshop, where am I, can I find the right room??!!

    I understand the food wasn't great and the facilities weren't brilliant, but hey ho, it's only a couple of days and it's always good to be in the company of people on a similar wavelength!

    Expensive Brighton for September! :/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. well Nottingham wasn't cheap, especially as Nottingham Uni is an expansive campus with hardly any facilities miles from civilisation and the crash pad, and the buses are infrequent and expensive.

      Delete
  3. and cheers for your comment Karen! :-) maybe see you in Brighton

    ReplyDelete



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