Why I joined the Green Party of England & Wales

In 2007, the last 'real' election that I voted in (sorry Europe), I gave my two votes to the SNP. It was by no means always a certainty but, come polling day, there were plenty of reasons why I wouldn't be thinking twice about where my X was going:

• a First Minister that looked and sounded tired of his job
  
• moving away from Privaced Financed Initiative schemes to a more balanced (and on Balance Sheet) approach


• implementing free school meals for p1 to p3 kids at schools


• ensuring no new nuclear power stations were opened in Scotland


• freshening up the youthful devolution 'adventure' by ensuring that a new party brought some new ideas to Government


• increased investment in renewable energy

Now I live in England and the SNP won't be on any ballot slips that I hold in my hand in the near to medium future. I also see joining political parties as a community decision that feeds up the chain from street to area to city to county to country rather than a gesture that can cross borders. Put another way, being a member of the SNP would now be as pointless as being a member of the US Democratic party or Swedish Modernitska party or the German Social Democrats, however much I may admire their successes and potential.

So now I am looking around at the options in my new home of Camden, looking for which party to join here. I reckon it is important for democracy that all political parties are vibrant bodies with many members so I can back that belief by joining up with the party active in the local area that most closely fits my beliefs.

The Conservatives are out as I am pretty much diametrically-opposed to most of their policies. The Labour party is not an option until they've decided whether they are dropping 'New Labour' (not to mention the dropping of another generation of Trident as a policy). And the Liberal Democrats are not an option as, honestly, I just don't trust them to hold a consistent position on any given issue other than civil liberties, irrespective of the necessary and understandable compromises that come with coalition Government.

Not that the Green Party was fourth choice in a process of elimination. Taking my reasons for voting SNP in 2007 and noting that the UK is opening up new nuclear power stations, thinks PFI is good value for money and isn't doing enough to ensure kids have a nutritious and food-informed start to life, there was only one party that was getting a look-in for my £5/month once I decided that getting involved with another party was on my to-do list.

Would I have joined the Scottish Green Party if I had stayed in Edinburgh, knowing now what I didn't know about them back in May 2007? The answer to that is somewhere between 'possibly' and 'probably'. Tactical voting is less attractive as you grow older I suppose so chances of winning a constituency take a back seat to the principles at stake. I was happily prepared to help vote the Green Westminster candidate into 4th place here in London if I had been allowed to vote on May 6th and I could have done the same on May 5th 2011.

So with tactical voting out as an option and a member of a different party, 'SNP Tactical Voting' must come to an end, at least in some way. I've always insisted that if you run a party blog then you have a duty to that party to treat it with the utmost respect. This blog, rightly or wrongly, would of course always be seen as an SNP blog so that link must be broken for the requisite respect to be honoured. I'll remain interested in Scottish politics of course, even if I am not part of that street->Government sliding scale.

So changes are on their way for this site, not that I yet know what form they will take. I look forward to being a Green party member though, in whatever capacity I 'blog' going forward. It looks like a fun party to be a part of and, over and above the big issues of the day that leaders must grapple with and solve, being a part of any political party should always be good fun.