First draft of a paper suggesting a way forward, plans,
actions and priorities. A skeleton of ideas, not necessarily presented in order
of priority or importance, to be fleshed out by our members. Please add to it.
Timetable
EU referendum 2017 (or 2016)
EU election 2019
General Election 2020
District elections 2020
Our objectives
include influencing public opinion, influencing government and winning
elections. Until the time comes to fight the next election, we need to
concentrate on the first two. We need to
retain existing members and attract new members. As many members as possible need to be
actively involved; we need their knowledge, skill and creativity. It seems to
me a good idea to divide our work into several headings and have, as far as we
can, one named member responsible for organising the work under the
heading. This means involvement of many
people with worthwhile responsibilities and sharing the work out so that it
doesn’t fall on a few shoulders where it would not be possible to do a good
job. I suggest we each choose one or more of the headings to take ownership of
and responsibility for, with the result of work on these heading being presented
to everyone at meetings and/or electronically.
The list below is by no means exhaustive and suggestions of other
headings are expected and will be welcome.
An early task
must be to consider whether the East Lincolnshire Green Party should divide
into parliamentary constituency branches. It seems likely that Boston &
Skegness, at least, has sufficient active members to make this possible quite
soon.
Victoria Atkins / Matt Warman / Edward
Leigh watch People to follow
everything that each of our MPs does, Hansard, twitter and other social media
and the press. Maximising publicity of
where they do and where they don’t do things that accord with green Party
policy. Lobbying them with what we think
they should be doing.
Local Council & MEP watch As with the MPs, people to follow their
local councillors, publicising, challenging and lobbying, to ensure that our
policies are heard at council and that the public know about it.
We
also need to follow the work of our MEPs taking opportunities to show Green policy
on EU.
Membership Our
membership secretary ensures that all, and especially new, members are kept
informed and engaged. We also need a
continuing drive for new members.
Fundraising We
need to build up an election fighting fund so that we don’t end up scrabbling
around for cash to pay for leaflets, deposits etc at the last moment.
Press Our Press contacts need to be
pursued, developed and constantly provided with stories.
Region and local parties We need people to attend East
Midlands Region meetings and keep in touch with North East Lincs, North
Lincs , South Lincs and Lincoln Green
Parties, sharing experiences.
Policies We
all need to become familiar with all Green Party policies and experts on those
that most that we can refer to so-and-so
as our spokesperson for such-and-such.
Proportional Representation PR
looks as though it will be a key area for campaigning over the next five
years. We need someone to become our
expert and to coordinate with campaigns around the country.
Climate Paris
COP21 is perhaps the first major event in our diary. We have six months to raise local awareness
of the most significant conference in the history of humanity.
Other environment Global warming may be the overarching environmental issue but
there are other foci for attention. Pollution in all its forms, wildlife
promotion and protection, particularly the proposed (but so far rejected)
Marine Conservation Zones off the Lincolnshire
coast.
Human rights We need to coordinate action to oppose changes proposed by the
government. This looks like being an
early item on the government’s agenda.
Economics Austerity
has been one of the most frequently used words in the election campaign. We
need to be competent at arguing the case against neo-liberalism and understand
the dangers of fractional reserve banking and be able to promote positive
money. The vexed question of growth vs. degrowth needs to be tackled. It’s what makes the Green Party different
from all other parties.
Housing It
is likely that housing associations like Waterloo
will be allowed (forced?) to sell their assets to tenants. We need to lobby ELDC councillors to force
higher energy standards, Code 6, Passivhaus, on developers. Campaign for the
TAN6 One Planet rules for rural development as adopted by the Welsh Assembly.
Education We need a coherent position on this
important matter of local concern
Citizens Basic Income Very
few people understand this long-standing Green Party policy but it has the
potential to change much for the better.
We need someone who can understand it and explain it to others.
Transport Transport
needs to be re-engineered for a zero-carbon Britain . Our ultra-light railway proposals need to be
developed and promoted.
Energy A
policy area that has to be a much higher priority for us than it is for any of
the other parties. We need to
demonstrate why fracking and underground coal gasification can never be
allowed, why further exploitation of oil and gas has to be stopped, why most fossil
carbon needs to be left underground and unburnt. We need to promote the whole suite of
renewables and emphasise that the Humber Bank is becoming the one of the
world’s foremost centres for renewable energy industry as windfarms towards and
on the Dogger Bank are built over the next couple of
decades.
TEQs Tradable
Energy Quotas could be a key instrument in forcing the equable reduction in
fossil carbon use. It is a simple scheme
which some people think is too complex.
They need putting right.
Farming An
important area for Lincolnshire ; we
need to be able to demonstrate how the food and farming industries could have a
future working for the common good.
EU Referendum This now seems likely sooner than later. We need to be
clear about promoting a yes vote and working to improve the institution.
Social We
need to have some fun, so we need someone capable of organising ‘excursions’ to
‘breweriers’.
Hello, I am a long time Green Party voter (when there has been someone to vote for) but have only recently become a paid up member; I am really supportive of your suggestions for the five year plan, but think it would be helpful to agree some priority order; for me PR has to be up there as something we put real energy into. In terms of additions to the list; I would like to see some discussion about how we offer some meaningful opposition to the planned changes to the hunting bill. Finally a plea in regard to meetings; Louth is quite a trek for those of us living in the Coningsby area, especially after work; would people consider alternating meetings between Louth and Horncastle? Thanks Sharon
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments, Sharon. Sorting out a priority list has to be top of the agenda for our next meeting on Thursday 11th June 7.30 at the Boar's Head, Newmarket, Louth. Our candidate Romy Rayner has already been actively campaigning for PR since the election and we do certainly need to put effort into this. Yes, I agree that hunting should have been included on my list. I guess we have to await the Queen's Speech to see whether the Government intend to act. Your point about meeting venues has come up before. Driving across the vastness of Lincolnshire is not very ecological. The great news this week is that the members in the Boston and Skegness constituency have decided there are enough of them to form their own local party. We now have several members in easy reach of Horncastle so having some of our meetings there does look like a sensible idea. Let's talk about it on the 11th. And, of course, the more discussion we have here on-line, the less we need to burn fossil carbon to get to meetings to get thing done. Please join the conversation.
ReplyDeletePart one: I joined the Green Party last year, as the first party I have joined as an adult. Like many others I associated the green party with environmental policies and little else, and it was only one of those "vote for policies and not for parties' questionnaires (I *think* linked from the Guardian) that showed me how much I had in common with the Green Party. They, and we, are doing a rubbish job at publicising the party, the policies, and particularly those policies which are likely to resonate with a wider audience. We need urgent attention to the education and PR for the electorate. I was very surprised that seemingly in the leaders' debate, the only reason Natalie Bennett mentioned fracking was in response to heckling. We have complex policies on a very diverse range of subjects and you will *never* be able to convey ALL of them at once in any sort of publicity. There needs to be a concentration on the things that affect people the most. Watching "Gogglebox" when they showed the Green Party party election broadcast was instructive; it is no good standing against austerity if half the people don't know what that is. Same goes for fracking - if they don't have a clue what it is, they can't know they should be against it - that's why I think education is part of promoting Green Party policies.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what happened, but I volunteered to display a poster and never received one, and I volunteered to deliver leaflets and I did - but there were so few that it was a rather pointless exercise. They were also pretty poorly designed - lots of words, tiny (or poor quality) pictures, and confusing ideas - was "Caroline Lucas is awesome" really a reason to vote Green in Lincolnshire? I am aware that I have contributed nothing positive and only criticism for the party publicity effort, and I hope to change that and offer assistance, but coming new to an organization it isn't always clear where the responsibilities lie, who to go to for materials like posters, and how to help. I have been offered a lift to meetings for the future and hope to attend and contribute.
Locally, the very poor transport links between Market Rasen and Lincoln (and a lot of outlying villages and Lincoln) is an issue that the Green Party could surely get behind. I didn't see any comments on the local development plan which was submitted for consultation by Lincoln, except those made by me.
Part 2 I think dividing the Green Party into constituencies in this area OR meeting up in different towns in the area so that it isn't always people from the same area doing all the travelling would be a fair thing to do, given that there is no local transport in the evenings when the meetings are held. Having a local meeting, even if only once every three or four months, might help to generate local interest? Also I would have stood for the local council for the Green Party if I had realised Market Rasen had no Green Party candidates. The lists which were put out during the campaign didn't mention Market Rasen once, and so I made the assumption that the wards which weren't mentioned already had candidates. For the future I think this should be clear when a call for candidates goes around on email.
ReplyDeleteAs for a priority, I think fundraising and having our public-facing information and education fixed has to come top of the list - without information reaching other voters there is no power to change anything, and without power to change anything, we may as well take up country dancing instead. I am hoping that environmental concerns will achieve a priority for the country, and the only way that can happen is through education and publicity - making people understand how important it is.
What about a forum for members? With such a large group of constituencies to cover, online conversation and discussion is much more likely to be done quickly. Or even, one for members and prospective members, to begin a dialogue with ourselves and potential Green Party voters? Discussion on a forum is a lot more agile than on blog post comments, and there are a lot of free forums available nowadays. It would be cheap and green.
Thanks for your comments, Fee. It may be worth remembering that this time last year we had barely a handful of active members between Boston and Gainsborough. Our monthly meetings in Louth usually comprised four or five people, sometimes two. And now we've lots of new members and have put up three parliamentary candidates and several in the locals. It's been a fantastic achievement starting from almost nothing.
ReplyDeleteWe do now have a website, a facebook group,a facebook page, this blog and several of us are constantly promoting the causes on twitter. A forum, as you suggest, may be a useful additional platform. Would you like to set one up?
Hope to meet you at the meeting in Louth next Thursday.