PEOPLE, 1972–1975 The Green Party's origins go back to
PEOPLE, a political party founded in Coventry in November 1972. a small group of professional and business people to form the 'Thirteen Club', so named because it first met on 13 September 1972 at the Napton Bridge pub in
Napton-on-the-Hill near
Daventry. This included surveyors and property agents
Freda Sanders and
Michael Benfield, and husband-and-wife solicitors
Lesley and
Tony Whittaker the party published the 'Manifesto for Survival' in June 1974, between the two general elections of that year. The manifesto was inspired by
A Blueprint for Survival published by
The Ecologist magazine. 'A Manifesto for a Sustainable Society' was an expanded statement of policies published in 1975 published under the newly changed name of the Ecology Party. The editor of
The Ecologist,
Edward 'Teddy' Goldsmith, merged his 'Movement for Survival' with PEOPLE in 1974. Goldsmith became one of the leading members of the new party during the 1970s. With "Steady State" economics featured in the party's philosophical basis, the all-UK party became a persistent and growing presence in general elections and European elections, often fielding enough candidates to qualify for television and radio election broadcasts. Membership rose and the party contested both 1974 general elections. In the
February 1974 general election, PEOPLE received 4,576 votes in 7 seats. In later years, an influx of left-wing activists took PEOPLE in a more left-wing direction, causing something of a split. In the
October 1974 general election, where PEOPLE's average vote fell to just 0.7%; much of the difference was made by Liberal candidates entering the fray.
1975 conference After much debate, the party's 1975 conference adopted a proposal to change its name to the
Ecology Party to gain more recognition as the party of environmental concern. Party co-founder Tony Whittaker noted in an interview with Derek Wall '… voters did not connect PEOPLE with ecology. What I wanted was something that the media could look up in their files so that, when they wanted a spokesman of the issue of ecology, they could find the Ecology Party and pick up the phone. It was as brutal and basic as that. PEOPLE didn't communicate what we had hoped it would communicate'. Derek Wall, in his history of the Green Party, contends that the new political movement focused initially on the theme of survival, which shaped the "bleak evolution" of the nascent ecological party during the 1970s. Furthermore, the effect of the "revolution of values" during the 1960s would come later. In Wall's eyes, the party suffered from a lack of media attention and "opposition from many environmentalists", which contrasted the experience of other emerging Green parties, such as Germany's
Die Grünen. Nonetheless, PEOPLE invested much of its resources in engaging with the indifferent environmental movement, which Wall calls a "tactical mistake".
Jonathan Tyler was elected Chairman of the party in 1976, At the same time, according to Wall, "the Post-1968 generation" began to join the party, advocating non-violent direct action as an important element of the Ecology Party vision outside of electoral politics. This manifested itself in an apparent "decentralist faction" who gained ground within the party, leading to the Party Conference stripping the Executive of powers and rejecting the election of a single leader. The new generation was in evidence in the first 'Summer Green Gathering' in July 1980, the action of the Ecology Party CND (later Green CND), and the
Greenham Common camp. The party also became increasingly
feminist.
Name change and internal strife, 1985–1986 The UK experienced a great deal of political change in 1985. After the formation of the
Social Democratic Party (SDP), there were noises being made that the UK needed a "green" party. In response to the rumours that a group of
Liberal Party activists were about to launch a UK 'Green Party', European elections in Great Britain were then run on a
first-past-the-post basis, whilst the three seats in Northern Ireland were elected by
single transferable vote, and the party failed to gain any seats. According to Derek Wall, the party would have gained 12 seats if they had been running in other European countries who employed
Proportional Representation. Wall explains this "breakthrough" as a combination of the declining popularity of
Margaret Thatcher, the reaction to the
Poll Tax,
Conservative opposition to the
European Union, ineffective
Labour Party and
Liberal Democrat campaigns and a well-prepared Green Party campaign. That environmental issues were very prominent in UK politics at the time should also be added to this list. At no time before or since have Green issues been so high on the minds of UK voters as a voting issue. As a result of this success,
Sara Parkin and
David Icke rose to prominence in the UK media, soon becoming two of the four Principal Speakers, a position created in lieu of a leader. Parkin especially was in demand as a Green spokesperson. However, the new media attention was not always handled well by the party as a whole. In the run up to the 1989 party conference, it attracted criticism for advocating policies aiming to reduce the total population, proposals which were subsequently rejected. Further controversies included Derek Wall's rejection of possible alliances to establish PR. Icke too attracted criticism soon after writing his second book in 1989, an outline of his views on the environment. Mainstream political parties were, however, alarmed by the Greens' electoral performance and adopted some 'Green policies' in an attempt to counter the threat.
The breakup of the party, 1990 In 1990, the Scottish and Northern Ireland wings of the Green Party in the United Kingdom decided to separate amicably from the party in England and Wales, to form the
Scottish Greens and the
Green Party Northern Ireland. The
Wales Green Party became an autonomous regional party and remained within the new
Green Party of England and Wales. ==Leadership==