Green conference last weekend

I wasn't at the Green party conference in Liverpool this last weekend - in fact had a weekend camping in Devon - but have been catching up on conference discussions - read here more re local Greens experience of the conference - had wanted to write lots but time has caught up with me.

Photo: Sunflower in slate

First a good intro are the two speechs by the Principal Speakers - read Derek Walls' speech here and read Sian Berry's speech here (or see her speech on youtube here).

There was of course lots more - especially re updating climate change policies - and also of particular interest to me was a motion passing wide-ranging proposals to restore the strength of Parliament and return the Prime Minister's role to its historical position of primus inter pares (first among equals). The Prime Minister, whose new status would be indicated by a change of name to First Minister, would be elected by a committee with representation from all parties in Parliament. The same system would appoint the Cabinet and exercise key Royal Prerogative powers such as the ability to declare war. This new 'Public Administration and Government' policy pulls together and extends other policies to also hand more power from central government to local authorities, increase the use of directly democratic mechanisms such as referenda, create an elected second chamber to replace the House of Lords.

Dr Derek Wall, Principal Speaker of the Green Party, commented: “We need to restore faith in the democratic system, and to do that we need to break the Presidential stranglehold recent Prime Minister's have acquired over Parliament. These policies are about moving from a top-down approach to a bottom-up one, where democracy is paramount and no vote is wasted.”