Edward Milford -Elections Co-ordinator

 

1. What impact do you think the Green Party’s eco-socialist
policies have had on the party’s growth and how can that be sustained?

 

As I understand the terms, Green Party policies, at heart, can be described as eco-socialist. Sustainability is a much misused word, but the concept should have real teeth; it means doing much more with less, but also that whatever we do we must ensure it is for the benefit of all.

 

2.      The recent Tory by-election defeats suggest the electorate are
making their own decisions on strategic voting. How can the Green
Party intervene to turn that to its advantage?

 

It’s unlikely that there will be any form of national electoral pact; however, we have seen many examples (particularly in Herefordshire where I live) of how effective informal understandings about who fights where can be – here, they allowed us to take control of the Council from the Tories. Some of our strategy for the next General Election should build on this.

3.      What would be your priorities for campaigns outside election
periods that would raise our profile in communities, engage our
members and attract new ones? How could that be financed?

 

As elections coordinator, my focus would be on elections as there are some every year. It would be for others on GPEx to take forward wider campaigns.

4.      How can the Party improve the way it communicates its policies to the BAME and white working class?

 

Effective campaigning is about getting messages across in ways that people are receptive to. We have seen recent Green Party successes in areas both with plenty of diversity, and in traditionally working class areas, as well as the more affluent places where we got some early success. We need to learn from and continue this; people want a councillor who understands their concerns and represents them wherever they live.

5.      Should the Green Party review its policy on NATO in the lightof the current conflict in Ukraine and what would be your approach?

 

Our longer-term goals of eliminating nuclear weapons and disbanding military alliances are still the right ones. How we also deter dictators in the short term is a difficult issue. I’m not up to date on debates about how to combine these two objectives and would need to hear a lot more to reach a firm view.

 

6.      The 24 hours news cycle means that contributions from our
spokespeople have to be rapid if they are to be given media space. Howcan we manage that whilst maintaining democratic accountability?

 

Democratic accountability can only be retrospective for spokespeople responding to events. We can expect them to interpret and promote the policies agreed by the party through Conference or other agreed mechanisms. If they fail to do this, there should be some way to intervene to ensure our messages do get across.

7.      Given that some Government policies such as privatisation and reducing rights are a thread crossing different sectors how can
spokespeople cooperate on our overall messaging to ensure this is
addressed?

 

I’ve no particular knowledge of the exact ways in which spokespeople cooperate to be able to form an opinion at this stage.

 

The general point though is an important one, to stress that there is a clear, oppressive Government agenda across many different areas that needs to be robustly challenged. As Greens, I think we have the strongest counter-narrative of any of the parties and I would like to see us stress this. Our policies in areas such as housing, public services, health etc as well as the economy, based on truly sustainable principles, are much more coherent than much of the opportunistic and ad hoc posturing or other parties.

8.      How would you raise the international relevance and profile of the GPEW?

 

As elections coordinator with a focus on elections I’d hope that success would gain us some international attention, but mainly this work falls to others on GPEx and in the Party.

9.      The Green Party has recently encountered difficulties in
maintaining a respectful and comradely debate on issues where there has been sharp disagreement. What would be your approach to improving the atmosphere in which these debates take place?

 

It's easier to talk about general observations rather than the mechanics of how particular things are done at this stage.

 

First, with a raging climate and ecological emergency, it is important to try and coalesce around the things that unite us as much as possible.

Second, all political parties have to be a ‘broad church’ and appeal to as wide an audience as possible.

 

Third, political parties should affiliate to campaigns that match their platforms, but not seek to adopt or dominate them as longer-term campaigning on specific issues and campaigning for political office are different.

 

Finally, with a Government destroying everything around it that matters to most people, all our attacks should be on our political enemies rather than in-fighting amongst people with whom we are in broad (but not total) agreement.

10.   How can we ensure a level playing field in internal elections
when some candidates have the advantage of access to a national
platform and networks?

 

I don’t have sufficient knowledge to comment on this. I don’t have a sense of the playing field being unfair but that might be my somewhat provincial perspective!