The Origins of the UK Green Party
The UK Ecology Party, Europe’s First Green Political Party 1973-1989
Nov 4, 2008
Today, Green Parties are found in countries all over the world. It is hard to think that they have existed for less than 40 years, emerging from the era immediately after the decade of change that was the 1960s, emanating in part from that period's counter-culture.
Playboy Magazine: The Ironic Origins of the Green Party
The Green Party in the UK owes its origin to a discussion group called ‘The Thirteen Club’ which a Warwickshire solicitor called Tony Whittaker. He had been prompted to establish the Thirteen Club following his reading of an article in ‘Playboy’ magazine on population by the academic Paul Ehrlich. Some members of the Group decided to take matters further through political action and four of them decided to advertise for candidates at the then forthcoming UK general election. A meeting was held in February 1973 with over 50 people attending and ‘People’ (not ‘People Party’ as is sometimes stated) was born.
'People': The First European Green Party
People was the second environmentally-based or green political party in the world (the first was the New Zealand ‘Values Party’) and the first in Europe and the Northern hemisphere. Its early years did not indicate the success it has become under the name the Green Party with election success at both parish and and local elections, and with members of the London Assembly and the European Parliament.
In the February 1974 UK general election, People fielded six candidates ((Coventry NE, Coventry NW, Eye, Leeds NE, Liverpool West Derby and Reigate) and in the October 1974 general election it fielded four (Birmingham Northfield, Coventry NW, Leeds East and Reigate). It gained a handful of votes and few people took much notice.
The Ecology Party's Early Success
In 1979, the year of Margaret Thatcher’s coming to power, the Ecology Party (as it was by then) decided to field 50 candidates. Its rationale for doing this was that, in the UK, should a political party field 50 candidates, it receives a free party political broadcast which is transmitted over the terrestrial television channels as well as a free radio broadcast. These act like a major piece of free advertising and the Ecology Party membership expanded ten-fold from 500 to 5,000 as a result.
The UK 1979 general election was a success in terms of membership growth, but the party failed to make any real inroads to the British party system, winning only 1.5% of the votes in the seats it fought. The Green Party’s next foray into electoral politics was the County Council elections of 1981 where more than 300 candidates were put forward and, although the party’s one councillor was re-elected, no major breakthrough was made.
The Green Party: From the Wilderness to Electoral Success
The 1983 general election saw 108 Green candidates (winning only 1% of the vote in the seats fought) and 1987 saw 133 Green candidates win 1.4% of the available vote. It took the European elections of 1989, bolstered by an intervention in international environmental politics by UK Prime Minister at the United Nations where she warned of the threat to the world posed by environmental change and environmental degradation, to pitch the Green Party firmly onto the British political stage. The Green Party fought 79 seats (almost all that could be fought) and achieved 14.9% of the vote, resulting in the best performance of any European Green Party at any election.
What Future for the UK Green Party?
Since 1989, the Green Party’s vote has declined, but has remained much higher than in its early years, and changes to the relevant electoral system have resulted in the party winning seats at Regional and European levels. Success in the UK Parliament which meets in the Palace of Westminster remains some way off and is likely to depend on similar changes to the system of electing MPs to the House of Commons.
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