For those of us who have been officers of Local Parties, Associated Organisations or any of the other myriad bodies across the Party who hold elections, this is the time of year when things change, and the cycle of persuading people to hold the positions that keep the show on the road begins anew.
But as someone who hasn’t been perhaps as active as in years past, I can now be a bit more relaxed. People don’t necessarily ask me to be things, they ask me to run their elections instead. And that reminds me that the Party relies on a cadre of people who are often filling a variety of roles alongside holding public office, careers, caring responsibilities, other voluntary roles, you name it, they do it. We often don’t value our volunteers sufficiently and, as a result, lose valuable skills and experience.
In a world where political parties are more regulated than ever before, having serious people holding critical roles is more important than ever before because, whilst getting people elected is at the core of a political party’s purpose, somebody has to keep the organisational, financial and campaigning show that supports that on the road.
That’s not the Green Party I remember…
In itself, the decision by Green Party members to endorse the idea that Zionism is racism probably wouldn’t make much of an impression on the British electorate. If you asked most people to define Zionism, they’d probably associate it with Judaism but not be able to explain why or what the difference is.