Thoughts on Green Party Conference

I spent last weekend at Green Party conference in Liverpool. Every conference is different, and this time I was manning a stall for some of the time. This was on behalf of the new group within the party that is provisionally called Christian Greens (all welcome). Basically, a few weeks ago, a few of us got in contact by e-mail to talk about the idea of finally getting a Christian group together within the party. After a bit of organising, we found out about the process, booked a stall, created our own introductory leaflet, and begged various Christian groups for some other material to put on there. Despite being hidden away from the main atrium, we expanded our list to over 40. We also had an initial meeting of – I think – 18 people, from a range of different traditions (they included Anglican, Catholic, Orthodox, URC, Evangelical, Liberal, Charismatic, and Post-Evangelical). The group will be officially set up, open to all Green Party members, once we’ve sorted out a formal constitution. The group even got a brief mention in The Guardian sketch column.

There was, of course, far more to conference. Catching up with party members from around the country and meeting ones I’ve not met before, the usual round of voting on policy and organisational motions, training events (including a very useful one on winning over UKIP voters), and also a few speeches (the Shahrar Ali’s speech was particularly good – though I sadly missed leader Natalie Bennett’s).

From what I’ve seen of the media coverage, there are two things that stand out. Firstly, the Daily Mirror had a piece comparing the Green and UKIP conferences in graph form. Secondly a Guardian journalist comments on the atmosphere of conference – which really sums up the mood. We are a party that is enthusiastic and energised, with the #GreenSurge playing a large part in that feeling. Unless things go very badly in May, that’s going to continue to be the case for quite some time.

Finally, in the main hall there were artists taking “visual minutes” of the proceedings. Here are some photos of them.

visual-minutes-1 visual-minutes-2 visual-minutes-3