The Green Party candidate for Reading West, Adrian Windisch, believes he and other candidates from his party can more independently champion local causes than their rivals. He said: “ There is no party whip at the Green Party, so individual members are freer to campaign on issues that are important to them.”
Cynics may suggest that the Green Party lack a 'party whip', a system of controlling how their members vote in parliament, because they do not have any MP's. Windisch believes that the independence of the Green Party is more fundamental however, and said: “You can go against party policy; an example of this is Chris Goodall, candidate for Oxford West and Abingdon. As a party we are against Nuclear Power but he has decided personally to support it, he was not disciplined by the party leaders or advised against it.”
Without clear party lines it could be difficult to identity what a party stands for but Mr Windisch believes the Green Party focus is clear, “Our my message is fairness”.
This may sound familiar to even casual election observers, as fairness seems to be all the main parties' favourite word. “All the parties are talking about fairness now but we began that campaign with our ‘fair is worth fighting for’ slogan which we launched first” he said.
Influencing the mainstream parties is one of the principle purposes of the Green Party according to Windisch and one they have had success at in the past.
“Although it is unlikely I do think I can win this election. Even if I do not the campaigning I have done during this time may encourage people to vote for the Green Party in other elections" he said. "As a Party we have also pushed a green agenda onto the other parties. It is similar to when the BNP gain support the other parties move slightly to the right on issues like immigration. We can be a positive pressure group on the political system.”
Although he remains hopeful his chances of victory on May 6th are pretty slim. The Green Party has stood in both the Reading East and Reading West seats at the last two elections and both times they have polled less then the five per cent of votes required to keep their £500 deposits. “Not just in these constituencies but right across the country, for a Green Party candidate to keep their deposit is an achievement" he says. "We have a very small budget compared to the larger parties and can not compete with their level of exposure”.
Despite their small electoral chances, the Green party are fielding over 300 candidates at this election. They are hoping to achieve their very first MP with their party leader Caroline Lucas ahead in the polls in the Brighton Pavilion constituency. Despite this degree of success they are still expecting to lose a majority of their deposits and I asked Windisch if he thought the party should concerntrate on seat they could compete in.
“We have a more organic way of selecting candidates then other political parties", he says. "We ask local members if they want to stand and if people want to we will support them. We do not target specific seat necessarily."
Windisch believes this leads to a more representative and democratic party. He is very proud of the fact that four party members can raise a vote on party policy and believes Lucas is a match for any of the main party leaders. “The television debates are typical of the way the Green Party is sidelined from the main debate, I personally have been excluded from 3 hustings meetings in this campaign", he said. "Caroline Lucas is an inspirational speaker and would have wiped the floor with the other three if she had shared that platform”.
When asked to choose between one of the three main parties, he suggested that the Liberal Democrats were "a bit better". As for the Reading West constituency he had some surprising words of praise for his Conservative rival, Alok Sharma. "Alok has impressed me as a candidate I admire him because he is open and honest", he said. "I totally disagree with his policies but I think he is more genuine than the other candidates.”
It is hard to think of one of the main three parties endorsing a rival candidate in such a manner, perhaps this is the sort of new politics often mentioned by politicians. Maybe this is the kind of positive pressure Adrian Windisch thinks the Green Party can have on UK politics, with or without any MPs.
