UKIP

A recent breakthrough illustrates how forming political alliances could be a path to power for progressive forces in the UK.

What is the real choice UK voters are being called upon to make on June 23rd?

Back in January 2013, David Cameron promised the British people a referendum on the European Union on the condition that the Conservatives would win the next election. What was once a fleeting promise has now become a reality and British voters have a choice to make – Brexit or Bremain?

Almost three months after the 2015 General Election, a feeling of disbelief at the Conservative majority result remains afresh in the UK. The results, which were a far cry from the outcome predicted by the polls in the run-up to the vote, have given rise to a heated debate about the system of voting in the UK, and calls for a more proportional system, though this transition remains an uphill struggle.

Despite the lack of a proportional electoral system, Britain is now a multi-party country, with the Greens becoming a powerful force. Yet the major media organisations are planning to exclude the Green Party of England and Wales from next year’s televised election debates for the General Election. It’s a dangerous situation for democracy in the UK, with over a million Green voters marginalised…

With hard-right parties on the rise across Europe, Greens can learn from this recent surge in ‘populism’ by developing a positive and inclusive conception of the term. A Grand Narrative about a ‘Europe of hearts’ can speak to people directly and produce a different kind of patriotism to that of the nationalists: Europatriotism.

‘Neither left nor right, but forward’ has been a semi-official motto of many Green Parties across Europe since their inception in the 1960s and ‘70s. But as the Green Party of England & Wales’ (GPEW) Autumn Conference drew to a close this weekend, the party appears to be maintaining or indeed continuing its leftward drive. The implications could be interesting both for Britain and for Green Parties elsewhere.

There is a certain amount of naivety surrounding the question of democracy. We have arrived at a situation in which a large proportion of the public has turned against democratic institutions, or at least withdrawn from any engagement in them. And therefore it might look as though the public has become apathetic towards the big political issues of our time. But is this really the case?

The UK media’s treatment of UKIP in the recent local and European elections gave the party ample space to air its anti-immigrant rhetoric and flawed solutions to the political malaise of many citizens, with the Greens’ victory marginalised and treated in terms of the larger parties’ decline rather than the rise of a genuine alternative in British politics.

Cameron’s proposal for an in/out referendum on EU membership is likely to cause uncertainty and confusion for years to come, but what impact will it have on Scotland’s independence referendum? Scottish Greens co-convenor Patrick Harvie discusses the consequences.