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NI Green Politics

Published 18th November 2009 - 7 comments - 1148 views -

I think it’s fair to say that green politics don’t feature strongly in Northern Ireland’s political culture. Due to the history of the Troubles, the main divide in NI politics is the nationalist-unionist one, and this showed in the articles Stephen Spillane, Frank Schittger and myself wrote about NI in the lead up to the European elections in June (Northern Ireland is a single constituency for the European Parliament under UK law).

But in the European elections, the Green candidate, Steven Agnew did better than ever, with 15,674 votes (I had a small email interview with him at the time of the election). Still a small number, though the numbers are going in the right direction. In the regional Assembly, the Greens have 1 MLA (Member of the legislative Assembly), Brian Wilson, in opposition. This is their first Assembly seat, and it’s one the Greens have high hopes of retaining in the next regional election – and hopes of perhaps even winning a second.

I went along to a meeting of student greens at my university to see how active green politics are at a student and local level.

 

 

Green Society QUB

Some of the Student Greens at QUB, with co-chairs Lois and Mark on the right

 

Political societies, like most societies in my university, tend not to be very mission-driven, and fall back to being purely social clubs, so it was great to see that the Green Society was quite active in its approach. The society is involved in several campaigns, both on green issues and on other issues, but what particularly stood out for me was how the society was both outward-looking as well as focused on more local issues. One of the more student-related issues was the creation of an environment-focussed committee in the Student Parliament, and a push with the executive of the Student’s Union building to make the Student’s Union building greener. The society also had links with the Green parties in the Republic of Ireland and in Britain, with delegations to party meetings in Ireland, and links with the MEP Caroline Lucas’ campaign for a seat in Westminster in the May general election.

The wider links (again reflected in the pan-European Green stance taken during the European elections) especially appealed to me, but the Green Party in Northern Ireland has quite a mountain to climb in terms of growth: the other party in NI not situated along one side of the nationalist-unionist divide (the Alliance Party) has failed to turn itself into a major political force, despite being the largest opposition party in NI (the top 4 are in a consociational coalition). However, the Green Party may have the potential for a broader appeal given the prominence of the climate change issue. “Being Green” is seen as a somewhat important value in NI now – this was especially apparent when the current finance minister Sammy Wilson caused controversy over his anti-climate change views while he held the environmental portfolio.

Can the Greens build on the acceptance of the dangers of climate change to increase awareness and make more of a political impact? I hope so.

Category: Climate Politics, | Tags: students, green party, northern ireland, green politics,



Comments

Adela on 23rd November 2009:

I hope so, too.

We had presidential elections here yesterday, too and I also voted for the green representative who took 0.62 % of the total votes.

Which is not good, but it’s better than nothing.

Conor Slowey on 24th November 2009:

Yes, I heard it was going to a run-off. Did the green candidate get much media attention? Was there a presidential debate on TV?

Adela on 24th November 2009:

Little media attention, no billboards, most of his campaign was online, especially through Facebook & Twitter. Most of his votes came from the young generation.

There was a presidential debate one day before elections, but only the representatives of the three main parties took part.

I have no idea whether there were others before.

Conor Slowey on 24th November 2009:

Pity, though I suppose it’d be hard to host a Presidential debate with more than 3 candidates…

Hopefully it went some way to raising awareness among the young and internet-saavy, and they’ll pass it on, if nothing else.

There is rarely much time on the TV for the Greens - perhaps even the TUV (a new, hardline unionist party without a single MLA yet) has been able to find its way onto TV more easily since it fits into the whole nationalist-unionist divide. Still, Steve Agnew did well in representing the Greens at the European elections (the same could be said for the Alliance party candidate, except he switch parties shortly afterwards).

Paul Montariol on 05th December 2009:

The ecological question is full with contradiction. It is very difficult to link political clouts in this direction. One would need a very strong event at the good moment so that occurs.

Conor Slowey on 09th December 2009:

It is a hard political movement to build up successfully, since it’s based on long term objectives and issues that, while they do have tangible effects on the world around us, are still relatively intangible to citizens in day-to-day life.

There’s also the tension between idealists and pragmatists in the Green movement (though this is true of all political parties, I think it’s more true of Green political parties). Perhaps ever more pragmatism would help political success, though would this come at the expense of the attraction of the movement and it’s ability to motivate personal action?

Paul Montariol on 09th December 2009:

If we look at the facts at the historical level: 1989 it is the end of the policy of nuclear terror; 2009 it is the beginning of an ecological policy.
In fact the change is very fast!

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