Quotes

What our supporters are saying:

Campaigners and Commentators

Green Councillors for Genuine Leadership

Speakers and Chairs Against a Single Leader

New Members Don't Want a Party Leader

A Thousand Years of Green Party Experience

What others have said

More quotes:

James Caspell, Young Greens Newsletter Co-editor, Co-founder and former Male Co-chair LSESU Green Party:
"Our attraction, particularly to young people, is that we are a democratic, bottom-up party that responds to the concerns of ordinary members rather than pandering to the celebrity of "leaders" as other parties do. The proposal that we have formal leaders moves us away from the society we wish to see and dilutes our values to mirror that of the political culture we wish to change. I am sure many other Young Greens will oppose this proposal in its entirety."

Lynda Pickersgill, Calderdale Green Party:
"I agree in equality, as power so often tends to corrupt. Therefore we want a fully integrated interactive membership, that includes an equal share for all members for policy-making and strives to make all members feel valued. I do not want one great leader, I want dozens!"

David Barnsdale, Kingston-upon-Thames Green Party:
"If people think that all they have to do is vote in a Green Government and leave them to do it all for us then we will fail because a Green society involves all of us changing the way we live. Having no leader is the ideal way to make that clear from the start."

Sue Miles, Oxfordshire, former International Coordinator:
"The findings of the Power Inquiry suggest that there is great support for Green Party ideas of democracy."

N Ben Foley, Luton and Bedfordshire Green Party:
Nothing can destroy a party's chances quite like a single leader that the media expect to lead the party in the direction they see fit. Ours is a democratic party that should be showing our spokespeople which way to go, not the other way round. Genuine leadership is persuading because you have the better arguments, not because people are afraid of the headlines if they don't kow-tow.

Jenny Linsdell, Mendip Somerset Green Party:
"I wish to add my name to this petition. I might be getting on in years and have been a Green Party member for 27 years but that does not mean I am 'living in the past'. I just happen to agree with the Party's Philosophical basis on this point. Also from observation and experience very few leaders really empower people, the opposite most often happens, and those that do empower have a way of leading that is not what our present media or political system means by it."

Julian Prior, Swindon Green Party:
"The Green Party is one of only two political parties in the UK without a single, formal leader and this is one of the main reasons I was attracted to it in the first place. Real democracy and real social and environmental change requires the majority of us to work together to take control of our lives and communities, not to put our faith in leaders to do everything for us. The lack of a single leader makes us distinct and attractive to those who are critical of the mainstream parties."

Nick Foster, Reading Green Party:
"One of the reasons I was attracted to the Green Party was the fact that it didn’t have a leader. I have never heard anyone on the doorstep bring up the lack of an official leader to be a reason not to vote Green! This is a managerial solution, when in fact we need political solutions!"

Susan Murray, Green World Editorial Board:
"People should stop distracting the party from the business of fighting elections."

Tim Dawes, South East Hampshire Branch Coordinator:
I whole-heartedly support the current position. It has served us well. Those that see the current leadership structure as the root of our failure to break through decisively are fooling themselves and damaging the party.

Joan Thwaites, Herefordshire Membership Secretary and prospective
District Councillor:
"We have enough to get on with without this hoary old item coming up again. If you want to know why we don't want/need leaders just look at the present lot. A Party is only as strong as the weakest link in its leader."

Keith Rapley, Lewes District Green Party:
"Can we pass a motion preventing any further time-wasting and distracting leadership motions for the next five years?"

Daniel Viesnik, Brent Green Party:
"There are already too many clone parties in UK politics. One of the strengths of the Green Party lies in its courage to be different and determination not to sell itself out on its principles and ideals. I do not go along with the notion that strong leadership and direction require a designated leader."

Ingo Wagenknecht
"A leader will negate our most fundamental policy on the decentralisation of power, for the mere figment of imagination, the self perpetuating pull of power. I sincerely hope that our members will choose to keep the small in ‘small is beautiful’, because sustainability is not measured in grey political spin and media innuendo, but in developing sharing of resources and in localization of decision making."

Jonathan Essex, Surrey Green Party
"Adopting the mantra of the mainstream, concentrating the focus onto a single individual, will make it harder for the wider message to shine through the greenwash that floods the mainstream, and paints over policies with personality traits."

Matt Hodgkinson, Local Party Contact, Brent Green Party
"The push to have a 'leader' seems to stem not from democratic or philosophical principles, but rather from perceived confusion among the media over the roles of Principal Speaker, and also from being seduced by personality politics. Having a single leader would be an unnecessary concentration of power, when what the Green Party and society in general needs is a plurality of voices and decision-makers."

Aled Dilwyn Fisher, Prospective GLA NE Constituency Candidate, LSE SU Green Party Male Co-Chair, Young Greens National Committee:
"Personality politics is a gamble based not on the real personal qualities of leaders, but on their created PR personas. Green politics is about radical social change and cannot be contingent on PR skills and the vagaries of the media. The media will be able to focus on one personality, create sensationalist caricatures and then attack the whole party on that basis.

Leaders will not make this party successful - concerted grassroots activism in defence of those who face social and ecological injustice will. Our principles of grassroots, decentralised, participatory democracy are appealing to an increasinly disenfranchised and ignored public. That is where we will recruit activists, members and voters."

Graham Wroe, Chair, Secretary, Press Officer and Website Manager, Sheffield Green Party:
"What makes the Green Party different from the Grey Parties is that it really is democratic. People at the grass roots really can influence policy.We must not allow ourselves to fall into the trap of relying on a single leader to solve all our problems. It simply wont work."

Dawn Biram, Sheffield Green Party:
"One of the reasons I joined the Green Party is because I was so impressed by having two principal speakers and by the way that policy is formed. The green party is not short of leadership and we avoid all the problems that the focus on one personality creates."

Charley Allan, Haringey Green Party:
"I joined the Green Party because I was fed up with the lack of democracy in the Labour Party. If the Green Party elects a leader then that will be a democratic step backwards and I'm sure that the party will suffer as a result."

Tom Slingsby, Brighton Green Party:
"The notion that the Greens need a single leader to get good media coverage is a chimera. I joined the Greens because they put principles of environmentalism and participatory democracy in the spotlight, not the tiresome circus of personality-based politics we see from mainstream politicians."

John Spottiswoode, fmr GPRC Co-chair, GPEx (twice), Parliamentary Candidate (3 times), Coordinator SW Hants GP:
"Following a leader is dangerous in itself for many reasons and is a potential cause of strife, particularly if the 'leader' is not consensual and tries to lead in the wrong direction. It is a myth that we need to have a 'leader' to be fully effective."

Richard Wyatt, Lancaster & District Green Party:
"I feel this is a real Clause IV moment for the Green Party. I really don't want to see the Green Party move in the same direction as the Labour Party. We have seen it in both Germany and in Ireland and we certainly do not want it here."

Bill Shaw, fmr Parliamentary Candidate, York:
"Our Party should not follow the leadership holy grail. Its a millstone which we do not need. Look at the mess other party leaders get their parties in when they make up policy in speeches and on TV. No leaders thanks, I am a Green."

Dr Chris Busby, National Speaker on Science & Technology, fmr Wales GPRC Rep:
"I am against a leader for two main reasons. First, real leaders (eg Gandhi, Martin Luther King) cannot be "elected": they appear. Second, the existence of a leader in the Green Party makes black ops very easy: the party can be discredited through its leader. I believe the strength of the Green Party lies in its complexity and diversity and chaotic energy."

Andy D'Agorne, York Councillor:
"Haggling over who is the leader is what our opponents want to neutralise our impact. The 'leadership debate' is the equivalent of squabbling who is in charge as the Titanic sinks beneath the waves."

Arif Naqvi, Merton Green Party:
"I'm so impressed with what the Green Party has achieved in terms of having participatory structures as well as intelligent policies and clear directions distinct from other parties, and I would be saddened to see it getting split into leadership factions and discussing personality issues."

Chris Ballance, fmr Member of the Scottish Parliament:
In Scotland we have male and female Convenors of Council - whose job it is to chair Party Council meetings and who are key media figures. Their job is to reflect party opinion to the press - not to lead it. That, for me, is part of the new politics which Greens promote: a Party which is led by its members.

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What others have said:

George Monbiot, published in Green World 35:
"I think much of the Green Party's refreshing distinctiveness rests on the absence of a single leader. It's one of the only parties which really looks like a party, rather than simply an apparatus of power designed to sustain those at the top. It's essential that we have alternatives to the increasingly monarchical style of Blair, Bush and the other G8 leaders and to the appalling whipping system which dominates almost all forms of party politics in Britain, crushing dissent, free speech and genuine representation. Partly because of the absence of a single charismatic leader, the party has the potential to remain much closer to the voters. How this plays in terms of realpolitik is another matter, but I believe the Green Party is respected for its integrity and idealism, and is trusted as a genuine alternative to the others."

Tony Benn at the Glastonbury Festival 2007:
"All change comes from the bottom up. If you want to look at the future, come here to Glastonbury. If you want to look at the past, visit the House of Commons."

Nelson Mandela:
"It's not the Kings and Generals that make history, but the masses of
the people."

Manu Chao at 2001 G8 Summit in Genoa:
"We need 1,000 leaders, everybody's got to be a leader - there's nothing so corrupt as being a leader."

Noam Chomsky:
"The most effective way to restrict democracy is to transfer decision-making from the public arena to unaccountable institutions: kings and princes, priestly castes, military juntas, party dictatorships, or modern corporations."

Albert Einstein:
" The cult of individual personalities is always, in my view, unjustified. To be sure, nature distributes her gifts variously among her children. But there are plenty of the well-endowed ones too, thank God, and I am firmly convinced that most of them live quiet, unregarded lives."

Ghandi:
"We must become the change we want to see."