Quotes From Campaigners and Commentators

Ron Bailey, Parliamentary and community campaigner:
"The 'leader' issue is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the difference between people taking initiative and having 'a leader'. It is both inevitable and inherently healthy that people take initiative (and so give a lead) whenever they feel able: that is good Green politics and we should encourage and enable it as much as possible. But the concept of 'a leader' is the very opposite of this: it is about institutionalising the philosophy on which our current destructive and centralist society is based - leave it to 'the leader'. However 'answerable' we make that leader by appointing such a person we continue the mystique that it's OK to leave it to our (so-called) 'betters'. That is the very antithesis of Green politics and is the very concept that has got our world into the mess it is in. Having 'a leader' may (possibly!) at best get a few short term gains - but it won't lead to a Green society."

Donnachadh McCarthy, Environmental journalist, author, and former Deputy Chair of the Liberal Democrats:
"Over 600,000 people have died in Iraq because the Labour party has a unified leadership system that allowed their leader, almost single handedly to drag the UK into an illegal war. My experience as Deputy Chair of the Liberal Democrats was that a single leadership allows big business to bypass the democratic structures of the party, thus no matter who we vote for, they are always in power. The Greens alone currently have a leadership system that prevents this. It is crucial they retain it for the sake of the wider body politic."
Donnachadh's website   Resignation from Lib Dems

Peter Shield, Editor of Natural Choices:
"The Green Party stands out as living proof that another, more inclusive, form of politics can and should exist. Why does it need a leader who represents only one part of its broad range of opinions? The present system has shown that it is possible to have a range of points of view pulling together to great effect. At a time when the Party is showing major advances at the ballot box why change the only true democratic party in the country and follow the traditional parties in their head long quest to turn politics into personalities, parties into mindless cheerleaders, and party conferences into media jamborees?"
Read article: Will a leader fix the Green’s problems

Nick Hildyard, former Co-editor of The Ecologist:
"The challenge for the future is not to replicate existing politics but to build a new approach to decision-making - one that diffuses power rather than concentrates it."