The Greens are right to sense a big opportunity with a significant minority of voters
Greenery is on the agenda, all right – but for the wrong reasons. The reshuffle-cum-relaunch of the government is preceded by murmurs about how there might after all need to be a third runway at Heathrow, and perhaps also a builders' charter to bulldoze Britain's way out of recession. The days when the Cameronite pitch was Vote Blue, Go Green are forgotten. Over the past year, the prime minister has downgraded a big green speech to a few brief remarks, while his chancellor has roused the Conservative conference to cheer by vowing to take on those who would "save the planet by putting our country out of business".
Like Labour and the Liberal Democrats – who, to lesser extents, have also toned down their environmental emphasis – David Cameron and George Osborne have simply concluded that the financial struggle to muddle through the here and now renders the distant future of the planet an intolerably lofty concern. The focus groups tell them as much. They may be right, too, for a good swath of the electorate. But as the Green party elected the campaigner (and former Guardian journalist) Natalie Bennett as its leader on Monday, it is nonetheless looking forward to its conference later this week in remarkably good spirit.
For if the ideological climate is not propitious for environmentalism just now, the political environment could hardly be more opportune for a party of radical protest. The cuts bite ever harder. Ed Miliband may have tacked Labour slightly leftward, but retains a necessary focus on the centrist swing voters that he will need if it is ever to win a majority. The Lib Dems – who provided an anti-establishment home for so many malcontents after Iraq – now have hands that are sullied by the coalition austerity programme, which is one reason why the Green party's Jenny Jones was able to pip Brian Paddick to third place in London's mayoral election. With the very partial exception of George Galloway's Respect, no one is making the full-throated anti-austerity case that the Dutch socialists, Syriza in Greece and others are successfully voicing across Europe. The Greens come from a different, more middle-class tradition, but, having established leftish credentials under outgoing leader Caroline Lucas, they are right to sense a big opportunity with a significant minority of voters. Ms Bennett's words on Monday about safeguarding decent social security ought to be utterly unremarkable; the fact that no other party leader would utter them without simultaneously invoking bogeymen fraudsters emphasises the space that is there to fill.
The big question, as often in leftish politics, is whether the party will be ruthless enough to seize the chance – or whether it will instead prove more interested in being preachy than practical. Ms Bennett's elevation is an encouraging sign, in that she displayed more awareness of the need for shrewd tactics and strategy than idealistic rivals such as Romayne Phoenix. She did well to beat the better-known Peter Cranie, in a result that demonstrates that Green activists study the literature and detailed policies as opposed to going with a name. That is of course a strength, but it is one that can turn into a vulnerability if it leads to the sort of insularity that once saw old Labour indulge in fierce arguments over detailed party positions that allowed for no compromise with the electorate. The Greens have often been too pure for practical politics in the past, refusing to acknowledge even the need for a leader before Ms Lucas.
But with Ms Lucas remaining as the chief public face, and Ms Bennett picking up the operational reins, there could be an opportunity to broaden the appeal – to follow the example of those Kirklees councillors who have sold energy efficiency to cash-strapped voters who may have little interest in climate change, but are mightily interested in lower fuel bills. However it is sold, many voters will continue to regard the Greens' radical economics as pie in the sky; but many others could become interested if the party can only relate it to the bread and butter of life.
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