Rolling coverage of the Green party’s spring conference in Liverpool, including Natalie Bennett’s party leader speech 4.18pm GMT Caroline Lucas wraps up the session with a quote: “We are the people that we are waiting for,” she says. 4.18pm GMT Q: Does the Green party need tighter links with other Green parties in the world?Molly Scott Cato says there is a green links organisation already encouraging these connections. 3.56pm GMT Q: [To Kostas Loukeris, a senior member of the Greek Green party] What can we in the UK do to help you? And how can we avoid the rise of fascism, given what has happened with Golden Dawn in Greece?Kostas Loukeris is speaking from Greece by Skype. 3.44pm GMT The panel discussion on Syriza is underway. I’ve missed the opening statements, but we’re on to the Q&A now.Caroline Lucas starts by inviting a contribution from a UK representative of Podemos, the leftwing anti-austerity in Spain which has been attacting huge support since it launched last year. 3.40pm GMT Here’s one Green member explaining why Natalie Bennett is so popular.There's a lot of love for @natalieben at #gpconf. Standing ovation for walking in! We know she was pivotal in creating the #greensurge 3.38pm GMT James Dennison, a political scientist, has posted this graph on Twitter.It suggests that, for Green supporters, having coherent policies matters less than it does for the supporters of most other parties.A good #gpconf is a policy-light #gpconf. GP voters just want a vision of society (thx to @philipjcowley) pic.twitter.com/1UNd5tFPsM 3.29pm GMT ComRes has published the findings of a poll it has carried out for ITV looking at public perceptions of the Greens, the Lib Dems and Ukip.On the plus side, the Greens are seen as the most idealistic and most honest of those three parties. 3.09pm GMT Well, the members who are here certainly like Natalie Bennett. It was not exactly a speech that achieved “an explosion of excitement without raising unrealistic expectations” (see 9.16am), and at times it was rambling and unfocused, but Bennett did seem to get a genuinely enthusiastic reception. Perhaps there’s an element of showing solidarity with someone who’s had a tough time in the media recently (the sympathy clap), but there does seem to be an authentic buzz here too; people keep talking about how much larger this is than previous Green party conferences. Bennett had some good lines about the Greens being the agents of change, or a potential “peaceful political revolution”, but what was most interesting was her policy announcement on social care. Green support comes disproportionately from the young, but today Bennett announced a policy likely to appeal most to the middle aged and the elderly. Put simply, the Greens are going after the Telegraph vote. I’m not sure how well this will work, but it is an interesting act of re-positioning.Here are the main lines from the speech.Free healthcare is the very cornerstone of our NHS. Whether you are rich or poor you have the right to the best that is available.That’s something the Green party will restore – and extend. For that same principle should apply to social care – the support and services that you need to lead a fulfilling life should be available when you need it, free at the point of use. 2.45pm GMT Bennett says some people want business as usual politics to continue. They will vote for the politics of yesterday.But if we all vote Green, we can change Britain for good. 2.43pm GMT Bennett it is impossible to overstate the importance of people who can vote making their voice heard.The deadline for voter registration is 20 April. But don’t wait, she says; register today. 2.42pm GMT Bennett says the manifesto will include free social care as a core pledge.Social care is not a privilege; it is a right. 2.41pm GMT Bennett says the same principle that applies to health care should apply to social care. It should be free at the point of use.We believe that to be a decent, humane, caring society, social care must be free. 2.40pm GMT Bennett says she is glad the Greens are working on an NHS reinstatement bill to remove the market mechanism from the NHS. 2.39pm GMT Bennett says the ideology of Thatcher and her successor, Blair, Brown and Cameron, has failed.The market is short-sighted and short-term. it is blind, it is senseless. It works for the 1%; it fails the rest of us.‘All in it together’? I don’t think so. 2.36pm GMT Bennett says things cannot carry on as they are.Since 2000 food prices have risen 22%. But wages have fallen 7%.But individual charity is no substitute for collective justice. 2.34pm GMT Bennett says Caroline Lucas “put her freedom on the line” to oppose fracking.She shows “passion, sensitivity and courage”. 2.32pm GMT Bennett says the Greens approach the election as a central player in British politics.But it isn’t just the Green party. Campaigns for a new politics are getting stronger. Look at the people’s assemblies, the Occupy movement, anti-fracking campaigns and fossil fuel divestment campaigns.At last the people are fighting back. 2.31pm GMT Bennett says the green surge is much more than a hashtag, although it is a very successful hashtag.She has seen the party expand all over the country. And the Greens got their first MEP in the south west, Molly Scott Cato. 2.30pm GMT Bennett says no one should be living in fear of not being able to feed their families, in fear of debt, worried about fracking drilling into their communities or at risk of being driven to destitution by Iain Duncan Smith.That is the failed politics. The Green party is offering a politics that works for the many. 2.28pm GMT Bennett says she is addressing her comments to the country. 90% of people will have the chance to vote for a Green candidate. For some people, it will be their first chance to vote Green.In 9 weeks time you will have in your hands something miraculous. The possibility of a peaceful political revolution. 2.25pm GMT Bennett says this has been a momentous year for the party. It has taken its place at the forefront of British politics.Nearly 300,000 people helped to ensure the Greens were included in the debates. 2.23pm GMT Natalie Bennett is taking the stage now. She is getting another standing ovation.(I can’t tell whether this always happens, or whether this is partly a show of support in the wake of that interview.) 2.22pm GMT Lucas says that, even with just one seat, the Greens have been able to shape the agenda on issues like fracking and renationalising the railways. And it will be the Greens who champion the NHS reinstatement bill. This would not just repeal the Health and Social Care Act; it would turn back 25 years of Labour and Conservative marketisation. 2.20pm GMT Lucas turns to the election.This time, the Greens are fighting “from a position of strength”.Labour want to end our presence in parliament because, deep down, they are ashamed at how they have abandoned their principles. 2.16pm GMT Caroline Lucas, the Green MP, is speaking now.She says this is the fourth venue the party has used for a conference in Liverpool. Each one was bigger than the last. If all party members attend, even Anfield would not be big enough. 2.11pm GMT Dobson says people are working around the clock to get the first Green MP elected in Liverpool.Vivienne Westwood is coming to the city to do a campaign event, he says. Some 1,000 people have signed up to see her. 2.10pm GMT Dobson says Liverpool has had the second worst cuts of any council in the UK. Every person in the city has lost £252 in services. Yet Labour have voted with the government to back another £30bn in cuts, he says.That’s a reference to Labour voting for the coalition’s charter for budget responsibility. 2.08pm GMT Martin Dobson says the Green party are the official opposition to Labour on Liverpool council. He welcomes members to the city.(Joe Anderson, the Labour mayor of Liverpool, has also welcomed Green party members to Merseyside, with an open letter identifying what he describes as some of the party’s most “eye-catching” policies.) 2.05pm GMT Martin Dobson, the Green candidate for Liverpool Riverside, has just taken the podium. And Natalie Bennett and Caroline Lucas have come in too, to sit on the platform. They get prolonged applause, which eventually becomes a standing ovation. 2.03pm GMT I’m in the main hall of the conference centre now waiting for Natalie Bennett’s speech to start.It’s reasonably full, but they’re not turning anyone away yet.Green Party conference - view from the Guardian's seat pic.twitter.com/o7sBu3Xy2i#gpconf pic.twitter.com/75pehxUb7l 1.37pm GMT Here’s the view from the balcony outside the room where we had the briefing. The Green party flag is flying over the Mersey.Green Party flags flying outside #gpconf in Liverpool pic.twitter.com/gDlPlY3jx1 1.33pm GMT I’m back from the press briefing. A press officer was doing it and he began by telling us that the conference “is not really for journalists”, which wasn’t auspicious. What he meant was that it’s for members to make policy. Any member can turn up and vote on policy (unlike, for example, in the Labour party, where local parties are allocated a certain number of delegates). The conference won’t actually approve the manifesto, but the policies agreed will feed into the manifesto, which is being drawn up by a separate party committee and which will be published at the end of March.The spokesman also wanted to take issue with the idea that existing Green policy would ban almost all cars. (See 12.25pm.) That’s not the case, he said. An activist just included that line in his motion to ensure it got attention, he claimed. 12.55pm GMT And here’s a shot from the bookstall.The Greens appear to be big fans of Owen Jones (and maybe Russell Brand?) #gpconf #GreenPartyConf pic.twitter.com/A4TPClD9dd 12.52pm GMT You certainly don’t get this at other party conferences.From the Green Party conference guide: the most Green Party thing ever pic.twitter.com/1IS4DARscN 12.50pm GMT I’ve just had an email from Labour highlighting these figures, showing that the Greens fell from second place to third place in a council byelection last night in St Pancras & Somers Town in Camden, the war ward where Natalie Bennett lives.It's the first day of the Green Party conference today. Here's what happened in Natalie Bennett's ward last night. pic.twitter.com/IejuLtFhwH 12.25pm GMT The Greens describe their conference as the “supreme decision-making body” for the party and the agenda, setting out the motions and amendments that are going to be discussed over the next four days, runs to 86 pages.The party says it has three key campaign themes for the election.Our current transport policy has a line that would ban almost all currently roadworthy cars. As this would probably prove unattractive with the electorate, this motion replaces it with text that is more in line with the intentions of the policy [which is got manufacturers to limit the speed of cars]. 11.47am GMT Natalie Bennett has arrived.Bennett insists she's been practicing her speech #gpconf https://t.co/iogbU556lN 11.36am GMT Last year, as the Ukip surge was taking off, YouGov published some research looking at the composition of people supporting the Greens now.Around half of Green supporters voted Lib Dem in 2010. 11.21am GMT If you’re a detailed account of how the Green party emerged in recent years from obscurity to become semi-mainstream, this article by Adam Ramsay for Bright Green, The history of a political surge, is excellent. He looks at the internal, party, factors that have made a difference, as well as the external ones, and he argues that Natalie Bennett’s influence has been important. And choosing to have a leader in the first place was key too, he says.All of this leads us back to another vital date: November 30 2007. Because the very existence of a leader made much of this change easier. The post was only created in the party after a referendum among the membership, whose result was declared that day. The change didn’t only allow for one new role in the party: it signalled a new seriousness.Perhaps most importantly, in hindsight, it let the party finally move on from the “realo/fundi” (realist/fundamentalist) debates which had plagued Greens across Europe in the Nineties, and to focus instead on questions relevant to, well, anyone apart from the hacks. Closure on the issue also meant that two powerful groups in the party and their fellow travellers: Young Greens (who tended to be on the left, but pro-leader ‘realos’) and Green Left (who were very much anti-leader ‘fundies’), were able to move beyond these disagreements on internal structures, and push through the various changes I’ve listed above. 10.57am GMT Here’s a gem from the conference agenda.It's a shame this Green Party trainiing (sic) is on Sunday instead of before Natalie's big speech today pic.twitter.com/Q692xLXbMo 10.55am GMT Someone once claimed that the most scary words that a politician can hear are: “Michael Crick is in the lobby to see you.”. But it’s good to see that he is welcome up here.Just came out of the toilets and saw @MichaelLCrick. We're not in Kansas anymore...! #gpconf 10.48am GMT Another sign of the Greens emergence as a more prominent party is that journalists are starting to write about personality splits within it. This does not happen with more minor parties, because reporters tend not to know who any of the personalities are.Earlier this week Anoosh Chakelian wrote a lengthy piece for the New Statesman, under the headline “the Granola Pact”, about the relationship between Natalie Bennett, the leader, and her predecessor., Caroline Lucas. Chakelian’s conclusion was that, although there are tensions between the two women, they are not too serious. The splits for now are only shallow, and the Greens’ startling last-minute success in terms of polling and membership figures remains the bigger story. Bennett is likely to hold on to the leadership, and Lucas is just as likely to remain professional and supportive, as well as a popular MP. However, signs of infighting are not necessarily a bad thing. Blair and Brown’s civil war raged throughout Labour’s most successful period in modern times, after all. Just as press scrutiny of Green policies means they’re finally being taken seriously, internal spats means they’re finally growing up as a party. As one party official quipped on the day of Bennett’s LBC interview: “So we’re getting a pasting. Welcome to the club.”A minority argue that the cynical public would warm to a fallible, unpolished leader.For many members, however, it was a decisive exchange. It was preceded with an interview with the BBC’s Andrew Neil in which Ms Bennett had struggled to explain how the proposed wealth taxes would work. Later, she told BBC Radio 4 that concessions should be granted to Vladimir Putin. 10.24am GMT And, while we’re on the subject of polling, here’s today’s Guardian seat projection.Conservatives: 276 10.14am GMT Here is a YouGov chart illustrating how support for the Greens has risen over the last year or so. It shows party support from October 2013. 10.02am GMT I’m in the press room at the ACC conference centre in Liverpool, and it’s clear the Greens have hit the big time; Michael Crick from Channel 4 News is here.There aren’t many other people about. The conference does not get going properly until lunchtime.With the rise of the SNP, and with our own Green surge, we have the chance to forge a new grouping in parliament. A progressive alliance.Of course, in Scotland and in Wales we’ll be fighting hard for our distinctive values and policies. Just as we do against those individual Labour and even Lib Dem candidates with whom we have something in common. 9.16am GMT In her new book, Honourable Friends? - Parliament and the Fight for Change, Caroline Lucas, the Green party MP, writes about how hard it has been for small parties like hers to make progress in British politics.Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats could agree on one thing at least: they wanted to leave no space for alternative voices. Indeed, if politics were a business – and I sometimes wonder if that is so far-fetched an idea – it would be a prime case for a referral to the Competition and Markets Authority for monopolistic collusion in excluding new entrants to the market.In her opening speech to her party’s conference this weekend, [Bennett] needs to inspire an explosion of excitement without raising unrealistic expectations. She has to encourage a flourishing of activity yet gather a focussing of energy. She must give journalists one hell of a headline while speaking to the manifold concerns which have attracted almost one in a thousand adults in the UK to become a signed up Green Party member in the past year. And she will have to do all of that only 240 short hours after her “day from hell”. Continue reading...
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