The third largest and influential Seniors Greens Special Interest Group held its Annual General Meeting on Tuesday 16th January.
As 48 members out of a membership of 300 – a fraction of members of the over 50s who qualify to join this Special Interest Group (SIG) – joined the zoom event, it was announced that the two Co-Chairs Nicola Watson & Freda Davis and 99 years old Membership Secretary Eric Walker who were seeking a new mandate had just been put in the naughty corner with a No Fault Suspension.
The AGM was thrown into chaos by the shocking news, but the election of the committee went ahead with the suspended candidates still on the ballot papers. Members were notified of the link to register their vote by the Election Returning Officer with the warning that their votes for the Co-Chairs and Membership Secretary would be counted as VOID. The result of this highly fraught election is expected to be published shortly.
Due to the confidentiality clause attached to the complaints procedure and out of respect for those suspended members, The Green Light cannot disclose the reason or reasons why such dramatic steps have been taken against these highly respected and long serving members of the Party.
However, following the recent unconstitutional ruling by the Standing Orders Committee to “disaffiliate” the two former Green Party Women’s Committee, the targeting of the Seniors Greens Group points to a systematic – some might say ” desperate ” – drive to suspend members opposed to the Party’s Stonewall inspired transgender ideology.
In carrying out what can only be described as a purge of heretics carried out with such diligence, what the majority of duly elected regional representatives on GPRC are actually pursuing should not come as a surprise.
With full support from Co-Leaders Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay and very much in the spirit of former co-leader and Brighton Pavillion Green Party candidate Sian Berry in her infamous tweet posted prior to her resignation, what identinarian members of the Disciplinary Committee Referral Group and GPRC’s representatives are doing is simply apply their newly approved “Guidance to Queerphobia”.
Given how deeply dysfunctional and undemocratic the instruments of Governance of the Green Party of England and Wales have remained for well over a decade, combined with the fact that policies are made by 1% of self-appointed conference participants, it is difficult to see how anyone or anything could possibly bring the Party back together again in time for the General Election.
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| Freda Davis | Nicola Watson |
| I am an eco feminist and have been committed to green issues since the early Seventies and joined the Green Party in 2007. I have been chair of my local party and represented Yorkshire and Humber Region on GPRC 2012 to 2018. I was co chair of GPRC from 2014 to 2018. I have been co chair of GPW and most recently of Green Party Seniors. As co chair I have tried to expand the range of discussion and keep it friendly. There are many senior members in the party and we would like far more to join in and engage in party issues. In particular we need to put forward policy ideas that reflect our interests and improve on some of the current wording of these. I hope you will give me another term. | I have been a member of the Green Party since the 1980s, and have served on the National Executive and Regional Council, as well as holding a variety of local posts, so I know a fair bit about how the party operates. I see the aim of Green Party Seniors as part social and networking group and part as giving older members a voice within the party to highlight issues of particular interest to older members. Originally co-opted to the Committee, I was elected as Co-Chair in 2021. Under the current Committee, Seniors has grown in size and impact. The Google Group is a lively debating forum and through our newsletter the Committee shares feedback from our attendance at various Committees. The newsletter also aims to keep members informed about what is going on in the national party, so that they can be better informed when voting in internal elections or attending Conference. I thoroughly enjoy working with other Seniors, both new and longstanding members, as their plain speaking and commitment to the Green Party are an inspiration. I would like to build on what we have achieved so far and serve another term as Co-Chair. |
The Green Light 