Are the political classes in Brighton mature enough to cope with Caroline Lucas disagreeing with the Green Group?

A sign of a mature democracy is how it deals with dissent. It should be able to cope with it without clamping down on freedoms or maligning the dissenter. Similarly, a mature political party should not only accommodate dissent, it should positively welcome it.

Political parties should not try to resemble religious sects, demanding total and uncritical allegiance regardless of the merits of an argument. It is funny that the Blairites in New Labour demanded the same unthinking loyalty as Militant Tendency required of its acolytes.

I have always felt that the Green Party has shown more maturity than some other parties, particularly Labour in Brighton and Hove, when handling dissent. When Cllr Alex Phillips was the lone vote against the Labour/Conservative budget, most members of the Green Group respected the stance she had taken. Her dissent was widely welcomed within the Green Party.

I know plenty of Green Party members who remain supportive of the Green Council in spite of disagreements over particular policies and actions. To suggest, as Labour is doing, that the cuts being forced on the City Council are either “Green cuts” or that Caroline Lucas is somehow responsible for them, is childish politics.

I would imagine, and sources within the Green Party have suggested to me, that Caroline Lucas herself is not comfortable with some of the actions of Green members on the City Council. I believe that she disagreed with the expulsion of Christina Summers even though Ms Lucas’ record on gay marriage is without doubt.

The problem for Caroline Lucas is the immaturity of the political process where activists in parties opposed to the Greens might seize upon any admission of disagreement as a split within the Green Party. It is not a split, it is a disagreement and should any of my occasional readers try to make political capital out of this, they will merely be proving my point about political immaturity.

Brighton Politics Blogger hitting an all time low

“Ad hoc, ad loc, et quid pro quo, so little time, so much to know”

Thus spoke the Nowhere Man, that odd little creature in the Beatles film, Yellow Submarine. Today there is so little time and so much to comment on.So I will be brief:

John Terry: Lay off him won’t. He may be an overpaid, self-indulgent individual, but unlike other Premier Division footballers he hasn’t been accused of forcing himself on women, rape, or beating up his partner. Enough, I say.

Ivor Caplin: Former Labour MP for Hove. Having to repay £17k in the Expenses scandall for refusing to respond to questions on his expenses. This on’t hlp Celi Barlow trying to defend her seat.

David Cameron: Making a fool of himself in an interview with the wonderful Johann Hari in today’s Independent. He denied voting against gay marriage, saying he defied the whip, and even when referred to the Hansard record of his vote, he repeated that “his memory” is that he abstained.

Katie Price: Getting married again. I wasn’t invited but as Liza Minnelli said to her mother, Judy Garland, when saying she couldn’t make her sixth wedding, “I promise to come to the next one”.

David Cameron (again): For having George Osborne as his Shadow Chancellor.

Nicholas Soames: For playing the immigration card – he has just realised there is a general election looming.

Brighton Politics Blogger: Shame for bringing blogging to a new low!