The Brighton and Hove Green Party has called on council leader Jason Kitcat to stand down as soon as possible.
The Green leader of Brighton and Hove City Council said last year that he would not be standing at the local elections on Thursday 7 May.
Yesterday (Saturday 17 January) the local party passed a motion at a general meeting asking Councillor Kitcat to make way for someone who had “a stake in the election”.
The move was reported today (Sunday 18 January) by the Brighton and Hove Independent newspaper.
The paper’s website said that the general meeting – “the sovereign body that frames Green Party policy locally” – passed the motion.
It said that the meeting at the Brighthelm Centre was attended by 55 members. This met the requirement for 5 per cent of the local membership to be present.
The motion said: “Brighton and Hove Green Party notes the hard work over many years that the current convenor of the Green group and leader of Brighton and Hove City Council has done over many years, and the many successes of the Green-led administration as a result of this work in partnership with the rest of the Green group.
“The party notes further that the convenor is not standing in the local elections this year and is concerned that it could very easily damage the party’s electoral prospects if the Green group is not led by a convenor who has a stake in the election and can lead the group through the election and potentially beyond.
“With this in mind, the party asks that the convenor steps down at the earliest possible opportunity to allow for internal elections to take place for a convenor who can be the primary public figure in the campaign and lead the Green group towards the best possible result.”
The motion was proposed by Paul Philo and seconded by Alison Plaumer.
Councillor Kitcat, who became leader three years ago, was not present at the meeting yesterday.
Who would lead them instead?
They can be broadly divided into three factions:
– the Watermelons (green on the outside, red on the inside: ex-Labour dissidents who long for the days of Jim Callaghan and Michael Foot)
– the Ethereals: David-Icke-esque crystals-and-chakras loons whose idea of ‘sustainable living’ is to advertise their own potato peelings on ‘Freecycle’ as “suitable for an art installation. Will swap for a small puppy.”
– the Malthusians: who quite rightly believe humanity is going to hell in a handbasket and we’re ALL DOOMED unless we stop cutting down the rainforests, burning fossil fuels and keeping millions of turkeys in lightless concrete bunkers attached to mechanical wanking machines.
@feline1 – who else would lead them? Well Tom Druitt of course – renowned tree-sitting protester and part time MD of the small lemon bus company who has already gotten himself job as chair of the local green party.
Or perhaps his wife – anti-fracking ex-school teacher @alex goes 4 anything?
There you go again with your Tom Druit obsession Fracky.
Whoever becomes the Convenor of the Green Party in the lead up to the election (Jason Kitcat is standing down by May anyway) it will be by democratic vote. You may not like that, but hey! That is democracy for you. If you dislike Tom sooooo much, join up and campaign against him.
@Napoleon – please explain why I would ever want to join a group of leaderless, irresponsible, incompetent, left-wing, anti-capitalist activists?
Please can you also explain why you are so protective of Tom Druitt? After all, I’d just like to understand how much of our council tax goes to providing the free bus services for fracking activists to be transported to various events? It just seems, IMHO, this is must be very difficult to run a bus company with 10 staff and 10 vehicles purely on the revenues from 1 bus route and 2 Uni shuttles. I smell a rat!
For reference I despise all watermelon councillors and politicians – and even more for sycophantic cronies such as yourself who provide unflinching support for every failed ideological project that your councillors implement. I won’t have a good word said about them.
I am sure the greens are democratic (amongst themselves), but luckily the voters of this country will have seen the pigs-ear that you’ve made of running the council and realise what a laughing stock you all are – roll of drums as Caroline Lucas sits in the road (very mature); wears a T-shirt with a slogan |(at her age!); or shows a poster of what she did at the week-end in the House of Commons; or now suddenly (surprise surprise) starts getting interested in local issues (Rail Fares) after 4 years of progressing her own personal agenda in Parliament.
They should take it turns to act as a sort of ‘executive officer for the week’…
@geraldwiley – with such a sharp downturn in oil prices perhaps now fracking is not only logically and environmentally floored, excuse the pun. but also now financially unsound as an investment of resources when oil can be found so cheaply. and alex would be as good a leader as anyone ive mer met so far