The Politics That Dare Not Speak It's Name.

Critics of the Green Party have been known to compare it to a water melon - green on the outside but red at heart. If only. None the less the Brighton conference has seen considerable effort to take the party beyond being a mere environmental campaign group and establish some kind of political world view. There has been much talk of equality, defending the NHS and root and branch changes to our social and political fabric. So are the Greens a libertarian socialist party? Not yet. They still seem to have a real problem about laying their cards on the table. Are they merely looking to create a nice green capitalism, a capitalism without the nasty bits? Indeed do they, like Porrit and his ilk, believe such a thing is possible? Where do the Greens stand on hierarchy, class and profit? More to the point, is the apparent reticence on these issues due to not being sure, not having thought it all through yet, or is it fear that getting too radical may make them unelectable? If it's the latter you can be sure that the New Green modernisers are waiting in the wings. We shall see.