Martin Hemingway, Euro candidate, June 4th.

03 MAY 2009, BBC Politics Show (at 41:00 in)

"6% last time around, can you up that?"

MH: I'm sure we can up that. Obviously our position is rather different from some of the other smaller parties - we're not a pro-European party - ...we're an internationalist party. We recognise the importance of the European Union - after a war against fascism in bringing about peace - but we don't like the way its developed.

And, I think the important thing for us is getting across the message that whether we like this European Union or not, we're not going to end our membership by this election, and we need to be making use of it while we're in it.

"...Do we need the Greens anymore?"

Voting - Proportional Representation

"Greens... how are you going to turn it around?"

MH: I think Haltemprice is a good example. We got a bigger vote obviously than the English Democrats there [...inaudible] - but still a bigger vote* - and obviously what we're expecting is that if our vote comes out as it has done in the previous ones, with a non-postal ballot and the lower turnout that can be expected, we expect to return a candidate. 

And it's important to realise that people can move away from the main parties. They can make a vote count for some special set of views in this election.

"...Would that be fair... if you only got 11% of the vote?..."

MH: Certainly we would do - because we could get 11% on a First-past-the-Post in every single region of the country - which means we ought to have some representation to represent the country - and yet we would have none on a First-Past-the-Post system. That's the fairness of PR - that's why PR is an important system that we need to have across the political system in this country.

* Haltemprice & Howden By-election 2008

Shan Oakes (Green): 1,758 (7.35%)

Joanne Robinson (Eng Dem): 1,714 (7.17%)