The Greens: a voice for the voiceless or a middle-class sect?

[Simon]

The United Kingdom will have a general election tomorrow. One party that has seen a huge influx of new members lately is the Green Party. The Greens have high hopes to make substantial progress towards the UK's parliament - or at least help push for more climate action and sustainable policies - during this election. But to be able to gain more support and political power the Greens will have to attract more people than their average young, well-educated and - let's be honest - hippie voter.

In this video the Guardian follows a few campaign workers from the Green Party as they try to reach out to working-class and ethnic minority voters in areas where the political interest is low, and where the few people who participate in elections predominantly tend to vote for the more established parties - or even the fascist UKIP.

Watch the video: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2passo_the-greens-a-voice-for-the-voiceless-or-a-middle-class-sect-video_news

Will the Greens be able to become a voice for the voiceless or will they, as the Guardian puts it, remain a middle-class sect?

 

[Simon]

And here are the election results for Bristol West (which the video talks about)! Apparently the Greens came very close to winning with 26.8 percent of the total vote. But Labour received a few thousand more votes and won with 35.7 percent.

All in all, the Greens didn't get any new seats but managed to hold Brighton Pavilion after getting 41.8 percent of the votes there.

You can see the UK election results here: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2015/may/07/live-uk-election-results-in-full