Enright Appointed To A Lords' Selection Panel

SOUTH Down Green Party Councillor and MLA candidate Cadogan Enright has been appointed to a UK-wide selection panel to help choose eight potential ‘green’ members to the House of Lords. The panel represents thexa0 combined Green Parties of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, They will narrow down a list of potential Green candidatesxa0 to justxa0 20 candidates . Then all members willxa0 be given the opportunity to vote on the shortlist under PR to select a shortlistxa0 up to eight candidates. Councillor Enright said, “It is strange to be selected to help appoint the Green Party’s nominations to an institution we all oppose, but it is nevertheless important to have more strong voices in Westminster to support our sole MP Caroline Lucas. “While the Green Party would like to see the whole of the Upper House elected, the expected change in appointment process gives us an opportunity to have important environmental issues highlighted and championed at the highest level of the legislative and governmental system, ” he said. [caption id="attachment_19383" align="alignleft" width="400" caption="Down District Councillor and Assembly Green Party election candidiate for South Down Cadogan Enright (right) pictured at Stormont with Stephen Agnew, Green Party Leader."][/caption] “Reforms have been promised to create an elected Upper House but until such time as these reforms are implemented, the Green Parties operating across the UK will co-ordinate to democratically select a list of potential nominees, when appointments to the unreformed House be offered to the Greens. After the last Westminister Election we obtained only one Lord, so this is a bg step forward.” Councillor Enright added, “We expect future appointments to the Lords will be assigned according to the proportion votes political parties received at the last elections. This is a much fairer way of deciding who will be represented and should result in 8 Green Lords across the UK and hopefully Northern Ireland will potentially get its first Green Lord as a result of this process. The Greens only received one Lord in the last Parliament.” Councillor Enright has written out to all Green Party members in Northern Irelandxa0 seeking candidate nominations. He will be sitting on the panel to select the panel of candidates to go forward to the election over the next few weeks ahead of the “online hustings” expected to be held by the Green Party across the UK in February. Results are expected to be announced at the English Green Party’s annual conference on the weekend of February 26th.]]>