Off The Record sits down with a new candidate for the Lagan Valley Green Party to discuss the motivations behind standing in the upcoming local council elections – “We are an anti-austerity party, we want Lisburn to look after its poor and its most vulnerable, and again I think that’s what most people agree with”

In the unionist majority Lisburn City Council, led by a unionist Mayor – Councillor Margaret Tolerton – and with half of the seats held by members who dance to the tune of the DUP, it must be a challenge to get your voice heard above the crowd. Not least when you are a potential Green Party candidate championing issues such as transparency in government, accountability and sustainable energy sources. However, this is the position that new candidate for the Lagan Valley Greens (standing for Lisburn North) Jonathan McMurray finds himself in. Mr McMurray is standing alongside his twin bother James McMurray, Lagan Valley Chair Luke Robinson and MEP candidate Ross Brown.

“The following year politicised many voters that will have never set foot near a ballot box, it led to the disruption of some major political parties (UUP and the formation of NI21) and it put difficult questions to the main leadership”

If you are particularly fond of hindsight, you will be aware that this has been a significant year for the province of Northern Ireland. Looking back to December 2012 – at the scenes of intense disruption and violence on the streets after the decision was made to fly the Union Flag at Belfast City Hall on designated days – it represents a potential cultural shift in NI. The following year politicised many voters that will have never set foot near a ballot box, it led to the disruption of some major political parties (UUP and the formation of NI21) and it put difficult questions to the main leadership meaning the spotlight remained on the abilities of the First and Deputy First Ministers and their respective parties. So much has happened during this period – we have seen fringe extremists such as Willie Frazer and Jamie Bryson garner publicity (if not electoral support) and a fightback of hardline attitudes. The protests are still clinging on to relevance and the protest camp at Twaddell Avenue still holds a candle to the night – in defiance of those who claim the movement to be a flash in the pan sort of affair.

All of this is the backdrop to the upcoming election cycle – and it could signal a dramatic shift in the cultural zeitgeist within the province. Many predict an interesting result – even Mr McMurray stated that for many seats ‘I don’t think you could call it, I wouldn’t take a bet on any seat’. Of course, this being Northern Ireland, the electorate (or the non-electorate) can never be fully quantified. Much time – even in the this publication – is given towards covering the mythical ‘silent majority’ if it even exists. The gloves are off and now is the time for – warning, another buzzword incoming – ‘moderate’ parties to find out if their bets come in as winning. Will there be enough votes to win seats for the ‘moderates’ – Alliance, NI21, Greens, SDLP – or will the taste for blood overcome any desire for change resulting in the continuation of a political stalemate?

Arriving slightly early to look over my notes and taking a seat in the top floor of the comfortable Lisburn library – probably the tallest building in the city – I quickly realised two things; I wasn’t quite sure who to expect and that there was no free wi-fi. Unsure as to which bothered me more, I used the old faithful pencil and paper combination to make notes on which direction I wanted the interview to take, a couple of areas that needed attention – the often contentious issues of fracking and whether the Green Party has ability to sway votes in the highly unionist Lisburn area – and to ponder the implications of the upcoming 2015 merger with Castlereagh as part of the Local Government Reform. Jonathan McMurray arrived and took his seat beside me and the interview could begin, in spite of my (probably quite unprofessional) scribbled and messy carbon based notes.

“It takes a special type of person to welcome the media intrusion and the endless committees, never mind the 24/7 pressure”

As is customary in these situations the first question has to be motivations and goals for standing in the council election. It takes a special type of person to welcome the media intrusion and the endless committees, never mind the 24/7 pressure received from both constituencies and other politico’s. In an answer I am finding more common after the year we have spent in the shadow of the Union Flag, it is due to a lack of other options. Mr McMurray also noted that his reason for standing was identical to the one for joining the Green Party of Northern Ireland, stating “there was no one else to do it really, it’s the same reason I joined the Green Party, because there just wasn’t a voice for anyone else like me and I think that the values of the Green Party are the ones that closely match people – there’s an awful lot of parties, you don’t really know what they stand for, there’s not really much of a difference”.

“These are the guys who were talking sensibly about sustainable futures, reconciliation, about moving forward and basically turning us into a modern country”

Lisburn famously holds a unionist majority – most likely to the dismay of other parties attempting to pass unwelcome motions in the council meetings – and in 2015 the government reform will mean that it will be merging with another highly unionist area, Castlereagh. In what has been deemed a unionist ‘super-council’, I asked Jonathan the Lagan Valley Green Party position on this. He stated that they “were always against the merger with Castlereagh because from the start it looked to us like what was proposed was a swap for all of our nationalist areas for unionist seats”. The Greens are worried what they could “actually lose was a block on power”. One situation that was referenced was the failed motion – put forth by DUP minister Paul Givan – to award the Orange Order with the in 2012. Mr McMurray stated that this was halted by ‘Alliance, Sinn Fein and SDLP reservations’. It seems that with the introduction of one main political leadership, the Green Party are worried of bias in council decisions, and the loss of opposition as a result of a majority in power.

So, if elected to the seat, how would Jonathan McMurray make a difference in the local council? He stated that there was a number of things that could be done straight away that would enhance the government – mainly focusing on issues of transparency and openness in the processes that govern his constituency.

“Basically what we would do to start off with is make the thing a lot more open, I mean, we don’t have HANSARD, or even have the council minutes recorded in any way, people can’t get that and there’s hardly anyone that even turns up to watch council sessions as well – they are not well publicised – so we could do something like that for a start, make it more open and accountable and let people know whats being decided and who’s saying what”

This raises the issue of transparency in government. The Green Party leader Steven Agnew has lobbied the Assembly on possible corruption due to lack of transparency over planning applications and more recently on the need for it in the ongoing ‘On the Run’ cases. This a stance echoed by Mr McMurray, who states that the “Green Party has always been very big on transparency in government”. Famously, the Greens policy of publishing the details of any political donation over the amount of £500 is a policy not adopted by any other major party in Northern Ireland, even the other ‘moderates’.

“We have always been open, we have always published names and addresses of our donors, people know who we are accountable to and that’s going to become even more of an issue whenever councillors get planning permission next year”

The elephant in the room is still sitting quietly – who will actually vote for the Green Party? The Alliance party are the go-to moderate party, NI21 have the shiny new appeal that will most likely ensure they have a degree of success and everyone else either doesn’t vote or is influenced by either their peers, their parents or their lack of interest. Do the Green Party have a core demographic, a key target and is it possible to change opinion on the ground?

“I guess that’s kind of the vibe that NI21 for example are trying to get on as well – I mean, they basically are the UUP but re-branded”

Mr McMurray stated that “obviously I think we will appeal to people who haven’t made their minds up yet, or aren’t set in their way so much that they wouldn’t consider a fresh option”. When questioned if this is a main strategy they will employ, “I guess that’s kind of the vibe that NI21 for example are trying to get on as well – I mean, they basically are the UUP but re-branded – but still they are appealing to people so there is a sense of that, people are looking elsewhere”.

I then asked if there is enough of a voting base in the Lisburn district for the Green Party to make a sufficient impact on the local elections? “Hopefully so, we have done an awful lot of campaigning in the last year to really get the voice out there” and “even from the likes of the fracking debate, we learned that there really was room for an opposition”.

On changing opinion, which is sometimes largely passed down and generational, Mr McMurray was quick to say that no seat is guaranteed. “I think these set of elections is going to be pretty interesting, I really don’t think you could call it, and I wouldn’t like to take a bet on any seat”.

“Now with the likes of welfare reform, even with the likes of Praxis being kicked out of Hillsborough people are going to start to look at issues rather than which is the strongest unionist or nationalist party and vote that way”

The potential candidate also noted some problems that the Green Party have faced in the past, including issues of perception and social stances. He stated “a huge problem we have, I think, in the Green Party is that people think we only care about ‘eco’ issues, whereas that’s one thing we have made a conscious decision to go for this year, social issues”.

“Welfare reform – and people think that we shouldn’t have an opinion or that but we do, and we are one of the parties that has been leading the campaign against the cuts”

“Will this laissez-faire approach end up hurting the Greens who sometimes rely on protest issues and ‘long term’ sustainability plans?”

When this reporter covered the Unison backed protest at Lagan Valley Hospital earlier in the year after the announcement of further cuts to the A & E departments we interviewed one man who said that the Lisburn population lacked any motivation to fight for important issues in their city. Will this laissez-faire approach end up hurting the Greens who sometimes rely on protest issues and ‘long term’ sustainability plans which may not translate well to the voter, less get them motivated to voice an opposition?



Jonathan stated that “whenever the flag protests first started, the massive street protests, my first thought was ‘Thank God, finally people have cottoned on to the damage the welfare reform would cause’ but then I realised ‘no, it’s flags”. On the Green Party position to cuts, the answer was resolute – “We are an anti-austerity party, we want Lisburn to look after its poor and its most vulnerable, and again I think that’s what most people agree with”.

Fracking. Yes, the other large animal in the room, is a topic that often overshadows the entire party. Their anti-fracking stance, which McMurray describes as ‘an absolute’, has come to define and set out the Greens from other political parties still either sitting on the fence or fully up for investing in shale resources.

“We are the only party that is against fracking, for us it’s an absolute. All the evidence, and it has been in place for a long time. It’s poisonous, it doesn’t really have the economic benefits that is been vetted as having”

I asked Jonathan about the his thoughts on the other political parties positions on fracking, especially in relation to the other so called ‘moderates’ – Alliance and NI21.

He stated that “NI21 are massively pro-fracking and I think they would be happy to have it in their own back garden, same thing with the DUP. Their seems to be this move on the right to ‘this is something we could exploit’ and get short term benefit”.

“We are worried about the consequences, we are worried about dealing with the mess, and we are looking at that, whereas it’s all just numbers to them”

This brings us to finding the balance of short-term results vs. the long-term investment. McMurray said that it only highlights another plus of the Green Party – “I think we take the long-term view rather than whats expedient and whats quick. We are worried about the consequences, we are worried about dealing with the mess, and we are looking at that, whereas it’s all just numbers to them”. I say that in any instance, the short-term is easier to sell to the public – McMurray agrees – however says that he believes the public agree with the party position.

“You have got the huge mass of ‘grassroots resistance’ towards it [fracking] and I think the public are on our side. If It did happen in Lisburn I think we would expect to see the same level of resistance – maybe a few less beards, maybe a few less sandals, a few less druids on the go – but I think we would have it”.

Reporting: Jason Murdock |

You can find the Lagan Valley Greens on Twitter:

Jason Murdock Jason Murdock is the Editor of Off The Record and a blogger for the Huffington Post. Interests include local politics, new journalism and the quest for the Holy Grail. Contact: jason.a.murdock@gmail.com or via Twitter @Jason_A_Murdock More Posts - Website Follow Me:



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