Second Liberal Democrat Eddie Hartley Joins the Green Party

Eddie Hartley, the former chairman of Worcester Liberal Democrats, made a very public exit at last weekend's party conference in Birmingham.

He labelled the party's coalition with the Conservatives an "unholy alliance" and tore up his membership card before openly following fellow ex-chairman Alex Keers and defecting to the Greens.

Mr Hartley said he felt the Liberal Democrats had crossed three "red lines" by compromising on proportional representation, nuclear power and Trident in order to form the new government which, for him, could not be crossed.

He said: "I think there's a misunderstanding between policies and principles. You can change policies to meet the country's needs, but not the principles.

"The more democratic edge will be uncomfortable, but the liberals are a bit overpragmatic in their approach."

As reported in your Worcester News on Friday, Mr Keers has also defected to the Greens.

He said: "If they were still holding firm on some of the principles I think I could stomach the coalition."

Mr Hartley now believes the Greens are the best party to represent his interests as "their red lines are not give-away-able".

Louis Stephen, leader of Worcester's Green Party, said he was very pleased to have Mr Hartley on board and would encourage any other progressive liberals to sign up.

Mr Stephen said: "Unlike the Green Party, the Liberal Democrats have abandoned plans for proportional representation, abandoned their plans for scrapping university tuition fees and Trident."

(The above was taken from an article in the Worcester News).

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