Adrian Ramsay's Deputy Leadership Bid

Adrian Ramsay has launched his bid to become the very first deputy leader of the Green Party. Adrian is a bit of a local legend round these parts and is in a good position to oust Charles Clarke at the next General Election so I thought I'd take a quick look at his rather impressive campaign website, just as I did for Caroline's and just as I'll do for any other leader or deputy leadership campaign materials that come my way.

In keeping with Adrian's formidable reputation for organisational tasks the very first thing you see when you visit the site is the box to sign up as a supporter (unlike Caroline's where you have to dig around to get there). Other additional features include rss feeds (essential for people like me), videos (that I'm less keen on) and a prominent call for standing orders to the Green Party.

In other words it's focused on the task in hand and presented in a slick professional manner.

Possibly one area where Caroline's site has the edge is the clarity and simplicity of her approach. It's very easy to see at a glance what her politics and vision are - with Adrian's campaign site, because it has that much more packed into it, it takes slightly more work to get to the overall political vision.

So the top stories at the time of writing are a discussion on the Severn Barrage, support for the public sector strikes and a statement from his campaign manager, the most excellent Peter Cranie. An excellent balance, and people should not take it for granted that someone going for a leadership position would give such prominent the support for strike action, but that balance will undoubtedly change as new news stories crop up, so it serves more as a news feed and snap shot than political programme.

However, I really do recommend that people dig that little further because the areas that Adrian chooses to highlight are really quite revealing. I think it's fair to précis them like this (in this order);

• the party is part of a movement
• social justice and affordability
• climate change
• anti-privatisation
• fair trade
• animals and wildlife

A clearly outward looking, left, internationalist, and green agenda. One that starts with the claim that Green Party "co-operation with campaign groups and trade unions is crucial". Clearly not just a machine politician then.

His launch press release states that "the Green Party combines a clear vision of environmental sustainability with a clear commitment to social justice at home and abroad - such as our opposition to the privatisation of council housing and our proposals for making Fair Trade the norm.

"We need long-term, positive solutions to the rising cost of living that reduce our society's dependence on oil. This must include free insulation schemes to tackle fuel poverty, more reliable and cheaper public transport and a low-carbon, localised economy."

For my part I think this will hit all the right buttons with Green Party members and, to be honest, me. I'll be interested to see who, if anyone, will be standing against him to be able to compare and contrast what alternative positive contribution they can make to the direction of the party. That would be a very useful discussion indeed.