How green are political parties?

While we were delivering our tabloid in Gwaun-cae-Gurwen today, a citizen accused us political parties of hypocrisy. "You all say you're green," he said, "but all four of you are sending out bits of paper to everyone which aren't read."

Since, at the time, he was using a pressure-washer to clean a piece of garden statuary, I don't think he was arguing from a green point of view. However, he did have a point.

The trouble is, I explained to him, that all the other parties do it, so we have to. Political parties are in the position of Leslie Lever, one of the founding fathers of Unilever, who reckoned that only half of his advertising was effective. The trouble was, he didn't know which half. The effectiveness of our advertising is somewhat less, but if we stopped it, the voting figures would show it.

- Frank Little

PS It seems from a letter to Peter Black that the Green Party in Swansea is the worst offender of the lot!