To avoid any confusion, Manchester in this case means the City of Manchester as opposed to Greater Manchester. For people outside the conurbation this seems a continuous source of confusion; people often ascribe events in Salford, Bolton, Trafford etc to 'Manchester'.

The Green Party functions as Local Parties, (not 'branches, please) each of which occupy a geographical area based on one or more local authorities or constituencies. Manchester Green Party currently has the rather complicated area of the City of Manchester plus the constituency of Salford and Eccles. There are thriving Green Parties in the neighbouring metropolitan boroughs of Trafford, Tameside and Stockport , whilst South Lancashire Green Party (for now) covers the rest of Salford, Bolton, Bury and Wigan.

Hello readers

This is the blog of Brian Candeland, currently Chair of Manchester Green Party. I am pretty new to this, and being on the upper side of 50 (slightly) may not be fully up to speed with current trends (having said that, I work in IT so should really have no excuse).

I intend this blog to be a combination of my own observations on events in Manchester and beyond from a Green perspective, and material which will hopefully aid the transition to a Green and sustainable society. Not everything I write may be strictly in line with current Green policy but I will flag up anything which might be controversial with a little (!) just to make it clear.

Having seen some of the existing green Party blogs, there are some hard acts to follow but I shall do my best.