Green Party membership booms

The Green Party has enjoyed a ten-fold surge in membership since its biggest-ever national conference, it was revealed today.

It received 48 email requests for membership and 10 via the telephone during the first three days of this week.

A spokesman said today: “This is well in excess of the usual upsurge in demand we would experience following a conference.”

Headquarters staff usually receive five email requests in the average week throughout the year.

The party is riding at 8% in national opinion polls and claims it is ready to implement its policies in government.

Practical bugbears like rising energy prices and unseasonal weather patterns are forcing many people to think about the future of the planet.

Party leader Trevor Sargent told a record 500 conference delegates last weekend that Greens’ policies on climate change, public transport and sustainable living are beginning to capture the mood of floating voters.

An Inconvenient Truth, the controversial film on global warming fronted by former US vice president Al Gore, won an Oscar for best documentary on the final day of the Greens conference in Salthill, Co Galway.

Mr Sargent is targeting 10 or more seats in the General Election, expected in May.

The Greens in Northern Ireland are also targeting gains in the Assembly elections next week.