Green idealism without bitchiness is frustrating, like an egg without salt

WHEN the Green Party asked me to serve as a discount X Factor judge at its party conference this weekend, I didn’t know whether to be flattered or insulted.

Never having seen the TV programme, I wasn’t sure whether it was crime or sci fi or worse.

The suggestion was that party members who were going to run for their local councils would go up on stage, make a one-minute speech, and me, Noel Whelan and Donal Geoghegan, the Green Party general secretary, would rate them from winner to ultimate loser.