The Greens are fighting fewer wards than four year ago

There is an interesting point in a post by Mark Pack on the number of wards the Liberal Democrats are fighting in next month's local elections.

It is that the Greens are fighting fewer wards than they did four years ago. In 2015 they put up candidates in 38 per cent of wards being contested. This time round the figure is 30 per cent.

I report this not to gloat - I feel warmer to the Greens than I do to the Tiggers, Change UK or whatever they call themselves - but to suggest it is another reason why a unified Remain list did not appear in the European elections.

There are few parliamentary seats where the Greens are in with any chance of a gain, and if they are slipping back in local government then, in England, that leaves only the European elections.

It may well be that those elections suit the Greens best. Their broad approach is appealing to many and it is not exposed to the detailed criticism that can lessen that appeal. To give one example, how does their opposition to austerity square with their belief that we consume too much?

So just as the Tiggers have do do well in the Europeans elections to gain any sense of momentum, those elections offer the Greens' their best chance of electoral advance or good publicity.

Perhaps it is the Liberal Democrats who have led calls for a joint Remain list for the European elections because they do not represent such an opportunity for us.

While some gains in them would be good, what we really want are good local election results next month with some promising parliamentary by-elections to follow.