Are the Greens even barmier than Brand?

RUSSELL BRAND isn’t to my taste — nor me to his if we met, I daresay — but why do the resurgent Greens reject his endorsement? Party leader Natalie Bennett has said they do not need ‘big personalities,’ or someone ‘who tosses their hair around and waves a pint’ — an obvious reference to Brand (pictured) and to Nigel Farage. Unknown-to-millions Ms Bennett might, of course, be trying to protect her own position. But plenty of young people voting for the first time could, Pied Piper style, be lured into supporting the Greens by a Brand endorsement. Australian-born Bennett joined the Greens in 2006 and replaced Caroline Lucas MP as leader in 2012 after an election with a 25.1 per cent turnout. She says the Greens are the only viable political option for Britain and the world. Some might consider her as barmy as Brand, but she doesn’t have his pulling power. FORMER Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown — Baron Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, GCMG, CH, KBE, PC, if you please — signs up with a London voiceover company, Soho Voices. The firm says he’s ‘a genuine voice of reason in the modern age . . . his calm, distinctive tones bring real gravitas to any conversation’. But a party activist

peter.mckay@dailymail.co.uk whinges: ‘It is concerning that, 100 days before an election, the chair of our campaign may not be giving 100 per cent but pursuing a voiceover career instead.’ Ashdown’s voice was necessary for leadership of a party which was, and is, neither fish nor fowl, here nor there, Left nor Right. I recall one of many interviews he gave to Radio 4’s Today show, talking authoritatively about some urgent matter to a polite James Naughtie. Suddenly, during a long explanation of his position — on a mobile phone — there was silence. After a few moments, Naughtie announced wistfully: ‘Paddy’s train’s gone into a tunnel, I think.’ Not soon enough for most listeners, I felt, despite his ‘distinctive tones’.