Rupert Read is a Norwich City councillor and prospective Green Party MEP for the Eastern Region.

Why did you get involved in the political world?

I believe that this world is, as things stand, on a perilous course, heading for ecological disaster. The relentless pursuit of making money is directly linked to the indifferent exploitation of what are called our ‘natural resources’ (really: natural treasures, not our’s for the taking). There is a better way, and it will yield for us a better way of life, a better quality of life.


When did you join your political party?

2001 (I had been in the LibDems from my childhood ‘til 1999, when I finally gave up on them as sell-outs to neo-liberalism).


Which one law would you repeal?

I would outlaw ‘city academies’.


Which one law would you introduce?

‘Carbon credits’ – Everyone would have a right to a certain (scientifically-determined) amount of personally-generated carbon emissions. And not more. Fair, and climate-stabilising.


What’s your favourite view in the world?

Great Gable from Wastwater, in the Lake District. Wonderful place.


What’s your favourite political quotation?

'The world was not given to us by our parents; it was loaned to us by our children'. A Kenyan proverb, so I’m told.


What music gets you up to dance?

Seize the Day.


Imagine you are planning a dinner party, pick six people (living or dead) to invite

Socrates, Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Petra Kelly, Herman Daly and John Cleese.


What’s your favourite form of transport?

Definitely bike; it has financial, personal health and environmental benefits. Everyone's a winner!


What’s your favourite dish?

Vegetable Karahi.


Do you have any phobias?

I cannot deal with very scary films. (Does that count?)


What’s the last thing you bought in a shop?

Suffolk apple juice.


What is the best speech you have ever heard (and been present at)?

Petra Kelly’s speech to the Oxford Union in 1986. She inspired me for the first time to be some kind of green. A woman of absolute integrity; a real political role-model for me.


Who’s your favourite comedian?

Phil Nichol.


Have you ever cried at a film? Which one(s)?

The Elephant Man – and plenty more.


Which is your favourite political biography or autobiography?

It hasn’t been written yet – what I am waiting for is the true autobiography of the Dalai Lama.


What is your favourite novel?

The First Circle.


Who would you like to say sorry to, and why?

The people of the Middle East who, for far too long, have been on the receiving end of ill-conceived Western policies.


What job would you be doing if you weren’t involved in the political world?

A University Lecturer (luckily, I am doing that job too!)


What’s the best holiday you have been on?

My honeymoon in Devon last month; the place, the company and the occasion were all perfection.


Where in the world would you most like to go on holiday?

Greenland, for the Northern Lights.


When was the last time you used public transport?

The train, yesterday.


What do you collect?

Memories of real people.


What is your most unusual hobby?

Philosophy.


When was the last time you went to the theatre and what did you see?

Several months ago now: ‘The Coalition’, a brilliant home-grown ‘sitcom’ from Norwich, very-loosely-based on events in a country whose name begins with an ‘I’.


Which newspapers do you read regularly?

The Guardian, the Independent and the Eastern Daily Press.


Which websites do you visit regularly?

Twitter.com/TheGreenParty,Green Party, One World ColumnOpen Democracy and Media Lens.


Which blogs do you love or hate?

I very much like Caroline Lucas's blog, Jim Killock’s and Jim Jepps’s.


Which five words would your friends use about you?

Passionate, Compassionate, Intellectual, Engaging and Moral. (I hope)


Which five words would your enemies use about you?

Unyielding, fierce, too-clever-by-half, incorruptible, unpredictable (I hope)


Who is your political hero?

Petra Kelly.


Who is your political hate figure?

Donald Rumsfeld.


What’s your most memorable time in politics?

The moment I heard that we had won the leadership referendum within the Green Party.


What’s your most embarrassing moment in politics?

A blogpost I wrote not that long ago whose misleading title led to several days of damage-limitation and my having to eat humble pie.


What’s your prediction for the next general election?

The Green Party gets its first MP(s). The LibDems do poorly; Labour rally at the last minute but still lose shedloads of seats.


Who is your favourite and least favourite political interviewer?

Favourite: Jon Snow. Least favourite: Jeremy Clarkson.


What do you never miss on TV?

The West Wing.


Which current foreign politician do you most admire?

Cynthia McKinney, the Green Presidential nominee in the States. She is fabulously impressive, the real deal. Move over, Barack!


What do you listen to / watch when you get up in the morning?

‘Today’.


Complete this sentence: The thing I hate about politics is...

... the BNP.


Complete this sentence: The thing I love about politics is...

... hope.


What would you like your political epitaph to be?

He was that rare thing, an honest politician.