1/ It& #39;s the final day of voting. The campaign is done - you all know my message by now - so I& #39;m going to tell a story instead.

As some of you know from my bio, I got involved in the sport of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) back in 2000.

2/ It was a very niche sport that few people had heard of, that was frequently misrepresented in the media, and faced calls from overzealous local councillors trying to ban it.

Women& #39;s MMA barely existed at the time.

3/ Comments on internet forums (& occasional radio phone ins) were all about how women& #39;s combat sports were unseemly, uncivilised, or just "a joke".

We were repeatedly told that women would never compete in the UFC (the largest mixed martial arts promotion)...

4/... That nobody was interested in watching it. That there was no market for it. Yet despite that the female fighters of my generation built a sport.

In 2013 I became the first British woman to fight in the UFC. Now I& #39;ve moved on to other things, but the progress has continued.

5/ I won& #39;t pretend that things are perfect - but I& #39;m so proud to see the cultural shift that has happened in the last two decades. A shift that I was part of, in real time. A shift that even many supporters couldn& #39;t see coming.

What does all this have to do with Green politics?

6/ The thing about cultural shifts is that before they happen they seem impossible. After they happen, they seem inevitable.

7/ I believe that the Green Party is just on the cusp of something huge. I believe that if we play it correctly, we can bring together the progressive vote.

I believe that to do this we need to be serious about...

... but you know the rest.

Let& #39;s get serious.

#ROSI4LEADER https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💚" title="Grünes Herz" aria-label="Emoji: Grünes Herz">