Ricky Knight recently retired after 30 years of teaching. He has been a councillor for seven years, stood for North Devon in the last general election and was the SW lead candidate in the 2009 European Elections, when the Greens soundly beat Labour into fifth place with 144,000 votes. He has been a Green Party activist for more than 25 years and was the South West GP co-ordinator. Knight's partner, L'Anne Knight, is the Green Party candidate for North Devon, as Ricky has moved to the Bristol West constituency, where he is working full-time on their election strategy, promoting their policies on transport, jobs, public services and energy.