GREAT NEWS!

Let’s hope that this is just the start of the breaking up of the Corrupt Labour v. Corrupt Tory State.

good news but it still depends on work on the ground, all you need do is get a train to Brighton, cross the road to the eco centre, press the buzzer for Brighton Green Party and say you have come to help, leafletting and canvassing happening every day from next week.

Likewise I hope people work to get other Green Party candidates elected and re-elected the excellent ind MP Dai Davies, I am also going to be going to Birmingham to help Salma Yaqoob.

Excellent news. Though Caroline Lucas has done a poor job so far, I think, of pushing harder to inform the public about Green policies and ideas.

As a voter in Brighton Pavilion, I think I just missed out on this poll; the guy who rang up before Christmas seemed disappointed that I fell outside his required 18-25 age range.

Still, having read Caroline Lucas’ latest leaflet (which came through the door recently) and looked at the Green Party manifesto, I can confirm that I shall be voting for somebody else. The anti-science rhetoric and fantasy-land economics make a vote for Lucas impossible.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the constituency over the next six months, given local hostility to ‘green’ activities like the SmashEDO campaign.

What percentage of voters said they would vote Labour if they were best placed to beat the Conservatives? Or wasn’t that question asked?

Peter Jackson: The anti-science rhetoric and fantasy-land economics make a vote for Lucas impossible.

And who are you leaning towards… the Tories?

The poll was only for 18-25 year olds?? The people least likely to vote.

Sunny is right – Lucas has been a poor leader of the Green party and the wider Green movement. At a time when consciousness of Green issues has been higher than ever before, the Green party has been conspicuously absent from the public debate.

“The poll was only for 18-25 year olds??”

No:

“*ICM Research interviewed a random sample of 533 adults aged 18+ by telephone on 16-21st December 2009. Interviews were conducted across the political constituency of Brighton Pavilion and the results have been weighted to the profile of all Brighton Pavilion adults”

http://www.gos.gov.uk/gose/factgose/brighton/

The student population is approximately 32,000, many of whom stay all year round. These attend two universities (Sussex University at Falmer, and the University of Brighton) and five colleges of further education (BHASVIC, Varndean College, City College, Portslade Community College, Plumpton college). As a result the city has a high 20 to 29 year old age group (17 per cent of residents compared to 12.6 per cent in England and Wales).

So a large proportion of the adult population are still going through their “smash the system” phase. That explains it. I see that Salma Yaqoob is now Green. Well, that’s handy. I think the man in the street can spot a bandwagon when he sees one.

That bloke who was the Green’s original candidate in Brighton Pavilion must now be especially miffed that Caroline Lucas parachuted herself in as the PPC!

Keith Taylor to his credit fully supports Caroline Lucas. As for economic illiteracy, perhaps one should question the common economic lunacy espoused by the main parties.

No, Sunny, I’m not leaning towards the Tories at even the gentlest of angles.

And I assumed that when the pollster asked for my age he was trying to fill his sampling quotas of people in different age ranges.

Still, a lot of the population in the constituency does seem to tend towards the younger and trendier end of the spectrum. The local nickname for where I live is Muesli Mountain.

Still, a lot of the population in the constituency does seem to tend towards the younger and trendier end of the spectrum. The local nickname for where I live is Muesli Mountain.

mmmm….. I love muesli. Anyway – you say that like being a student or perhaps ‘trendy’ is a disease. Liberal people will elect people who chime with their politics. Who would have thought eh?

If perhaps you could elaborate on the ‘anti-science and fantasy land economics’ stuff I’d be grateful, and point to any party which doesn’t gravitate towards either.

Does anyone on the left actually like muesli? Let alone wear sandals, in weather like this?

Even if the constituency has a lot of 18-25 year olds, greenies should bear in mind four things:

1) 18-25 year olds are the least likely to vote.
2) The Green Party’s candidate came third last time, not even a close second.
3) There will be a national Tory-Labour squeeze at the general election: people will either want a Tory MP, or if they don’t they will vote Labour to keep the Tories out. Greens will be slaughtered.
4) Caroline Lucas spends most of her time in Brussels because she doesn’t want to miss out on her EU gravytrain, so the other candidates (esp the Labour one, Nancy Platts) are considered to be more local and have more time to canvass etc – see posts critical of Lucas from the left-wing Brighton Politics Blog: http://brightonpoliticsblogger.wordpress.com/

Oh dear….

http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/blog/archives/2394

It appears the Greens skewed the poll by releasing a constituency-wide leaflet just before it was commissioned, and by asking a question that would favour them rather than give the most accurate picture of voting intentions.

Dirty tricks! Nice! So much for the “nice” party

Ah, John Booth, I see in the comments on that link, that someone compared Brighton to San Francisco. That figures. Incidentally, if I have any kind of reputation here, it’s as an evil right-wing reactionary. I like muesli, and wear sandals in the summer. And to boot, I have a beard, quite a disorderly one, but not a proper beard by my standards: a proper beard would have dried porridge, Scotch broth, and, yes, muesli in it. But the other half won’t let me descend to that level. And one of the benefits of getting older is supposed to be the opportunity to let yourself go! Societal pressure, see.

John Booth,

That link you provided is quite interesting. There may also be other factors at work though. Caroline Lucas has a national profile. Tory votes could slip away to UKIP, the election could be called during college breaks, etc, etc…

I think the poll tells us that there is all to play for for both the Tories and the Greens.

well your Brighton blogger is now saying http://brightonpoliticsblogger.wordpress.com/2009/12/30/tactical-voting-it-must-be-green-in-brighton-pavilion/

Any way its your right to talk up the Conservatives, shame so many of them are climate sceptics,

Derek Wall,

Were you commenting on my post at 18?

I have no view on how this will work out.

It would be true to say I hate Conservatives, but that would be a different matter.

I am not, currently, willing to gamble on Caroline Lucas. I thought I made that obvious.

Despite that, I wish her well.

@19 Derek Wall: “…shame so many of them are climate sceptics”

What is so especially evil about climate sceptics? The organic farming movement was founded by those who were sceptical about industrial farming. (I’m not a total believer in organic farming, but there’s merit in some of the methodology.) The first co-operatives were established by practical sceptics.

There is nothing wrong with scepticism. Indeed, it’s a good thing.

’21 Climate sceptics aren’t sceptics in the good sense of the term. They come in two types:

Climate crooks (or climate genocidal killers) – people who knowingly lie about the issue for money eg James Delingpole

Climate idiots (or klimate klutzes) – people who believe the trash put out by the climate crooks and think this makes them genuine scientific sceptics.

Happy New Year!

http://community.livejournal.com/green_party_uk/62131.html

I’m afraid the Green Party has got form on this. The Green Party commissioned a Res Com poll before the European elections which showed, contrary to all other polls the Green Party on 15% just ahead of the Liberal Democrats and 11% ahead of UKIP. They release the results a day before the elections to make sure otheer polls couldn’t contradict it. The result was the Green Party getting less than 10%. In the Norwich North by-election the Green Party persuaded the media they were contenders, as it was UKIP (who the BBC excluded from a debate) beat the Green Party. Green Party activists from all around the country have been beating a path to Brighton, canvassing and leafleting just before the poll was taken (think carbon footprint guys), to influence the result.

Finn: your remarks are extremely ill-informed. The ComRes poll was indeed commissioned by us, just as polls are frequently commissioned by other political parties. But the commissioner _doesn’t_ call the tune. _ComRes_ did the poll, with a question worded just like other poll questions, etc. . We were as amazed by the results as everyone else was. We didn’t wait to announce the results – they were announced immediately. So what you are saying here is simply false.
In Norwich North, the media talked us up; we by contrast kept on pointing out that ‘Norwich North’ is mostly rural Broadland (only one in four of those who voted in the byelection were Norwich City residents; and we have no City Councillors in Norwich North). As for the result in Norwich North: the fact that each of UKIP, the Tories and the LibDems spent between 5 and ten times as much money as we did may have had something to do with the result (which was still our best result anywhere ever in a byelection, by some margin). Until political parties are publicly funded, it is going to be hard for a Party like us Greens to compete on the unequal playing field. I would hope that LibCon readers at least can understand that.
Having said that, I think that we are going to do VERY well in Brighton Pavillion and in Norwich South, this May. This poll from Brighton is very exciting indeed.

Finn: your remarks are extremely ill-informed. The ComRes poll was indeed commissioned by us, just as polls are frequently commissioned by other political parties. But the commissioner _doesn’t_ call the tune. _ComRes_ did the poll, with a question worded just like other poll questions, etc. . We were as amazed by the results as everyone else was. We didn’t wait to announce the results – they were announced immediately. So what you are saying here is simply false.
In Norwich North, the media talked us up; we by contrast kept on pointing out that ‘Norwich North’ is mostly rural Broadland (only one in four of those who voted in the byelection were Norwich City residents; and we have no City Councillors in Norwich North). As for the result in Norwich North: the fact that each of UKIP, the Tories and the LibDems spent between 5 and ten times as much money as we did may have had something to do with the result (which was still our best result anywhere ever in a byelection, by some margin). Until political parties are publicly funded, it is going to be hard for a Party like us Greens to compete on the unequal playing field. I would hope that LibCon readers at least can understand that.
Having said that, I think that we are going to do VERY well in Brighton Pavillion and in Norwich South, this May. This poll from Brighton is very exciting indeed.

Why do you need state funding, when you have rich Tories funding you?
Perhaps the Tories realise that in many constituencies it’s a case of vote Green get Blue!

_Who_ are the rich Tories funding the Green Party???

Well she may be the first purely green MP, but Cynog Dafis in the 90′s was a combined Green/Plaid Cymru MP in the Ceredigion seat.

According to Electoral Commission Zac and Ben Goldsmith. Donations to local parties in the South West and South East.

In response to comment 4. made by Peter Jackson, can you explain what you mean by ‘anti-science rhetoric and fantasy-land economics’ please.

Further, I feel it is unfair to describe the SmashEDO campaign as a ‘green’ activity. And to clarify, as far as I am aware it is not linked to, or endorsed by the Green Party so shouldn’t affect local opinion of the party.