The Next General Election
Unless Brown calls a snap election in the next month or so, we’ll have a General Election by June of next year whether we like it or not.
Personally, I couldn’t care less. Like the famous South Park episode, this election will offer the tempting choice between a giant douche and a turd sandwich.
Now I know the usual Labour commenters will hurl a volley of abuse at me. About how the Tories are so much evil’r – and of course, they are. But seriously, having been a Labour-leaning voter and blogger for many years, I have become to view this relationship as an abusive one. Labour kicked the stuffing out of me, and I just put up with it.
Greens need to learn how to grow
Last week Sian Berry, the Green candidate for London Mayor, picked a fight with some of the Grand Old Men of the green movement over their ambivalence about nuclear power.
On her blog, she referred to the Grand Old Men as: “…chaps [who] have a few physical and biographical characteristics in common, largely a tendency to be over 45 with the haircut of a WW2 fighter pilot and the experience to know better than play so crudely into the hands of an industry on the make.”
This drew a spectacularly bitter response from George Monbiot, who announced that he was so cross at this “stupidity” that he’d have to think very carefully about whether he could bring himself to vote Green in the future.
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The tactical case for supporting Greens at Euros
The next big electoral test in this country is the Euro-elections, next June. I’m the lead Green Party candidate for Eastern Region, one of our two top target Regions (the other being NorthWest) for the Euro-elections.
So what?, some of you may ask. “What has all this got to do with me? What do I, as a Socialist / Labour supporter / LibDem / independent care about the Green Party’s performance next June?”
The answer lies bang in the centre of the ‘remit’ of Liberal Conspiracy: because of the electoral system that the Euro-elections are fought under, and because of the arithmetic.
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Extending abortion rights to N. Ireland
The abortion law in England, Scotland and Wales is far from perfect. The unnecessary two-rule, the restrictions that prevent women who choose to do so completing medical abortions at home, the prevention of nurses and midwives providing the service. But those problems are slight compared to the situation for women in Northern Ireland, where women have almost no access to abortion at all.
As a result of past and present cowardice, grubby dealmaking and other political skulduggery, the 1967 Abortion Act that applies in England, Scotland and Wales does not apply in Northern Ireland. The basic rules date back to 1927 – but there are no clear guidelines. So only 70 to 80 abortions are carried out each year in Northern Ireland, under extremely restrictive conditions.
Otherwise, by the official count, more than 1,300 women last year, and 50,000 women over the past 40 years, have had to travel to England, Wales or Scotland, or even further afield, and to pay for their abortion, since if they give a Northern Ireland address they cannot have an NHS abortion.
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Lucas: Greens can take on BNP
Caroline Lucas, who is standing to be the Green Party’s first leader in September, today issued a stark warning that only the Green Party has the answers to combat the BNP. continue reading… »
Can the Greens avoid factional fighting?
The Green Party leadership elections managed some media coverage last week:
A major row is currently brewing which is threatening to split the Green Party in two. For the first time in their history, the Greens are about to launch a leadership contest involving two candidates, the MEP Caroline Lucas (pictured) and the actor Ashley Gunstock, best known for his role as PC Frank in the long-running ITV show The Bill.
In the lead-up to the contest, the party’s operational wing, the Standing Orders Committee, took the unusual decision to publish the contact details of 7,000 members to help candidates lobby for votes. The move has caused uproar in the party, which prides itself on its defence of civil liberties. More than 100 party members have signed an angry letter of protest, questioning the legality of the decision under the Data Protection Act.
This isn’t an issue because no-one proposed to publish members’ details – and no-one asked for them. The members quoted in opposition deliberately distort the debate which did take place.
So whence the Indy column?
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Where will the Greens go from here?
For years, the Green Party operated on a system of collective leadership. Up until 1991 it had 6 co-principal speakers. Since then it’s had two. That’s led to certain groups labelling the Greens as political amateurs – with good hearts, but no idea of what to do.
But last summer the party voted by a margin of 73% to elect a single leader. The Yes campaign argued that a leader was necessary for the party to ever achieve its full potential. The bulk of the party agreed – and so this September the Greens will have their first leadership elections.
The story so far
The first nomination came in last Monday. Caroline Lucas (pictured), at present an MEP and a principal speaker, launched a campaign focused on radical politics delivered with a professional punch. Her website summed up the message:
On climate change, scientists tell us that the next 10 years will be critical in terms of whether we have any chance of avoiding the worst of climate chaos. It is still the case that only the Green Party has both the radical policies, and the political commitment, that are so desperately needed to ensure that we do.
And on social justice, we face a country more unequal than it has been for decades. Only the Green Party has coherent alternatives to government policies that are privatising public services, increasing inequalities, and leading to greater violence and exclusion.
Lucas wants the party to provide discontented liberals and lefties with a credible home. Recent events and policies clearly show the party to be of that liberal-left; where else could a party that challenged David Davis as too authoritarian sit? The energy is clearly there, and Caroline Lucas says she’ll provide the professional quality to bring that vision to the voter.
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Davis and Greens win big in Haltemprice
David Davis has won the by-election, according to Sky News, with a total of 17,113 votes. The Green Party’s Shan Oakes came second with 1,758 votes, which is also great news.
A BBC News article says turnout was at 35%, much higher than expected and very high for a single-issue election.
Worth noting:
The turnout was comparable to most by-elections.
This was a single issue by-election;
It faced a lot of hostility from the media
It was a very safe seat and Davis had no opponents who could unseat him.
That makes a 35% turnout much higher than expected.
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Where to now, Labour left?
Until very recently I would broadly have fallen into the category of the ‘Labour Left’.
I was never totally comfortable with attempts by sections of the left to pull away from the Labour Party, which I had been brought up since childhood to see as “my” party, and which latterly I had come to see as a vehicle via which the Labour Movement could exercise its influence in the party political field: Lenin’s classic formulation of the “bourgeois workers’ party” could not describe it better.
In spite of a brief spell as a member of the Socialist Alliance, I quickly rejoined Labour and argued tooth and nail with comrades that things hadn’t changed so very much. It is now self-evident that I was wrong.
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Liking the Green broadcast
The party political broadcast from the Greens aired last night. I have to say – well done on them for taking a different and innovative approach. I quite liked it, though it sort of gives you a headache the second time. Here it is…
Also worth a mention is this Fantasy Mayor game published by the New Statesman. via jim jay.
When Greens go Brown…
What’s in it for them, eh? That must have crossed your mind on reading this chirpy piece from Green London mayoral candidate Siân Berry in the New Statesman hitching her wagon to the Labour party. continue reading… »
Vote Green and Ken?
[Note: LC's been had some server issues yesterday. I blame the weather]
The Green Party’s Sian Berry and Ken Livingstone have made a pact to sort-of endorse each other. More than anything, the move says Ken is seriously worried about his re-election chances.
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Greens overturn old structure
Rupert Read at comment is free reports that the Green Party has “voted overwhelmingly” (by 73% to 27%) to elect one leader instead of two principal speakers.
The big Green question
There has been much discussion here on whether the Green Party can be an effective political vehicle for liberal-lefties in Britain, by David and Donald. This weekend Green party members decide whether it should ditch its system of having two principle speakers, representing each sex, in favour of a party leader system. The public overwhelmingly supports such a move, though it’s unclear whether the change will make it more electorally successful. Westminister Hour recently did a report on the issue. What do readers think, Good or bad idea? I’m somewhat in favour of change. Surely the focus should be on good policies not the structure; why be different for its own sake?
Update: Paul Linford also agrees.
Swedes and Greens
I’ve never been much of a joiner. Even though I’ve worked as a writer/journalist for a few years, I only sent my form off to the NUJ last month. The Union, the Tartan Army, the Tufty Club… and, er, that’s about it. Still, I have given recent thought to joining my local Green Party – so I read Dave Osler’s recent piece: Green Party: vehicle for the British left? (and there), with interest.
Like Dave, I doubt the Greens can build a systematic left-wing alternative to Labour, now properly classified as a ‘centre-right’ not a ‘left’ party. But I do believe the popularity of mainstream greenish politics offers something. A ‘moment’, perhaps, for slipping something with a progressive flavour in with the recycling. A reasonable place to look for inspiration is Sweden.
Sweden’s Green Party have just finished 8 years as junior coalition partners in a red-green government. Top of their list of achievements was the inauguration, in January 2005, of a so-called Alternation Leave policy. Under this scheme, 12,000 Swedes have the annual opportunity to take a government subsidized sabbatical from work (similar to parental leave, but without a baby). Three main conditions apply: employer consent is required; the vacancy may only be covered by recruiting from the pool of current unemployed; you may not work while on leave, except to start a new business.
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Green Party: vehicle for the British left?
The website of Red Pepper magazine is currently hosting a debate on whether or not the democratic left should fill out Green Party membership application forms. The opening shot is written by gay rights activist Peter Tatchell, a former Labour parliamentary candidate who will contest Oxford East for the Greens at the next general election. Other contributions come from Clare Short. Jon Cruddas, Chris Smith and Neal Lawson. Here’s the case I make for being a member of New Labour, despite and not because of its track record in office:
Greetings from member L0093001 of Hackney North and Stoke Newington CLP. Yes, after devoting most of my political energies for over a decade to arguing and actively working for a new political party of the left – even writing a book making an extended case as to why such a party is essential – I last year decided to rejoin the Labour Party.
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