I know this blog has a raison d’etre of bettering the nation of Scotland but I’m going to briefly interrupt proceedings to post on London council elections. No wait, where are you going, come back! This’ll only take a moment…
The London Borough elections of 2010 saw 1,861 councillors elected to their posts. I don’t know what the expectations were for the Green Party in the UK’s capital but they returned 2 councillors which I would ordinarily have thought was a poor result but, from the little I know of how elections work here, I know infact that it was actually just an unfair result.
There is an upcoming by-election for nearby Kentish Town in the area of Camden next month and this could see the Green Party increase its number of councillors by 50% if it were to win. Labour are probably favourites and, were they to win, they would increase their representation in the city by 0.114%. A bit of a difference you could say.
Indeed, if one were to look at the 2010 election results as a whole they would see what an uphill struggle the Green Party is fighting against in a local context.
The Labour party won 876 councillors, the Conservatives 717, the Lib Dems 245 and the Greens, as I say, 2. This result was with 3,388,437 votes for Labour, 3,301,966 for the Conservatives, 2,094,530 for the Lib Dems and 443,498 for the Greens.
Put another way, Labour received 3,868 votes for every councillor position it won, the Conservatives received 4,605 votes for every councillor, the Lib Dems received 8,549 votes for every councillor and the Greens received a whopping 221,749 votes for every councillor.
All parties talk of wanting fairness, all parties talk of a new politics. So, not that I’m suggesting the local Green Party isn’t up for a challenge, but shouldn’t all the other parties just sit out this Kentish Town by-election and let an organic justice take place?
Sadly it doesn’t work that way so it’ll be an old-skool winner takes all affair in Kentish Town. Good thing the Greens believe fairness is worth fighting for because they have a battle on their hands on that score.
Source: Borough Council Election Results
#1 by jim jepps on October 1, 2010 - 6:12 pm
I think we can give Labour a good run for its money in Kentish Town and it will be interesting to see where the Lib Dem vote goes as, in the capital, the LD vote is rather left and so they may see a disproportionate hit in places like Kentish Town.
I’m legally bound to point out at this stage that there are *two* exciting by council elections in London at the moment, in other in Ladywell, Lewisham – where I live. People who want to get involved can go here.
We lost out in this ward by just over 60 votes in May and, without the general election boost in turnout the Greens have a *very* strong chance of winning the seat.
Good luck in Kentish Town, i know we can get a good result there.
#2 by Jeff on October 1, 2010 - 10:10 pm
Thanks Jim, didn’t realise there was another (even more winnable) contest on. Would’ve given it a plug otherwise. Lib Dems have held a few by-elections this year already I believe so I’ll accept a crumbling when I see it. Mind you, maybe it’s possible to chart where the left wing LD vote is and where the Orange book righter wing LD vote is going by by-election results?
Anyway, game on in London as they say. Green representation may be doubled by Christmas! Criminy….
#3 by Natalie Bennett on October 1, 2010 - 7:28 pm
Well we’ve selected a fine candidate, Naomi Aptowitzer, and the Lib Dems have made an “interesting” choice – a man with a bit of history.
Naomi will be found on Kentish Town High street between 11 and 1 on Saturday if you fancy helping out there or with some leafletting, and we’ll be out canvassing on Sunday – contact me if you fancy joining that.
#4 by Jeff on October 1, 2010 - 10:41 pm
Thanks Natalie, I hadn’t seen that article on Naomi and certainly didn’t know the background to the ‘stormtrooper’ opponent (!). I’m belatedly planning my weekend now so may well assist with one of the two days.
#5 by John Ruddy on October 1, 2010 - 9:34 pm
I think this is something that the Greens can take a leaf out of the Lib Dems books. They are renowned for concentrating their efforts in ‘winnable seats’, rather than spreading themselves thin. It has taken time, but they certainly have much better representation which has built up over the last 15 or so years, both at a local and national level.
Now I dont know the local circumstances in London, but if the Greens had concentrated efforts in certain boroughs, or even certain wards, they would probably have had more councillors (though maybe not as much as their overall vote woudl suggest).
#6 by jim jepps on October 1, 2010 - 9:50 pm
John, sadly we were targeting hard and fought really good campaigns in our target seats. Although not everything went to plan I genuinely think we’d have been hard pressed to fight a better and more focused campaign… yet the tide was against us on the day and we have to recognise that sometimes you’re going to get beaten.
Thankfully in these by elections and the next councils in London many of the same factors wont be in play so we’re working for our big come back!
#7 by John Ruddy on October 1, 2010 - 11:02 pm
Thanks for the update, Jim. As I said I wasnt aware of the circumstances there. I think the Greens will do better in future, especially as they will be likely to take votes off the Lib Dems.
#8 by Phil Hunt on October 2, 2010 - 10:01 pm
The solution, obviously, is PR. This is equally true for the Greens and for all the other small parties.
The best way to get PR, IMO, is to campaign for AV at the referendum next year, and then at the subsequent general election all the parties that favour PR could campaign for 1st preference votes and recommend to voters that they give their lower preferences to other pro-PR parties.
Under FPTP, politics degenerates into a two party system where new parties (and therefore new ideas) can’t get a look-in. Therefore for any new or small parties, for them to achieve any of their goals through Westminster, first they must achieve PR. (The same is also true of English local government, which also uses FPTP).
AV can be the first step of the road to achieving PR. If the referendum fails, then we lose the possibility of real political reform at Westminster, and it therefore follows that Scotland should become independent, rather than shackle itself to the corpse that the UK will be.
#9 by Jeff on October 2, 2010 - 10:33 pm
Yep, well argued Phil. I’m coming back round again to voting Yes. If you wait ages for political representation to come around, it does seem silly to turn your nose up at that very thing, just because it doesn’t go far enough. I like the plan of Greens coming top preference in AV but not getting fair representation being a reason to push further. I hadn’t thought of that.
#10 by James on October 2, 2010 - 11:40 pm
It’s a strong argument, and well put as Jeff says, but it’s not the only issue an election decides. If the BNP or UKIP say they’re pro-PR, should we not argue for specific pro-PR parties as second preferences? Backing the Lib Dems tactically has gotten the country into a Tory hole: should we really urge a second preference for them and risk more of this coalition?
One might as well argue for Green first votes and then second preference the party that’s second greenest (although for the life of me I can’t identify one).
#11 by Phil Hunt on October 3, 2010 - 12:37 am
Assuming an AV general election in 2015, I’d be happy to give UKIP a higher preference than any of the parties that’re against PR — my initial preferences would probably go 1. Pirate (assuming we run a candidate), 2. Green, 3. Lib Dem, 4. UKIP. That’s assuming Labour are against PR, and my order of pro-PR parties obviously depends on their other policies.
While the Greens and UKIP do not see eye to eye on policy, they are both in the same position regarding FPTP since it denies them representation. Therefore it would make sense for both parties to co-operate on this issue as it is in their common interest to do so; they could both say something like “we don’t particularly agree with the policies of UKIP/Greens, but we recognise that lots of people vote for them and that as a consequence, in a democracy they are entitled to representation in parliament.
I would be very reluctant to vote BNP, in any circumstance. Though I might if I thought it would send a message to the government that I’m against arresting people for denying the holocaust or burning Korans — free speech, if it means anything at all, is the right to say things that offend others, and as a consequence there can be no right not to be offended.
#12 by jim jepps on October 3, 2010 - 12:21 am
I’m going to disagree 🙂
The solution to these two by elections is to fight them hard and win them. In Ladywell we’re the favourites to win (although nothing is ever certain) and in Kentish Town we *are* one of the main players.
If we want representation in the her and now (and we do) we have a good and realistic couple of chances under the current system – we’re not locked out in Ladtwell, it is the other parties who cower before us 🙂