Elections 2008

5 comments from readers

david seddon
03 May 2008 at 07:57

There can be no doubt, as Caroline Lucas observes, that the Greens are beginning to make themslves felt increasingly across the country. It is a pity that the media and the pundits brought in to discuss trends and tendencies in the local elections and the mayoral contest did not broaden their perspective beyond the old three party results to discuss such impoprtant results. Even the candidates' speeches after the results of the mayoral election were ignored, after the first three were broadcast, although the Greens did remarkably well there too. It is up to Green party members, however, to bring all their efforts to bear now on the media and more importantly the general public to ensure recognition of 'the Green political phenomenon, and to ensure that Green policy in all of the major political fields, domestic and international, is presented cogently and coherently.

Roland Baker
03 May 2008 at 18:18

Dr Lucas is right to point to the encouraging night for the Greens across the country, although mostly concentrated in Norfolk and Cambridge. She refers to Brighton Pavilion as her own constituency. Her own constituency is the South East European Parliamentary seat that she holds for the UK region of the European Union.

The Greens may be on their way to UK Parliamentary representation, but the London Mayoral results show how much work is yet to do.

Siân Berry got 3.15% of the vote, the BNP got 2.84%. In the London Assembly, the Green Party kept the two seats it had. It lost none and it won none. The BNP gained 1 seat to GLA representation for the first time. The Greens got one third of the vote of the Lib Dems and 10% of the vote for Labour.

Preference voting in Parliamentary Elections anyone?

greenladywell
03 May 2008 at 23:25

Roland, with that kind of selective use of statistics you can surely only be a Lib Dem?! Let's look at the last general election results for Brighton Pavilion (the Westminster seat for which Caroline, MEP for the South-East, which obviously includes Brighton), has been selected as the Green PPC for:

2005 results:

Conservative: 10397 (23.9%)

Labour: 15427 (35.4%)

Liberal Democrat: 7171 (16.5%)

Green: 9530 (21.9%)

UKIP: 508 (1.2%)

Other: 506 (1.2%)

Majority: 5030 (11.6%)

Since then, of course, Labour have lost overall control of the Council and Greens have doubled their number of cllr seats from 6 to 12. So yes, we'd like PR and think it's a fairer system, but in the meantime, we're going to have a good shot at winning this under the current FPTP system.

Roland Baker
05 May 2008 at 15:01

greenladywell #3:

I am not a member of any political party, although I am contracted in to the Political Levy of my Trade Union, UNITE, which goes to the Labour Party.

I did not use selective statistics, I interpreted the results of an electorate of 5 million with a 45% turnout - much more representative than the low turnout in most of the other local government elections:

http://results.londonelects.org.uk/Results/MayoralResult.asp...

I wish Dr Lucas well in fighting Brighton Pavilion for the UK Parliament. She has an excellent track record as MEP for the South East. She deserves the vote to be a Constituency Member in her own right. It is premature though for her to claim it as her own until she has actually won.

Roland Baker
05 May 2008 at 15:04

Sorry, the hyperlink should be:

http://results.londonelects.org.uk/Results/MayoralResult.asp...