Alan's Green Thoughts

Ladies and gentlemen, more local by-election results featuring Green candidates have come in-just two yesterday,though. Lambeth, Vassall: Labour 1319 (59.8%), Lib Dem 468 (21.2%), Con 153 (6.9%), Green 113 (5.1%), UKIP 87 (3.9%), TUSC 44 (2.0%), SPGB 22 (1.0%). St. Helens, Billinge & Seneley Green: Labour 936 (50.7%), UKIP 442 (24.0%), Con 248 (13.4%), Green 94 (5.1%) , BNP 73 (4.0%), Lib Dem 52 (2.8%). With the Liberal Democrats in serious decline locally as well as nationally, Labour is asserting considerable dominance in areas like Lambeth which have never had any real Conservative support-which even there is being damaged by UKIP which generally performs poorly in London. In the St. Helens local by-election, Labour's vote share decreased significantly when UKIP came onto the scene- it is clear in local by-elections in the North of England that UKIP can damage both Labour and Conservative votes alike (Conservative votes even more so). At least we Greens held our own ...

Readers, it has recently emerged that the couple arrested for enslaving women for many years in a small house in South London were key members of a Maoist cult called the 'Workers Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought' which only existed for a few years in the 1970s. Police raided its premises in 1978, and the group went underground and effectively ceased to exist. This Maoist cult does not tell British people (whatever Tariq Ali and the Guardian say) all about the far-left (which include more than just Maoists!); it just tells us what many seasoned socialists already know-Maoism would never in a democratic context expand beyond cult status. British Communist Party leader Robert Griffiths is right to denounce this Maoist cult as 'more of psychiatric interest than political interest, which had nothing to do with mainstream left-wing politics of the day'. The same could be said of most Maoist cults, in my honest opinion. Maoism was only ever implemented by ...

Readers, the results of the four Canadian by-elections, held yesterday at the height of the Senate scandal, which is characteristic of Stephen Harper's right-wing, authoritarian-leaning, neoliberal administration,  are now in. Toronto Centre's by-election, with 11 candidates, was the most interesting of these four, and for some period in the past (before the infamous 1993 Canadian election, where the then Progressive Conservative government went from a majority to losing almost all representation in the Canadian House of Commons) was a Conservative-Liberal marginal. This was the only one of the four by-elections where the social democratic New Democratic Party (NDP)'s vote increased-this time at the expense of the Conservatives rather than the Liberals,from which it took a lot of votes at the last Canadian federal election in 2011. The Conservatives here retained third place but their vote share fell to 8.7%-their worst ever share in this seat (which they held in the 19...

Readers, I am pleased to report that socialist Michele Bachelet is likely to be re-elected as President of Chile after a break, given some of the damage Sebastian Pineira has done in his short tenure. The main problem is that while Mrs. Bachelet's socialist alliance did win a majority of seats in the Chilean Chamber of Deputies, it did not gain the two-thirds majority needed to implement major changes to the Pinochet-constructed constitution of Chile, which enforces basically a neoliberal system in many areas. At least the raising of taxes on the wealthy will mean some progress. The systems implemented in the Chilean constitution, including the 'binomial system' (which makes it practically impossible for any party other than the two largest to get representation) are almost as bad as the European Union's current constitutional system, where only the unelected and unaccountable European Commission can initiate legislation despite the requiring of the European Parliame...

In case you are a Green who is also interested in seeing how Green parties across the globe are doing, I would like to inform you about four Canadian federal by-elections that will take place tomorrow, and Canada's Green Party has candidates in all four of these: They will take place in the ridings (Canadian term for constituencies) of:  Bourassa, Quebec (nominally safe Liberal seat) Provencher, Manitoba (nominally safe Conservative seat) Toronto Centre, Ontario (nominally safe Liberal seat, this by-election features 11 candidates, unusual by Canadian standards) Brandon-Souris, Manitoba (nominally safe Conservative seat) I wish all the Canadian Greens taking part tomorrow the best of luck. Alan.

Readers of my blog, we are this point only one year away from the Scottish Independence Referendum of 2014. And in other news, First Minister for Wales Carwyn Jones is on the cusp of winning important tax powers for the Welsh Assembly, which unfairly has less power for Wales than the Scottish Parliament has for Scotland. One thing I have noticed about many strong SNP areas is that they previously had a strong Conservative presence (and the Scottish Conservative vote in SNP-held seats is often quite high compared to the urban areas of Scotland, where Conservative support is very poor indeed). Whereas in Wales, many strong areas for Plaid Cymru have or had a strong Liberal presence, which was replaced by Labour as the Liberals declined in the 1950s and 1960s. This brings me onto the 'Northern Irish paradox', derived from the fact that Northern Irish seats are divided along unionist/nationalist lines, with some strongly unionist, some strongly nationalist, and others in the ma...

Here are some more local by-election results involving Green candidates, this time from 21/11/2013: Kirklees, Golcar: Lib Dem 1591 (47.6%), Lab 901 (27.0%), UKIP 450 (13.5%), Green 210 (6.3%) , Con 189 (5.7%). Rugby, Kilmorton: Con 400 (33.0%), Lab 339 (28.0%), UKIP 231 (19.1%), Lib Dem 221 (18.2%), Green 21 (1.7%). Scarborough, Eastfield: Lab 310 (48.8%), UKIP 175 (27.6%), Ind G 97 (15.3%), Con 32 (5.0%), Green 11 (1.7%), Ind M 10 (1.6%). The gain in Kirklees by the Lib Dems from Labour was quite a shock-what was going on there? With regards to Scarborough, this seat was actually Lib Dem held, but the Lib Dem selected to defend that seat withdrew for personal reasons, which have not been disclosed clearly. It is worth remembering that despite UKIP's fall in the polls, it still somehow gets many protest votes in local by-elections, as shown here. In other news, today marks the 50th anniversary of the infamous assassination of US President John Kennedy by Lee Harvey Os...

First of all, Owen Jones is right to put Northern Conservative Bernard Ingham straight: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/bernard-ingham-says-northerners-who-loathe-the-tories-are-demented-perhaps-i-can-put-him-straight-8952552.html It is also clear that the Conservatives in the North of England, and also Scotland and much of Wales, deserved to enter their long decline, which is being exacerbated further by UKIP, as local and Westminster by-election results from the North of England show. The infamous poll tax was first introduced to Scotland before it was introduced to England and Wales, and that is one of the major factors in the decline of the Scottish Conservative vote. The Hillsborough disaster of 1989, and the collusion of the police (generally respected by Conservative voters to a good degree) and the pro-Conservative Sun newspaper in covering up evidence started a terminal decline in the Liverpudlian Conservative vote. Now, this time around, the Conservatives ...

Today, ladies and gentlemen, the infamous Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, claimed that the super-rich were a 'put-upon minority' and compared their treatment to that given to 'travellers and homeless people' in his speech. Boris is completely wrong- the super-rich may be a small minority, but they are not put-upon. The criticism levelled against the deeds of the rich and super-rich is ,in any case, well-deserved. The reckless actions of the super-rich (especially the bankers) are what caused the economic crisis of 2008 in the first place, and yet they still refuse to admit fault and in fact want to get even richer whilst the rest of us suffer for no good reason at all. As with regards to his ridiculous notion that the super-rich should get knighthoods and/or other honours-not only should wealth alone not be a mark of honour, but also, the honours system should be scrapped anyway, as it is unnecessary, wasteful, divisive, and undemocratic. It is no surprise that reno...

As a member of Amnesty International, I am a strong supporter of human rights and action on human rights and against such things as capital punishment, torture, detention without trial, the arms trade, forced evictions, and unjustifiable discrimination. Nearly one year ago today, an almost-certainly innocent man in the USA, Preston Hughes III, was executed, aged 46, in the US state of Texas (which has executed over 500 people in just over 30 years), for a 1988 murder even though the evidence generally points away from him, as the Skeptical Juror pointed out on his blog numerous times.  Sad stories of wrongful executions like those of Mr. Hughes are well known in the USA and elsewhere. The USA may be notorious for this but as the case of Hakamada Iwao,77, of Japan-the world's longest serving death row inmate-shows, the fundamental problems with capital punishment, in addition to the risk of executing an innocent person, are not just confined to the USA. Many states that practice...

Yesterday, I was confirmed by my students' union, Hertfordshire Students Union, that I have been elected to represent them at the next National Union of Students Conference in 2014. This time, I only just got through, though, in a close fight between 7 opponents, despite my previous good record of representing my union, and making sure it has a voice within NUS. This brings me onto the importance of democracy in human society-and why dictatorships always fail, eventually. Before civilisation as we knew it, human tribes had to cooperate with each other, and thus take decisions consensively, in order just to survive, to gather food, and to help ensure continuity. If the chief of a tribe had acted dictatorially, that tribe (or at least the chief) would have undoubtedly not survived long. It is also clear that whilst democratic societies have flourished, or at least survived, countless dictatorships have fallen and failed-even if in some cases after centuries. Most humans are...

The results from local by-elections of 15/11/13 featuring Green candidates are as follows: Allerdale, Seaton: Lab 464 (40.0%), UKIP 426 (36.7%), Con 133 (11.5%), Green 108 (9.3%), Lib Dem 30 (2.6%). Bournemouth, Winton East: Con 503 (41.8%), Lab 215 (17.9%), UKIP 212 (17.6%), Lib Dem 191 (15.9%), Green 48 (4.0%), Independent 34 (2.8%). Stoke-on Trent, Baddeley, Milton and Norton: City Ind 861 (32.3%), Con 504 (18.9%), Lab 444 (16.6%), UKIP 333 (12.5%), Ind E 313 (11.7%), BNP 79 (3.0%), Green 50 (1.9%), Lib Dem 32 (1.2%), Ind D 27 (0.9%), TUSC 25 (0.9%). The Allerdale seat had previously been occupied by an Independent, whose death precipitated the by-election. Surprisingly in this part of Cumbria, no Independent candidate came forward. Even though UKIP's poll ratings are sinking slowly, they came pretty close to Labour here. I am at least glad we held up well here, given that the Lib Dems, the Conservatives, and UKIP had not stood in Seaton (Allerdale) in 2012 but did so he...

As some of you already know, a motion by Labour to defeat the pernicious and cruel 'Bedroom Tax' failed yesterday by just 26 votes-the current Con-Dem coalition has a majority of 58.  What is shameful is that most Liberal Democrat MPs (only two, Andrew George and Tim Farron voted for this motion) , even from constituencies where the bedroom tax would have the worst impact (e.g. Brent Central, held by Sarah Teather) voted against the motion (and thus for the bedroom tax) despite harrowing stories of bedroom tax victims, and also 47 Labour MPs who could have helped the motion pass did not show up. The list of Labour MPs absent on the day includes notably Diane Abbott, Paul Flynn, Ed Balls, David Lammy, Chris Bryant, and Chuka Umuna, who are not only prominent in the Labour Party but also represent constituencies known to have above-average or relatively high levels of unemployment and poverty. My friends in the Green Party,including Caroline Lucas, are proud to stand agains...

Readers, I hope you have had the time to watch the Channel 4 Documentary 'No Fire Zone' exploring the human rights abuses by the Sri Lankan Army and the Sri Lankan Government, especially its President, Mahindra Rajapaska. These were first exposed in detail by Wikileaks cables. As a result of the exposure of said human rights abuses in Sri Lanka, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper (even though in my opinion his own record on democratic and human rights is bad and getting worse) and Indian Prime Minister Mammohan Singh have decided to boycott the 2013 CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting) which is due to be held in Sri Lanka. Although they are right to boycott, their actions will not prove all that useful unless all Prime Ministers of all Commonwealth nations (i.e. David Cameron, Tony Abbott et al.) follow suit and boycott the summit, to send this message to Mr. Rajapaska: No platform for human rights abusers, anywhere! It is important for us to remember ho...

Readers, Just recently, a 'super typhoon' struck the Phillipines, killing at least 10,000 people...and this death toll could potentially rise. I give my condolences, thus, to the victims and their families. I hope aid is given to the Phillipines to help recover from the destruction the typhoon wreaked. On another note, today was Remembrance Sunday, and I hope you wore white poppies of peace rather than the red poppies most people wear.  Alan.      

Readers, over the past year or so, quite a few activists I know have left the Green Party for one reason or another, either to defect to another party or to leave politics altogether. Regardless, they still need to realise why green politics and sustainability are essential for our future, and why their activism was and is important to achieving the aims of green politics. It is clear now to almost everyone, bar a few (often wealthy) stubborn and selfish climate change deniers like the Koch Brothers, that artificial climate change is real and is occurring; the IPCC report showed this and so did the fact that we reached 400 ppm in terms of greenhouse gas emissions,which includes carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane etc. This artificial climate change has occurred primarily because of the effects of the last 30 years of the neoliberal capitalism that has had a grip on the major nations of our planet. The inequality, the destruction of animal and human life, and environmental dama...

The results of local by-elections that took place on 7 November which featured Green candidates are as follows: Durham, Crook: Labour 741 (40.4%), Independent 496 (27.0%), Wear Valley Ind 360 (19.6%), Lib Dem 145 (7.9%), Con 54 (2.9%), Green  40 (2.2%). Nottingham, Dales: Labour 1644 (66.4%), UKIP 364 (14.7%), Con 220 (8.9%), Green 99 (4.0%) , Lib Dem 78 (3.1%), TUSC 72 (2.9%) Nottingham, Radford and Park: Labour 1146 (65.2%), Con 355 (20.2%), UKIP 123 (7.0%), Green 80 (4.6%), Elvis Loves Pets 31 (1.8%), TUSC 22 (1.3%). Sefton, Derby: Labour 903 (64.7%), UKIP 293 (21.0%), Ind E 97 (7.0%), TUSC 48 (3.4%), Ind B 29 (2.1%), Green 25 (1.8%). West Oxfordshire, Chipping Norton: Labour 810 (57.0%), Con 500 (35.2%), Green 58 (4.1%), Lib Dem 53 (3.7%). One worrying aspect I have noticed is that Labour, with the large swings towards it from the Lib Dems and with UKIP damaging the Conservatives' vote in Nottingham further, could soon have control of every single council seat in...

Fellow blog readers, Various polls carried out 3 days ago show that a significant majority of the public, which surprisingly included half of all people who voted Conservative in 2010 , support the renationalisation of energy and transport (especially railways and buses), as shown by this link here:  http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/519684/20131105/left-wing-price-controls-nationalisation-yougov-poll.htm However, none of the three main parties (also not UKIP) who most of them voted for support these measures at all, particularly not the ConDems. I can tell you that we in the Green Party are fully committed to nationalisation of railways and of energy, so that there will be a greater focus on renewable energy, a reduction of energy prices, a reduction of rail fares, and lower pollution as people move away from car use gradually. This is becoming increasingly important in modern times, given that we need to reduce pollution from carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide and al...

Today of course was the 5th of November, commonly known in Britain as Bonfire Night/Guy Fawkes Night. Many of us, though, decided to celebrate this night by staging anti-austerity bonfires (which involved burning straw effigies of Cameron and Clegg, amongst other things, or so I have heard) such as the one in Westminster Bridge in London by Anonymous. To my readers across Britain, well done if you came along to a Bonfire of Austerity event in your area (I was at the event in Barnet,North London). Also, readers, by supporting the Green Party, you can help elect us and we will metaphorically give austerity its final bonfire- by renationalising key public services, enforcing a living wage nationwide, and creating a green economy to replace the failed free market system. Regards, Alan.

Earlier today, I visited Thames Magistrates Court (which is actually in Bow,London, and not actually near the River Thames itself thus) in support of my friend Melanie and her fellow peace activists, who in early September staged action outside the DSEI arms fair-the largest regular international arms fair worldwide, to disrupt the unethical and immoral activity that takes place inside it. Currently,she and her fellow activists now face charges of 'obstructing the highway' just for staging this peaceful protest-yet the real criminals here are the arms traders and their associate companies, who were never questoned or searched, let alone arrested or prosecuted for fuelling grievous war crimes worldwide. Although an international arms trade treaty, due to the support of Amnesty International, was passed a few months ago, there is still much work to do if we are to collectively defeat the evil,murderous,international arms trade, and thus bring real,long-term peace to our world...

The sell-outs by the Liberal Democrats, the Conservatives' coalition partners, over tuition fees, democratic reform, and secret courts that have happened since 2010, are well known to us by now. What many of us do not realise is that this was not the first time the Liberal Democrats had sold the people of Britain out to the Conservatives- their predecessor components, the Liberals and the SDP, did exactly the same thing before the 1988 merger of the two. In early 1977, following losses in important by-elections (Woolwich West and Walsall North) by Labour under Harold Wilson and later James Callaghan, the then-Prime Minister James Callaghan had to ask newly elected Liberal leader David Steel to form a pact in order to continue governing Britain in the economic crisis it and many other nations were facing. Soon after the Lib-Lab pact was formed, Mr. Callaghan and the Labour government moved away from their traditional leftist position, and started making notable cuts to public ...

Readers, since 2010, when the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government voted to treble tuition fees and also deal vicious cuts to higher education itself, there have been many campaigns at several British universities against cuts, course closures, and privatisation of important university services, undercutting the pay of university workers whilst vice-chancellors and university managers award themselves undeserved and selfish salary increases. The success of some of these campaigns was well noted at today's Student Assembly Against Austerity, which took place in London. However, it is clear that most of the more prominent campaigns have taken place at 'traditional' universities such as parts of London (Goldsmiths,Kings etc.), Sussex, Manchester, and Warwick.  It is worth remembering that the majority of British university students study at the 'post-1992' universities, most of which are ex-polytechnics-mine, the University of Hertfordshire, was once the eng...

Readers, if you are a student or a students' union official, please remember to come to the Student Assembly Against Austerity on 2nd November (tomorrow) at University College London. It starts at 9.30 am :) Please book your place here, and quickly: http://www.thestudentassembly.org.uk/book-your-place.html We will be discussing how to fight the cuts, how to unite vulnerable groups of students together, how to fight for green jobs and against war, and how to organise a national campaign that will reach those voting in the 2015 general election. I will be coming along-will you? Alan.