Alan's Green Thoughts

In light of last week, Bristol Green Party, who received the most council votes on aggregate in wards within the Bristol West constituency ,has said several times that they believe the Green Party can win Bristol West next year, or failing that, in 2020.  On aggregate, the Greens' share of the vote in Bristol West wards was 28%- and there are other councils in the nation where in terms of aggregate vote shares we finished second or third, or even first in rare cases. Here they are: London: Barnet (11.1%;3rd behind Labour and Conservatives) Camden (15.8%; 3rd behind Labour and Conservatives) Enfield (11.5%, 3rd behind Labour and Conservatives) Hackney (20.6%, 2nd to Labour but we sadly won no seats there) Haringey (15.9%; 3rd behind Labour and the Liberal Democrats) Islington (19.7%; 2nd to Labour and official opposition there,as we know) Lambeth (15.5%; 2nd to Labour but we still only won 1 seat because of FPTP) Lewisham (14.5%; 2nd to Labour and official opposition th...

If you are wondering why I have split my analysis into two blog posts, it is to make them easier to read and less long-winded. Now continuing from where I left off... Italy There are several major stories here. The first is the (relative) landslide victory of current Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and his centre-left Democratic Party, which won an impressive 40.8% of the vote in European elections in Italy. Initially, Mr. Renzi, the former mayor of the Italian city of Florence, had no mandate as he was not an MP (he was appointed by the Italian President), but he was given a clear one by the electorate. The Five Star Movement's rise under Beppe Grillo is also a top story, gaining 17 European seats from a standing start-although it expected to win 20 or more. The heavy fall of Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia into third place and only 13 seats is one thing I am very pleased for. It represents the end of the former mogul as a viable force in Italian politi...

Well, the European elections of 2014 are now finally complete, and here is my analysis of the results, nation by nation: Austria This was one of the European Green Party's better results- the Greens continue to be on the rise in Austria as they gained an MEP, giving them 3 MEPs in the new European Parliament. Worryingly,though, the radical right Freedom Party of Austria (similar to the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands) gained 2 seats, at the expense of the now almost defunct Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZO) and the Austrian People's Party (OVP), who lost 1 seat apiece. The greatest disappointment here was the disappearance of the Hans-Peter Martin list and the failure of the left-wing Europa Anders list (a coalition of the Pirate Party and Austrian Communist Party) to gain any seats-it scored only 2.14% of the votes cast here. Belgium Notably a strong tale of success for the New Flemish Alliance, who gained 3 European seats and topped the poll in Belgium. Pa...

The results of Irish local elections have now come through, for all 943 of the 949 council seats to be elected this year. There were also two by-elections to the Dail, the Irish Parliament, on the same day, 23 May 2014. I am very pleased to say it has been a good year for parties on the Irish left-not only Sinn Fein but also People Before Profit and the Socialist Party. The Irish Green Party appear to have redeemed themselves as well-but they need to be careful not to get in bed with Ireland's establishment parties in future (i.e. no alliance with Fine Gael, Fianna Fail or Labour). Eirigh, Sinn Fein. Ga Eire agat anois. That phrase by the way means in Irish Gaelic, 'arise, Sinn Fein. Ireland needed you now.' Sinn Fein performed very well in Irish local elections, and deserved to for its opposition towards the vicious austerity being imposed by the current Fine Gael-Labour coalition. The fact that Eamon Gilmore has now resigned as Irish Labour Party leader is a sign th...

As the final declaration of one European Parliament constituency, Midlands-Northwest in the Republic of Ireland, has not been made (preference votes are still being counted to decide the final seat there), I will comment on the final results of European elections EU-wide tomorrow, and for now turn to elections happening alongside the European Parliament elections. So let us turn to Belgium, who held federal and regional elections on the same day it elected its MEPs. The Belgian federal election was a clear victory for the New Flemish Alliance, which calls for the separation of Flanders from Wallonia, and thus the breaking up of the Belgian federal state. The New Flemish Alliance, despite only running seats in Flanders, managed to win 33 seats, and topped the poll in every Flemish constituency- in 2010, it only topped the poll in the Antwerp constituency, which has a particularly pro-Flemish character, as shown also by the previous strong showings of the far-right Vlaams Belang (Fle...

Ladies and gentlemen, with many European nations having finally declared European elections results in addition to ours, much is already clear. The rise of the far-right, whether outright neo-Nazi (Golden Dawn in Greece, Front National in France), or racist populist (Danish People's Party, True Finns), has been notorious across Europe, and in a time of Europe-wide austerity inflicted by the neoliberal triad of ALDE, EPP and S&D (with ECR adding salt to the wounds they are causing sometimes) often in conjunction with the unaccountable European Central Bank and unelected European Commission, this is worrying. Extreme-right parties in Europe offer no real solutions to austerity-they just blame past scapegoats like immigrants and ethnic minorities for national problems when it should be clear that neoliberal capitalism is to blame for Europe's current malaise. Meanwhile, the left within Europe has suffered in many nations- France, Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands are four...

Ladies and gentlemen, for some reason, the Green Party, in terms of European elections results in the UK has actually gone backwards (slightly) in many regions in terms of vote share- even though we elected Molly Scott-Cato in the South West and re-elected Keith Taylor and Jean Lambert in the South East and London respectively, giving us 3 MEPs, our vote share actually decreased overall, even in the West Midlands where I was expecting a surge. How did this happen? We had a useful message for voters and highlighted important issues voters needed to know, like the threat of TTIP. We campaigned positively and we exposed what UKIP is really like to voters. We campaigned for a progressive and more equal Europe, and highlighted the positives the Green/EFA group has achieved in the European Parliament. So why did British voters not support us more than in 2009? Meanwhile, UKIP, thanks to excessive and biased media coverage from not only the BBC but also the mainstream media, topped the po...

With almost all the councils having declared their full results now (still waiting for Tower Hamlets, where Tower Hamlets First is making strides and where Lutfur Rahman has been reelected mayor), here are some more useful updates, Green and otherwise: We Greens are now the official opposition in Liverpool, Lewisham, Islington, and Solihull, even though we only got one councillor elected apiece in Lewisham and Islington respectively. The Liberal Democrats were wiped out (reduced to zero councillors) notably in Manchester, Lewisham, Islington, Waltham Forest, Adur, Lambeth, Bromley, Wigan, and were almost wiped out in Brent, Camden, Liverpool and Rochdale where they once held much of a sway. Interestingly, they gained 2 seats in Sutton and did not lose any seats in Watford or Three Rivers (both in Hertfordshire), which they both still control, and only lost 1 seat apiece in Cheltenham and South Lakeland. The Conservatives' most notable losses were Hammersmith & Fulham cou...

Ladies and gentlemen, local election results are finally here, and usually, the news is good for us Greens.  Here are councils where we made Green gains: Islington: We gained 1 seat in Highbury East, well done Caroline Russell. Without you, Labour would have had complete control of Islington council due to the fact the Liberal Democrats lost all their seats in Islington. Lambeth: We gained 1 seat; the Conservatives lost 1 of their few seats, and the Liberal Democrats were wiped out in Lambeth. Epping Forest: We gained 1 seat, although UKIP gained 2 on Epping Forest. The Conservatives still control Epping Forest council. Leeds: We gained 1 seat in Headingley, formerly held by the Liberal Democrats who were pushed into third place. No other changes happened there. Liverpool: We gained 2 seats, giving us a total of 4 there, and are now the official opposition on Liverpool Council! The Liberal Democrats lost all of the seats they were defending in Liverpool, which thankfull...

Last stop before polling day, folks. And this year, especially due to the TTIP threat and Eurosceptic parties making large inroads in many nations (according to polling data there), so much is at stake for people in Britain and elsewhere in the European Union. Firstly, my comment on the Greek elections is that whilst SYRIZA have thankfully done well, their performance is not as good as it could have been, not only due to issues with local organisation in some parts of Greece but also because their vote is still being split by the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), which is orthodox communist, and Anticapitalist Left Cooperation for the Overthrow (ANTARSYA), whose hardline stances make SYRIZA look like moderates. One worrying result was the extreme-right Golden Dawn (XA) party's mayoral candidate gaining 16% of the vote in Athens, even though its support had slumped some months earlier after the murder of an anti-fascist rapper which was carried out by a Golden Dawn member; at least...

Just four days to go until the UK local elections and the European elections of 2014 now,ladies and gentlemen. It is noticeable that most EU states use party-list PR for elections, European and otherwise, which can be very problematic for independent candidates who just want to represent constituents' wishes and not a political ideology. Only the nations of Ireland and Malta, as well as the Northern Ireland region of the UK, use STV, but as STV has no threshold yet is still fair votes count for more than even party-list PR without a fixed threshold (as exists in the Netherlands and now Germany). The use of STV has worked wonders for local government in Scotland, after all. Here is my advice to Irish Green Party/Comhoartas Glas supporters, and Northern Ireland Green Party supporters, in terms of how to rank your vote in European and local elections: Dublin (European Parliament): 1. Green (Eamon Ryan), 2. Fis Nua (Damon Wise), 3. Socialist Party (Paul Murphy), 4. People Before ...

Ladies and gentlemen, this week the world focused its eyes on the Indian general election (India is the world's most populus democratic nation by far) and the unfortunate fact that former Gujarati minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party, the main right-wing party in India and the major part of the National Democratic Alliance, won by a landslide, winning 339 seats out of 543 in India's Lok Sabha (or House of the People as it translates to). Meanwhile Rahul Gandhi's Indian Congress party and the United Progressive Alliance lost 203 seats in total, with Mr. Gandhi having to fight to hold onto his own seat of Amethi in Utter Pradesh, India's largest province. Meanwhile, the Aam Admi Party, an anti-corruption party who performed surprisingly well in the state elections of Delhi, India's capital city, did not perform as well as expected and only won 4 Lok Sabha seats. (India, like Britain, uses FPTP for all its legislative seats) I believe that this resul...

With only one week to go now before polling day for the UK's local and European elections of 2014, I felt it prudent today to be a Green Party audience guest at a BBC Three Counties Radio (which covers the counties of Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Hertfordshire) which took place at the Forum, at the University of Hertfordshire where I am about to graduate from. The speakers were Geoffrey van Orden (Conservative MEP), Richard Howitt (Labour MEP), Linda Jack (6th on the Liberal Democrats' list for the East of England region), Rupert Read (prospective Green MEP), and Patrick O'Flynn (prospective UKIP MEP). I am pleased to say at said radio debate that it was myself and my fellow Greens who managed to ask the more important questions in this debate; I myself asked the five speakers their opinions on the threatened TTIP. Linda (Lib Dems) stumbled over it and misleadingly claimed TTIP was about US investment in Europe, Richard (Labour) tried to defend Labour's record...

Ladies and gentlemen, I am in no doubt about the fact the EU membership has helped Britain get some green achievements and helped Britain commit to some type of reduction in carbon emissions. However, the EU's Common Agricultural Policy and Common Fisheries Policy are two of its main environmental blackspots, especially regarding the discards issue the CFP has created. However, I am also in no doubt that if the European Parliament's MEPs pass the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), all those environmental gains made by the EU will eventually be undone, especially when companies use Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) to sue nations basically over any regulations, including environmental regulations, that cause them to lose profits, meaning that in practice further environmental laws cannot be implemented, and it may be very difficult if not impossible to ban new chemicals found to be harmful. For this reason and others, I believe withdrawal from the EU...

Ladies and gentlemen, I am very pleased that we are officially contesting the Newark by-election, for which polling will take place on 5 June 2014, two weeks after the European elections, with the result being declared thus on 6 June 2014, the 70th anniversary of D-Day. Nominations for this by-election closed only earlier today, and I can reveal that the opponents our candidate, David Kirwan, will face, are:   Paul Baggaley, Independent (running on hospital campaign) David Bishop, Bus-Pass Elvis Party Nick 'The Flying Brick' Delves, Official Monster Raving Loony Party Andy Hayes, Independent (no idea why he is running in this by-election yet) Roger Helmer, United Kingdom Independence Party Robert Jenrick, Conservative Party Michael Payne, Labour Party Reverend Dick Rodgers, Common Good David Watts, Liberal Democrats Lee Woods, Patriotic Socialist Party (formerly the United People's Party) I am aware that Newark, like most of the East Midlands, has ne...

The Independent today reported, on its front page, no less, how chemicals in soaps and toothpastes and other household products (many of which are also harmful to our environment and to our fellow animals, incidentally) can be damaging to male fertility, because they disrupt endocrine production in human sperm, according to researchers.  It is an unfortunate fact that in the UK, one in five couples is infertile, for various reasons. However, there is reliable evidence that pollution ,especially from carbon related sources (coal,oil,gas etc.) and chemicals , such as those used to disinfect water in public baths and swimming pools, are to blame for much of the infertility that exists in the UK, and in other 'developed' nations, which contributes to the birth rate falling below the replacement rate of 2.1 per couple (modern lifestyles, to an extent are also to blame for this problem). One irony about this is that the recklessness of the capitalist system, which has produced hu...