Alan's Green Thoughts

Readers, I am pleased to say that not just in Britain, but also British Commonwealth nations (many of which still have first-past-the-post electoral systems), Green Parties are moving forwards and making strides. The state of Victoria, Australia, held a legislative election yesterday, which resulted in the Liberals losing power after only one term, a significant blow to Australia's rabidly anti-green, neoliberal Prime Minister, Tony Abbott (now ex-Liberal Premier of Victoria, Denis Napthine, was overheard blaming Tony Abbott for his defeat, apparently). More importantly, though, our Green counterparts in Australia won their first assembly seat in the division of Melbourne, covering an area Adam Bandt (the only current Green MP in Australia's federal House of Representatives) represents. I give my thanks to the successful Australian Green in question, Ellen Sandell, who at just 30 years of age has made that significant breakthrough. They also nearly gained the division of Rich

Readers, the results of yesterday's local by-elections featuring Green Party candidates were as follows: Aberdeenshire UA, Troup: (1st preference votes): SNP 1159 (46.1%, +6.4%), Conservative 574 (22.8%, +1.9%), Independent S 391 (15.5%), Liberal Democrat 141 (5.6%, +3.6%), Labour 140 (5.6%, -0.9%), Green 68 (2.4%), Independent M 43 (1.7%). Midlothian UA, Midlothian East: Lab 1294 (32.9%, -2.7%), SNP 1260 (32.1%, -10.8%), Ind 780 (19.8%), Con 331 (8.4%, -0.7%), Green 197 (5.0%), Lib Dem 68 (1.7%) Oxford CC, Blackbird Leys: Lab 509 (75.7%, +8.4%), UKIP 91 (13.5%, -7.0%), Con 27 (4.0%, -1.6%), Green 21 (3.1%, -1.4%), TUSC 13 (1.9%), Lib Dem 11 (1.7%, -0.4%) Oxford CC, Northfield Brook: Lab 401 (70.6%, -1.0%), Con 65 (11.4%, +0.0%), Green 50 (8.8%, -2.5%), TUSC 34 (6.0%), Lib Dem 18 (3.2%, -2.5%) Oxfordshire CC, The Leys: Lab 879 (71.0%, -10.5%), UKIP 168 (13.6%), Con 77 (6.2%, -1.4%), Green 57 (4.6%, -2.8%), Lib Dem 30 (2.4%, -1.0%), TUSC 27 (2.2%). Despite the very stron

40 years ago, two general elections took place in the UK. February 1974 is much better remembered, not only for the strong Liberal surge which shook both the Conservatives and Labour (the Conservatives more so) and the first real establishment of Plaid Cymru and the SNP as a force in British politics, but also for a hung Parliament that resulted. The October 1974 general election by contrast is less well-known today, partly because a majority government did come out of it and also because of the lower turnout. Both were very tightly fought, though-the Conservatives were just ahead of Labour in terms of vote share (37.8% to 37.5%) but ended up with four seats fewer because of the unfairness of first past the post; the Liberals were even more hard done by since nearly 20% of the votes cast only rewarded them with just over 2% of Westminster seats (14 out of 623 mainland seats, although they only put forward 517 candidates). In October 1974, the Liberals fielded a candidate in almost ev

Reclaim the stolen land (I read this at an event last weekend): People of Britain, let us come and occupy On every square, every space, of public land. Land stolen from our ancestors by the filthy rich, Using force and capitalism's grabby hands. Let us be fazed by nothing, Not the police, not corporate guards, no-one, Let us stride and thus fear nothing, Tomorrow, tomorrow, and tomorrow, the square shall be won. People everywhere, let us reclaim the stolen land, That has been despoiled by the rich, abused by the Crown. Let us block the entry of those dirty fracking drills, That blot the grass and trees and turn our drinking water brown. Remember, this land was really ours all along, Those peers do not really own it, they just took it without asking. Let us strive to reclaim the stolen land, To restore its glory, to let it become vibrant and shining.

Readers, in case you have not seen it already, the results from the Rochester and Strood by-election were as follows: Mike Barker, Independent, 54 (0.13%) Christopher Challis, Independent, 22 (0.05%) Norman 'Hairy Knorm' Davidson, Official Monster Raving Loony Party, 151 (0.38%) Jayda Fransen, Britain First, 56 (0.14%) Stephen Goldsborough, Independent, 69 (0.17%) Clive Gregory, Green Party, 1,692 (4.22%, +2.71%) Geoff Juby, Liberal Democrats, 349 (0.87%, -15.5%) Naushabah Khan, Labour, 6,713 (16.8%, -11.7%) Nick Long, People Before Profit, 69 (0.17%) Dave Osborn, Patriotic Socialist Party, 33 (0.08%) Mark Reckless, UKIP, 16,867 (42.1%) Charlotte Rose, Independent, 43 (0.11%) Kelly Tolhurst, Conservative, 13,947 (34.8%, -14.4%) Unlike with Clacton, it was not a foregone conclusion that Mark Reckless would win, even though all polls showed him ahead of the Conservatives. However, Kelly Tolhurst made several of the same mistakes as Eastleigh's Cons

Readers, I would first of all like to thank everyone who came to today's Free Education Demo in London, especially those of you from the Green Party, and in particular the Young Greens, who helped get the march organised. I am sorry I could not be there, but I am glad that so many came. After all, many countries in Europe have free higher education, so we can, and we should also have it for both undergraduate and postgraduate education (particularly important to me since I want to become a psychologist one day). Secondly, polling day for the Rochester & Strood by-election is tomorrow and it has been a rather interesting campaign. I am hoping Clive Gregory will have done well enough to save his deposit in the end (since he has not got a realistic chance of winning this by-election, unfortunately), especially with a YouGov poll showing the Green Party as high as 8%. There has undoubtedly been some campaigning from the eight 'minor candidates' (all candidates except Labo

Readers, there were three local by-elections yesterday featuring Green Party candidates, and the results were as follows: Cambridge CC, Queen Edith's: Liberal Democrat 933 (36.5%, -4.7%), Labour 790 (30.9%, +1.1%), Conservative 614 (24.0%, +7.7%), Green 222 (8.7%, -2.7%). Wigan MBC, Douglas: Lab 874 (59.4%, -0.7%), UKIP 452 (30.7%, -0.9%), Con 80 (5.4%, -3.0%), Green 37 (2.5%), Community Action Party 29 (2.0%). Wokingham UA, Bulmershe & Whitegates: Con 726 (35.4%, +8.4%), Lab 498 (24.3%, -10.0%), Lib Dem 448 (21.8%, +4.1%), UKIP 275 (13.4%, -1.6%), Green 105 (5.1%, -1.0%). (NB: All percentage changes in vote share are since 2014) The fact that the Liberal Democrats regained Queen Edith's ward is not surprising-Labour's win in 2012 was a serious shock, given how that ward elected Conservative councillors until 1992 and Lib Dem councillors from then onwards, usually. I am surprised that we Greens did not make an advance even though this ward is in the South Camb

There is not often much mention of psychology or psychiatry in relation to politics in the wider discourse, but I was luckily able to gain such insight today after a drop-in session at a stress relief centre in London. One strong relation between politics and psychology/psychiatry is the excessive use of drugs in psychiatry, when evidence demonstrates that in the long term anti-depressants and other drugs are not nearly as effective at solving mental health problems as therapy and direct help. In fact, an acquaintance of mine told me she had actually experienced anxiety-related tremors as a side effect of a drug supposedly designed to cure significant anxiety and/or depression. The excessive use of drugs and the over-reliance of the medical model in the management and understanding of depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder etc. is down to the influence and lobbying of large pharmaceutical companies and private healthcare providers (e.g. GE Healthcare and GlaxoSmithKline

Readers, I would firstly like to thank everyone who wore white poppies yesterday (sadly I forgot to get one myself) in remembrance of peace and all those who conscientiously objected during the First World War, as well as those who died in that war. Secondly, I am very pleased to say that the Green Party of England and Wales' membership has now passed the 25,000 mark, meaning that at the rate we are recruiting members, we could soon have more members than the Liberal Democrats by the time the general election comes around :) Thirdly, even though it was not binding, as the Spanish Cortes in Madrid kept reiterating, 80% of Catalonians voted for independence in their own independence referendum yesterday, which is a clear indicator of smaller states' desire for greater autonomy in Europe and greater powers, particularly over finance. Alan.

Readers, the results of yesterday's local by-elections are as follows (they were only two, and both had a Green Party candidate, I am pleased to say): Cornwall UA, Megavissey: Conservative 348 (32.2%, +8.2%), UKIP 281 (26.0%, -1.6%), Labour 204 (18.9%, -10.8%), Liberal Democrat 197 (18.2%, +4.3%), Green 50 (4.6%, -0.1%). Rugby BC, Bilton: Conservative 668 (42.0%, -12.2%), UKIP 325 (20.4%), Liberal Democrat 280 (17.2%, +8.1%), Labour 212 (13.3%, -8.1%), Independent 60 (3.8%), Green 37 (2.3%, -7.7%), TUSC 10 (0.6%, -4.3%). A pretty poor night for the left of Britain-our vote share held up in Megavissey but the Conservatives managed to win it. Cornish local elections have become very volatile recently, with Megavissey having been effectively a four-way marginal since Labour gained it from the Conservatives in 2013. Bilton, an affluent suburb of Rugby, sadly proved worse for us, and especially the Socialists, despite our previous good showing in a safely Conservative ward. Neve

Readers, speaking on the 409th anniversary of Bonfire Night aka Guy Fawkes Night, I have been keeping an eye (somewhat) on the results of US midterm state and congressional elections. There may not have been gunpowder, but there was certainly treason and plot-especially regarding the dirty campaigns (very common in US politics) many candidates pitched against each other. Our Green US counterparts were sadly not able to field candidates in every senate, congressional and gubernatorial election this time, due to a very unfair feature of US politics known as the 'ballot access law'. Various types of this law exist in all 50 states of the USA, and these laws require potential candidates to acquire a substantial amount of signatures from electors within the remit of the election in question, which can be as high as 5% of the electorate in that context. This can be tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of signatures in each election, very difficult if you do not have the

Readers, I have been quite busy these past few days, and I need to update on a few things. First, the Ukrainian Parliamentary election. I did not post the day straight after the election because so many results in this election have been delayed due to ongoing tensions in Ukraine, and the Crimean constituencies (and several constituencies in the Donetsk region)are under rebel control and thus have not held elections at all. (Ukraine, like Germany and Hungary, uses a mixed-member system for its elections.) One constituency which was partly in Crimea and partly in Donetsk had a turnout of 1%-worse than that of by-elections in students' unions in the UK, even my old one! The overall result proved a decisive victory for pro-European parties in Ukraine, as the Petroshenko Bloc, People's Front, and Self Reliance all came above the main Pro-Russian Ukrainian party, the aptly named Opposition Bloc. It was also a notable disaster for Yulia Tymoshenko's Fatherland Party, which lo