Alan's Green Thoughts

Well, it is nearly the end of 2015, which so far in my life has been the most politically exciting, especially during the general election this May. It has also been a decisive crack in two party-politics in Britain (at least to some extent). My brief Christmas message is that we should always continue to hope and work to achieve positive things, no matter how much fear anyone tries to put into us; it is the best way to combatting adverse events and making sure all that is good prevails. Have a good Christmas, everyone, and Alan's Green Thoughts will return in the New Year :)

Hola! Yesterday's general election in Spain was quite sensational, particularly for the breakthrough by Podemos and its allies. Although Podemos did not achieve first place despite their strong performance in opinion polls, they managed to win a total of 69 seats, six of which I am proud to say will go to the Spanish Greens, Equo, who have been running joint lists with them. Given the dominance of the 'People's Party' and the 'Spanish Socialist Workers Party' during the current period of Spanish democracy (i.e. from 1975 onwards), this is a historic breakthrough. Despite still topping the poll, the People's Party led by Mariano Rajoy was the clear loser in these elections, losing 1/3 of its seats and more importantly its majority in the Spanish Congress. The Spanish Socialist Workers Party surprisingly only lost 20 seats, due to the rise of Podemos, but it still recorded its worst ever election result. Notably, the PP and PSOE only polled 50.73% between ...

Readers, the results from local by-elections this week (one on 15/12/15, the others on 17/12/15) featuring Green Party candidates were as follows: Spelthorne BC, Sheppertown Town: Conservative 858 (62.0%, +10.9%), UKIP 180 (13.0%, -7.5%), Liberal Democrats 154 (11.1%, -2.1%), Labour 123 (8.9%, -6.9%), Green 68 (4.9%). East Hertfordshire DC, Hertford Heath:  No Description (actually Conservative) 269 (52.0%, +6.7%), Lib Dem 101 (19.5%), UKIP 70 (13.5%, -1.8%), Lab 56 (10.8%, -1.7%), Green 21 (4.1%, -1.8%). Brent LBC, Kensal Green: Lab 931 (53.4%, -1.0%), Lib Dem 417 (23.9%, +8.6%), Con 255 (14.6%, +2.8%), Green 102 (5.9%, -12.7%), UKIP 38 (2.2%). Worcestershire CC, Stourport-on-Severn: Con 763 (28.7%, +9.2%), Independent Health Concern 725 (27.3%, +0.8%), Lab 581 (21.9%, -0.7%), UKIP 547 (20.6%, -6.9%), Green 42 (1.6%, -2.3%). This week was particularly notable due to two candidates from main parties standing as 'no description' due to failing to fill out their nominat...

Yesterday, the second round of regional elections in France concluded, the first round having concluded last week. These were based on new and larger merged regions, generally merged only for administrative purposes and largely without any respect for long-established regional and cultural identities, such as those of Alsace-Lorraine and Savoy which did not get regions of their own. It turned out to be a poor result for socialist and progressive forces in France, with the Parti Socialiste, led by the unpopular and disappointing Francois Hollande, only winning 5 regions on the mainland and finishing third in several despite allying with other left-wing parties. It consequently withdrew in the second round to keep out the dangerous, far-right Front National (FN) led infamously by Marine Le Pen, daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen-a tactic which worked. The centre-right Republicans, still led by Nicolas Sarkozy, won 7 mainland regions although it was hard not to improve on ...

Readers, the results from by-elections of 10 December 2015 that featured Green Party candidates were as follows: Bournemouth UA, Kinson South: Conservative 520/509 (33.9%), Labour 471/371 (27.7%), UKIP 313 (20.6%), Bournemouth Independent Alliance 168/116 (9.4%), Liberal Democrat 61/60 (4.0%), Green 63/54 (3.9%), Patria 8 (0.5%). Harborough DC, Market Harborough Logan: Lib Dem 402 (45.2%, +9.0%), Con 303 (34.0%, -1.3%), Lab 82 (9.2%, -5.9%), Green 56 (6.3%, -7.1%), UKIP 47 (5.3%). The Kinson South by-election was a rather interesting one, given that it was not only a double by-election but caused by administrative error which affected the result. It proved to be quite a close contest, but the Labour councillor who had lost her seat in May 2015 in that ward did not quite succeed in returning to Bournemouth council. Meanwhile, we at least improved on our 2015 result, and we managed to beat UKIP over in Market Harborough despite being squeezed by the Liberal Democrats ther...

As a follow-on to my blog post of last year, entitled 'Our original ecologists: where are they now?' which you can find here: http://greensocialistalan.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/political-history-our-original-british.html  , I have been looking into the history of Ecology Party candidates from 1983, the first time we stood more than 100 candidates in a general election. We also had much better coverage in Scotland and Wales than in 1979, and a candidate in Northern Ireland for the first time, giving us coverage in all four UK nations. In fact, we were the only minor political party to do so that year, and it confirmed our long-term status in British politics. In the blog post mentioned above, I have already mentioned some of the people who stood on our behalf in 1983 (having themselves stood in 1979 as well), which includes Jonathon Porritt, Guy Woodford, Gundula Dorey, Clive Lord, Alistair Laurence, David Whitebread, Howard Hoptrough, Don Grimes, Stephen Lambert, Brian Ki...

Much in the news recently outside of politics: the creeping danger of so-called 'safe spaces', a phenomenon that has spread across many US universities and is creeping into more prestigious UK universities, unfortunately, and spreading to areas it does not need to be in. These 'safe spaces', designed supposedly to protect people from oppression, can actually be dangerous to many. Here are some main reasons why: 1. They are out of touch with real life. The real world (and real life politics, for that matter) is not a safe space, and can never be made a safe space. In order to tackle the oppression and inequality that exists in our world, we need to face it, counter it, and speak out for a better world for everyone, not just for particular groups or individuals. Creating division using safe spaces is not a useful long-term solution to these problems and actually makes them worse in some cases. 2. They are overly intolerant of even minor mistakes or faux pas. As ...

Readers, the result at the Oldham West & Royton by-election came in relatively early for a Parliamentary by-election (1.15 am), and it was as follows: Sir Oink A Lot (real name Sean Alec Jones), Official Monster Raving Loony Party, 141 votes (0.5%). John Bickley, UKIP, 6487 (23.4%, +2.8%) Jane Brophy, Liberal Democrats, 1024 (3.7%, +0.0%) James Daley, Conservative, 2596 (9.4%, -9.6%) Simeon Hart, Green Party, 249 (0.9%, -1.0%) Jim McMahon, Labour, 17,209 (62.1%, +7.3%). All UKIP's campaigning effort, smearing of Labour, and taking advantage of the right-wing media's attacks of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, ultimately came to nothing. UKIP's campaign did have some effect, though-the Conservative vote share was halved and the Liberal Democrats failed to take back protest votes that had gone over to UKIP at the 2015 general election. In fact, Labour increased its majority in percentage terms despite not having significant numbers of Lib Dem or Green voters lef...

Yesterday, on the debate about whether Britain should stage air strikes on Syria or not (to counter the threat of the Islamic State terrorist group, also known as Daesh), MPs voted overwhelmingly in favour of air strikes by 397 to 223. How did a margin of 174 on that vote emerge with a government majority of only 10, you ask? The key answer: 72 'opposition' MPs in Britain (66 Labour, 6 Liberal Democrat) ignored voters' pleas not to back air strikes and voted in favour of them, for various reasons. It has been reported that 15 Labour MPs were swayed by just one pro-air strike speech, from Hilary Benn, Labour MP for Leeds Central. Here are the 72 MPs in question: Heidi Alexander (Labour, Lewisham East) Ian Austin (Labour, Dudley North) Adrian Bailey (Labour, West Bromwich West) Kevin Barron (Labour, Rother Valley) Margaret Beckett (Labour, Derby South) Hilary Benn (Labour, Leeds Central) Luciana Berger (Labour, Liverpool Wavertree) Tom Blenkinsop (Labour, Middl...

Readers, the results of local by-elections featuring Green Party candidates this week were as follows: Fife UA, Dunfermline North: SNP 1166 (43.5%, +11.9%), Labour 719 (29.6%, -18.7%), Conservative 304 (12.5%, +5.9%), Liberal Democrat 230 (9.5%, -4.1%), Green 63 (2.6%), UKIP 58 (2.4%). SNP elected at stage 2. Fife UA, Rosyth: SNP 1214 (45.2%, +9.4%), Lab 926 (34.5%, -13.2%), Con 245 (9.1%, +3.3%), Lib Dem 97 (3.6%, -3.5%), UKIP 88 (3.3%, +0.7%), Independent 66 (2.5%), Green 51 (1.9%). SNP elected at stage 2. Newport UA, Bettws: Independent (Janet Cleverly): 336 (31.8%), Lab 294 (27.9%, -10.3%), Independent (James Jordan) 275 (26.1%),Con 114 (10.8%), Green 29 (2.7%), Lib Dem 7 (0.7%). Independent gain from Labour. Lancaster DC, Carnforth & Millhead: Con 545 (54.9%, +8.5%), Lab 320 (32.3%, -3.3%), Green 52 (5.2%, -12.8%), Lib Dem 38 (3.8%), UKIP 37 (3.7%). Wiltshire UA, Salisbury St Edmund & Milford: Con 425 (36.7%, +13.7%), Lib Dem 262 (20.9%, -22.1%), Lab 232 (20.0%, ...

Readers, the local by-election results featuring Green Party candidates this week were as follows: Ashford DC, Aylesford Green: Conservative 110 (23.5%, -21.5%), UKIP 109 (23.2%), Labour 106 (22.6%, -32.4%), Ashford Independent 92 (19.6%), Liberal Democrat 42 (9.0%), Green 10 (2.1%). Conservative gain from Labour. Norfolk CC, South Smallburgh: Liberal Democrat 1383 (56.4%, +25.8%), Conservative 697 (28.4%, -1.0%), UKIP 219 (8.9%, -17.8%), Labour 103 (4.2%, -5.3%), Green 52 (2.1%, -1.6%). Norfolk CC, Watton: Conservative 822 (45.6%, +18.2%), Independent 793* (44.0%, +20.4%*), Labour 103 (5.8%, -5.4%), Green 81 (4.5%, +0.3%). Conservative gain from UKIP. Surrey CC, Epsom West: Conservative 612 (23.6%, +10.8%), Epsom & Ewell Residents Association 591 (22.8%, +0.0%), Liberal Democrats 588 (22.7%, -5.4%), Labour 578 (22.3%, +2.1%), UKIP 168 (6.5%, -9.7%), Green 58 (2.2%). Conservative gain from Liberal Democrat. *The Independent candidate in Watton, Keith Gilbert, was endorsed...

Recently, it has been reported in relevant local media that the effects of devolution deals are coming soon to the West Midlands and Merseyside, resulting in the creation of 'metro mayors' (mayors of large swathes of metropolitan areas): http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/its-official-greater-birmingham-elect-10453892 http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/business-secretary-defends-devolution-deal-10456534#rlabs=1%20rt$sitewide%20p$9  (related article also mentioning devolution for 'Greater Manchester') http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/liverpool-greens-slam-devolution-second-10457438 Britain does not need any of these 'metro mayors' anywhere, and they would not be a good idea for local devolution and democracy. Here is why: 1. Lack of real accountability. In Britain, mayors as a whole have too much power, and not enough accountability to the public or to elected councillors, and this problem increases with...

Readers, the results of yesterday's local by-elections were as follows: Shropshire UA, Belle Vue: Labour 546 (47.8%, -28.7%), Conservative 282 (24.7%, +1.1%), Liberal Democrats 240 (21.0%), Green 75 (6.6%). Dorset CC, Weymouth: Green 663 (34.9%, +12.0%), Conservative 561 (29.5%, +5.9%), Labour 417 (21.9%, -7.3%), UKIP 174 (9.1%, -7.8%), Liberal Democrats 87 (4.6%, -0.8%). Green gain from Labour. The top story is that we managed a decisive strike against Labour over in Weymouth, Dorset (notable lately for having some very marginal wards), and with this Claire Sutton becomes our very first county councillor ever elected in Dorset. (Incidentally, she was the Labour councillor for that division from 2005 to 2009.) We have proven yesterday that with strong campaigns, a focus on the green message, and a good local campaigner, that we can win elections without Labour's help, and indeed against Labour despite Jeremy Corbyn having tried to win over Green voters. In other good n...

A few days ago, Croatia held its most recent parliamentary election, with the two opposing coalitions of Patriotic Coalition and Croatia is Growing neck and neck at many points in opinion polls leading up to Croatia's election day of 8 November. It was the centre-right Patriotic Coalition, led by the Croatian Democratic Union, who emerged top of the poll in the end, though, if only by 59 seats to the 56 for Croatia is Growing, led by the Social Democrats. Part of the reason was the emergence of the liberal Bridge of Independent Lists (MOST) which managed to win 19 seats; the Croatia is Growing coalition lost 18 seats in this election. Even though MOST is really a classical liberal party in the manner of the FDP in Germany, it was able to take large numbers of more moderate SDP voters particularly given the fact that the left-wing Croatian Labourists had joined the Croatia is Growing coalition. Such a decision caused two of the six Croatian Labourist MPs to d...

Readers, I am pleased to say that it has been confirmed that Simeon Hart will be standing for us again in the Oldham West & Royton by-election. Here is who he has to face: Sir Oink-A-Lot (Official Monster Raving Loony Party) John Bickley (UKIP) Jane Brophy (Liberal Democrats) James Daly (Conservative) Jim McMahon (Labour) The OMRLP candidate is the only addition to the list of parties that also stood in this constituency earlier this year. I wish the best of luck to Simeon in this by-election, and even if we do not win I hope we can perform better than in the last general election. Alan.

Readers, the result of yesterday's by-election in Torbay which had a Green candidate was as follows (there was another in Aberdeenshire but no Green candidate stood): Torbay UA, Clifton-with-Maidenway: Liberal Democrats 1069 (69.2%, +39.3%), Conservative 234 (14.8%, -13.7%), UKIP 158 (10.0%, -9.7%), Labour 53 (3.3%, -9.0%), Green 43 (2.7%, -6.8%). It was a truly thundering comeback for Adrian Sanders, the newly elected Liberal Democrat councillor who just six months ago in the 2015 general election lost his Torbay parliamentary seat to the Conservatives having previously held it for 18 years (alongside so many of his colleagues that day). We were quite heavily squeezed by this comeback of his, and as it turns out every other party standing was, even the second placed Conservatives who almost took one of the seats in Torbay's last round of council elections. Conversely, on the same day in the rural Aberdeenshire ward of Huntly, Strathbogie and Howe of Alford, the Conservativ...

Readers, the first by-election of this Parliament, caused by the death of left-wing Labour stalwart Michael Meacher, will occur on 3rd December 2015 (the writ has been officially moved). In that constituency, my fellow Greens stood a candidate, Simeon Hart, earlier this year, and I believe we should have a candidate in this by-election for five reasons: 1. The Green Party is now a major UK political party rather than a minor party, even if we only have one MP at present. In order for us to continue to be the green alternative, and advocate Green policies to the people, we need to stand in every Parliamentary by-election whether the seat is winnable for us or not. 2. The Labour candidate might not necessarily be on the left or even be that progressive, so our candidature will help give the voters of Oldham West & Royton a real choice whichever person Labour chooses. 3. By-elections in a constituency can usually attract media coverage for a seat that otherwise can...

Readers, the results of yesterday's local by-elections featuring Green Party candidates were as follows: Brentwood DC, Shenfield:  Conservative 852 (58.5%, +0.8%), Liberal Democrats 483 (31.7%, +4.3%), UKIP 85 (5.6%, -2.8%), Labour 49 (3.2%, -3.3%), Green 16 (1.0%). Conservative gain from Liberal Democrat. Peterborough UA, West: Con 1174 (46.4%, +1.1%), Lab 742 (29.4%, -2.3%), UKIP 415 (16.4%, +1.6%), Lib Dem 103 (4.1%), Green 94 (3.7%, -4.5%). Most of yesterday's by-elections took place in villages or small-town areas which were all outside the South West, and the Green Party is more active in urban areas particularly with large numbers of young people, and towns that have a 'naturally green' feeling. Our medicore result in the West ward of Peterborough-a ward that will be abolished when Peterborough gets new ward boundaries next year and 3 extra councillors-was probably due to the fact that the Liberal Democrats stood this time when they had not earlier...

Earlier today, China finally stated it plans to reverse its one child only policy (and replace it with a two child policy), which had been in force since 1980 initially to curb extensive population growth. China was for many years the only country with a population greater than one billion, and even now India's population has reached the one billion mark, China is still the most populous country on Earth by a considerable margin of hundreds of millions. 36 years of having a strict and harshly enforced one child policy (even when relaxed in some circumstances) has had substantial and detrimental effects on China socio-economically and psychologically. Birth rates in China are well below the expected replacement level of 2.1, the rate needed to keep a population stable in the long-term. This is being exacerbated by the fact that China, like many wealthier nations in the Western hemisphere, now has a substantial elderly population with ~20% of its population being over the age of 65...

Two days ago, Poland held its general election, although because it took a long time to verify results (despite the derisory turnout of 51%) I was not able to write this post yesterday. The result was a sharp turn to the right and a clear victory for the Law and Justice Party (PiS) led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, brother of former President Lech Kaczynski (who died in a plane crash in 2010). Needing to present an acceptable face to former Civic Platform (PO) voters, he declined to run for Prime Minister of Poland and instead asked Beata Szydlo to do so. It worked well, since Beata was able to steer the Law and Justice Party towards the first ever single-party majority (235 seats out of 460) in the history of Polish democracy, although given the unstable majority she is likely to seek out a coalition partner, probably the centrist Polish People's Party which managed to avoid losing out. Meanwhile, under the eye of Ewa Kopacz (who became Polish PM after the resignation of Donald Tusk...

Readers, the results of yesterday's local by-elections that featured Green candidates were as follows: Bury MBC, Tottington : Conservative 1046 (52.2%, +3.4%), Labour 619 (30.9%, +2.0%), UKIP 198 (9.9%, -4.4%), Lib Dem 87 (4.3%, +0.8%), Green 54 (2.7%, -1.8%). Conservative gain from Labour, all changes are since 2012. Oxford BC, Northfield Brook : Lab 509 (77.9%, +7.0%), UKIP 60 (9.2%), Con 47 (7.2%, -4.3%), Green 28, (4.2%, -7.0%), TUSC 9 (1.4%). Westminster LBC, Bryanston & Dorset Square : Con 582 (49.7%, -1.8%), Baker Street No Two Ways 218 (18.6%), Lab 167 (14.3%, -5.7%), Green 116 (9.9%, -6.4%), Lib Dem 46 (3.9%, -8.3%), UKIP 42 (3.6%). The last of the three above by-elections is particularly notable due to the publicity of the issue of two-way traffic being implemented on Baker Street, reported for having the potential to cause traffic chaos according to local media. It was strong enough in fact for an independent to register a new political p...

Two days ago, long-serving left-wing Labour MP for Oldham West (latterly Oldham West & Royton) Michael Meacher died. He had served as an MP for more than 45 years. I never met him personally; a few years ago he planned to show up to a political session I went to, but due to unforeseen circumstances he did not do so. Michael first came to prominence in the Oldham West by-election of 1968, where Labour lost to the Conservatives as they did in several other by-elections in otherwise safe seats in the middle of Harold Wilson's second term as Prime Minister. However, he recaptured the seat in 1970 from Keith Campbell (the Conservative MP who had taken Oldham West in the 1968 by-election) and held it until 1997, when it was replaced by the Oldham West & Royton constituency he represented until his death. Michael was notably one of the more left-wing Labour MPs, and was a supporter of such figures as Tony Benn and latterly Jeremy Corbyn, who in his final days he was ...