Alan's Green Thoughts

Readers, Parliament officially dissolved today and election nominations have just opened (they close on 9th April, so all will be revealed on the afternoon of 10th April). And due to the fact Britain is entering five party politics, a lot of seats could change hands and there could be more surprise results than ever before. Polls show it is still tight between the Conservatives and Labour, and due to polls differing (ComRes and Ashcroft polls put the Conservatives in the lead, YouGov puts Labour in the lead, and Populus' latest poll was a tie at 34% each), it is unknown what could emerge come May 2015. As with 2010, there are so many candidates from all different backgrounds and bearing all different colours of rosette. I will in particular say that across the UK, the Green Parties of England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland at this time of writing altogether plan to be contesting seven-eighths of all UK Parliamentary constituencies. I also have some questions a...

Readers, the results from yesterday's local by-elections were as follows: Fife UA, Glenrothes West & Kinglassie (first preferences): SNP 2539 (55.3%, +12.8%), Labour 1643 (35.8%, -5.4%), Conservative 202 (4.4%, +1.4%), UKIP 146 (3.2%), Liberal Democrat 61 (1.3%, -0.3%). SNP gain from Labour; SNP elected at the first count. Moray UA, Buckie (first preference votes): SNP 1485 (59.5%, +14.4%), Ind 696 (27.9%), Con 315 (12.6%, +5.5%). SNP gain from Independent; SNP elected at first count. Comhairle nan Eilean Siar UA , Beinn na Foghla agus Uibhist a Tuath: Ind W 437 (59.1%), SNP 302 (40.9%) Vale of Glamorgan UA, Llantwit Major: Con 1016 (40.8%, +18.7%), Llantwit Major First 1004 (40.3%, -15.7%), Lab 378 (15.2%, +0.5%), Plaid Cymru 95 (3.8%, -3.5%). Conservative gain from Llantwit Major First. West Lothian UA, Armadale & Blackridge (first preference votes): SNP 1620 (43.7%), Lab 1009 (27.0%), Ind MacK 756 (20.9%), Con 255 (6.8%), Green 90 (2.6%). SNP elected at fourth...

Readers, at the same time as our general election, so many local authorities are having their own elections. Some councils are having all-out elections (all council seats up for election) whereas some councils are still having elections by thirds (one-third of council seats up for election). I myself will be standing as a Green Party candidate locally, in my hometown of Ware, in East Hertfordshire. With more parties than ever before likely to contest these local elections in addition to seats at the general election (some constituencies, according to yournextmp.com, have 10 different PPCs already lined up and nominations have not opened yet!), the results will show once again the need to introduce proportional representation of some type into the UK's political system. The appearance of five-way marginal seats in Cornwall's elections of 2013 was just the first substantial crack in our broken system of local government. I believe the following proposals should be implemented f...

With just 10 days to go until this Parliament dissolves, and with so many different predictions of what the political map of Scotland could look like, I believe that with more PPCs from different parties in place in Scottish constituencies, and with the SNP likely to replace the Liberal Democrats as the third largest party in the UK (they almost did so in October 1974, with 11 SNP MPs compared to 13 Liberal MPs) it is time to make my seat-by-seat prediction in Scotland. Aberdeen North: The SNP are in a good second place here, and Frank Doran is retiring as MP. Without a Green candidate standing, an SNP win is a foregone conclusion with the SNP's poll ratings over the last few months. Dead cert SNP gain. Aberdeen South: The SNP's prospects here are considerably more limited than in Aberdeen North-and a large proportion of the Liberal Democrat vote is more likely to back Labour than the SNP in my opinion, as are any Conservative voters who switch sides. Likely Labour hold. ...

Readers, despite many opinion polls pointing to a defeat, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing Likud party defied media expectations and retained top position in the Israeli Knesset. Perhaps his warning to loyal voters about the advances made by Isaac Herzog and the Zionist Union (a coalition between the Israeli Labor Party and Hatumah) and the fact that exit polls showed those two parties neck and neck rang true enough to rally around right-wing voters. Likud actually managed to gain 12 seats, bringing their total to 30-most of these gains, however, came at the expense of parties more right-wing than Likud. In particular, the Jewish Homeland (a more extreme counterpart to Likud in many ways) lost 4 of its 12 seats (there are only 120 seats in the Knesset, so this is worth noting), and Likud's one time allies, Yisrael Beitenu, lost 7 of their 13 seats; tactical voting by their voters, to keep Mr Netanyahu in power, was likely a factor in their loss. U...

Readers, surveys carried out by The Independent recently showed that not a single known high street chain in the UK has signed up to a living wage pledge, and nor are those companies paying all of their staff a living wage (£9.15 per hour in London, £7.85 per hour elsewhere). However, smaller retailers are paying living wages, highlighting the importance of small, local companies and cooperatives in Britain's economic future, as opposed to large, parasitic, overbearing corporations and chain stores. Increasing living costs coupled with stagnating wages mean that year by year, thousands more workers end up struggling to meet basic needs because their wages are not high enough to reliably cover rent, energy, household, food, and transport bills. This also means they are unable to contribute effectively to local economies, meaning that when wages stagnate and when living costs rise, local jobs are put at risk. How does a living wage benefit everyone, from workers to leaders, wheth...

Readers, we are now just eight weeks away from the polling day for this year's general election. I believe more candidates than ever will be contesting (although out of the minor parties, only TUSC appears likely to get its own election broadcast)-and I am pleased to say there are now more than 500 Green PPCs standing across the whole of the UK at this time of writing :) Even though political parties' support is not wavering that much in polls, this election will still be the most difficult to predict in terms of overall national outcome. And whilst the media talks of realistically possible coalitions and outcomes arising from this general election, the possible consequences are not often discussed thoroughly. Realistically possible outcomes from the 2015 general election : Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition continues (unlikely): Sitting Liberal Democrat MPs have tended to be very good at using their personal vote to retain incumbency when trends are not in their f...

Readers, over the weekend I attended Green Party conference at the ACC building in Liverpool, the most attended Green Party conference in British history, with 1,300 people attending (although not all attended all four days of the conference, which I always do) I met many new activists at that conference, particularly in my local party and also those who had not been to a conference in some years for one reason or another. Natalie, Shahrar and Amelia were also right on the ball in terms of speeches, and the diversity of fringes proved useful as well. The five things I liked most about this conference were: 1. The Green Party passed a motion allowing joint candidacies, which will be brilliant in future elections and will make a revival of Green-Plaid and Green-Mebyon Kernow pacts possible. 2. Helping the Green Party raise awareness about autism and autism-related issues, as I do in my everyday life. 3. The venue's easy to navigate layout-although I personally found it easi...

Readers, the results for the four local by-elections from 5 March 2015, all of which featured Green Party candidates, were as follows: Brent LBC, Kenton:   Conservative 1097 (51.4%, -1.6%), Labour 839 (39.3%, +6.8%), Green 121 (5.7%, -4.8%), Liberal Democrat 79 (3.7%, -1.3%). Camden LBC, St Pancras and Somers Town: Lab 1481 (72.8%), Con 243 (12.0%), Green 213 (10.5%), Lib Dem 96 (4.7%) Croydon LBC, Selhurst: Lab 1517 (71.5%), Con 246 (11.6%), Green 148 (7.0%), UKIP 147 (7.0%), Lib Dem 65 (2.9%). Essex CC, Bocking: Con 1071 (34.3%), Lab 974 (31.2%), UKIP 855 (27.4%), Green 165 (5.3%), Independent S 58 (1.8%) I believe tactical voting in Kenton, one of the more safely Conservative areas of Brent (and part of the constituency of Brent North, which was once safely Conservative until the Blairite landslide of 1997) may explain the swing away from the Green Party to Labour, although the lack of a UKIP candidate meant the Conservatives held without much trouble. As for St Pancr...

Readers, earlier this week, the Green administration Brighton and Hove Council, the only council to have a Green Party administration (albeit a minority administration, a serious issue when the Labour and Conservative groups collude to obstruct our best efforts to represent Brighton and Hove residents), agreed with some Labour councillors to a budget which would involve cuts, in spite of Brighton and Hove Green Party members voting to ask their councillors not to vote for any type of cuts budget. I would like to say I am very pleased for the six Green councillors who were right to vote against a cuts budget first time around-why did only four of them rebel against the budget second time around when it is important to maintain an anti-austerity stance both locally and nationally? One issue is that the Local Government Act 1988 makes it difficult for local councils to resist central government control-this should be repealed so that local government is less reliant on Whiteh...

Yesterday, Estonia held its 2015 parliamentary election-and it was nothing but bad news for progressive parties in Estonia. I hoped the Estonian Greens would return to the Rikikogu after losing their seats in 2011, but in fact their vote share fell drastically-from 3.8% to 0.9%. I wonder how this happened, given that in opinion polls there they had been polling 2-4%. The Estonian United Left Party performed even worse, finishing bottom of the poll with 0.1%. In the context of left-wing parties advancing strongly in many other European nations, Estonia has seen the exact opposite, with two new right-wing parties entering the Rikikogu: the Free Party and the Conservative People's Party, with 8 and 7 seats respectively. The recent expansion of Estonia's economy, as well as the fact it has not been as badly affected by the Great Recession as some other European nations, may well be the main reason why the Estonian Greens/Estonian United Left polled so poorly in this election. A...