Alan's Green Thoughts

In recent environmental news, Lancashire councillors voted to reject all forms of fracking at Preston New Road, after having received legal advice stating that they can reject applications for fracking. Given the Conservative government's encouragement of fracking, especially without consultation from local people/local authorities, or respect to even basic property rights , this is an important and strong victory, which I believe will inspire a string of other victories against shale gas extraction. What does it mean for the campaign against fracking? 1. Petitioning and lobbying councillors as well as MPs, MEPs etc. will work if the issue is strong enough and strongly felt enough within one's community. Large numbers of people are strongly opposed to fracking, and this was demonstrated in Fylde in the most recent general election when anti-fracking campaigner Mike Hill polled over 5000 votes in an otherwise very safe Conservative seat. Wherever fracking operations ...

The results from local by-elections from yesterday were as follows: Cambridgeshire CC, Romsey: Labour 829 (37.3%), Liberal Democrat 782 (35.2%), Green 467 (21.0%), Conservative 100 (4.5%), UKIP 46 (2.1%). South Kesteven DC, Market & West Deeping: Independent Broughton 612 (23.2%), Independent Baxter 609 (22.9%), Con 605 (22.9%), Independent Shelton 426 (16.2%), Lib Dem 229 (8.7%), UKIP 224/129/113 (5.9%). We had high hopes of winning the tightly-fought Romsey by-election, in light of us being able to win over large numbers of Lib Dem votes in Cambridge (the Romsey ward boundaries are the same), but sadly it was not to be, with Labour narrowly winning instead. Nevertheless, we did well enough here, and have regained enough support in Cambridge itself, to give us a good chance of winning back representation on Cambridgeshire County Council in 2017. Although there was no Green Party candidate in the Market & West Deeping local by-election (actually a deferred elec...

The result from the deferred local election(caused by the death of candidates after the close of nominations but before polling day) held yesterday that had a Green Party candidate was as follows: Mole Valley DC, Holmwoods: Liberal Democrat 804/768 (50.2%, +24.7% ), Conservative 492/458 (30.7%, +2.1%), UKIP 201/180 (12.5%, -19.3%), Green 105/78 (6.6%, -0.7%). The strong Lib Dem advance in Holmwoods, located in one of a tiny handful of seats where they finished second in last month's general election despite never having won it in recent memory (the others were West Dorset, Bosworth, Maidstone & The Weald, South East Cambridgeshire, the Cotswolds, North Wiltshire, and North East Hampshire), is likely to have been a result of the absence of a Labour candidate in this deferred election. They also won a seat from UKIP (their councillor, Stephen Musgrove, who won last year, resigned for family reasons) due to UKIP not having the 'Euro elections' effect this time around...

Even though it has been only a month since the 2015 general election concluded, there have been resurging talks about the major boundary changes the Conservatives plan to push through by 2020 (or by the time they are forced to call an early election, which is a strong possibility given their small majority of 10 and the inevitability of by-elections during the next few years). However, given the current rules of these planned changes (set in 2013), the necessity to create large numbers of cross-boundary seats as a result, and the practical issues, I believe these are three significant reasons why those major boundary changes may never take place or might only take place in a substantially modified form: 1. These boundary changes would raise substantial objections from many Conservative backbenchers, and of course all opposition parties in the House of Commons.  The Conservatives hold 11 seats in Wales (more than their small majority!)which, being considerably under the ...

Just five weeks on from the 2015 general election, this week has seen some rather interesting by-elections, especially the re-run of the Mayor of Tower Hamlets election caused by Lutfur Rahman being (wrongly?) disqualified from office by an election court. The results from the deferred election in Wyre Forest (held on Tuesday for reasons unknown) and two other by-elections are as follows: Wyre Forest DC, Areley Kings East: Conservative 662/564/492, Labour 633/561/532, ICHC 404/378/326, UKIP 213/209/196, Green 66. Sutton LBC, Wallington South: Lib Dem 1251 (44.2%, +6.9%), Con 936 (33.0%, +13.7%), Lab 181 (6.4%, -2.4%), Independent M 180 (6.4%), UKIP 164 (5.8%, -10.5%), Green 122 (4.3%, -2.7%) Tower Hamlets LBC, Stepney Green: Lab 1643 (42.1%, +4.1%), Independent THF* 1472(37.7%, -4.9%), Green 272 (7.0%, -1.7%), UKIP 203 (5.2%, -2.9%), Con 158 (4.0%, -0.4%), Lib Dem 111 (2.9%, -0.3%), Something New 40 (1.0%). Labour gain from Tower Hamlets First. * Tower Hamlets First was ...

Yesterday, the voters of Turkey went to the polls-and the result delivered a decisive blow to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who from 2002 to 2014 was Prime Minister of Turkey. The conservative, right-wing Justice and Development Party (AKP) finally lost its majority after 13 years of power, although with 258 seats it is still the largest party in the Grand National Assembly, and may worryingly still be able to continue as a minority government, or, worse still, with the more extreme Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) as coalition partners; the MHP gained 21 seats. Usefully, though, the left-wing Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) won 80 seats in the new assembly by passing the 10% threshold (its candidates previously stood as independents as independent candidates are exempt from the threshold). The 10% threshold for representation (except for independent candidates) is the highest of any parliament using proportional representation for elections, and in practice is very unfair to...

Yesterday, the first by-elections and deferred elections (deferred elections are caused by the deaths of candidates after the close of nominations) since the 2015 general election were polled, and the results were as follows: Cambridgeshire CC, Wisbech South: Conservative 1020 (63.8%, +22.4%), UKIP 298 (18.6%, -19.8%), Labour 219 (13.7%, -2.7%), Liberal Democrat 61 (3.8%, -10.1%). Conservative gain from UKIP. Kettering BC, Rothwell: Lab 951/623/614 (41.5%, +5.9%), Con 871/777/771 (37.2%, +0.7%), UKIP 370 (16.1%, +16.1%), Green 119/89/82 (5.2%, +5.2%). Although we sadly had no candidate for the Wisbech South by-election, the heavy swing from UKIP to Conservative is noteworthy nevertheless. The strong support UKIP gained in the county council elections of 2013, directly preceding its win of the European elections and even more council seats in 2014, is likely to erode relatively easily in the next few years, especially if the spotlight ends up being shone on Thanet again whilst...

It has become news to me that Education Secretary, Nicky Morgan, has proposed removing important loopholes from recent Education Acts to place local schools under even greater threat of academisation. The planned removal of a particularly important section for challenging academies, regulation 46 of the School Governance England 2012, and other regulations could mean that schools could end up being forced into academy status without any local consultation or any recourse at all. Academies not only take local schools out of democratically accountable control, but also generally do not even improve the standards of the school in question (some academies have had worse results); free schools are worse still because of the lack of a legal requirement for free schools to employ only properly qualified teachers. My Green colleague in Milton Keynes, Samantha Pancheri, has rightly said that business interests have no place in our schools-for that matter, only the interests of parents,...

The Green Party selection for Mayor of London candidate, and London Assembly candidates for 2016 has opened, and here is why I am backing Caroline Russell, Green Party councillor for Highbury East, Islington and the sole opposition councillor to Labour in Islington, to be the Green Party candidate for Mayor of London next year and to be #1 on the Green Party's list of candidates for the London Assembly next year. I believe Caroline Russell, who has been a diligent Green activist and Local Transport Spokesperson for the Green Party, has the integrity, innovation, and passion needed to forge a new, green path for London and give the office of Mayor of London a new, forward-thinking vision which Greater London needs. Caroline has been a considerate, caring, and diligent councillor for the people of Islington and helps provide a useful voice of dissent in an otherwise solidly Labour council chamber. Caroline is also an excellent campaigner at promoting green issues and...