Alan's Green Thoughts

Having come back from the Green Party conference in Bournemouth last night, I would like to say that out of the six conferences I have attended in my 3 years as a Green Party member, this was the best I have been to, or at least the joint-best I have been to. It was an exciting conference, a passionate conference, and a well-attended conference. Here are in my personal opinion the good points about it: 1. I felt rather relaxed at this conference, possibly because of the location right by the seafront, and got to enjoy the beach somewhat despite not having brought my sandals. The beach marquee was also a great addition. 2. I was able to avoid getting lost this time, and found my way around Bournemouth without any problems, partly because Bournemouth is not as large as cities like Liverpool and Birmingham. 3. Important emergency motions concerning the EU, justice for the 'Liverpool Five' and the scandal surrounding rigging of emissions tests (not just by Volkswagen but o...

Picture this, readers of my blog. A seemingly fair election, with proportional representation, where parties clearly differentiate themselves, in which you are supposedly compelled to cast a vote....but where there is still no real choice, where the outcome looks so bleak for you, your family and friends whatever the result, due to external forces beyond your control and accountability....imagine. That was the second Greek legislative election that happened yesterday, and SYRIZA won it again, losing only 4 of their 149 seats from January., and on a turnout of only 55%, the lowest in Greek history. Their Popular Unity (LAE) splinter group, led by ex-SYRIZA MPs, just failed to enter the Hellenic Parliament polling only 2.86% of the vote (they only passed the 3% threshold in some constituencies) despite predictions it would pass the threshold. The Independent Greeks (ANEL) who Alexis Tsipras will likely again seek as coalition partners only lost 3 seats, meanwhile, st...

Readers, the results of local by-elections from yesterday were as follows: Haringey LBC, Noel Park: Labour 1005 (61.3%, +7.5%), Liberal Democrats 247 (15.1%, +1.1%), Conservative 178 (10.9%, +4.8%), Green 124 (7.6%, -6.7%), UKIP 48 (2.9%, -3.3%), TUSC 38 (2.3%) Haringey LBC, Woodside: Lab 1271 (61.7%, +4.6%), Lib Dem 435 (21.0%, +9.2%), Con 141 (6.8%,-0.9%), Green 122 (5.9%, -5.6%), UKIP 95 (4.6%, -2.7%) South Ayrshire UA, Ayr East: Conservative & Unionist 1,527 (38.5%, +5.5%), SNP 1507 (38.0%, +6.6%), Labour 642 (16.2%, -7.2%), Independent B 218 (5.5%), Scottish Green Party 76 (1.9%) . SNP hold on 4th count. South Cambridgeshire DC, Bourn: Conservative 579 (46.5%, -9.9%), Lib Dem 247 (19.8%), Labour 235 (18.9%, -10.4%), UKIP 121 (9.7%), Green 64 (5.1%, -9.3%). These local by-elections are the first since Jeremy Corbyn became leader of the Labour Party, and initial findings unfortunately showed Green swings towards Labour (at least in metr...

Readers, you are almost certainly now aware that Jeremy Corbyn won the Labour leadership election-and easily, achieving more than three times the votes of his nearest rival, Andy Burnham, and winning in the first round. The Labour right's favourite, Liz Kendall, meanwhile polled a pathetic 4.5% of the votes. In a related story, Tom Watson also became Deputy Leader of Labour, although his win was not as easy as that of Jeremy's. Quoth the ravens, 'let a united fightback begin.' This is a strong breakthrough in British politics given how long the neoliberal consensus has dominated all three major parties, and how it was doing what it could to maintain its hold here. However, progress still needs to be made overall-there are still a lot of Labour MPs from the right who are dominating the Labour Party in practice and Jeremy is not that strong on environmental issues-his advocacy of reopening closed coal mines during his campaign was a case in point, as was his not so co...

Readers, the results of local by-elections from yesterday featuring Green Party candidates were as follows: Edinburgh UA, Leith Walk (2 seats up for election, 1st preference votes): SNP 2,209 (36.2%, +7.7%), Labour 1,623 (25.7%, -7.5%), Scottish Green Party 1,381 (21.8%, +1.5%), Scottish Conservative and Unionist 501 (7.9%, -0.2%), Liberal Democrats 255 (4.0%, -1.1%), UKIP 102 (1.6%), Scottish Socialist 97 (1.5%), Left Unity 32 (0.5%), Independent S 26 (0.4%), Libertarian 17 (0.3%). SNP elected on 1st count, Labour elected on 10th count. SNP hold, Labour gain from Green. Maidstone BC, Fant: Con 474 (27.1%, -2.2%), Lib Dem 447 (24.1%, +2.1%), Lab 352 (20.0%, -0.4%), Green 249 (14.2%, +3.9%), UKIP 180 (10.2%, -7.4%), Independent H 75 (4.3%). Conservative hold. All changes are since May 2015. Sandwell MBC, Blackheath: Lab 915 (51.4%, +7.0%), Con 544 (30.5%, -0.6%), UKIP 287 (16.1%, -8.4%), Green 35 (2.0%) Labour hold. All changes are since May 2015. Midlothian UA, Midlothian West ...

Readers, you may have come across articles about the fact the Conservatives are bringing forward the implementation of Individual Electoral Registration (IER) by one year to December 2015 (due to amendment by John Penrose, the Conservative MP for Weston-Super-Mare) against the recommendations of the Electoral Commission to keep the deadline to December 2016. This could mean that upwards of 2,000,000 voters could be wiped off the national electoral register, which is already seriously incomplete in parts of Britain (there are an estimated 8,000,000 voters in the UK currently missing from electoral registers, according to Hope Not Hate). Worse still, the effects of this will be exacerbated in areas with young and transient voters like Hackney, and large student electorates like Cambridge- the exact areas where the Green Party performs well. Many voters who move around often (either because they are students or private renters) tend to be young but also awa...

In a recent New Statesman article, Michael Chessum, a prominent left-wing student activist who like me was a frequenter of NUS conferences, has claimed that in the event Jeremy Corbyn becomes Labour leader, 'the Green Party should shut up shop'. This incorrect perception is based on a serious misunderstanding of the real position and the fundamental differences between Labour and Green supporters and members, no matter which wing they stand on.   First of all, the four fundamental values of green politics, environmentalism, non-violence, social justice, and grassroots democracy mark greens out as different from the 'traditional' socialists and social democrats Jeremy is trying to win over. The fact Jeremy has spoken out in favour of re-opening coal mines, and his concentration on nationalisation, marks him out as not that green after all, despite making other pledges greens would be happy with such as scrapping Trident and withdrawing from NATO. As a Green, I bel...

Readers, I am pleased to tell you that the top four candidates in the Green Party's list for the London Assembly elections of 2016 are: Sian Berry (councillor in Highgate ward, Camden, and also our candidate for Mayor of London), Caroline Russell (councillor in Highbury East ward, Islington), Jonathan Bartley (Green Party pensions spokesperson), and Noel Lynch (who has previously been an Assembly Member, from 2003-2004). I am particularly pleased that we are first of the major parties to announce our Assembly List and our Mayoral candidate (since the respective Mayor of London candidates from Labour, the Liberal Democrats,the Conservatives and UKIP have not been formally declared yet, and nor have their London Assembly lists been finalised), since a green agenda will be particularly important for London's future. However, with a surprisingly low turnout in this internal election and recent GPEx elections (where sadly I did not win the Local Party Support Coordinator post) it ...