Welcome to 2016 :)

Hello, readers, and welcome to 2016.

So, what is coming up this year?

First of all, there is the important race to be the new Mayor of London in May, and also the London Assembly election alongside it. I wish the Green Party candidate for Mayor of London, Sian Berry, all the best in her campaigns.

Secondly, there is also the Scottish Parliamentary election and the Welsh Assembly election, where my Green colleagues stand to make historic strides.

Thirdly, there are also local elections in England which will be the first test for five-party politics within the UK outside of a general election, which indirectly boosts local election turnout significantly.

Fourthly, it has been indicated that a crucial referendum on Britain's EU membership will likely take place sometime in 2016, although not on the same day as local elections. I maintain my neutral yet informative stance on this issue and seek to promote it should it be confirmed as happening this year.

Finally, there will be several parliamentary elections in several different nations of Europe over the course of 2016-the one to watch this year will be in the Republic of Ireland.

Best wishes, Alan.

Comments

  1. Nick1 January 2016 at 12:15

    Lets hopefully watch UKIP and the other crackpot rabble parties die on their feet. Meanwhile with Labour tearing itself apart all I can see in England is the words Conservatives Hold or Conservative Gain. Sadly opposition is so ineffective the majority of the electorate will vote with their feet. Of Course the nasty party have ensured so many people have lost their vote with Electoral Role registration changes too. - I predict NO Plaid Werdd AM in Cynulliad Cenedlaethol Cymru and a 4th place behind UKIP for Sian Berry, nice though she is. The Right Wing Tories of Bromley, Croydon, Havering and Harrow aren't going to vote for Zac Goldsmith so will swing to UKIP.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My analysis of local by-elections from 22/11/18

Readers, the results of this week's British local by-elections were as follows: Enfield LBC, Bush Hill Park: Conservative 1540 (52.4%, +12.7%), Labour 828 (28.2%, -8.3%), Liberal Democrats 313 (10.7%, -0.8%), Green 127 (4.3%, -6.6%), WEP 79 (2.7%), Independent (Oyaloyu) 50 (1.7%). [UKIP did not stand] Westminster LBC, Lancaster Gate: Conservative 913 (47.2%, -1.5%), Labour 684 (35.4%, -1.0%), Liberal Democrats 275 (14.2%, -0.7%), Green 62 (3.2%). Windsor & Maidenhead UA, Datchet: Conservative 525 (56.0%, -3.1%), National Flood Prevention Party 223 (23.8%), Labour 121 (12.9%, -9.1%), Liberal Democrats 48 (5.1%,-13.8%), Green 21 (2.2%). Wirral MBC, Upton: Labour 1490 (61.3%, +3.1%), Conservative 705 (29.0%, +0.4%), Green 151 (6.2%, -0.5%), Liberal Democrats 83 (3.4%, -0.8%). [TUSC did not stand] All changes are since May. The open divisions in the Conservatives, which resulted in a failed attempt to call for a vote of no confidence in Theresa May by the European Researc...
Read more

On the 2020 Serbian election: Why a boycott will only worsen things there

First of all, I apologise for the recent hiatus; however elections are still postponed or on hold in many countries, including the UK. Serbia, however, was able to proceed with its 2020 general election amidst this crisis. Its overall result proved reminiscent of Hungarian elections under Viktor Orban's tenure (2010-present), since the leading national-conservative coalition, the SNS (Progressive Party of Serbia) coalition led by Serbian President Aleksander Vucic (Ana Brnabic is the Serbian Prime Minister, and the first woman and openly homosexual person to hold that position), polled 61.6% of the vote, giving them as many as 191 seats out of 250 and a majority of as high as 132, almost unheard of in any country with proportional representation. Press freedom has endured significant curbs since President Vucic first came into power as Serbian PM in 2012 (he became President of Serbia in 2017), as have civil liberties of Serbs in general. Nepotism and corruption in the Serbian ...
Read more

On the French local elections of 2020: Vive le surge de vert!

The French local elections finally concluded yesterday, having been originally scheduled to take place on 15 March; they were postponed due to the effects of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.  The most sensational story of these elections was the many triumphs by the main French Green Party, Europe Ecologie-Les Verts (EELV). In major French cities (those with more than 100,000 people), EELV captured the mayoralties of Annecy, Besancon, Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille, Strasbourg, and Tours. They also performed impressively in the munciipal elections for those cities as well. However, in the midst of all this triumph there was one notable setback for them: Eric Pollie, the first Green Mayor of a major French city, decided to contest the mayoral election there as an "Independent Left" (divers gauche) candidate instead. Furthermore they narrowly missed out on unseating former PS leader Martine Aubry from her post as Mayor of Lille; in the second round she held on by 227 votes, a sig...
Read more