Alan's Green Thoughts

'Don't mourn-organise!'- Joe Hill, Utah trade union leader. It is happening-Theresa May formally triggered Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, the process by which Britain will officially cease to be a member of the European Union by 29 March 2019.  The negotiations therefore begin today. There is no point lamenting it; we must instead fight back to get the best deal out of Brexit. I have said it before and I will say it again- everyone in the UK, no matter whom they are or where they live -must be given a voice in these negotiations. Brexit is not an excuse to turn Britain into a tax haven of any kind, especially when public opinion polls throughout the last two years have always been in favour of corporations, especially larger corporations and multinationals, being required to pay more tax and pay their fair share of tax. Nor is it an excuse for massive deregulation via the 'Great Repeal Bill' (see here for details: http://www.globaljustice.org.uk/blog/2017/mar/

Readers, the votes cast in this week's local by-elections this week were as follows: Herefordshire UA, Leominster South: Green 318 (40.8%, +10.1%), It's Our County 143 (18.3%), Conservative 139 (17.8%, -8.7%), No Description 116 (14.9%), Liberal Democrats 64 (8.2%). Green gain from Conservative West Somerset DC, Dunster & Timberscombe: Liberal Democrats 174 (49.7%), Conservative 115 (32.9%, -26.7%), Green 38 (10.9%, -29.6%), Labour 23 (6.6%). Liberal Democrat gain from Conservative. Blackburn with Darwen UA, Higher Croft**: Labour 445 (59.6%, -10.4%), UKIP 169 (22.6%), Conservative 133 (17.8%, -12.2%) **This particular by-election result has been declared null and void, on the grounds that the victorious Labour candidate, Adam Holden, was actually disqualified from standing from election due to having paid employment with Growth Lancashire, which is owned by six authorities within Lancashire of which Blackburn with Darwen Council is one. He is therefore ineligible t

I have been grappling with Yorkshire regarding the 2018 Boundary Review for days, given how strong the objections are to many of the Boundary Commission's initial proposals, and how many counter-proposals have been submitted. The ward sizes in West Yorkshire's metropolitan boroughs pose a serious problem in drawing up allowable and suitable constituencies; the target range is only 7,477 (71,030 to 78,507) yet many wards in Leeds on 2015 electorate numbers have electorates more than double that target range, and the wards of the other West Yorkshire metropolitan boroughs are very large, given that all of these councils hold elections by thirds and will continue to do so for a long time. The strongest objections in particular concern moving Bradford wards into constituencies not centred on Bradford, moving Tong into any Leeds constituency given the poor connections of Tong ward, pairing Brighouse with Halifax even though there are no proper connections between those two towns,

Within the second consultation on the 2018 Boundary Review, which ends in five days' time (so do not delay when commenting on the BCE's website!) here have been a considerable number of objections to the drawing of constituencies in the county of Dorset, especially the South East Dorset conurbation covering the authorities of Bournemouth, Poole, and Christchurch; with Ferndown from East Dorset also really part of the same conurbation now. There have in particular been many arguments in favour of broadly keeping the two Bournemouth constituencies (apart from adding Branksome West to Bournemouth West to pair it with the Branksome East and Alderney wards of Poole already in the current constituency of Bournemouth West) intact, such as the locations of student accommodation, the justified argument that Kinson is an integral part of Bournemouth and not a suburb of it, and that Christchurch has strongly different needs from Bournemouth despite being part of the same conurbation as

The 11 candidates who have made it onto the first round ballot in the French Presidential election of 2017 are: Nathalie Arthaud (Workers' Struggle/LO) Francois Asselineau (Popular Republican Union/UPR) Jacques Cheminade (Solidarity & Progress/S&P) Nicolas Dupont-Aignan (France Arise/DLF) Francois Fillon (The Republicans/LR) Benoit Hamon (Socialist Party/PS) Jean Lasselle (Independent) Marine Le Pen (Front National/FN) Emmanuel Macron (En Marche!/EM) Jean-Luc Melenchon (Unsubmissive France/FI) Phillippe Potou (New Anticapitalist Party/NPA) How well are they likely to perform, you ask? It is already clear that whilst five candidates (M. Fillon, M. Hamon, Mme. Le Pen, M. Macron, et M. Melenchon) are polling above 10% and have consistently been doing so, only three of these 11 candidates have a realistic chance of becoming the next French President: economic liberal Francois Fillon, extreme, anti-immigrant, anti-EU nationalist Marine Le Pen, and new moderate Emman

Readers, the results of local by-elections from this week were as follows: Blackpool UA, Warwick: Conservative 728 (54.8%, +17.5%), Labour 468 (35.2%, +6.3%), UKIP 75 (5.6%, -13.4%), Liberal Democrats 57 (4.3%, -2.8%). Breckland DC, Saham Toney: Conservative 305 (48.1%, -2.7%), Liberal Democrats 105 (15.1%), Independent 104 (14.9%), UKIP 80 (11.5%, -20.1%), Labour 72 (10.3%). Newcastle-upon-Tyne MBC, South Heaton: Labour 768 (46.8%, -11.8%) Green 444 (27.1%, +1.7%), Liberal Democrats 260 (15.9%, +11.5%), UKIP 88 (5.4%, -1.5%) Conservative 80 (4.9%, +0.2%). All changes are since May 2016. South Ribble DC, Walton le Dale East: Conservative 359 (49.4%, -5.1%), Labour 262 (36.0%, -9.4%), Liberal Democrats 106 (14.6%). There may only have been four British local by-elections this week, but together they can paint a good picture of what is happening politically within Britain between the five largest parties. In rural areas which are normally solidly Conservative, UKIP is fast ceas

The Dutch general election of 2017 finally concluded earlier today when the last of the Netherlands' 388 municipalities (which genuinely cover areas as local as possible and are not drawn for administrative convenience, unlike many principal authorities in England) finished counting the votes. This map shows which party topped the poll by municipality (blue=VVD, dark green=CDA, light green=GL, red=SP, turquoise=PVV, light blue=CU, orange=SGP). Like so many people, I am pleased with GroenLinks' record result, although unfortunately they could only finish in sixth place in the end, just behind the Socialist Party (SP), rather than the third place finish many Dutch polls anticipated and in spite of the increased attention their lijsttrekker (list topper, or leader), Jesse 'Jessiah' Klaver was getting in the run-up to the election. They managed 8.9% and 14 seats (and thus got 3 1/2 times their 2012 seat total, not quadruple as some online commentators misleadingly

Earlier today, the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill passed the final House of Lords stage, meaning it will soon achieve Royal Assent and become an Act of Parliament in time for Prime Minister Theresa May to start Brexit negotiations at the end of this month. Unfortunately, neither of the amendments suggested by the House of Lords will be included, as they were rejected 335-287 and 331-286 respectively, meaning the rights of EU citizens in the UK will be uncertain once Britain formally leaves the EU and Parliament will not be able to block the final deal. However, during the negotiations, there is still time to make sure that Britain's exit from the EU will not be as socio-economically painful or damaging as some believe-and here is how: 1. Make sure Britain still has access to the Single Market-and can advocate reform of international trade. It is important we avoid having to sign up to World Trade Organisation (WTO) tariffs which will severely harm Britain

The first significant Antipodean election of the year, the state election in Western Australia, has just concluded. The result proved to be a heavy blow for the Liberal/National Coalition (there is no real difference between these two parties in practice apart from the somewhat more pro-agrarian bias of the Nationals and the type of divisions the two parties represent in Australia at all levels), who have lost more than half of their 2013 seat total, going down from 38 seats to a total of just 18. Many of these seats were lost on swings of more than 10% from Liberal to Labor, normally a very difficult feat in Australian elections (and for that matter, British elections of regional and parliamentary level, but not Canadian elections) indeed barring special circumstances. This ends the Premiership of the Liberals' Colin Barnett, who was first elected in 2008, and even before that he was no stranger to controversy (for example, he sponsored a bill to raise the age of consent for h

The results of this week's local by-elections were as follows: Broxbourne BC, Waltham Cross: Conservative 650 (41.0%, -3.5%), Labour 646 (40.8%, -14.8%), UKIP 200 (12.6%), Liberal Democrats 89 (5.6%). Conservative gain from Labour; all changes are since May 2016. Derby UA, Derwent: Conservative 789 (37.1%, +28.1%), Labour 611 (28.7%, -2.4%), UKIP 537 (25.2%, -7.2%), Liberal Democrats 192 (9.0%, -15.4%). Conservative gain from UKIP; all changes are since May 2014. East Hertfordshire DC, Hertford Castle: Conservative 593 (49.0%, +8.8%), Labour 207 (17.1%, -2.4%), Liberal Democrats 188 (15.5%), Green 157 (13.0%, -5.1%), UKIP 65 (5.4%). Harrow LBC, Roxbourne: Labour 1,554 (62.8%, +13.8%), Conservative 533 (21.5%, -0.5%), Liberal Democrats 240 (9.7%, +0.7%), UKIP 148 (6.0%). Rutland UA, Exton: Conservative 238 (59.5%, +6.5%), Liberal Democrats 123 (30.8%, +11.6%), UKIP 39 (9.8%, -5.0%). Stratford-on-Avon DC, Red Horse: Conservative 476 (53.4%, -9.0%), Liberal Democrats 266 (

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Phillip Hammond (Conservative MP for Runnymede & Weybridge) today announced the first quarterly budget of 2017. As with all previous Conservative budgets, it is only good for big business and bad for everyone else. Here are the five most glaring fundamental faults with it. 1. Its lack of respect for women and women's issues. Today is also International Women's Day and it has been reported that the budget will commit £20 million to support the campaign against violence perpetrated on women and girls, £5 million to next year celebrate the centenary of women getting the vote in Britain, and £5 million to support people returning to work after a career break (e.g. mothers who took time off work to raise children; decent childcare is often unaffordable for many women in work). This is not enough by any standards, especially when the present government has been responsible for closing many women's refuges and cutting help to vital services

The second consultation over the 2018 Boundary Review, where comments can be viewed, reviewed, and replied to regarding the Boundary Commission's initial proposals, opened on Tuesday 28th February. It is important that you respond to this consultation and make sure that gerrymandering does not occur; note that if you disagree with an initial proposal you need to submit a counter-proposal that you believe is better, otherwise the Boundary Commission will just stick with its initial proposal for that area. To view the comments that have already been submitted, and make further comments on this review, please visit the Boundary Commission's website via https://www.bce2018.org.uk/ . This consultation ends on 27 March 2017, so if you have something to say about this review and if your community is being moved to a new constituency, do not delay. As expected, the Greater London area has so far had the most comments on the initial proposals, especially in North and Central London.

The snap Northern Ireland Assembly election of 2017, which took place two days ago with the snap election having been called mainly over the Renewable Heat Initiative (RHI) scandal, proved to be a major game-changer in many ways. Far from falling further, turnout in the NI Assembly election increased by 10 percentage points, rising to the highest level since 1998, when the NI Assembly originally convened after previous devolution attempts had failed. The reduction from 108 seats to 90 (caused by each constituency electing 5 MLAs instead of 6), which will be further reduced to 85 if boundary changes are pushed through, led to a lot of interesting tussles especially in the more divided (between unionists and nationalists) constituencies such as Upper Bann and Belfast North. The DUP and Arlene Foster were held responsible for the scandal and the need to call a snap election after the power-sharing agreement consequently broke down, and they were duly punished, falling to just 28 seats

The results of this week's local by-elections were as follows: Christchurch DC, Mudeford & Friars Cliffe: Conservative 629 (46.8%, -7.2%), Independent 466 (34.8%), Labour 91 (6.8%, -9.9%), UKIP 85 (6.3%, -23.0%), Green 72 (5.4%). Redcar & Cleveland UA, Hutton: Conservative 860 (57.4%, +2.9%), Liberal Democrats 326 (21.8%, +3.5%), Labour 183 (12.8%, -15.0%), UKIP 129 (8.6%). Redcar & Cleveland UA, Newcomen: Liberal Democrats 426 (44.6%, +7.5%), Labour 259 (27.1%, -6.9%), UKIP 153 (16.0%, -4.0%), Independent Hannon 52 (5.4%), Independent Stones 36 (3.8%, -5.0%), Conservative 29 (3.0%). Salford MBC, Kersal: Conservative 850 (42.0%, -1.4%), Labour 553 (27.3%, -21.5%), Independent Wineberg 354 (17.5%), UKIP 182 (9.0%, -2.0%), Green 48 (2.4%, -2.0%), Liberal Democrats 39 (1.9%). Conservative gain from Labour; all changes are since May 2016. The Conservatives' gain of Kersal may sound like a surprise, but considering the actual situation in Salford it is not-the