We should never go back to Blairism

Recently I have seen numerous Labour activists defending Blair on the basis that he won us 3 general election.  A quick look at the polling figures show that this defence is not so black and white:

Labour Party results

Year    Popular Vote    Percentage of the vote
1997    13,518,167       43.2%
2001     10,724,953      40.7%
2005     9,552,436        35.2%

If Blair was so popular with the electorate why did Labour lose 4 million votes between 1997 and 2005?  The only reason Blair won the election in 2005, was that the alternative was Michael Howard.

The argument is that we should continue to use Blair's policies to attract back Tory voters.  In reality we did not lose that many votes to the Conservatives.  In 1997 the results for the other two parties were as follows:

1997
Cons: 9,600,943
Lib Dem: 5,242,947

And in 2010:

2010
Cons: 10,703,954
Lib Dem, 6.836.824

This shows that of the 4 million lost votes the Conservatives have only taken about a million votes and the Lib Dems about a million and a half.

This means that many who no longer vote Labour have either stopped voting or have opted for smaller parties.  It is these parties and the Lib Dems who we need to focus on.  Many of whom will have stopped voting Labour because of Iraq and attacks on civil liberties. 

Blarism may be good for targeting Tory voters, but that is not where we should be directing our efforts.

Take Back Parliament Demo - York

Around 150 people attended the Take Back Parliament demo in York today, one of many events taking place across the country, call for a fairer voting system.  Among the speakers at the demo were, Hugh Bayley MP (Labour), Cllr Dave Taylor (Green), Cllr Christian Vassie (Lib Dem) and Dr Simon Parker from University of York Politics Department.  The Conservatives were conspicuous by their absence.

More photos are available on the Facebook group.

I am still personally not sure if STV is the best voting system.  Having such a voting system would mean having much larger constituencies, like we have with the European Parliament, to allow MPs from several parties to represent the same area.

What is clear is that the current system is ludicrously unfair and needs changing.  I currently feel that a system of AV Plus may be the best solution.  This will allow us to maintain a constituency MP and top up parliament with a second vote based on PR.

Meet our new minister for equalities

As well as becoming Home Secretary Teresa May has also been awarded the position of Minister for Women and Equality.  Presumably she was given this post as only one of two women in the cabinet, the other being Cheryl Gillan as Welsh secretary.  Every other member of the cabinet is a white male.

A quick look on the public whip site shows that Teresa May is no fan of gay rights, having either voted against or being absent when most gay rights legislation of the last government was tabled.

She voted against:

• Crime and Disorder Bill — Reduce age of consent for homosexual acts to 16 
• Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill 
• Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill — Reduction in age at which certain sexual acts are lawful 
• Local Government Bill [Lords] - Prohibition on promotion of homosexuality: bullying 
• Adoption and Children Bill (Programme) — Consideration and Third Reading 
• Adoption and Children Bill — [2nd Allotted Day] — Applications for adoption 
• Adoption and Children Bill — [3rd Allotted Day] — Clause 131 — General interpretation, etc. 
• Adoption and Children Bill — Suitability Of Adopters

I do not have the confidence in her to be a true champion of equality.  This is one post where the Libservatives could have gained a little more credibility by appointing a Lib Dem with a much better voting record than Ms May.

Here come the Libservatives

Will anyone trust the Lib Dems again?

So it's finally happened. After days of playing the Tories off against Labour, the Lib Dems have finally gone into coalition with the Tories.

During the election the Lib Dems continually brushed off suggestions that they would go into coalition. With such statements as:

My message to Mr Brown and Mr Cameron is simple: the Liberal Democrats are up for real change. We are not up for sale. - Nick Clegg, The Times - Jan 5th 2010

The Liberal Democrats would refuse to enter a coalition government with Labour or the Tories in the event of a hung parliament, it is being reported. - Sky News, Feb 15th 2010

I would have thought that most voters who voted Lib Dem will be horrified at the thought of a Lib Dem/Tory coalition. This move is likely to serisoully deplete their vote at the next election. I would also not be surprised if some of those on the left of the Lib Dems quit the party as they simply cannot stomach their party being in government with the Tories.

This is a sad day for those of us in favour of progressive politics.  Only 36.1% of those who voted, voted Conservative, yet they are now our government.  They have become our government by the decisions made by a party with only 23% of the vote and 57 seats in Parliament.

So, the campaign to get Cameron out of No.10 starts now.  Hopefully there will be an election within the next year, and we will have a chance to remove the Libservatives from power.

We should not be complacent about the BNP failures

I like many was ecstatic to see Nick Griffin fail in his attempt to become the first BNP MP, in the seating of Barking.  And I though Margaret Hodge's acceptance speech was excellent:



It was also wonderful to see every BNP councillor in Barking lose their seat.  In total the BNP lost 22 council seats across the country.

We should however not be complacenet.  The BNP has increased their vote share nationally from 0.7% to 1.9%.  This is a massive increase in overall vote.  It is clear our job is not done and we must continue to work convincing the electorate that the BNP do not have any answer but hatred and bigotry.

Reasons to be cheerful

The Green Party achieved a great victory last night by electing Caroline Lucas, leader of the Green Party as the first Green MP.  Considering how flawed our current first past the post electoral system is, this is a great achievement.

It is unfortunate that we did not do as well in other constituencies.  Although we did get respectable results in some other constituencies such as Norwich South, Lewisham Deptford and Cambridge.  I can't help but think that we would have had better outcomes if the electorate hadn't been sold on the idea of tactical voting, and the belief that the Lib Dems were a serious threat to the 2 main parties, when in reality they came away with less seats than 2005.

As it stands it looks like our fears have been realised and Clegg is in discussions with Cameron to support a Tory minority government.  The discussions may end up being fruitless, but part of me feels that Clegg will be willing to sell out for a taste of power.

I greatly respect Caroline Lucas for refusing to enter any coalition or pact and to judge legislation on a case by case basis.

All we can hope for is that something good comes out of a hung parliament and we end up with a fairer voting system.

Election night

It's finally arrived, election night is here.  I shall be up to the early hours watching the TV coverage, occasionally switching over to Channel 4's Alternative Election Night for a bit of light relief.

The 3 key Green targets are expected to be announced between 2 and 4am.  I will post some of the key Green results up here along with some of the surprises of the night.

I will also be regularly tweeting at mr_andy_c

Use your vote tomorrow

Not all of us are lucky enough to have a Green candidate standing in our constituency tomorrow, but I stress that it is still important that you go out and vote.

You often hear the old adage 'the 3 main parties are the same'.  I disagree, they are not the same.  As much as I disagree with some of the policies of the past Labour government, they have also made improvements over the past 13 years, as I have explained in my earlier post http://thelifeofmrandyc.blogspot.com/2010/03/why-im-voting-labour-in-york-outer.html

If you don't vote tomorrow, you may well regret it on Friday morning when you wake up to a Tory government.  A government which will bring back fox hunting, scrap the human rights act, finish off Thatcher's hatchet job on the unions and bring in brutal cuts to the public sector to fund their tax breaks for the rich.

Support for Green policies

I have just come across an excellent website called Vote for Policies.  The idea of the site is that it shows you policies from 6 parties and you pick which policy you prefer without seeing the party name. 

The questionnaire covers the following policy strands:

• Crime
• Democracy
• Economy
• Education
• Environment
• Europe
• Health/NHS
• Immigration
• Welfare

After you have chosen your preferred policies the site will tell you which party best matches your viewpoint.

So far 6049 users have taken the test, and the results are as follows:

BNP - 11.19%
Conservatives - 13.5%
Green Party - 30.34%
Labour - 16.64%
Lib Dems - 17.61%
UKIP - 10.72%

As you see the Green Party policies win by quite a large margin.

I would encourage you to promote this poll on Twitter/Facebook etc.  I feel a lot of people will be surprised after taking the test, not realising how much they have in common with Green policies.  It will also show voters that we have strong policies in all areas, not just environmental issues.