Red Pepper's Election Blues

Mixed feelings from Sedgefield

Interview with Derek Cattell from the Reg Keys Campaign

Reg Keys came to Sedgefield to unseat Tony Blair for the lies that took his son and other British soldiers to war and tragic death in Iraq. He came a respectable 4^th with 10% of the vote but Blair increased his majority.

Did you achieve what you set out to do or are you disappointed with the result?

"We are obviously pleased with the general picture - despite the predictions, Iraq became a key election issue and has given Blair and New Labour a bloody nose across the country. Unfortunately, we didn't give Blair a bloody nose in Sedgefield and there are mixed feelings in the camp about the result. Winning was always going to be a tall order, but we did believe that Reg could seriously embarrass Blair and put a major dent in both his majority and standing within the country."

"Given everything this Prime Minister has done, I think its fair to say that we expected more than 10% and we are pretty angry with the other parties for not standing aside. We met with the Tories and they asked Reg to stand down - the Lib Dems never even replied to our request for a meeting. Unfortunately, we also couldn't quite work as well as we had wanted with Sedgefield Against the War, who never really endorsed Reg."

"But when you look at where we started from - an ordinary man with no party and limited resources taking on the full force of Labour Party machinery and the government - and then look at the media coverage we got on the issues of Iraq, deceit and British military deaths, the public support and so on, then I think we did a great job and it was definitely worth the effort."

Did Reg Keys manage to speak with Tony Blair?

"Oh no, there was none of that. But there was this incredible moment during Reg's speech at the count, when he was making the point about the 88 British soldiers who have been killed in Iraq and he turned directly to the Prime Minister and said that 'some people don't know how many British soldiers have been killed there'. That was powerful stuff."

What reception did you get on the streets of Sedgefield?

">"Reg's campaign received a lot of goodwill from the locals but it didn't translate into votes. Unfortunately, a funny thing happens to Labour voters when they find themselves alone in a voting booth - decades of tradition and allegiance suddenly bear down on them and they just can't vote for anything else. But what our campaign did achieve - for the first time in ages - was to force the Labour Party to actually campaign in Sedgefield and do the work on the ground instead of taking these voters for granted."

"The general support we received from the people of this country and across the world was quite inspiring. Up in Sedgefield, we had 50 people on any one day knocking the doors, canvassing and leafleting, people who had come from all over the country at their own expense. We had a team of volunteer telephone canvassers in London. We even had one person ring us up and offer to do telephone canvassing from America at their own expense!"

Do you think the experience of Iraq, the anti-war movement and now this election has changed Reg's own political views at all?

"When Reg first appeared as this angry, grieving father, a lot of people were cautious and even a little suspicious of him. Prior to Tom's [his son's] death, Reg had believed Blair on Iraq and WMD and had proudly sent his son off to what he believed was a just war. Reg has also been quite open about the fact that he has voted for all three parties in the past. I think it is now very clear that Reg has had a very sharp and rapid political education, and his views on a lot of things have changed."

What’s next for Reg Keys?

"Reg intends to carry on campaigning and building up Military Families Against the War, which he founded. He will continue to pursue the legal action against Tony Blair and the British government on the illegality of the Iraq war, and is still trying to get a proper coroner's inquest into the death of his son. I don't think you have heard the last of Reg Keys." SH

Read Rock producer and ambient music legend Brian Eno's article in Red Pepper on Reg Keys’s Sedgefield challenge.

Scottish Socialist Party: losing an away game

Scottish Socialist Party national convenor Colin Fox today responded to the SSP's general election results saying that they were disappointing but not unexpected. Fox said:

"We were the only party who said from the outset that we had no chance of winning a seat in this election, and the Westminster elections are always going to be an away game for us. As former Manchester United manager Tommy Docherty said, 'We got beat four nil and were lucky to get the nil.'

"The SSP team is ready for the next game against the leaders of the G8 however. This month we contested 58 out of 59 Scottish Westminster seats, distributing over 3 million election addresses and increasing our membership by ten percent.

"In July we will mobilise tens of thousands against the criminal policies of G8 leaders like George Bush and Tony Blair.

"In doing that we will link up with all those who used their vote to protest in these elections and explore with them the future of all forces in favour of a collective solution to the future of our planet."

Taking up the question of the voting system, Fox said:

"The biggest obstacle for smaller parties contesting the Westminster elections is the first past the post system that gives just three establishment parties a monopoly on media coverage and means that not a single Scottish vote for radical minority parties can have any result whatsoever."

Fox went on to thank the candidates, organisers and supporters who had worked hard over the past four weeks to spread the message of socialism across Scotland: "I'd like to pay tribute to all those activists, candidates and supporters who have mobilised more than 42,000 people to come out and vote for the Scottish Socialist Party."

Did the Greens make Real Progress?

The Green Party polled more than 280,000 votes at the General Election and exceeded the 5% threshold in more than 23 constituencies – enough to see it win seats under a proportional representation system. But the Greens failed to challenge for seats in this election. Even in Brighton Pavilion, the highly respectable 22% vote for Keith Taylor was only enough to secure third place. The Greens remain optimistic that they can break through in the next General Election, however.

The Scottish Green Party was celebrating steady progress   too. It points out that it outperformed the Scottish Socialist Party – which had   a disappointing election night – in all 19 constituencies where it stood   candidates.

Early showings from the County Council elections are also encouraging. The Greens have so far won six seats (four of them gains), and they can now boast 10 Green councillors in Oxford.OR

More Interviews and comment here. 

The big picture – fragmentation and the case for PR

Labour looks like winning on 36% of the vote – the lowest share of the vote for a winning party in the modern era. Between them, the two leading parties look like gaining less than 70% of the vote, unprecedented in the post-war period. The Lib Dems had their best result since the 1920s, fuelled by large swings in some key constituencies where anti-war tactical voting (Hornsey) and student votes (Manchester Withington) played a role.

The bigger picture should also look at the remarkable 8% taken by 'others' - smaller parties and independent candidates. Abstentions are still very high too: turnout is only up around 2% on its record low of 2001, standing now at just over 60%. This shift can largely be accounted for by the rise of postal voting.

High levels of abstention and the rise of smaller parties are not unusual to the UK. A similar pattern has been seen elsewhere in Western Europe in recent years. Major parties have been haemorrhaging support, as their vote is fragmented across a whole range of smaller parties. The most notable instance of this is probably in France, where far left and far right have both recorded large gains in national elections. There are important political reasons for this fragmentation: with major parties converging on a neoliberal economic model, there are no longer serious political disputes 'at the centre', which means that the losers from that system are left looking for another home. This doesn't mean, of course, that these discontents will be expressed as renewed strength for the left.

In Britain up to now, the First Past the Post (FPTP) system has acted as a check upon this fragmentation. When political commentators start to reflect on this, many will no doubt see it as an additional argument in favour of Britain's current electoral system.

The left may be tempted by this argument too. Certainly, squeezing the electoral preferences of the nation into a winner-takes-all model of single member, single vote constituencies does make the electoral rise of far right (as well as far left) more difficult: it is hard to imagine an equivalent to Le Pen breaking through in Britain as has happened in France. But it does not make the rise of far right politics any trickier. This election campaign has seen attacks on immigrants and gypsies, as scapegoats are sought to explain away social discontents. This political strategy, spearheaded by the Conservatives' authoritarian populist campaign, but acquiesced by Labour too, is designed to appeal to an imagined, reactionary core of the British electorate – the 'middle England' voters who populate the marginal seats that the parties know determine their fate in electoral competition. As a result, the political centre has been pushed further to the right during the campaign – and the electoral system, which encourages this kind of pandering to a lowest common denominator, is a part of that big picture.  OR, 7.22am

Back to Red Pepper website

Exclusive: transcript of Galloway's address to his supporters

"There is a revolt spreading throughout the land in those areas where the poorest people live, where the immigrants, where the exploited live. The revolt is spreading in these areas because these are the areas New Labour has betrayed the most in the last eight years." – George Galloway

Here is a rough but, I think, largely accurate transcript of George Galloway's 6am speech to his supporters:

"This victory belongs to all of us and neither time nor my memory will permit me to thank everyone… We won support across all the communities in Tower Hamlets. However, I want from the bottom of my heart to thank the Bengali community here [cheers and chants]. That community has shown its political power. I promise you no one will ever take it for granted again. No one will ever ignore it again, and anyone who betrays it again will do so at their peril. [Goes on to thank several individuals] One of them even went to prison for me when I was trapped in a room by people calling themselves 'Muslims' who threatened to kill me… [more individual thanks].

"The Muslim Association of Britain are our allies in the Stop the War Coalition and in Respect and I want to thank their President who is here with us tonight. I also want to thank all the other Muslim organisations who put their heart and sole into this great battle.

"Thanks to the organisers of this victory within Respect. I'd like to thank my dear comrade and friend John Rees… [and other individuals, Respect staff and volunteers, and his office staff].

"This is an outstanding night for Respect, not just here in Bethnal Green & Bow, although that's what the headlines will concentrate on, but the results we've achieved elsewhere have been outstanding too. Ollia Rahman, who spent almost the entire election working here in this constituency, still got more than 20% of the vote in Poplar. … Respect won 2^nd place in both East Ham and West Ham, with Abdhul Kaliq Mian gaining 24% and Lindsay German gaining 20% respectively. Salma Yaqoob in Birmingham polled more than 10,000 votes, coming within 3,000, I think, of capturing seats.

"There is a revolt spreading throughout the land in those areas where the poorest people live, where the immigrants, where the exploited live. The revolt is spreading in these areas because these are the areas New Labour has betrayed the most in the last eight years.

"We will now build on our campaign to capture the London Boroughs of Tower Hamlets and Newham, starting on Monday. We intend to be the new broom that sweeps clean these two rotten boroughs. …

"I want to close with a word or two on a subject I raised in my acceptance speech.

"Mr Blair, this is for Iraq. This victory is for the people of Iraq. [Re-spect re-spect chants]. My telephone is full of texts and audio messages from Fallujah, from Baghdad, from Palestine and Lebanon. All over the Arab and Muslim world people are dancing in the streets. As I said to Blair tonight live on television: all those lies that you told all those people that you killed are coming back to haunt you. And they will haunt you to your end and beyond.

"We will not rest until every last British soldier has been withdrawn to safety from the frontline of Iraq to which Tony Blair has sent them. And we will not rest until he and his war cabinet of fellow criminals are on trial in the Hague in front of the International Criminal Court. ['re-spect re-spect' chants]

"Comrades and friends, we have really written history today.

"And by the way, you'll soon not be able to find one person in Tower Hamlets who didn't vote for us today. The Bangladesis talk about the 16^th division… the division that turns up the day after liberation. Nevermind, we'll accept them all. Every person here has written a glorious chapter in the history of the popular movement in this country. This great battle between war and anti-war. This great battle between new Labour and real Labour, the ideals of labour that were fought for here today and which were won decisively by us. Respect.
 
[Chants: Re-spect Re-spect repeat to fade…]

Back to Red Pepper website

Did Respect break through?

Respect's results are all compiled here, a listing that cheekily also includes a number of anti-war independents. The results on the whole are quite impressive - as well as Galloway's victory in Bethnal Green there are three candidates as runners up in their constituencies (see the Respect section of this blog for more details). Salma Yaqoob, with 10,498 votes, was a particularly strong second in Birmingham Sparkbrook and Small Heath.

The overall pattern is actually quite similar to Respect's European election results, though: breakthroughs in a few inner city areas where there have been well rooted local community-led campaigns, but a failure to make any significant inroads elsewhere. 

See the main Red Pepper website for more analysis of Respect, especially this article. OR

Galloway: the smears start here

Galloway is on the BBC. Paxman is attacking him for defeating a black woman (Oona King). Nick Raynsford has called him a demagogue. But Galloway says he's never heard of his ex-colleague Raynsford (they're a 'spineless bunch' who blend into one, he says).

Then Paxman goes on to accuse Galloway of exploiting racism. Now New Labour's David Lammy's in on the act, accusing him of stirring up racial tensions. Whatever your views on Galloway, this is pretty disgraceful stuff.

Oh, and 'objective' opinion pollster (and former SDP stallwart) Tony King is talking Galloway down too. Andrew Marr is rather more balanced though, to be fair.

The mood in the Galloway camp, though, is understandably ecstatic. We should be getting comment directly from there a little later. OR

Galloway wins: his speech transcribed

Here's a rough but, I think, fairly accurate transcript of Galloway's victory speech:

"Tony Blair, this and other defeats that New Labour have suffered are for Iraq. All the people you've killed, all the lies that you told, have come back to haunt you. Labour should sack you tomorrow morning.

"New Labour plumbed new depths in this campaign, and now the police and the courts will try to fathom exactly what they'v been up to. But it was no aberration - the reason this count took so long; the turnout was so low; that hundreds if not thousands of ghost figures appeared on the electoral role but only 68% of postal ballots were cast. Tower Hamlets is in the grip of a corrupt political culture, and when we begin our campaign on Monday to take control of this borough council it will be as a new broom to sweep that political corruption away.

"Oona King boasted she was going to finish me off. I will be more gracious. I have not finished her off. She's an able person who will be back in politics and in Parliament. It wasn't her defeat, it was a defeat for Tony Blair and new Labour. And I'd like to thank Oona King for her eight years in this constituency and wish her well for what will be her resumed political career.

"But I can't thank the Borough of Tower Hamlets, which has put together a shambles of an electoral role that would disgrace a banana republic. It is about time you tender your resignation.

"There is a revolt spreading throughout east London against the betrayals of east London and you ain't seen nothing yet."  OR

Time to look at campaign financing: Green's Keith Taylor

Interview with Keith Taylor, Green Party Principal Speaker

Are you disappointed to come third or pleased to gain 22% of vote?

"How could I be disappointed when the Green vote here more than doubled since the last General Election. Our vote in Brighton was the highest the Greens have ever achieved at a General Election. That's fantastic, because it's not simply a protest vote but a positive vote for the green vision. The signals it sends are very encouraging for the Green party because there are council elections in 2007 at which we'll be expecting to have a significant increase in the size of our councillor's group.

"The Greens aim to think global but act local: we don't have the resources to stand in all the seats, but we are doing best where we have elected councillors in city halls and people are seeing the difference that we make.

"The First Past the Post Electoral System has let down the people of Brighton Pavilion, where we demonstrated significant support but where Labour ran a campaign of frightening people about the prospect of a Tory victory here.

"The campaign also shows that money spent nationally plays an important part in sending the message that there's only a three way choice – that message has been proved wrong, at least here."

Should there be limits on campaign funding then?

"Yes, there should be a strict cap on political party expenditure and there should be state funding we believe, because we don't have our noses stuck in the corporate trough. All our money comes from individual. McDonalds, Shell or BAT are not sponsoring us, and it would be a falsehood to say that those corporate donors don't expect some payback from the parties they sponsor.

Did the Greens suffer from the fact that environmental issues were so low on the campaign agenda?

"This election was a missed opportunity to raise the issue of climate change, which represents negligence on the part of the Westminster parties. The disgusting Tory campaign was trying to find scapegoats, whilst the Lib Dems are as always wedded to private enterprise and economic liberalisation.

"There is no doubt that climate change is happening and that we can make a better world through taking action now. It is not the action of responsible politicians to tell people that we can increase consumption in way that we continue to do. For example, New Labour is trying to treble the size of the aviation industry in 20 years, but aviation is the fastest source of emissions. The reality is that at the moment we are subsidising rather than taxing aviation."   OR

Abdul Khaliq Mian: Respect

Respect's best result so far has been in West Ham. Here's what candidate Abdul Khaliq Mian had to say on his respectable second place there:

"Its fantastic to be such a strong second in a seat that's been Labour for 100 years.

"This result has created a stepping stone for the Respect Coalition to build on in future. We've got local council elections here in Newham next year where we hope to do very well.

"This wasn't just a vote about the war. That's an important issue, but not the only one. People are unhappy about council housing, education and other issues in this area, and are no longer prepared to just accept the New Labour message.

"Nationally, we'd like to think we've done quite well. Respect is only 1 ½ years old and to grow so quickly is absolutely fantastic. No doubt we'll build on that.

"As for George Galloway, as far as we know he's won but we're still waiting for the official announcement of the result."  OR