Red Pepper's Election Blues

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. 

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

Outlook Sunny For Greens in Scotland

The Scottish Green Party (SGP) are doing better than they thought gaining between 2% and 7% of the vote. Interestingly, where the Scottish Socialist Party are also standing the Greens are consistently doing better.  Edinburgh North, Leith and Glasgow North are still to declare but expected to have good results for the Greens. The SGP are not holding out for seats in 2005 but Stan, from the SGP press office, is optimistic for the Scottish Elections in 2007. FO

Low Turnout Predicted in Glasgow

Forty minutes before the voting ends and I speak to Gordon Masterton, Scottish Green Party candidate for Glasgow Central. He’s just returned, slightly stunned, from visiting polling stations across Glasgow. Glasgow will be lucky to see even a 40% turnout, he tells me. What does this mean for the SGP? Gordon's unsure, their aiming to hang on to deposits across Scotland and in some places do even better. But fighting marginal seats with a low turnout means it’s anyone’s guess. All we can do is reach for another gallon of super strength coffee and wait. FO

Climate change: is emissions trading the answer?

The Greens' position on climate change is that we need to   reduce carbon emissions through the expansion of renewable energy production.   But tackling climate change doesn’t simply mean ‘business as usual’, as both   Labour and the Lib Dems think. The Greens argue   that we would actually need to reduce energy-use (in the home as well as in   business) and find more equitable means to distribute the limited resources   that the earth provides. They also reject the myth that nuclear power   can be a clean energy source, arguing instead that a 40% increase in renewable energy by 2020 should be achieved by a mix of solar, wind and wave power.

So far, so unobjectionable. But the Greens are less impressive when it comes to addressing the Kyoto   model of emissions trading: ‘We have an opportunity to lead Europe,   not only in energy generation, but also in carbon emissions trading.’ This is   not necessarily as progressive as it might sound, since there is significant   research – conducted by Carbon   Trade Watch, amongst others - which shows that the  ‘emissions trading’ system has the potential   to exacerbate environmental and social injustice, creating incentives   for the expansion of monoculture plantations in the global South rather than   restraining consumption in the North. A more consistent commitment to   economic localisation might take account of the perverse incentives that the   commodification of pollution creates.

This is taken from a lengthy analysis of the Green manifesto (in case you were wondering what happened to this blog, I was writing that and updating the Red Pepper website).  OR

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Mapping Dissent

Ever since '97 the left has found coping with this right wing Labour government extremely difficult. As the General Election approaches those problems are thrown into ever sharper focus, producing a mosaic of opposition that is simultaneously cutting with the grain of public opinion but is itself too often disorientated, fragmented and punching below its weight.

Red Pepper has teamed up with the Socialist Unity Network to produce the definitive dissenter's   guide to the election. Use the map to find progressive candidates in your constituency.

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Interview with Graham Elliot

Today I interviewed Graham Elliot, Green Party candidate for Waveney. Here's what he had to say:

Salman Shaheen: Climate change is commendably at the top of the Green agenda, but do you think there is a danger of people perceiving the Greens as a single issue party?

Graham Elliot: I think there has been, but I think we’re getting over that. I mean I’ve had problems with that, going to things like Defend Council Housing meetings. People have thought, ‘well what’s that got to do with the Greens?’ But I think we’re getting over that image. We have got over that image, and the elected members around the country are involved in some diverse campaigns, and putting the message across on all policies, particularly public services, and particularly peace. Climate change is a big issue, it always has been a big issue for us, but it’s not the only issue, and I think we’re getting the message across. People are associating us with public services and peace.

Salman: Peter Tatchell made the case for the Greens being the new party of the radical left, and Derek Wall talks of Eco-Marxism, do you feel that the Greens are a party of the left?

Graham: I think we are a party of the left, yes, but I think we can appeal across a much broader spectrum than a traditional, say, socialist party. Particularly in rural Suffolk here, outside the towns it’s quite a conservative area. We have got an elected member in mid-Suffolk, which is very strong Tory, but he got in with a huge majority, with the backing of the local community. He’s introducing radical thoughts and measures into his local council, where he can. But with the backing of a real broad cross section of the population. So yes, the policies are radical and left-leaning, but I think that’s a nice thing about the Green party, that we can involve people who are not traditional socialists, and who would be frightened by the socialist label.

Salman: In Leeds the Greens have gone into coalition with the Conservatives on the council, do you feel this was a bad decision to make?

Graham: It’s a very very difficult decision to make. I can’t really comment on whether it was the best decision or not. I know in Norwich they chose not to go into coalition, they could have gone into coalition with either the Lib Dems or Labour. I think Norwich’s decision was, in that case, right, and to have no overall party in control, and to do things on an issue by issue basis. That’s my personal preference. I can’t really say Leeds did it wrong. It might be that that was the right thing to do in that particular case, but it’s an unusual coalition, very unusual coalition. I wouldn’t like to say that’s wrong, because I just don’t know the details. But I do favour the Norwich role of actually tackling things on an issue by issue, rather than going into a formal coalition.

Salman: You drew comparisons with the traditional socialist left, but what do you think is preventing the Greens from attracting widespread support from this traditional socialist left, and disaffected Old Labour voters, despite having progressive social policies?

Graham: I think we are. I was just literally on the phone when you arrived, with somebody who has never voted Green before, just phoned me up, said ‘I want to vote Green, I want to know more about the Green Party, I’m a socialist, I always have been’. So yes, four years ago, in my home town, a lot of my friends in Beccles, would still be putting the ‘vote Labour’ posters up. Over the last four years, all those posters have come down, and they’ve all gone up ‘vote Green’. One by one, there’s one person left, whose paranoid the Tories will get in! We are getting the message across to disaffected socialists, and they are coming over. They’re maybe not coming over fast enough. I think it is an image thing. I’m perhaps not the best person to counter that image, being a stereotypical hairy green. I’d rather, in many ways, someone else took on this role, and became the parliamentary candidate for Waveney, and became a Green MP for Waveney. I’m quite happy to be in a supporting role, but until that’s there, I’m going to do it, until someone better comes along, more able, more willing. So partly image, if you look at the Green candidates, they’re not all hairy Greens anymore, there’s a good cross section. We’re not ashamed of that, but we are a very broad cross section now. We’ve got Muslim candidates; we’ve got candidates from all sorts of ethnic backgrounds. Not a brilliant gender mix this year, but we can be working on that.

Salman: Michael Howard has recently made some pretty vicious remarks about travellers, what is your opinion on this issue?

Graham: Travellers, it’s a hot issue locally actually. Local councils do need to provide bases for travellers to stay. That’s the bottom line really. There have to be places for them to go, so they’re not staying on common land and causing problems really. But it is down to local councils. Many councils have refused. It’s almost inevitable really, if you don’t provide sites for travellers, they will make their own. We do need to treat them with respect, and hopefully they will treat the community that they’re in with respect. But the vicious remarks, I think is very much playing on middle England’s fear of travellers.

Salman: Now the 500 million dollar question, what is the way forward for Iraq?

Graham: I think we need to pull out UK forces. I think we can do that immediately. We need to replace all external forces, with a UN security force, and to have genuinely fair elections that encompass the whole of the country. It would have been easier for you to ask that two and a half years ago! But one by one countries are pulling out, showing America is on its own. If we had pulled out two and a half years ago, the US probably would have gone in, but they would have been in much deeper trouble, much more pressure at home. They couldn’t say they were an alliance if they only had a couple of African countries, or a couple of Eastern European with them. It’s mainly because of our government backing of their policy that they’re their in the first place. We’re the only party that has consistently opposed the war, before, during and afterwards. The Lib Dems very much opportunistic beforehand, and during they’re backing it. The best way to look after our people that are out there is to bring them home, and they’re not helping the security situation there. So basically we’ve got to have an international solution to it, the UN have got to get back involved.

SS

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Yeah, I'm the taxman!

Taxman Mister Wilson and Taxman Mister Heath may be long gone, but Taxmen Blair and Howard are still dancing around the issue of that most distasteful of words. What they offer, however, is hardly going to take us by surprise. The Tories say they'll cut taxes, Labour say they won't raise them, but will probably find some equivalent in the form of National Insurance. Is anyone still awake?

Some of the more interesting contributions to the debate have come from the unveiling of the Lib Dem and Green manifestos. At first glance, some of the Lib Dem proposals may seem closer to the Communist Manifesto, than any Liberal one. Scrap council tax, create a local income tax, 50% upper band income tax for the highest earners, raise pensions, abolish tuition fees, investment in public services, declare Britain a Marxist republic of the people. Ok the last one was just wishful thinking, but some sound policies nevertheless, despite Charles Kennedy's hazy flip flopping over the issue yesterday on The Daily Politics show. This coupled with their at least token opposition to the war (though certainly not the occupation!), and perhaps we can begin to see where Tariq Ali is coming from.

However we should be cautious before assuming the Lib Dems have suddenly taken up the scarlet banner based on their tax and spend policies. They are not a party rooted in working class or socialist movements, their opposition to the war barely lasted five minutes, and they want further privatisation and to curb the rights of workers. For a good discussion on this topic, read Andy Newman’s article The Lib Dems are yellow Tories on the Socialist Unity Network site.

The Greens, however, have taken a far more progressive approach. Explicitly proposing taxation as a means for the redistribution of wealth, they argue for a 50% tax band on earnings over £50,000 and 60% for over £100,000. Even more interestingly, the Greens want to phase out the deeply unfair VAT, which hits lower income families hardest on household essentials, and replace it with an ‘eco-tax’ that reflects the ‘environmental costs of production and consumption’ and encourages ‘behaviour that contributes to long term sustainability’.

A very radical manifesto and the prospects of an electoral breakthrough for the Greens may allay fears of more conservative elements of the party, and may even attract my vote in Cambridge. I’ll have to wait to see what Respect has to offer in their manifesto, to be launched on Monday, before I can make up my mind.

SS

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People, Planet, Peace

The Green Party launches its election manifesto today. Climate change is at the top of the agenda, as the Party promises investment in renewable energy. The Greens pledge to establish 2 million square metres of solar panels and 2 million smallscale wind energy systems within 5 years. Ok, so the chances of the Greens forming the next government are roughly equal to the chances of solar panels powering the White House. But by using the campaign launch to focus on this issue, they can at least hope to push it further up the political agenda. Other plans include scrapping the Government’s £30 billion roadbuilding scheme, a legally binding code of practice on supermarkets, debt cancellation for the 52 poorest countries and an increase in overseas aid to 1% GDP. The full manifesto can be read here.  OR

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