A couple of snippets just in …
Bristol’s Respect Party are likely to be running four candidates in the local elections on June 4.
Energetic troublemaker Jerry Hicks will be running again in Lockleaze while the excellently named Prince-Abdulaziz has already been announced as their candidate for Lawrence Hill.
The Blogger also understands there will be Respect candidates in Easton and Ashley, which might cause some disquiet among the Greens …
In related news, an unconfirmed rumour says sitting Lib Dem Lockleaze councillor, Emma Bagley, doesn’t fancy it against Hicks and will be standing down.
No doubt Gaz and Jon-Boy, the Lib Dem rapid rebuttal internet crew, will be along to set us straight …
Rapid but not exactly rebuttal.
Emma made the decision to step down some while ago as she has commitments elsewhere. Hopefully not a permanent loss as we hope she will be able to stand again elsewhere in the near future.We have a new local candidate who will be a great support to the unmatchable Sean.
After all their infighting I do not see Respect being serious players but as you say in a couple of wards they will weaken the greens.
Respect are still going? All they’ll do is take 20 votes off some other no-hopers. Non-event of the century for sure.
“Energetic troublemaker Jerry Hicks will be running again in Lockleaze while the excellently named Prince-Abdulaziz has already been announced as their candidate for Lawrence Hill.”
suggests why the party can’t & won’t be taken seriously đ
These will all be interesting electoral battles where the Respect vote is likely to be bigger then the winning margin.
Not in Lockleaze it wont. In ’06 Respect were still on a high from winning with Galloway, and Lockleaze was their only target in the South West. Despite throwing bus-loads of activists at the seat they still lost by over 400.
The bus-loads of activists that went into Lockleaze in 2006 were mostly from the Socialist Workers Party. They split with Galloway a while ago and now trade under the name of the ‘Left List.’ Without the SWP’s rent-a-crowd I don’t see much chance of them doing very well.
They stood in Easton in 2007, and came third.
Where are the other two seats they are standing in.
I hear the BNP sent several people to the election information event at the Council House.
Will Kerry ‘careerist’ McCarthy be knocking on doors?
It’s a shame to hear Emma is leaving public life; there aren’t that many political bloggers in the city.
And just as she’d got the hang of using the shift key as well…
“All theyâll do is take 20 votes off some other no-hopers.”
Add the disrespect vote to the green vote last time they stood in easton and they’d have had more votes than choudhury won with. Pauline wozname told me at that time that they’d tried to do a deal with the green party but the greens told her that hq insists “no deals”. But isn’t there talk on the green party forum of doing a deal this time around ??? Would it work anyway? Get your venn diagrams out.
who’s Mike, and why the Kerry McC vendetta?
I’m afraid that as a life long Green voter, and an ex party member and elected councillor for the Greens, I would be very offended if any deal with a lousy and irrelevant outfit like Respect would deprive me of my vote in Hartcliffe. Greens have nothing in common with hard left joke anti-capitalist parties like Respect, SWP or BNP. I do feel a lot of lefties have infiltrated the Green Party, and they like to see the world their way and nobody elses. They are unpleasant, backwards-looking losers.
The Greens need to ruthlessly purge hard left (and hard right) infiltrators from the party, and get back to where we belong in the political spectrum – neither right nor left but GREEN.
Bloody Respect – I’ll show ’em some Hartcliffe welcome if they dare set foot on my patch of Bristol!!
http://leysiner.blogspot.com/
You being her campaign organiser goes some way to explaining it.
Interesting green silence. fwiw, surely greens would be much better off dealing with the libdems. That would also serve the public benefit far more, stm.
The Greens would gain far more political and public kudos if they didn’t do deals with anybody. Their message should be a unique one, not one that can effortlessly be switched to any other party with a vague environmental agenda. By that measure they’ll probably be doing deals with the BNP next on account of the BNP’s strong (and 100% cool) views on climate change and Peak Oil.
They really need to stand outside this whole decaying grey political framework of which New Labour, LibDems and the Tories are the very worst examples, as they’re the deepest in.
In my local political experience the LibDems were the biggest shits of all, the New Labour lot the most condescending and the Tories the most polite.
http://leysiner.blogspot.com/
Panther = sockpuppet for who has most to fear from Greens and Respect maximising their limited resources by concentrating on wards they can win rather than speading themselves across the city……?
there is a lot of nonsense talked about if one or other party stood aside their votes would automatically go to a set other party. My guess is that if greens or respect didn’t stand in a seat a proportion of their voters wouldn’t vote at all and other would split among other parties (probably not many to the tories). Its a democracy the more the merrier. BB how about the Bristolian Party?
The voting system needs to change to free us from these distortions. A transferable vote would allow a vote first for one’s ideal choice, then if that vote turned out to be ‘wasted’ (by the candidate having too few votes to make it to the next round) the vote could transfer to one’s next choice, and so on.
Says the man from a party who has an interest in any anti-establishment vote being split.
While votes won’t automatically go from Green to Respect or vice versa, I suspect it’s unlikely either party can win in a ward where they have a chance if the other runs.
In many cases they’ll pick up votes on the basis of being the least worst option
No chance!
BB – shame about the non-return of the Bristolian Party.
Just the other day, a copy of the Bristolian candidate’s election address for Lawrence Hill came to light again. And guess what? None of the major issues has changed: absentee councillors, lousy public transport, flogging the city to greedy developers, etc., etc.
The problem with those leaflets is that you’ve got to get them through about 5,000 letterboxes … Twice!
That gets you about 200 – 250 votes.
So then you have to go and knock on a few thousand doors and talk to people.
That will get you about 500 votes in total.
Then you have to come back the following year and do it all over again …
BB almost sounds like you are trying to drum up sympathy for hard working politicians. Could affect your street cred.
‘The problem with those leaflets is that youâve got to get them through about 5,000 letterboxes ⌠Twice!
That gets you about 200 – 250 votes.
So then you have to go and knock on a few thousand doors and talk to people.
That will get you about 500 votes in total.
Then you have to come back the following year and do it all over again ⌒
I reckon it took me 5 years, 100,000 leaflets, 10,000 door knocks, stalls, letters etc and several thousand pounds (not all from me for any of the above)
Then there are policies, and being lucky (or very, very stubborn)
Hey have any of you checked out the Panther geezer’s page, he’s some kind of right wing loon who thinks Thatcher was “a socialist”, roflcopter!
I think the Bristolian Party should come back, I’d be happy to volunteer for it again.
I think Chris Hutt is right a preference system would give people a clearer voice in elections than a cross against one candidate
Greens have nothing in common with hard left joke anti-capitalist parties
Priceless đ
Have you actually met them?
Paul Smith, maybe if your party had honoured its manifesto commitment to offering a referendum on the voting system we would have a preference system by now.
Paul Smith said
‘there is a lot of nonsense talked about if one or other party stood aside their votes would automatically go to a set other party. My guess is that if greens or respect didnât stand in a seat a proportion of their voters wouldnât vote at all and other would split among other parties (probably not many to the tories). Its a democracy the more the merrier. BB how about the Bristolian Party?’
I met a bloke from the Labour Party in Southville who was convinced the only reason they won was because of the independent socialist who got 180 votes or so.
Labour won by 6…..
I would much rather lose by 600 than 6 myself.
Ultimately, I don’t know if its true – Labour did a very good job of motivating its core vote two years ago (over home care) but personally, I would be very happy to see a break up of the three party politics, and also very happy to see an elected socialist.
Mind you, I was a big fan of Michael Foot back in the eighties, and ‘Red Ken’. Ironic that it took New Labour’s Gordon Brown (far to the right of the 1970’s Tories) to nationalise the banks….
….maybe I’m one of the backward looking losers, Panther describes.
You’re too generous Charlie.
The reason Labour won two years ago was because Beynon’s dad bought his son the election with a load of lies and his trade union members’ money and work.
If that pair of power hungry self-serving nepotists were Tory toffs what would we be saying?
Slightly understated BB but spot on.
understated how?
I saw these elections predictions on the vote UK website (http://www.vote-2007.co.uk/)
Ashley Lib Dem/Green marginal Avonmouth Lab/Con marginal Bishopston Lib Dem hold
Cabot Lib Dem hold
Clifton Lib Dem hold
Clifton East Lib Dem/Con marginal Cotham Lib Dem hold
Easton Lib Dem/Lab/Green marginal
Eastville Lib Dem hold
Frome Vale Con gain from Lab
Henbury Con gain from Lab
Henleaze Lib Dem hold
Hillfields Lab/Lib Dem marginal
Horfield Con/Lib Dem marginal (Lab 3rd)
Kingsweston Lab/Lib Dem marginal Lawrence Hill Lab/Lib Dem marginal Lockleze Lib Dem hold
Redland Lib Dem hold
St. George E Con gain from Lab
St. George W. Lab/Lib Dem marginal Southmead Lab hold
Stoke Bishop Con hold
Westbury-O-T Con hold
(party holding seat named first)
Anyone got different predictions?
Look out for the Blogger’s hopeless predictions next week.
Hillfields a Labour marginal, eh?
Based on the above list I’m going to punt for Labour losing 7 seats, Tories gaining 4 and the Lib-Dems gaining 3.
That would give the Lib-Dems 35 seats, Tories 17, Labour 17 and Greens 1.
How workable is a perfectly ‘balanced’ majority? Does this point towards the Lib-Dems needing Green support to form a working majority? Is that likely in the aftermath of some quite nasty electioneering in Easton and Ashley?
Of course if the Greens win a seat at the expense of the Lib-Dems they really will need to form a coalition, unless the Lib-Dems think they could work with the Tories or Labour, which seems unlikely.
I predict Lab gain Easton and Con gain Clifton East leaving lib dems without the majority even if they pick up seats elsewhere
Funny badnewswade, I donât remember you complaining about Panther when he was with you on issue Israel a couple of months ago. What is it with you anyway – are you the PC Blog Police or something? I donât have much time for Bristol Indymedia, but theyâve got the measure of you down to a t.
http://tinyurl.com/dab96s
And maybe Panther has actually got a point about greens v the Green Party.
Yes Chris Hillfields.
By coincidence I attempted last night to answer a queery on the blog of Labour election “supremo” Terry Cook from a Tory who wanted to know who the worst offenders were in the council absentee stakes.This was below a typical Cook smear posting about the Lib Dems.(Gordon Brown shows leadership.)
Funnily enough it was “moderated ” out as happens on most Labour run blogs if there is anything critical of them including most amusingly Kerry McC who could not stomach the report that Roger Berry was more popular than her and this could affect the Hillfields result because of the move of constituancies.
I will therefore put it up here.
The “winner “in the absentee stakes was in fact Noreen Daniels,a massive number of absenses and most of them uncovered by a colleage since the last elections. Most of the rest of the top ten were Labour but we have not yet published the whole list. Ms Daniels is standing for re election in Hillfields.
When the mischief -making absence motion was proposed at council by the Tories we added a piece about bringing the council into disrepute.
Readers may wish to comment on the relevance of this to the other Hillfields Labour Cllr (Golding). although we in no way targeted it at him.
In the last local election we were puzzled by the Labour claims that Golding was “Local. His nomination papers ,quite properly showed him residing in West Bristol. (More local than the St George Labour candidate from Chippenham but a bit of a stretch.) We then did some further checking.
Mr Golding had been resident at a property in the ward over a year previously and had then sold this property to an unconnected person and moved west. Naturally he disappeared from the Hillfields register. What then happened was that Mr Golding re registered himself at the Hillfields ward address completely unbeknown to the legitimate owner. He of course had no right to re register himself at this address.
This was brought to the attention of the local and regional Labour party before the election. They dismissed this and put out leaflets saying we were confused.
After the election Cllr Golding was interviewed by the police and a file containing documentary evidence from the council and the police was passed to the DPP.Cllr Golding said he had made an error. The Dpp concluded that it was not in the public interest to prosecute.
For the record if charges are laid and proved against an individual then there is a sentance of up to 6 months available to the courts for false voter registration.
Cook has claimed by the way to have walked away but sources within Labour tell us that there were many complaints of him not doing his work(Jon R might have something to say on that about cycling city) and faced deselection.
The Avonmouth ward deselected a previous Cllr apparently because she got a little too vocal about Blair and Iraq.
I might queery one or two of the marginal predictions but the final numbers will not be a million miles from the overall outcome. Like every party we expect to do slightly better than what is predicted for us.
anyone checked if bradshaw’s having new phone lines installed? i hear he’s not been much around counts louse lately
I hear twattering about the Lumpen Dumpycrat leaflet for easton.
Finally the Easton Dumpycrat himself, John “Big Boy” Kiely lumbers into action.
Now remember, John was voted out by the good burghers of Easton last time round, so how does he start his new election bid? âI am a very keen supporter of recycling myselfâ⌠you couldnât make it up!
Nice one LW!
And let us hope that the good people of Easton will also be keen on re-using and recycling! Interesting times!
Jon
Oh yeah Jon… because we all know that Kerry McC. checks this blog on a regular basis, to inspect it for sexism… or indeed any other kind of ism, do you think it’s relevant to note that – in the interest of gender equality of course – John Kiely has saggy tits (or should that be man boobs)?
The forementioned tits, along with John’s girth, could in part be due to a speciesist diet… but I don’t think that’s illegal yet. Anyway, he could do with loosing some weight (obesity task force?), and has terrible dress sense.
Regarding his teeth, I have never had the chance to inspect them, as they are usually covered by a pint glass half-full of beer.
On the plus side, as far as I’m concerned, anyone who is a half-decent trencherman, with a liking for beer, and who frequents the local pubs can’t be all bad.
Remember all the fanfare about Respect’s Prince Abdulliz in the Post a month ago, seem’s he’s failed to get his nomination form in. No Respect Candidate for Lawrence Hill.
BNP candidates standing I hope we can all work to ensure a good turnout to defeat them – had a very bemused lib dem in easton when I explained that I wanted him to go out and vote to ensure a good anti-BNP turnout in the Euro election.
Much More interesting is the Easton Labour candidate. Seems he has a very chequered past, and styles himself under several different names in order to mask it. I reckon this will suplly this years “Lawrence Hill” spectaculer!!!!!!!
Paul the BNP aren’t standing in Easton!
Of course I hope people turn out against the BNP though
Thruth Seeker tell us more!
Nice to see the Lib Dem dirty tricks department have got to work early. Vague allegations apparatntley without any substance
Difficule to seperate rumour from fact, but seems its sometheing to do with his finance business-is he estate agent?. And as a result he may not be eligable to stand for election!!!!
Not Lib Dem dirtytricks. Go ask around in Easton.
Ooooh… will there be a video? Bushrunt’s video was really good… that’ll take some beating… popcorn anyone?
ooops
Easton is in the UK which has euro elections which the BNP are standing in!!!!! please read post before replying
What a load of cobblers! I thought we were dealing with mature grown ups! Forget this mickey mouse hide and seek and Lib Dems shallow tactics – lets get on with the real task at hand and improve our local areas!
Mr Seeker also appears to have more than one name unless Seeker is his real name – and as he is anonymous I think he is likely to be more dodgy than the Easton Labour candidate.
The Easton Labour candidate is proud to use his name as far as I can see as it’s on hundreds of posters in Easton.
As far as Kiely is concerned he is like jack-in-the box as he pops up here when there is an elction and he is also popping up in Filton and Bradley Stoke hoping to be elected to Parliament (check out his website there) Looks as if he is well connected miles away from Easton.
And Lib Dem smears on Labour are a bit rich because the only councillor EVER to be convicted of electoral fraud in Bristol was a Lib Dem. He was jailed for two years. He was also jailed for downloading child porn. And senior Lib Dems, such as Kiely, selected this candidate (John Astley) and re-selected him again and again. Also current Lib Dem Shirley Marshall has been reported to the Standards committee for making racist remarks in Council. And believe me – if they insist – more mud can be thrown. So could we get back to the real issues in Easton, puhleeeese.
Just received a Green Party leaflet extolling the virtues of using local businesses and keeping jobs within communities. The leaflet is printed in Ruislip, Middlesex.
My leaflet for the European Parliament Elections promoting Ricky Knight (Barnstaple) and the South West Green Party (Bristol) was printed in York! Here… what’s going on?
Leader Caroline Lucas, meanwhile, is moralising away on the subject of MPs expenses while not actually publishing her own MEP expenses in full:
http://www.carolinelucasmep.org.uk/euro-parliament/#pay
to Holly
The Freepost leaflet is a national effort that is all printed, collated and dispatched from one location for the whole country although different plates are used for each region. This is done both for reasons of economy and logistics; the Royal Mail requirements on bundling and distribution are very specific. We are using York because we have developed a centre there that is experienced in handling this specific and technically demanding task.
Thank you for taking the trouble to ask – as each national election comes along the contract is reviewed and if you know of a SW based centre with experience of this work we would be happy to invite them to tender for the next election.
to Chris
This is a real dilemma and subject of continuing debate within the party. Wherever possible we do try and use local printers, however we are very tight for cash and Hillingdon Greenprint is run by a member who provides incredibly cheap printing for us, partly because he gets a good volume of Greenparty work from all over the country and partly because he offers a near-zero-profit rate to the party. We do insist on using recycled paper and environmentally less damaging inks and local commercial printers are not yet able to provide this service at a rate which would allow us to print sufficient leaflets for a ward. It comes down to a choice between not being able to get our message out except by using a local less environmentally satisfactory printer, or using our own resources (Hillingdon Greenprint) and being able to address everyone.
I would be very disappointed if as we grow and raise more funds – unlike other parties we do not take any business sponsorship – we do do not move to a more satisfactory solution using a local business. For now the printing is done on what amounts to a non-commercial basis.
Roger Creagh-Osborne
Green Party South West No 2 European Election List Candidate
BB,
What response did you get after following Glenn’s suggestion to contact Caroline and ask her for a more detailed breakdown?
I think Glenn said “Seems like a lot of info has been made public by her. However, my preference is for total income and expenditure to be published. You may want to contact her office to ask whether/why absolutely everything is/is not available.”
I guess she could break it down better than she has here; http://tinyurl.com/r58he9
What do Labour, Conservative, UKIP and Lib Dem MEPs provide in terms of detail for comparison?
Chris,
I remember sometime ago you telling me about providing information to parliament to help stop the ATA plans. I would hope that if there was a parliamentary inquiry held to stop development upon the Bristol and Bath railway path that if called to give evidence in person, you would travel up to London to do so.
If you did give evidence in person at parliament, it is probable that you would not cycle all the way to London to so. Should that in anyway detract from the information you provide?
Because your comment appears to say that because we use a non-local printer that our message about local business is invalid – so does that also mean that you think that if you were to provide evidence in favour of cycling it would be invalid if you travelled to London by any means other than 2-wheeled pedal power?
Sometimes you have to bite the bullet……
Methinks the lady doth protest…
Roger CO,
Thanks for going to the trouble to explain the background to your decisions about leaflet printing. It all sounded eminently sensible.
My point, which was admittedly a rather facile one, was that it’s one thing to advocate using local businesses but another to actually do so when it has significant costs.
Our freight transport system based on HGVs trundling up and down the motorway and trunk road network does allow for efficiencies of scale and other logistical advantages. Few of us can afford to ignore those advantages.
TonyD,
My last trip to London involved driving, for good logistical and economic reasons. It wasn’t the least environmentally damaging option but it was the cheapest. So I don’t criticise anyone for making the same sort of decision.
Did anyone notice that the disgraced Justice Minister Shahid Malik MP is the partner of none other than our local Kerry McCarthy MP?
That’s a new one on me. Don’t they share an office?
Anyone from Labore wanna comment?
Perhaps I should add that Get Out is a Bristol Lib Dem so is maybe confusing their natural behaviour with normal people’s.
Bristol Lib Dems, as small-brained mammals, do tend to rut like rabbits when left in confined spaces together.
Now you know what all those “Biggles” Popham – Babs Janke private “customer service” meetings are about.
RogerCO: It’s good you explained your situation with print as I don’t think the average person understands. As you say, there are very few printers who can offer the volume on greener technology, FSC and recycled paper, at an economic price. I think there’s enough demand for a firm to setup in Bristol or perhaps the Evening Post & Press Ltd could diversify, though it is a subsidiary of Northcliffe Newspapers, part of the Daily Mail & General Trust.
There is a well established family firm in Bristol called Whitehall Printing who seem genuinely committed to the environment. You might like to check them out.
Chris: I used (and recommend) the Megabus for a trip to London for logistical, economic and psychological reasons. At ÂŁ6 return, I had a huge smile on my face when the coach zipped passed the two miles of cars at the end of the M4 đ
Well that’s news to me, and I’m sure it’s news to his lovely wife too. Our offices in Westminster are next door to each other, and therefore our staff share an office, although since he became a Minister he’s stopped employing anyone in London.
My apologies Kerry. I’m on my way to kick the source of that info! đ
2BB – eeeeuuuuuurrrrr not pleasant thoughts. The libdems do have the reputation for being kinky though, while the tories do top totty (only DH Lawrence noticed the male of the species) and puritanical labour frumps and dweebs ….. sit on it.
2GO-GA – oh poor you, donât you find kicking yourself in the head rather tricky? Maybe you could get an ever obliging libedem colleague to help you?
Kerry said ” thatâs news to me, and Iâm sure itâs news to his lovely wife”
Dammit, I so wanted that to be true. Bang goes my Muslim-Vegan Axis theory!