Candidate Victoria and her glorious banner at Brentford Market
The local elections are over. I had one of the lowest votes in history in Cranford (though it was three figures…) which I have to admit surprised me a little. Admittedly, as instructed I didn’t canvass. We candidates in non-tarot wards were told rather to expend our efforts in the Target Wards, so I did that. I spent my free time manning the phone bank at GP HQ, doing surveys in Camden, Brixton, Richmond. I did door knocking in Richmond too, and am delighted Andree Frieze won a council seat. So I did my bit.
I was disappointed with my result, to be honest. After all Cranford is right under the flight path and will suffer horribly from pollution, traffic, noise when and if the third runway goes ahead. But it is staunchly Labour, and the voters voted the way they’d always voted.
In Hounslow there was no Green candidate elected in any ward despite a huge increase in the total number of votes. In my opinion the local Greens fought really well, staunchly manning (and womanning) Brentford Market every Sunday, leafletting relentlessly and putting a massive amount of heart into the struggle. Wonderful people. I love them all. The increase in the total vote was well-deserved.
But no councillors.
The question asked of us was, should we have really fielded 57 candidates? That is about three per ward. Here is my response, sent to our Agent.
“…… I really think we need to have no more than one Green candidate in each ward, as I said – so that our vote is not diluted. Having said that, the total number of votes compared to last time is superb and a real endorsement of our policies – but we must remember there are some specific issues playing themselves out. Dissatisfaction with Corbyn as a result of his wishy-washiness on Brexit gained us and the Libdems quite a few crosses. It certainly played well on the doorstep, as did resistance to the Heathrow Third Runway.
“Our Unique Selling Point is not just that we are champions of the Environment; we have what the others have so little of: integrity. We need to shout that out.
“Now, in the run up to the next elections (I doubt if a General Election is too far away) we need members, as Tony said, preferably active members; and big fat rich donors. I met many potential members and super-rich donors on the doorsteps of Richmond. Then we need to spend the money recruiting members, spreading our message, embedding ourselves as the party of the future, and overcoming the general perception of GP activists as sandal-wearing bearded idealists. Even though many of our best people are! A friend asked me, “are there any GP members who are in the real world?” By which he meant, any who are in business? My annoyed response was, “We certainly all are!” By which I meant, unlike the captains of industry, the bankers, the CEOs of the huge PLCs, the shareholders in the carbon-producing energy companies and the drivers of cars powered by diesel, or with engines larger than 2 litres, we KNOW the terrible threat our children are facing. We know that unless tackling Climate-Change is central to government policy, irrespective of the vested interests, our way-of life and security is going to suffer terribly. Now THAT’S the Real World. And that is why I joined the Green Party.
“Yes, it’s important to resist Brexit. And to base all our policies on compassion and the best values of liberal humanism, with economic realism. But damn it, without good air, water, housing and food, we are doomed to go the way of the dinosaurs.”
I did, however, win a great victory for the planet and the Party last week. With the aid of the wonderful HR person, I lobbied, hassled and bothered the school canteen to abolish single-use plastics. They were buying and throwing away 8,000 items of plastic cutlery a week. Polystyrene cups. As of Monday, no more of these plastic items. The canteen is going almost plastic free. Full marks to Innovations and Featherstone High School. Today Southall. Tomorrow….
We need to own campaigns like the war against plastics. Long before David Attenborough showed us the real horror of the impact of our carelessness, the Green Party and Greenpeace were featuring the problem. Now the bloody Daily Mail has jumped on the bandwagon! Ok who cares who owns it as long as something is done. But if it was ours, we would certainly have had more votes.
I have to say I have never knowingly met a member of the Green Party, I don’t remember them knocking when everyone is canvassing. And my only contact with one other than you Jon, was dissapointing.
And he was the man I would have to vote for in my ward.so the Green Party do need to start getting around and meeting people and making themselves known.
People are becoming much more earth aware, and many care for their village, estate, town and City. And want to help to keep it green and wild life friendly. When a person has spent their life living in countryside, and peace, it’s incredibly hard to watch it change from healthy green , to concrete grey. The days of little villages are nearly at an end as the concrete cancer is slowing eating over our beautiful land.
Thanks for that Jenny. It’s amazing how many people desperately want the depredations of greedy developers to be stopped, for the horrible effects of air pollution and land pollution – like plastics – to be controlled. And yet they vote for parties who are deep in the pockets of the polluters. Pollution brings profit, no doubt about it. Yet slowly things are turning around. As Alternative Energy gets cheaper, the monsters are seeing profit potential in that and lo and behold, suddenly they veneer themselves in green. We may eventually make the earth a fit place for humans animals and plants. But before that day comes people like you and me need to scream our heads off.