Green London Mayoral Hustings: Farid Bakht

London Green Party is selecting who is to be our Mayoral candidate in 2012. There are three candidates for the job Shahrar Ali, Farid Bakht and Jenny Jones who all very kindly agreed to answer some of my questions. Here is what Farid has to say.
If you had to choose one campaigning priority for the Green Party Mayoral Campaign what would it be?

My priority is to widen our appeal to people from all communities and the working class within London. Why is it that white working class people don't generally vote for us?

We need to demolish the myth that we are a white, middle class party interested only in a narrow agenda not in tune with people's everyday lives.

We also need to reach out to the one in three people of foreign origin in London.

I would actively approach ethnic minority communities via their media to link up with leaders and organisations. We need to recruit new, active members who understand how politics works in their communities. We can attract them with our message of environmental and social justice, our support for small businesses, our humane approach to immigration and our commitment to free education & health & our programme to create jobs.


How would you use the role of the Mayoral Candidate in relation to the Assembly Campaign?

As Mayoral candidate, I would use the platform to articulate a vibrant, positive and bold vision for Londoners. Too many people still think we are a one-issue Party. We aren't but we need to talk up our Party, come out of our comfort zone and stake a claim to be a credible alternative to three very similar Parties.

We need to recover from our shattered electoral position in London, beat the Lib-Dems and attract disaffected Labour voters.

We have to be ambitious and overcome the fear that says we might lose an Assembly Member.
We should aim to increase our numbers instead.


I want to work as part of a team, listening to colleagues on setting priorities rather than 'do my own thing'.

We must speak as one with a common purpose.

I am comfortable with the battleground being the media at one level. I would also campaign across the capital to support local Green Party activists, strengthen our grass-roots and motivate neglected members.


How should we political approach the Livingstone bid to become Mayor again?

I understand, am involved in and support the idea of creating coalitions around vital issues: e.g., the permanent wars our country is embroiled in and the anti-cuts movement.

However, I want to fight a determined campaign to raise the profile of the Green Party, move second preference votes to first and rejuvenate our local parties.

“Cosying up to Ken” could be damaging as voters incorrectly think voting for Greens is a wasted vote.

Let's focus on our radical message, explain that we do support some of the initiatives before 2008 but also how we are against the failure to tame an out-of-control financial sector, the failure to build council homes and the failure to build a diversified, greener economy.

We should fight to increase Green numbers. We need to build up our base. If there are any negotiations with parties external to us, we should always do so from a position of strength and nearer the end of the cycle.


What is the most fun part of campaigning for you?

In general, I like getting on the streets & talking to people.

Last year, in Tower Hamlets, I found it shocking at first to hear people say that was the first time they had heard of the Greens.

It turned out to be the best opportunity to persuade people that we were credible.


What would be your top tip to someone who is just starting to get active in the Green Party?

Pick one or two meetings to get involved with as it can be overwhelming - keep active and doing things, that's why you joined up.

Green London Mayoral Hustings: Shahrar Ali

London Green Party is selecting who is to be our Mayoral candidate in 2012. There are three candidates for the job Shahrar Ali, Farid Bakht and Jenny Jones who all very kindly agreed to answer some of my questions. Here is what Shahrar has to say.


If you had to choose one campaigning priority for the Green Party Mayoral campaign, what would it be?

GREEN JOBS. It’s more difficult than ever for people either to find work or to keep their job. Our answer is to roll out training and employment in sustainable industries, such as decentralised renewable energy schemes, repairing stuff, and home insulation. This agenda speaks to both the climate change emergency and the creation of jobs with a social purpose, sometimes through redeployment. We can advertise the progressive policies Greens have fronted, such as Jean on work-life balance and Darren and Jenny on the London Living wage.

We are also part of the anti-cuts movement which seeks to protect jobs in the public sector, such as local library provision, without which the life chances of some of the most vulnerable and most disadvantaged in society will be unconscionably set back (see my letter, “Libraries are essential”).


How do you see the role of the Mayoral candidate in relation to the Assembly campaign?

HIGHLY CONSEQUENTIAL. Previously there’s been greater focus on the Mayoral contest than the Assembly constituency and list selections. As your mayoral candidate, I’d showcase Green campaigns and successes across the London boroughs, alongside our GLA candidates, and regularly remind voters of the need to vote in the proportional elections. Let’s get more Greens elected than ever before!


How should we politically approach Ken Livingstone bid to become Mayor again?

SELF-DISCIPLINE NOT SELF-INDULGENCE. I would advocate the approach, as your representative, that London Green party members decide upon – in terms of second preferences or none, at a time of our choosing.

There is a strategic side to this, so it’s not just a question of my declaring my personal preferences ahead of time. What I can say is that, with your mandate, I’ll hold my own in any public meeting with Ken and Boris, and won’t give an inch. Here’s a recent question to Boris at People’s Question Time on the woeful state of London’s tubes (and I challenged Ken on cronyism in public appointments, in an exchange of press letters in 2005).


What is the most fun part of campaigning for you?

Meeting new people, anticipating or vocalising their concerns and SEEING POSITIVE RESULTS. On road safety, for example, we campaigned for two years locally to get Asda to redesign their loading bay and put a stop to lorry drivers endangering pedestrians by parking on a crossing. It was very rewarding to finally get action on this and for Greens to be rightly credited for it, see “Green Party declares victory in ASDA delivery lorries row”.


What would be your top tip to someone who is just starting to get active in the Green Party?

STAND FOR THE NEXT LOCAL ELECTIONS! And help others get elected elsewhere! As campaign coordinator for last year’s local elections in Brent, I’ve already popped the question to many an aspiring Green and often received the right answer.

We stood a record 62 candidates in 2010, with good balance in terms of both gender and diversity, too, for which we got heightened publicity and credibility. See headline article “Party on a mission to Green Brent”. As local party support, I’ve also proactively supported candidates in neighbouring local parties (see Susanna Rustin’s article, “My first election as a Green Party candidate”).

We need to make sure that all those Londoners who voted for us last year and before are ready to come back for more, and then some. For that you need a mayoral candidate who understands and respects the internal democracy and accountability of the party, with a track record of promoting green politics through public speaking, electioneering and campaigns year in year out!

Green London Mayoral Hustings: Jenny Jones

London Green Party is selecting who is to be our Mayoral candidate in 2012. There are three candidates for the job Shahrar Ali, Farid Bakht and Jenny Jones who all very kindly agreed to answer some of my questions. Here is what Jenny has to say.


If you had to choose one campaigning priority for the Green Party Mayoral campaign, what would it be?

It's a tough choice between Climate Change issues and Inequality issues, but if I had to choose it would be Climate Change. Greens are usually the only party to make the link between environmental and social justice, so that's our unique political selling point.

We can promote polices that cover both areas, such as home insulation (lowers carbon emissions and fuel bills for low paid), or air pollution (cut carbon emissions from polluting vehicles and improve health for poorer Londoners who can't avoid the fumes).


How do you see the role of the Mayoral candidate in relation to the Assembly campaign?

The Mayoral candidate has to promote the Assembly list at every opportunity. A Green Mayor is a very long shot, whereas two or three AM's are quite likely, and they will be able to make real change.


How should we politically approach Ken Livingstone bid to become Mayor again?

Very very carefully. In my view, our Tory Mayor has plunged us backwards, socially and environmentally, so the Ken era is starting to look like golden times. However, we have to examine both manifestos and play a little hard to get - the Labour Party isn't any more trustworthy than the Tories.

Although I have worked fairly well with Ken, I've never let him off the hook when I think he's wrong, for example on the Thames Gateway Bridge, and he knows that.


What is the most fun part of campaigning for you?

When all the big decisions are made (strategy, manifesto, leaflets, broadcast) and there's just teams of Greens leafletting, doorknocking and drinking in the pub afterwards.


What would be your top tip to someone who is just starting to get active in the Green Party?

Work with your local party and get active on the leafletting, the stalls, etc. Avoid London Fed (too mindnumbing), but go to Party conference at least once, and accept that politics is very hard work, but what option is there?

Catch Up Misc

Not had much time to compile these recently as I've been at the Green Party's cardiff conference - here's a few I've missed so far;

• Caroline Lucas is interviewed on New Left Project.
• Dave Osler says racism may not boost the far-right.
• Gerry Vincent on ecological disaster in a satchet.
• Lisa Ansell on if the anti-cuts movement is to have any point at all.
  
• John Sinha on how to beat the cuts.
  
• Charlie Brooker hates the neo-liberal Mac.
  

Time for a Triple Scotch in May?

In May this year the Scottish Parliamentary elctions will be the most significant election for the Greens in the UK. There are prospects of the great leap into the Welsh Assembly with the possibility of our first Welsh Assembly member and breakthroughs on local councils throughout England, all of which will be most welcome news. But north of the border things look even more exciting, if you can imagine it.

The Scottish Greens (donate) have been represented in Holyrood since the very beginning of time (1999) and currently have two MSPs in the shape of the mellifluous Patrick Harvie and the incredulous Robin Harper.

However, a YouGov poll released yesterday (pdf) suggests the Scottish Greens could be looking for a very happy May election indeed on 6.4%. These figures would mean a leap upwards to six Green MSPs fighting against the cuts agenda and for a sustainable society.

Indeed this is the second recent poll that suggests the Scots Greens might triple their representation. However, where the Times poll (which had only half the number of respondents I believe) was surprising in that it placed the SNP and Labour neck and neck, the YouGov poll confirmed the impression most people are getting that the gap between the Nats and Labour is, in fact, even widening with Labour in the lead.

This is not, I should hasten to add, because Labour are such a vigorous and dynamic force God bless them but because, with the Coalition in power, Labour's army of donkeys in red rosettes are benefitting across the UK from a tidal surge not of their own making, and which, personally, I don't think they deserve very much.

Similarly the Lib Dems couldd run the best campaign in history and they'd get obliterated - the electoral climate is just too inclement for them poor souls. This is probably just as well as they don't appear to have any campaign money.

Of course, we have to caveat all of this with the fact that there is only one poll that matters, and that's in May (no, there isn't a new series of X-Factor then). I really don't want to be like some (not all) SNP supporters who welcomed with open arms the previous Times poll and then are picking apart the more substantial YouGov poll based upon the convenience of the results.

After all, if I was going to cheery pick I'd point to the fact that more people YouGov spoke to said they'd vote Green than Liberal Democrat. I'd dearly love that to be the result on the day but that's before weighting and the poll actually says the Lib Dems are a whopping 0.4% ahead of us.

However, I should to like add "Woo Hoo!" at this juncture.

The thing that makes me nervous and excited by turns is that if you enter the figures into the excellent Scotland Votes site you quickly realise that very marginal differences to the SGP vote can impact on how many Green MSPs we elect. Every second vote counts as they say.

Green Party councillors and the cuts

To follow on from the previous economic perspectives motion that was passed I thought I'd post up the organisational guidance the Cardiff conference has passed on how councillors should respond to the cuts. This is an organisational rather than policy motion which explains the slightly different style;

Conference reaffirms our manifesto commitment to "protect basic public services, which are the foundation of an equitable society".

The Green Party of England and Wales is opposed to cuts in essential local government services.

Conference calls on GPEX [the national executive], within existing resources, to offer support (e.g. policy and external communications support) to Green Party councillors and other publicly elected Green Party representatives not to vote for such cuts, support them in refusing to do so.

GPEW deplores the Coalition Government's huge reductions in government grant to each local authority but recognises that each local authority has a legal duty to set a balanced budget.

Green councillors will be supported in putting forward imaginative alternatives that will protect jobs and services. Such alternatives could include the following:

- cutting senior pay for top council executives
- reducing the millions spent on expensive private sector consultants
- cutting down on glossy PR and council spin
- reducing council fuel bills by making schools, libraries and other buildings more energy efficient
- introducing workplace parking levies

Such a stand will facilitate the effective participation of such representatives and members in the local campaigns against cuts which are required, and will provide a lead for other councillors, trade unionists and community activists.

Conference asks the Chair of the Association of Green Councillors to inform all Green Councillors of this motion.

Green Party comes out against global capitalism

Today in Cardiff we passed this motion (which is as passed with an amendment from Darren Johnson, section four). I thought you'd all like to know.

1) We recognise that global capitalism has set its sights on the public sector as part of the solution to its crisis. Recognising that simple privatisation of local services is unpopular, successive governments have introduced more subtle forms of 'creeping privatisation' - taking services out of public hands and handing them over to new bodies which are vulnerable to being taken over by the private sector at a later stage; and surrounding public services with private sector consultants and advisers.

2) We oppose all these moves and insist that local public services should be provided overwhelmingly by public service providers and be accountable directly to local people, not to private sector shareholders. Claims that only the quality of local public services matters, and not who provides them, are inaccurate, because private sector providers are ultimately accountable to their shareholders and their financial bottom line. The public sector is different: it is wholly dedicated towards delivering services for those in need, and the dedication, skill, and innovation of public sector workers should be unleashed to improve services. Defending the public service ethos is therefore a top priority for the Green Party.

3) We believe that all local public service providers should therefore be under a duty to promote the environmental, economic and social well-being of the local community; and to optimise efficiency, and avoid waste, in public service provision.

4) The total cost of public service provision in an area, through all providers, should be published and made available for public scrutiny. The remit of local councils should be expanded so that locally-delivered services are commissioned by democratically-elected local authorities. Primary Care Trusts should be supervised by, and accountable to, elected local government, for example. Separate elections for police and health will splinter accountability and threaten partnership working.

5) We need a revolution in participation - freedom of information and transparency is not enough. We support the approach of local people playing a major role in planning, commissioning, managing and assessing local priorities, services and budgets, using appropriate local forums and techniques such as participatory budgeting. Such deliberative discussion is preferable to the blunt instrument of local referenda for complex decisions on services and budgets.

6) In the current economic climate, we also commit ourselves to support national and local campaigns against cuts in public services and to use everything in our power when in opposition or in office to oppose them.

My Cardiff conference so far

My Green Party conferences have been very different over the years. This weekend I've moved a whole number of procedural motions for example, something I have never done before in life. I've had no time for blogging either because in Cardiff I've got hefty policy responsibilities, especially for the start of conference.

So far we've voted down some radical policy on monetary reform but did pass a great motion denouncing international capitalism and calling for real democracy. We've passed policy against the way the Prime Minister can take us into war without recourse to any other democratic institution. We've also passed unambiguous policy against HSR2 - the proposed high speed rail link.

All good stuff. However, the big stuff really happens tomorrow when we take a final assault on our science and technology policies. We've had two of three workshops so far and it's looking really good on scientific funding, the independence of research as well as freedom of information. But it's all to play for as it's conference floor that will decide tomorrow morning.

I have a slight knot in my stomach about the whole thing as you never know what might happen and some of the hard work people have put in over the last year could still fall off the agenda because the overhaul is so extensive.

If you can get to Cardiff for ten tomorrow please do, as it would be really good to finish off stage one of the scientific policy reforms we started way back just after the European elections in 2009.

Caroline Allen: my final top tip for the Green's Assembly List

It's selection fever in the Greens at the moment. You'll hear from this blog very soon on the London Mayoral selection but I wanted to give you my final top tip on the London Assembly race, Caroline Allen.

When I sit back and think about what I really want in an Assembly candidate, the quality I'm most looking for is that I can trust them.

I don't simply mean political integrity - although this is a quality I prize very highly, and I would not back a candidate that lacked it - but I also mean can I rely on them to be a decent, hard working candidate that's there for the party?

It means they are disciplined enough that even if he or she fancies going into a self-indulgent rant or pursuing their own agenda they remember they are representing others, not just themselves. They need to be capable of restraint at the right times. They need to be sound.

Often this means people who are making a sacrifice to run, rather than simply indulging their egos. Not that there are any of those in the Greens.

One of my first impressions of Caroline was when we were taking different sides on a particular issue. I was impressed by the professional and political way she handled the disagreement and when the issue was decided she moved on without rancour. This left a very good impression with me, and one that has been reinforced many times since then.

Caroline has a sharp analytical mind and understands policy. Not just understands what our policies are (which is useful) but also what policy is for. It's a quality rarely talked about, but absolutely invaluable.

I'm endorsing Caroline Allen because I know that if she was selected to the Assembly list she would bring cast iron self-discipline to the team. I know that we could trust her with the responsibility because she understands the need for basic competence in everything we do.

Sue Luxton for the London Assembly

Continuing my theme of who I will be voting for in the London Assembly elections (after Natalie Bennett [1]) I’d like to put in a word for Sue Luxton, or General Luxton as she is commonly called by me, if no one else.

Sue is another hard working and talented Green whose deep commitment to her area, Ladywell in Lewisham, is absolutely unquestionable. Sue came to the Greens from a place relatively alien to me – the animal rights movement – and her consistent veganism I can only admire from afar as I tuck into a chicken and bacon sandwich. Smiling.

Sue was elected as one of the Green Party’s batch of six councillors in Lewisham in 2006 and was a key organising force on that group, helping to ensure that the council passed policy on a Living Wage for all staff and contractors as well as being widely recognised as an excellent local councillor with a deep understanding of local issues.

She was the very definition of a community campaigner in that time, working with all kinds of residents to help make Lewisham a better place.

However, what gives her the edge in this selection process is her extremely strong experience of organising election campaigns. The London Assembly list needs someone like her, placed well, to give it real beef when it comes to the logistics of the campaign.

As the constituency organiser in Lewisham she helped organise a formidable and well-oiled election machine. While the electoral tide may have been against us this just proved her mettle all the more as she assembled a small army of volunteers who did not have a single wasted moment on the days they volunteered to help across our target wards.

The team of leading candidates needs those skills and that commitment, not because there are no other candidates who understand election logistics but because no other candidate understands them to the degree that she does, particularly when fighting a difficult election.

That General’s Star was earned with blood, sweat and tears born of an obsession with canvassing databases and different coloured highlighter pens.

We currently have the opportunity in the Green Party to assemble a strong team of candidates for London whose skills and politics make the perfect fit. It’s my contention that we’d be missing a trick if we did not place Sue Luxton among our leading candidates in this election.

Why Caroline Russell is one of my top picks for the Assembly

As I mentioned Natalie Bennett is getting my first preference for the London Assembly, but there are a host of other good candidates that I'd like people to consider. One of those is Islington Green Caroline Russell.

Caroline is a relatively new member of the Party, but she is by no means a new comer to street politics. As a long term environmental activist in her area she has been beavering away diligently for years to make our communities better places.

She came to the party with a wealth of experience, talent and energy and she is exactly the kind of new blood that the party needs to help it become more rooted in London's boroughs and more grounded in the actual needs of those communities rather than the wants of political activists.

Passionate about her area she has done the kind of serious work that leave many of us full of admiration. Indeed one of the reasons why I'm hoping Caroline will get on the list is that when she was thinking about running she was extremely self effacing, constantly asking whether it was presumptuous of her to stand, etc.

Any Assembly list with Caroline Russell on it would be all the stronger for it. The more decent, hard working community activists we have at the forefront of our party the better. Matt Selwood once said to me that he thought the Green Party should be the electoral wing of community campaigns. That's been a very influential thought for me, and Caroline is part of making that dream a reality.

Watch out for my further tips for the Assembly over the next few days. It's going to be a hard choice deciding what order to put people after Natalie Bennett [1].

Greens Lord It

The fact that the second half of Parliament, the Lords, is entirely unelected but is a house of patronage and cronies embedded within the political class is a complete travesty of democracy. There was a time in the last twenty years that it looked like the people might get some say over who sits in the second house but Labour botched it.

The Lords has tended to act as a legislative brake in favour of the status quo. This meant that during the Blair years the Lords gained a bit of reputation for being rather useful as they held back some of the more authoritarian pieces of Labour's legislation.

Sadly the same compulsion that meant proper scrutiny was given to some moves it also acted as a brake on banning fox hunting, equalising the age of consent and other progressive measures.

Historically the Lords have regularly prevented moves to democratise the country and you'd have to really use your imagination hard to see them voting to abolish themselves in favour of a democratically elected second chamber.

It's not beyond the bounds of possibility though that the Greens are offered a seat(s) in the Lords and, in a break with tradition, we allow members to nominate candidates and then ballot to select who we'd send if given the opportunity. Just as with accepting honours there are good arguments for refusing a place but personally I want as many Lords as possible voting for a democratically elected second chamber.

So it's interesting to see the people who have put themselves forwards for selection to the house to do just that, vote it out of existence. They are, in alphabetically order, David Aherne, Sharar Ali, Nic Best, Hazel Dawe, Emma Dixon, Alan Francis, Jessica Goldfinch, James Humphries, Stuart Jeffrey, Rebecca Johnson, Jenny Jones, Jim Kitchen, Steven Plowden, Rupert Read, Larry Sanders, Tony Slade, John Whitelegg.

There are some names there I don't know but I'm sure Jenny Jones will poll well as will Emma Dixon and John Whitelegg. I've yet to peruse the statements properly but I know that I'll be giving Stuart Jeffrey one of my top slots and people keep saying nice things about Rebecca Johnson and Jessica Goldfinch so they'll probably get a boost on my paper through those recommendations.

I do need to make sure though that anyone I select is completely committed to abolishing the Lords as it would be embarrassing to vote for someone and then find out they have a fetish for ermine.

nb in typical fashion a candidate's statement was left out of the booklet! If you're interested check out Jessica Goldfinch's website.

London Assembly Candidates Selection

Well it's that time at last when London Green Partiers get to decide who to select as their candidates for the London Assembly elections next year. These are important elections for the party which, at the last two elections, elected two Assembly members to one of the most important authorities in the country.

It's going to be a difficult choice this time round with fifteen candidates to choose from, many of whom would do justice to the list, indeed I was trying to work out who the obvious four candidates to get knocked off the bottom would be and it simply wasn't possible. It's a happy position to be in but it makes deciding how to vote very difficult.

I'll be giving my first preference to Natalie Bennett (pictured left) who is a formidable Green politician and also my girlfriend. Natalie's responsible for a large chunk of the party's policies on women and equality and has been central to Green Party Women that helped the party achieve the highest proportion of female candidates in the General Election, a national executive of over 50% women and raised the profile of equality issues more generally.

Added to that she's an incredibly hard worker breaking all sorts of records for leafleting and community meeting going as well as being ruthlessly leftwing. It's the perfect package!

Over the next week or so I'll be taking a look at some of the other candidates that I'm hoping will do well in the selection process, as well as hosting an online hustings for the Mayoral candidates. It's a difficult choice to make when faced with an STV ballot paper and an array of good candidates, so I'll see if I can make that slightly easier for everyone.

nb I wont be doing any negative campaigning so I wont be hosting any attacks on any candidates, whether or not I'm supporting them at this election. Do bear that in mind when commenting!

Edinburgh Diary Dates

A few things coming up that I spotted, feel free to add more events in the comments if I've missed off any important ones.

• Tomorrow, Tuesday.

Rally to support the people of the Middle East
Called by the Stop the War Coalition
The Mound Princes Street. 5.30 pm

• Thursday, 24th Feb

March on Universities Scotland against plans to charge students £12K
Bristo Square 12 noon

• Saturday 5th March

Demonstrate at the Scottish Lib Dem conference
Perth Concert Hall (not Edinburgh)
Assemble 11am

Also Edinburgh Uncut have their next action

• Sunday 6th March

Anarchist film festival
From noon to 11 pm
Teviot bar, Bristo Square
£4 entry

• Tuesday 15th March

Mark Steel's in Town
Queens Hall, 85-89 Clerk St
EH8 9JG
0131 668 2019 for tickets

• Friday 25th March

David Rovics with Fiona Keenan and David Ferrard
Bannermans, 212 Cowgate, EH1 1NQ
Admission £8

Sunday pieces

• I'm still reeling from the news that Barclays pays just 1% in corporation tax. No wonder there's a deficit.
  
  
• The New Statesman covers the awful case of Bill Aitkin, the conservative MSP who likes to blame rape victims for being raped.
  
  
• Dwight Towers looks at the origins of the word 'cannon fodder' and wonders whether it applies to modern audiences.
  
  
• I thought this profile in The Independent was interesting on the new student movement.
  
  
• Lallands Peat Worrier looks at the Scottish attitudes to sex.
  
  
• The revolution spreads to Libya, Morocco, Algeria, Djibouti, Bahrain, Iran, Yemen, Jordan, Iraq, there's even demonstrations in Kuwait. These really are extraordinary times.
  

Can we have alternatives to the AV campaigns please?

In my continuing attempt to shake off any remaining readers I've decided to use this space to come out against both the yes AND no campaigns on the referendum for AV. I mean I'm difficult to please at the best of times but the both of them seem to delight in parading false information, vapid slogans or just generally seem to be talking to themselves.

If we start with the no camp we have people who tried to demand a 40% turnout requirement despite the fact that they are perfectly happy with councillors, MEPs and MPs elected on any turn out at all - and of course these were people in the Lords who weren't even elected but think they have the right to run the country.

The fact that they are proud of this undemocratic motion fills me with disdain.

We also have their campaign saying the cost (which they claim is £250 million, although their full article shows they have no idea what the figure might be really) would be better spent on other things. Their video shows one gentlemen suggesting we could use the money on tax cuts. Well that's less than £5 per person over a year - I simply can't imagine what I'd spend my forty pence a month on, the possibilities are limited.

The no camp have a series of posters saying things like "He needs a bullet proof vest not an alternative voting system", "she needs a home help not...", "she needs a maternity unit not..." etc. I have to say they've made that invented £250 million stretch quite a way haven't they! The fact that this also appears to be an argument cancelling all future elections seems to have escaped them, but hey ho.

The main problem with the cost argument is that they seem to be including the cost of the referendum itself, which they are clearly encouraging people to take part in. They're fighting yesterday's battle and hoping we wont notice.

William Hague wrote to me today and said that AV was unfair because "supporters of extreme parties like the BNP would get their vote counted many times, while other people's vote would only be counted once."

Which is a deliberate attempt to imply it makes the election of BNP candidates more likely even though AV is actually stacked against minority candidates. As Rupert Read points out the BNP are campaigning against AV for that very reason.

Jo points out Labour are little better than the Tories and seem to be arguing that it's the number of Labour MPs that get elected that determine how democratic a system is. I keep forgetting how alienating I find tribalism and then up pops john Prescott to remind me.

But what of the yes camp? What have those blighters been up to? Well, for a start this week they decided to hitch themselves to the Royal Wedding. A spokesperson said "around the wedding it will be a coming-into-summer, more optimistic, more of a yes mood," That's another reason to vote against then as it's spitting in the eye of Clegg AND the royals - bonus.

And of course they've been telling us to "follow your heart", or in other words stop thinking about it. Simon from Bristol tells us "Lately it seems like people have fallen out of love with politics. We were out on the street at the weekend to make shoppers the best proposal they’ll get this year; to love their vote". That's the best proposal the good people of Bristol will have all year? I'd heard it was a miserable place but Christ alive it's worse than I thought.

Just for the record my heart tells me to vote no, but my head is still open to persuasion. When people tell me to follow my heart I tend to think "Interesting, I wonder what they don't want me think about too hard?"

In this case I assume it would be the fact that AV embeds the idea that only those with majority support should get representation in Parliament - the polar opposite of the kind of system I believe in, where every party is represented according to the proportion of the electorate that supports it. My system says 10% of the population should have the kind of representation they want - AV, of course, says if you can't win 50% of the vote you'd better learn to lump second, third or fourth best.

Rupert argued the other day that AV contains FPTP within it and therefore we can all relax and vote it through. Apart from highlighting the fact that AV is just another variant of single constituency voting that keeps minority voices out of Parliament it also completely fails to address the argument it claims to have put to bed.

Rupert says that FPTP fans can just use the one vote themselves and leave others to do as they please, but the argument, as anyone who has followed the debates will know, is that party loyalists don't think someone else's second, third or fourth preference should count as much as their first preference. In other words it is precisely the fact that others get to vote differently that irks them.

I don't have much time for this particular anti-AV argument but it's pretty disrespectful to not bother trying to understand someone's argument before claiming that "it really is unnecessary for FPTP-lovers to oppose AV at all."

There are lots of good arguments on both sides, but neither campaign seems to be putting these at the front of their stalls. Instead we have misinformation and empty posturing, which at times can feel little better than bullying.

Ed Miliband argued in the Guardian the other day that "AV will also force parties to admit where there is agreement between them, prising open our confrontational system so that similarities sometimes become as important as differences". I completely agree with this and one of the tempting points to AV is the idea that it could undercut the compulsion political parties suffer from of treating all other parties as "the enemy".

However, overall we just have point scoring or emotive tosh from the campaigns. While I will vote one way or the other in the referendum it wont be an endorsement of either campaign but on the basis of which system I'd prefer us to go to the next election with.

Irish polls axe parties of government

While the Times today reports that the Scottish Greens could double their representation in May (although I think we can do better) life looks rather different to the West. The Irish Independent has published a rather comprehensive poll of voter intentions and it makes for fascinating reading.

This pie chart can give you some context in which to read the rest of the data. Yes, that is a lot of red. It essentially represents the colour of the voters' faces when they think about their government.


I should point out that you don't have to go back that far to see voter satisfaction in their government was over fifty percent (p. 11) - in other words the Irish aren't just people who hate the government historically, they hate this specific government. Well, all but 5% of them who are presumably the sort of people who are naturally cheerful and even if set on fire would remark at how toasty warm things had become.

So who is benefiting from this anti-government Tsunami? A party that's almost identical to the current government. Hard to imagine that isn't it?

But first for the caveat - this bar graph compares the actual result of the 2007 election with the polling figures (excluding don't knows) this January. They aren't going to be 100% accurate but the polling just before the last election was pretty accurate so let's not pretend they're meaningless either.

Who are the losers? Well, the only two parties to lose support, and lose it badly are the two parties of government (there was a third but it has ceased trading). Fianna Fail and the Greens are bracing themselves for the inevitably of being electorally washed out to sea. For Fianna Fail it means a generation in the wildness, for the Greens it probably means the end of the organisation permanently. I did say this was a likely outcome at the time but no one listens to me, hurumph.

If 'the others' do get 15% it could lead to an extremely interesting Dail. People like socialist Richard Boyd Barrett came very close to winning a seat in 2007 and this surge in the 'others' could well see him and others like him win an intimidating handful of seats. This would be a very welcome outcome as far as I'm concerned.

However, for those parties that are gaining support like Labour and Sinn Fein the future is not entirely rosy. The report (p. 17 and p. 19) also shows that the 'satisfaction' rates for Labour have not been lower for ten years despite the fact that Labour leader Eamon Gilmore is well respected. Also more people are dissatisfied with Sinn Fein and less satisfied with it since polling began on this. Indeed, in terms of the polls both parties are actually losing momentum and slipping back as voters begin to gravitate to Fine Gael, of all people.

It's also difficult to see the Sinn Fein vote as a shift to the left when (p. 26) Sinn Fein voters are the most likely to want to see compulsory redundancies as "part of public sector reform". That's more likely than Fine Gael or Fianna Fail - blimey.

Finally I just want a quick look at where the party votes are going.
As you might expect those who voted Green last time are the least likely to vote the same way in this election with just 13% of those who voted Green last time intending to do so again - the masochists. Most of those voters will be splitting their votes between Labour and Fine Gael, although they are also the people most likely to defect to Sinn Fein.

Fine Gael's voters are the most sticky and, if they are going to defect, will defect to Labour. The same is true of Sinn Fein as it happens.

Both Labour and Sinn Fein (and the hard left) will be hoping this is a game changing election for them. Indeed if you can't make a great leap forwards at a time when the government has disapproval ratings of 95% (which is probably worse than for Mubarak) you're doing something wrong - like being part of a ridiculous coalition.

No Cell Off

I think it was Not The nine O'Clock News that did a joke about Thatcher giving prisoners the opportunity to "buy their own cells", well hurrah for the current trend of eighties nostalgia because it's actually happening. Sort of.

Two police forces in Scotland are, according to the Scotsman, farming out their cells into the private sector. The lucky winners in this game are Group Four (renamed G4S so that people forget that kept letting prisoners escape) who's comments in the press appear to have provoked the normally supine Unison into threatening strike action. Or at least not ruling it out, which is pretty scary stuff I'm sure.

Group Four's managing director John Shaw diplomatically said that "Police forces in Scotland have a great track record of being very forward-thinking, compared to England and Wales" who presumably have not had meetings with him about this exciting business opportunity which includes constructing and staffing detention units and "portable cells, something I said would never happen in February 2009.

As Unison's Peter Velden says "Privatising custody suite officers would concern us greatly. They are valuable public servants and they should be kept in public service. If this saves money, it will be through cutting the guys' wages and cutting their allowances."

I think, given the record of privatised public services, it could also mean a severe degrading of the service - which in this case may mean more injuries, deaths and legal mishaps. In fact it's fair to say that organisations like Group Four (G4S) that make their money profiteering from formerly publicly owned utilities are nothing better than a bunch of criminals.

However, while I've heard of people having to dig their own graves I've not yet heard of criminals building their own cells. We live in hope.

Sunday Misc

• Al Jazeera asks what are the lessons of Egypt for Palestine?
  
  
• In Australia the Greens are changing their preference voting in that oh-so-not-tactical at all AV system. SMH.
  
  
• The Scotsman warns that in Holyrood in May the winners may not win.
  
  
• Musings of a teen Green thinks we shouldn't bring down the government. Radical stuff.
  
  
• Cllr Maggie Chapman sets out the Greens approach to the council budget in Edinburgh.
  
  
• Adrian Windisch notes that a bunch of criminals have voted.
  

End of the Tyrant; Now to end tyranny

Millions, if not billions, of people across the world will have raised a smile to hear that Egypt's dictator Mubarak has at last stepped down. You would have to be made of stone to not welcome the news.

Of course the end of a tyrant does not mean the end to tyranny and the revolutionary wave across the Arab world has barely begun. What comes next will no doubt be a mix of both good and bad, new solutions and old. The risk of an even more reactionary regime is both real and, I think, no reason to mourn the dying of the old.

I was impressed last week by a reporter on Radio Four being interviewed by John Humphreys. "How will Mubarak react next?" he was asked "I don't know." He replied. "But Mubarak wont do a Tianamen Square will he?" "I've got no idea what he'll do!" Queue an outraged snort from Humphreys - but the reporter was right.

Speculation is pointless at this time, the only thing that really matters is how the people of Egypt and the rest of the Arab world react. What kind of world they choose to make is in the balance and how those disagreements and compromises that lie ahead play out are all to play for.

There are many different visions for Egypt's future, and I'm sure that even what people want at this point is fluid and changing. Maybe those with modest aspirations will find themselves radicalised. Perhaps the religious will start looking to secular solutions and others will find themselves fusing faith and politics.

I'm reading it all with interest, but I've decided that, not only do I not know enough about the region to comment properly, but also that even the self appointed experts will have to throw their deeply entrenched ideas in the days and years to come. Who can say what these means for Egypt's women or how Israel will take the news, or the US or the people of Saudi Arabia?

This domino is falling. Today we should celebrate that, even if we cannot know what seemingly permanent structures will evaporate next.

What papers have their say

There is an interesting Early Day Motion doing the rounds in Parliament, all about the Morning Star. It is EDM 1334 and it goes something like this;

"That this House notes the Morning Star is a national daily newspaper available in shops across the UK; further notes that it is the only socialist daily newspaper in the English language worldwide; further notes that the Morning Star and its management have strong links with the trade union movement; welcomes the different light it shines on news and current affairs from that of other daily newspapers; expresses concern that the Morning Star is rarely ever shown on or reported by the BBC on television and radio; and calls on the Director General of the BBC to ensure that the Morning Star is featured regularly and as a matter of course in broadcast newspaper reviews in the interests of fair and balanced reporting."

Considering this is about the house newspaper of the Communist Party of Britain it has accrued a considerable number of signatories, fifty two of them in fact. This includes my favourite Lib Dem MP, Bob Russell, the ever-cuddly Frank Dobson and the SNP's Angus MacNeil... none of whom have openly endorsed the revolutionary transformation of the UK into a Brezhnevian worker's paradise.

It raises an interesting point about what newspapers are seen as fit for those little 'tomorrow's papers' roundup's on news programmes and one that is worth supporting. It would have been slightly better if it hadn't been MPs pressuring the state broadcaster to give preferential treatment to the Morning Star over other minority papers - which steps over the line of political interference in the BBC and smacks of special pleading.

Daily newspapers like The Voice or the Edinburgh Evening News do proper journalism, have a distinct identity, serve a specific community and sell a decent number of copies (40,000 a day in the case of the Voice and 25,000 a day in the case of the Morning Star, I'm told).

These slots would certainly be more interesting if there was a bit more variety. After all the Telegraph, Times, Guardian and Independent all having different headlines on the same story only takes you so far - while a few "black teenager disappearance goes unreported" and "Strike action is brilliant" headlines would shake things up a bit.

Democracy isn't just about majority voices after all.

I was surprised to see that the Morning Star had a rather belligerant piece in their paper about the EDM. They choose, for example, to denounce Michael Meacher and Caroline Lucas for not signing. This is particularly strange seeing as Caroline at least has every intention of signing but you have to literally put your pen to an official document to get your name on an EDM and she hasn't yet been in the same room as that piece of paper.

It's an EDM not a fire that needs putting out here and now.

Personally I think I'd support the EDM too, but why it had to be so self serving I've no idea. Many of us would support the call for more space for minority papers and ideas but for the Morning Star to be singled out over other, more widely read, papers seems a little bit like advertising rather than principle.

Today's Misc

• Jean Lambert asks 'What is a Green Job?' in Total Politics.
  
  
• I was disturbed to see that an Iranian man faces the death penalty over porn.
  
  
• I thought UK Polling report on AV/FPTP was interesting.
  
  
• There is a new blog for London - hurrah!
  
  
• In Belgium some are calling for a sex strike - which kind of assumes sex is something that one person needs and the other allows to take place.
  
  
• The BBC reports that offenders will do manual labour... how's everyone finding modernity?
  

Misc time

• The Telegraph defends Caroline Lucas. Well, Robert Webb defends her on their pages which isn't quite the same thing. A mere 313 comments at the time of posting.
  
  
• Talking of what's her face, she was fronting a rather good political slot by the Greens the other night that you can now watch on YouTube.
  
  
• Mike Shaunessey has been riffing off my piece on left and right in politics.
  
  
• Fellow Haringey resident Sarah Cope is staggered at Lynn Featherstone.
  
  
• People who were elected with no turnout are trying to impose a turnout limit on the AV referendum. I keep forgetting how backwards this country is.
  
  
• Oh. Did you know? David Miliband doesn't like parties.
  

Rebranding

The Mirror has the inside track on these things and appears to confirm rumours that Ed Miliband's big idea is to rebrand 'New' Labour. A better logo, a new prefix and bingo - your goblin army is once again fit for purpose. Not that he's renaming New Labour "Goblin Army", that would be just too inspired.

According to Kevin MacGuire;

TALK has started in Ed Miliband’s circle of what to call the Labour Party after he declared “New” Labour dead.

Plain Labour was deemed boring so he’s mulling over fresh descriptions.

Newer, Newest, Renewed and Radical were kicked about. But one very prominent figure, I hear, wants Miliband to adopt Progressive Labour.

The idea is to appear edgy and hoover up unhappy Lib Dems without frightening traditionalists. How very New Labour!

I agree "Plain Labour" would have been an error. As would "Normal Labour", "Everyday Labour" or even "Ordinary Labour" - however each of those would be preferable to the pig's particles that is the phrase "Progressive Labour". The members will hate it!

I have absolutely no idea what is meant to be edgy about the word progressive, I use it myself from time to time, but usually to described left leaning ideas that aren't so left leaning I want to call them left, let alone socialist. Progressive usually describes things like not being too racist, or too homophobic or that people should probably pay their tax.

Essentially things that we'd like to think everyone believes, although sadly that's far from true.

Certainly Miliband's tenure so far has not been particularly noted for its "edgyness" either. Condemning strike action, then pottering about while muttering under his breath - and voters hope he's muttering about the cuts but for all we know he's reciting the lyrics to the Mister Ed theme tune.

As Darrell says "Once again we are reminded of how depressingly hollow Miliband’s commitment to Labour values actually is." I actually think it's quite funny, but then I'm weird like that.

Thursday Misc

What have we here?

• There's a great new edition of the Carnival of Socialism out over at The Great Unrest.
  
  
• I've come out and agreed with Boris over at Collective Resistance.
  
  
• Do you have a problem? Ask Dawn.
  
  
• The launch of the Spanish Greens talks about "changing the left to beat the right."
  
  
• Bright Green (Scotland?) has the list of London Green candidates for the Assembly selection.
  
  
• Richard Osley has spotted Tessa Jowell reminiscing about 'taking on the Trots'.
  

Tonight's Misc

Let's take a look at what we have today;

• Musings of a teen Green
  
  
• Jeff at Better Nation talks about this term progressive.
  
  
• The Guardian has an interactive map to help you find your nearest library protest.
  
  
• Collective Resistance caught Paxman's slip.
  
  
• Owen at the Third Estate on CS spray and UK Uncut
  
  
• And moments of clarity asks whether the left gets democracy.
  

Hands off the NHS

I just put this (above) together... if only I had the artistic skills to create the poster below - which appears to be for a real film but seems reasonably appropriate.

If we could issue every nurse with a machine gun I'm sure the world would be a better place.*

* Not Green Party policy.

Update: due to popular demand (well, one person's suggestion) I have reworked the top poster. One day I'll be rich enough to contract this stuff out to someone who knows what they're doing...