Applauding Respect

Yesterday some appalling remarks made by a member of Respect's national council were published on this blog.

Within 24 hours, the Respect national officers had met and expelled him from the party. Salma Yaqoob comments here. There may be a right of appeal, but I am impressed by the swift and professional way this issue has been handled. We could definitely take on board how swiftly and decisively this action has been taken.

Green Party disciplinary procedures are still rooted in a sense of utopian consensus, and they have not been swift enough to tackle the issues that can crop up in a party of nearly 12,000 members, nor decisive enough to address issues that distract us from our core activities of campaigning and winning more seats at every level of government.

Our party still needs fundamental internal reorganisation and disciplinary issues will have to be addressed far more quickly than under our present system.

Directions in Politics

Ed Miliband didn't vote for the Iraq war, he is a clean break from Labour pre-2005 and progressives in UK politics need to hope that he can be an effective opponent of this coalition government. He has shown one key attribute that makes him more qualified than his brother to lead the Labour Party, and that is courage. In contrast to the United States, British politics is not dynastic, and Ed Miliband knew that this would also be his one and only chance to lead the Labour Party. Had his brother been elected leader, he would never have got the opportunity.

David Miliband, unless something shocking happened to Ed, will never now lead the Labour Party. He will never be Prime Minister. For a man that has clearly displayed that ambition for the last few years, it will be a bitter pill to swallow. He shouldn't blame his brother though. He had his chances in 2007, 2008 and 2009 to step up and challenge Gordon Brown. Each time he backed away and he will have to find a way to deal with his own poor judgement.

David Cameron will be happy, apparently. For the next four and a half years, he will hammer home the fact that Ed Miliband is only Labour leader because of votes gained through the Trade Union part of the ballot. David won more support of his fellow MPs (& MEPs) and the majority of support of paid up Labour members.

For those of us that understand the history of the Labour movement, we can fully understand the reasons why, but in the harsh prism of a mostly right of centre mainstream media, Labour's own leadership election rules are going to cause them continued problems. One member, one vote, is simple and understandable. If donors to the Tories (or employees in their companies) also had a vote in their leadership contests, the BBC, the Guardian, the Independent and the Mirror would attack on this point.

I'm holding back my judgement on Ed Miliband until he makes a call on the AV referendum issue. I'll be astonished if he asks Labour MPs to back the amendment proposed by Caroline Lucas. However, even Labour supporters have suggested this would be the right thing to do:

"...if Lucas and every Labour MP were to vote for such an approach, it would not have the votes to carry. In fact, that would largely turn out as a political stunt to embarass the LibDems since they could not vote for it without breaching the Coalition Agreement, despite their own support for PR."

I'd go beyond this. SNP, Plaid and the NI nationalists would almost certainly back such an amendment. For every Lib Dem MP suffering in coalition with the Tories, the chance to vote for genuine PR might yet offer that once in a generation re-alignment. If the bill passes with the amendment, it would leave the Lib Dems divided but would give them a new lease of life at the next General Election, under a new leader. If the Lib Dems stick to the coalition agreement, they will never recover.

So we'll see pretty soon if Ed Miliband is interested in pluralism and a realignment of politics, or simply working in party self interest and hoping to bring Labour back to power under First Past the Post with less than 40% of the vote in 2015.

I think the points made by Jane Watkinson are important to consider for us as Greens. We should not be launching into knee-jerk attacks on Ed Miliband. Disillusioned Lib Dems are the most likely new joiners for both Labour and the Greens, and we are not going to attract people if we are only interested in attacking others. Much better to see what Ed is like once he starts having to make political decisions as Leader of the Opposition.

Things That Need Addressing

Reading about Kashmir in this week's Guardian, it struck me how little attention this issue receives in the British media. Unlike the issue of Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, which is tackled almost daily, particularly during the latest attempts at peace talks, Kashmir's occupation by Indian forces receives little or no attention.

"India, meanwhile, continues to garrison half a million soldiers in Kashmir, nearly three times the number of American troops in Iraq at the peak of the occupation. India's half-century-old Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which was extended to Kashmir in 1990, gives troops the legal authority to shoot any person they suspect of being a threat, and guarantees immunity from prosecution. To bring a soldier before a civilian court requires the permission of India's home ministry; more than 400 such cases are still waiting for it."

Similarly, the coverage of China's occupation of Tibet is occasional, but there is no less injustice or oppression than in either of the previous international examples. Both of these issues deserve more attention. Particular matters of international concern require recognition, and I intend to draft an amendment to the Green Party's Policies for a Sustainable Society International section, so that these issues gain the recognition they deserve (please email me if you are interested in helping).

But to briefly return to Israel / Palestine once again, there is an interview by Johann Hari of Gideon Levy in today's Independent. Levy intensely criticises Israel politics and the state of public opinion in Israel but he also notably says:

“But I do not boycott Israel. I could have done it, I could have left Israel. But I don’t intend to leave Israel. Never. I can’t call on others to do what I will not do... There is also the question of whether it will work. I am not sure Israelis would make the connection. Look at the terror that happened in 2002 and 2003: life in Israel was really horrifying, the exploding buses, the suicide-bombers. But no Israeli made the connection between the occupation and the terror. For them, the terror was just the ‘proof’ that the Palestinians are monsters, that they were born to kill, that they are not human beings and that’s it. And if you just dare to make the connection, people will tell you ‘you justify terror ’ and you are a traitor. I suspect it would be the same with sanctions. The condemnation after Cast Lead and the flotilla only made Israel more nationalistic. If [a boycott was] seen as the judgement of the world they would be effective. But Israelis are more likely to take them as ‘proof’ the world is anti-Semitic and will always hate us.”

You need to read the whole article and take time to consider the author's opinions at length about Israel/Palestine. No one could accuse Levy of being a Zionist or an apologist for Israel, but he has a reasoned position on why he doesn't support a boycott. I may not agree with him on every point he makes, but the article is worth reading.

There has sadly been a little too much intolerance of people within the Greens who disagree with our policy on Israel / Palestine, and some systemic problems dealing with complaints raised about language and attitudes on some email lists. Jim Jepps summarised this well in a recent blog comment:

"Although I don't think it is institutional anti-semitism in the party I do think we have a constant failure in the way we deal with disputes or handle individuals who do inappropriate things.

That failure to intervene firmly enough (or at all) can lead to a small group of people or single individuals making discussions or lists poisonous - and I know many people leave those lists because they don't reflect the friendly and useful Green Party they know in their local area.

I think the people making a complaint have a point that is worth replying to and we should try to address their concerns. Although I should say I don't 100% agree with them on the detail and definition I think it would be an error for the party to dismis this out of hand."

We are party that is doing tremendous work in the communities in which we are elected, but that still has structures that were formulated when we were not much more than a glorified social club for radical thinkers (maybe a bit harsh, but it does express my feelings). Reform is needed and it will come. We need to bring our party structures into the 21st Century, so we can prepare for our role as a much more influential and national force in British politics.

There will no doubt be some pain along the way, the usual resistance to change because of a fear of the unknown, but it is clearly time to move our party forward. I am hugely proud of the vast majority of work our party does, the way it operates and the difference we make, but there are things that we need to address. The time to start that is now, to address these issues and conclude the updates to our national structure well before we reach the Euro and General Elections of 2014 and 2015.

Tower Hamlets Mayoral Contest

As I've pointed out in an earlier post, Alan Duffell is the Green Party candidate for mayor of Tower Hamlets. While no one will be expecting a Green win, the Supplementary vote system means Green supporter can vote for us as a first choice option, then decide tactically how to use their second preference.

I'm following the story as it develops, but in brief, here is a summary of the Labour Party selection process so far:

- Lutfur Rahman is excluded from the shortlist of candidates
- He overturns this judgement in Court
- Rahman wins the Labour nomination
- This week (with nominations closing tmw) Labour's NEC suspends Rahman and appoints the 3rd placed nominee as his replacement
- George Galloway returns to London for emergency discussions about whether Respect will stand a candidate
- Rahman declares he will stand as an independent

What happens next is anyone's guess. George Galloway may stand as a candidate, or Respect may back Rahman as an independent candidate. The first preference Labour vote will be split. It is conceivable that Labour could finish out of the top two places in the election, with the run off being between Rahman and the Conservatives. Respect could also revive themselves if they were to make the top two.

One thing is for sure, tomorrow morning will be interesting in the Tower Hamlets elections department as the nominations come in.

Future Friendly Awards

I've just voted for the excellent Sefton Green Gym.

Worth checking out their site if you haven't visited it before.

You Have Always Been (a bit) Right Nick

Most of us have read and absorbed the Independent piece over the last 12 hours. When the Lib Dems narrowly elected Nick Clegg as leader (although if you'll remember he was a hot favourite who nearly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory), the writing was on the wall for left leaning Liberals.

While Nick Clegg may never have been a member of Tories, there is strong evidence he was in the Cambridge University Conservative Association in 1986/7. Students do stupid things, and people do change, but people usually start left and drift right.

After becoming leader, Clegg as a co-author of the Orange Book, brought these ideas to prominence in the Lib Dem manifesto. So today's news is not really a shock.

So if you are a Lib Dem councillor, activist or member who engaged with the Lib Dems from 2003 to 2005 under Charles Kennedy at a time when Labour had become increasingly the "Big Brother" and authoritarian party the left opposes, you are faced with some difficult decisions.

1. Stay and fight: after committing years of work and becoming part of a political party, you have many personal connections that will be damaged or severed if you leave. A lot of Lib Dems will remain in their party and in the coalition even if they don't agree with it. If enough of them remain, there will be a supportive network of "rebels" who oppose the coalition, but who have no real influence.

2. Independence (or local issue parties): some Lib Dem councillors will go Independent, or may collectively leave and form a "Townsville first" type party in the areas they represent. Many will represent traditionally working class areas. If they are up for re-election in 2011/12, they are at a high risk of losing their seats campaigning as Lib Dems.

3. Defection to Labour: this is the obvious route out. Labour are comfortably in opposition and people do oppose the coalition. Defecting to Labour does mean you have to swallow the Iraq War and forgive the 13 year attack on civil liberties, failure to address income inequalities and lack of action on environmental issues. But with pragmatic matters in mind (eg - getting re-elected in 2011 and 2012) many Lib Dems will switch to the Labour party.

4. Defection to Greens / Liberal Party: a few Lib Dems will take this much harder route, with no absolute guarantee of re-election, but will make a significant positive impact for us (or potentially the old Liberal Party) where they do so. Here in Liverpool, John Coyne in 2006 went initially Independent, then Green. He was re-elected in 2007 as a Green councillor.

Obviously the latter route is one that we as Greens will be most interested in. There are no certainties, but capable hard working Liberal Democrat councillors could be leading figures on Euro lists and candidates to be Green MPs / Upper House representatives in elections from 2014 onwards. The impact of the coalition on British politics will see a significant boost for the Greens. Many former Lib Dems will stand a far better chance of re-election as a target Green candidate who left the Lib Dems on a point of principle, than as party loyalists in a Tory dominated coalition.

That doesn't mean the Greens will accept any old councillor. We rejected a defection in Preston in 2005 and it is clear that we only want decent, hard working councillors to represent us. But what is clear is that some of our most talented party members were once representatives of Labour, the Liberal Democrats and other parties. While the Labour Party will be grabbing more headline defections in the way that this example in Sheffield played out, there will be fewer but far more significant defections of left leaning Lib Dem representatives activists to the Greens. In many cases, such moves could play a huge role in pushing us forward as a party, and breaking up the red, yellow and blue stranglehold on local government.

No Respect

In what has come as a major surprise, Respect announced that they will not be contesting the Tower Hamlets mayoral election. Instead, they are backing the Labour candidate Lutfur Rahman who is regularly featured in Private Eye. All this is reported in the East London Advertiser.

Respect were instrumental in organising the petition for an elected mayor, and to see them step aside like this is unexpected. The election is going to be conducted under the “Supplementary Vote” system. As the Tower Hamlets website says:

“In this election you will have two votes. Vote once in the first column for your first choice candidate and once in the second column for your second choice candidate. You do not have to cast a second choice vote, but you must cast a first choice vote or your ballot paper will not be counted.”

I know already that some Respect activists elsewhere in the country are questioning the logic of this decision. It would have been very possible for them to call for a first vote for Respect’s candidate, with the supplementary (second) vote going to Lutfur Rahman.

A blueprint for this campaign was the agreement between the Greens and Labour about 2nd preferences in the 2008 London Mayoral campaign. We recommended that Green 2nd preferences would go to Ken Livingstone – this was very much despite the party he represented – recognising we would have preferred him to Boris Johnston.

The right of sensible conspiraloons think it all an Islamic plot and that a deal has been done to let Respect win any subsequent byelection. The other suggestions being posited on Socialist Unity are that Respect is broke and / or this is simply a bad tactical decision. Detractors keep suggesting that George Galloway and Salma Yaqoob will defect to Labour, but I think that will also prove wide of the mark.

It is worth keeping in mind that it may be worth taking an alternative view, which is that Respect are going to try and do politics in a new way. That means picking and choosing their electoral battles, supporting candidates they feel able to tactically endorse (as Respect in the NW did in the 2009 Euros for us) but remaining as a vocal and independent left-of-Labour political organisation.

If so, that is a very tough path to follow, although not an impossible one. The difficulty is that activists such as Andy Newman and others, will join Labour, reducing the amount of actual campaigning Respect can achieve. Some activists may also consider the Greens in the longer term. It’s too early to tell, but I think for now we should give them the benefit of the doubt and assume Respect will be around for a lot longer than many are currently predicting.

We have already made a clear pitch for the progressive vote in Tower Hamlets, where Alan Duffell is our Mayoral candidate, although I doubt very much that we will be specifying a second preference vote. Definitely a contest to watch, even if a Labour and Lutfur Rahman victory seems like a foregone conclusion.

Sharon Green Update: Lib Dem Internal Investigation Report

This was reported locally at the weekend in the Liverpool Echo and in the Liverpool Daily Post. It is clearly flannel.

What we can draw from this "investigation" is the following:

- The Lib Dems are taking no action (all Lib Dems have to be re-approved to stand)

- No one could "prove beyond reasonable doubt" that she had posted it

- The investigation either didn't ask, or Cllr Green didn't answer, the question that any investigator would need to ask about who else had access to her personal computer, and if not her, who else could have posted it? A friend, a partner?

This lack of investigation has raised more questions than it has answered. You can read what Cllr Green's own colleagues think of it all at Lib Dem Voice, but what will they think of their own investigation proving so toothless?

In other Sharon Green news, a quick snapshot (today) of her attendance record since getting elected isn't exactly impressive. Despite only having 6 meetings to attend, she has only managed 3.

All of this is very unfortunate for voters in St Michaels. Instead of electing Tom Crone, who worked alongside Cllrs John Coyne and Sarah Jennings for two years before the election, and who would have been a fantastic local councillor, St Michaels residents now look to have Sharon Green until June 2014.

Conference

Before the Euro elections, in the days when I did politics full time, while working part time to earn enough to get by, I was a full on attender of Conference. The advantage of four days is that you get far longer to catch up with old friends. Two days is too short, but with work on Friday and Monday, that is all I can manage these days.

Other bloggers have been providing useful updates:

Bright Green Scotland
Rupert's Read
John Reardon
Jim Jepps

and if you want to watch Caroline's speech (again) you can get it here

We've endorsed voting Yes in the AV referendum as a step towards genuine PR (James Graham, the well known Lib Dem blogger was at the workshop), the first step of a major re-organisation of our party structures was taken at a very progressive and consensual workshop and we've also passed some excellent policies.

To all of you that I didn't get enough time to catch up with fully, my apologies.

Very Close - Well Done to the Norwich Greens

When we make a gain of a council seat it is unusual to feel a twinge of disappointment. However, Norwich Greens got very close to making history last night, and will be knocking on the door in 2011 and 2012 to take control of the city council.

Well done to all the Greens who held their seats plus our gain in Thorpe Hamlet. Commiserations to Jessica Goldsmith who was 188 votes away from taking Sewell (turnout was 2000 voters), and we also polled well in Lakenham, where we would have needed another 292 votes to overhaul Labour (with the Lib Dems narrowly in 2nd place).

I'll leave it to the Norwich Greens to fill us in on the detail, and I'm sure there will be a lot of discussion at Conference tomorrow. One thing I will say is that the coverage we've had in today's media is up on any previous Conference. Winning a seat at Westminster has certainly had an impact.

Norwich Going Green

Tonight I've spoken to one former Green councillor and one current Green councillor in Norwich. They still need more bodies to help with knocking up on Thursday (you can never have enough!) but there is a positive feeling about how we are going to do on Thursday.

The main losers of this election will be the Liberal Democrats, who look set to feel a backlash from people who voted for them, but ended up with David Cameron as Prime Minister. What will decide this election is how well we do against Labour in the marginals with them.

We can once again be proud of the incredible work that Norwich Greens have put in, not just in the last month, but for a decade in building their local party. Thursday night might have to be a late one!

Lib Dems Deserting

Hot on the heels of the first principled Lib Dem defection to Independent on Halton Borough Council, three more Lib Dems have left, citing problems with the coalition.

The full story is here.