Here's the result, declared an hour or so ago, at least 4 hours later than expected:
Labour 60 601
Liberal 36 953
Con 32 835
Green 18 011
Christian 4432
UKIP 3012
LeftList 1956
EngDems 1867
Animals 1828
Socialist 1588
Anecdotes and analysis follow tomorrow morning
Socialist Party Election Blog : The blog by Socialists involved in Socialist Party campaigning in London Elections. For the main party website click Here
3 comments:
Left List promise all manner of reformist sops to the workers and can only manage 300+ more votes , surely that should reveal the futility of placing promise making above pricipled stands - for in the end , they fool no-one .
Alan,
I think it's more complicated than that. Don't ask me at this late hour to put my finger on it, but I don't think it's enough to seek comfort in their misfortune.
Sadly, I don't think that the working class of Lambeth and Southwark rejected the Left List's shopping list of reformist demands 'cos they recognised that such a wish list isn't achievable under capitalism.
The percentage vote we got was what I was sort of expecting, and thanks to the comrades on the ground and on the blog who flogged their guts out to put forward genuine revolutionary socialist ideas in such a cold climate.
Saying that, I'm still sort of shocked by the paucity of the Left List vote in the constituency. Granted a few hundred votes peeled away to vote Labour because of the heightened threat from the Tories but let's not make any bones about it, the vote is a disaster for the SWP and their latest front organisation.
Let's take their claims at face value. They were major players in an anti-war movement that brought 2 million onto the streets only 5 years ago. The self-evident fact that they couldn't reap the awards from their leadership role should speak volumes for the inability of their leadership to properly play out their supposed roles as the vanguard of the class.
An electorate that is against the war these past five years, and they couldn't build up a profile for Lindsay German as a viable anti-war public figure? I think that some of them will soberly reflect on that rather basic failure.
After they play out the family blood feud with the Respect Renewal people, they'll turn in on themselves. Whether or not the 'turning in' results in another ten years of down turn style politics - like the 80s - or an internal row that cause serious fissures between the SWP rank and file and its leadership is anyone's guess.
Bumpy times ahead.
In addition to their role in the anti-war movement, Sunday just gone they were prominent at the Love Music Hate Racism event which had a large turnout. Such publicity didn't seem to help them much either.
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