After the count

Was at the count in Wandsworth Town Hall last night where the votes for Putney and Tooting as well as Battersea were being counted. Saw Labour take Battersea from the Tories and nearly taking even Putney. Labour held Tooting, though a Green we met as their candidate in Wandsworth & Merton in the 2012 Greater London elections pointed out that the first thing she did after winning the by-election to replace Sadiq Khan (he was there) when he became Mayor of London was to vote for Trident.

Anyway, here are the results (not good) for the two London constituencies we contested:

Battersea:

Labour 25,292

Tory 22,876

LD 4,401

Ind 1234

Green 866

UKIP 357

Socialist 32 (0.06 %)

Islington North:

Labour (Corbyn) 40,086 (73 percent)

Tory 6871

LD 4946

Green 2229

UKIP 413

Ind 208

Monster Raving Loony 106

Ind 41

Socialist 21 (0.04%)

Communist League 7

Turnout: 73.3 percent

Last time we got 112 votes, so it seems that some who voted Socialist last time have been carried away by Corbymania.

Hustings (plural)

Last night three of us went to Herne Hill to the hustings there organised by the local forum. We were surprised to find the church hall full with about 70-80 people. The main questions were about transport (logically since that's about all the Mayor and Assembly control). Here the main concern seemed to be cyclists with the candidates (except of course Danny and the UKIP man who wasn't there) lining up to promise to make cycling safer and bash motorists. Addressing an audience of motorists they would of course (except the Greens) probably take a different approach (Mayor Boris calls 4x4s "large family cars" and reduced the congestion charge on them besides freeing Kensington and Chelsea, where these "Chelsea tractors", proliferate, from the congestion zone altogether). Given the many problems facing people in London you'd have thought that there were more urgent concerns (unemployment, housing, benefit cuts), but apparently not, at least not in Herne Hill which has Tory councillors including the Tory GLA candidate.

The riots did come up, with all the candidates, including the Tory, criticising the police for stopping-and-searching black youth too much -- a different approach, we seem to remember, from what was said at the time. Danny was able to point out that the riots were obviously related to poverty and only took place in poverty-stricken parts of London. This was parish pump stuff and Danny did his best to introduce a broader perspective: capitalism and its profit priority, particularly acute in a crisis as at present, which prevents basic amenities being adequate and in fact means they're being cut back. Maybe the candidates and audience subconsciously recognised this (the LibDEm candidate did admit that money doesn't grow on trees) and that was why they only wanted to discuss cycle lanes and lollipop ladies.

There is another hustings this evening, in St Mary's Church in Putney, the church where the Putney Debates of 1647 took place between Cromwell and the Levellers. In fact the BBC are making a history film about them and will be there to ask the candidates what they think of the relevance of these debates to today. This should allow our candidate -- this time Bill, in Merton & Wandsworth -- to talk about something other than cycle lanes.

Last night we discovered (the Tory candidate told us) that there's an Election Question Time at 2pm in Brixton organised by the Lambeth Forum for Older People in association with Lambeth Pensioners Action Group to which only 4 of the 6 candidates have been invited. Danny can't make it but if he could he would gatecrash it. Pity really because we got a good reception from the LPAG at the general election in 2010 and the question of cycle lanes won't come up (more likely to be questions about cyclists cycling on the pavement and knocking pensioners down as they sail through red lights ...) This question of only inviting some of the candidates to hustings needs to be addressed. A case could be made for saying that the expenses of organising such hustings should be included in the election expenses of the candidates invited. Maybe we should make a test case of one. Anyway, we are going to leaflet it.

Hustings

Here's a list of the hustings where our candidate will be speaking:

Wednesday 18 April 6.45 for 7pm
Herne Hill Baptist Church
Half Moon Lane
SE24 9HU
Organised by Herne Hill Forum.
Details.

Thursday 19 April at 7.30pm
The Brewer Building,
St Mary's Church,
Putney Bridge, Putney High St,
SW15 1SN.
Organised by Putney Society.
Details.

Tuesday 24 April 7.15 for 7.30pm
Waterloo Action Centre
14 Baylis Rd
SE1 7AA
Organised by Lambeth Cyclists.
Details.

Wednesday 25 April 7pm
Parish of All Souls West Dulwich
Lovelace Rd
SE21 8JY
Organised by Norwood Forum
Details (not yet up).

Where the 1% live

They have to live somewhere and it appears that two of their favourite places are in the GLA constituency of Merton and Wandsworth. The Times's Bricks & Mortar supplement last Friday compared properties in parts of Wandsworth (the area round Wandsworth Common) and in Wimbledon (which is in the borough of Merton).

It appears that the average house price in that part of Wandsworth is £1.125 million. In Wimbledon it's £1.380 million. In Wandsworth 28% of property sales between January 2009 and September 2011 were for amounts between £1 million and £2 million and 12% for amounts above £2 million. In Wimbledon the figures for the same period were 36% and 20% respectively.

And who bought them? In Wandsworth 70% of these buyers came from "the business and financial services sector" and in Wimbledon 75%. So now we know what they spend some of their bonuses on.

The good news is that they make up only a tiny percentage of the populations of Merton and Wandsworth boroughs. The non-rich of these boroughs can easily outvote them if they decide to realise the worst fears of Col. Rich (yes, that was his name) in the debates that took place in the constituency, in Putney, in 1647:

You have five to one in this kingdom that have no permanent interest. Some men have ten, some twenty servants — some more, some less. If the master and servant shall be equal electors, then clearly those that have no interest in the kingdom will make it their interest to choose those that have no interest. It may happen that the majority may, by law — not in a confusion — destroy property; there may be a law enacted that there shall be an equality of goods and estate.

Yes we can — when we want.