Results in detail

Lambeth and Southwark
Florence Eshalomi (Lab) 96946 (51.63) -1.18
Robert Flint (Con) 34703 (18.48) -0.89
Rashid Nix (Green) 25793 (13.74) + 2.23
Michael Bukola (LD) 21489 (11.4) -0.2
Idham Ramadi (UKIP) 6591 (3.51) +0.72
Kevin Parkin (Soc) 1333 (0.71) -1.15
Amadu Kanumansa (APP) 906 (0.48) n/a

North East
Jennette Arnold (Lab) 134307 (58.7) +5.63
Sam Malik (Con) 32565 (14.23) -4.37
Samir Jeraj (Green) 29401 (12.85) -2.61
Terry Stacy (LD) 14312 (6.26) -0.64
Freddy Vachha (UKIP) 11315 (4.95) +1.5
Tim Allen (Respect) 5068 (2.22) n/a
Bill Martin (Soc) 1293 (0.57) n/a
Jonathan Silberman(Trot) 536 (0.23) n/a

South West
Tony Arbour (Con) 84381 (39.47) -0.37
Martin Whelton (Lab) 62937 (29.4) + 0.7
Rosina Robson (LD) 30654 (14.34) -2.34
Andree Frieze (Green) 19745 (9.24) -0.6
Alexander Craig (UKIP) 14983 (7.01) +2.11
Adam Buick (Soc) 1065 (0.50) n/a

We don't contest elections to get the maximum number of votes but we do hope to avoid a really derisory score. On this last our unstated aim was to avoid getting less than a four-figure vote. Which was achieved. 0.5% means that out of every 200 people who voted 1 voted socialist or, since there was a 49% turnout in South West, one in every 400 people you pass in the streets there (or watch Brentford play). In the other places we contested you'll have an even better chance of crossing a socialist voter.

Our vote in Lambeth and Southwark was down. This will be due to the fact that we changed our candidate. We do say that it's the case not the face that counts and rightly but we can't control how even our sympathisers see things. Danny Lambert, who has stood as our candidate many times in the Lambeth area (and in this GLA constituency last time), was well known as the candidate for socialism but this will have been name recognition and association with us rather than a personal vote. There was also one more candidate than last time and the number of candidates standing also affects things. That candidate was from the All People's Party, a breakaway from the Labour Party in Southwark. They can't be very pleased.

We didn't finish bottom in North East either where, after "Workers Power", the "Communist League" was the second Trotskyist vanguard to suffer the indignity, for them, of being beaten by the SPGB despite them standing on a programme of attractive reforms and us standing only on the maximum programme of socialism and nothing else.

A bit on our rivals

So, Jonathan Silberman, as we can see from the ever left-train-spotter-tastic Tedance Coatsey (see here.) So, the Communist League is an off-shoot of the US political party the SWP (not to be confused with the British party of that name). That party is noted for it's strong pro-Cuba stance (and it's paper, The Militant, famously was held by Lee Harvey Oswald when he posed for a photo with the gun he used to murder Kennedy). This links to an election leaflet they have previously used. So, they say things like

“Capitalism cannot be reformed to serve the toiling majority. We, the wealth creators, must forge a revolutionary movement tens of millions strong, led by a mass working-class party to wrest political power away from them – the lords of industry, land and banking.”

Which we would almost agree with (I think we'd quibble about 'led' by, as opposed to made by). However, they call for

lA government-funded programme of public works to provide full-time jobs, expand housing, build hospitals and schools, and overhaul the infrastructure. A substantial increase in the minimum wage to a level set by the unions, with a built-in cost-of-living escalator. A fight by the labour movement for these demands would build unity among workers – employed and unemployed, native- and foreign-born.

which is hardly the same thing as abolishing the market system: what they are calling for is state controlled capitalism. Hence their love of the state-capitalist Cuba.

Obviously, we welcome people bringing these issues into the debate, and look forward to highlighting our differences, and taking the case for the abolition of the wages system altogether forward.

The candidates we're standing against

Just been anounced.

South West
ARBOUR, Tony - The Conservative Party Candidate
BUICK, Adam John Lewis - The Socialist Party (SP-GB)
CRAIG, Alexander Alan - UK Independence Party (UKIP)
FRIEZE, Andree Michelle - Green Party
ROBSON, Rosina Jane - London Liberal Democrats
WHELTON, Martin James - Labour Party

North East
ALLEN, Tim - Respect (George Galloway)
ARNOLD, Jennette - Labour Party
JERAJ, Samir - Green Party
MALIK, Sam - The Conservative Party Candidate
MARTIN, Bill - The Socialist Party (SP-GB)
SILBERMAN, Jonathan - Communist League
STACY, Terry - London Liberal Democrats
VACHHA, Freddy - UK Independence Party (UKIP)

Lambeth and Southwark
BUKOLA, Michael Adewale - Caroline Pidgeon's London Liberal Democrats
ESHALOMI, Florence - Labour Party
FLINT, Robert - The Conservative Party candidate
KANUMANSA, Amadu Santigie - All People's Party
NIX, Rashid - The Green Party
PARKIN, Kevin Leslie - The Socialist Party (SP-GB)
RAMADI, Idham - UK Independence Party (UKIP)