The London Elects site has now published the results by borough (and ward). Here are our results by borough:
Lambeth 729 (0.74%)
Southwark 604 (0.69)
Hounslow 504 (0.65)
Waltham Forest 496 (0.64)
Hackney 464 (0.60)
Kingston 293 (0.50)
Islington 333 (0.45)
Richmond 268 (0.35)
This confirms past experience that we do better in Labour areas than elsewhere, though the rather surprising result in Islington (where we have contested many elections over the years) would seem go against this.
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Showing posts with label Hounslow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hounslow. Show all posts
Monday, May 16, 2016
Sunday, April 17, 2016
Another Saturday's stalls
West London members were out again yesterday with two street stalls in different parts of the South West constituency.
Brentford turned out to be a bad choice as there weren't many passing by, so we moved on to Hounslow and gave out leaflets, sold the Socialist Standard, made a few contacts, even got a £5 spontaneous donation, and engaged in discussions with workers from eastern Europe including one from Russia who agreed with us. That's the second week running that we've been in Hounslow, so people there will be beginning to note our presence.
The stall in Kingston went on as planned despite the cold (8 degrees centigrade). Both the Remain and the Leave campaigns were leafletting, so we changed our tactic and gave out our election leaflet inside our one on the referendum headed "An Irrelevant Sideshow. The Socialist view on the EU referendum". This provoked a discussion with three young supporters of staying in. They put us on the spot a bit when, after we had said that one minor benefit of being in the EU was the free movement of workers and the relaxing of border controls and couldn't see any benefit to workers from leaving, they said why not vote to stay in as an out vote would take this benefit even if minor away. We had to reply that for us the over-riding issue was capitalism or socialism and that, in or out, capitalism and its problems would still continue. They turned out to be Labour Party members from Leatherhead in Tory Surrey, so they must know what it is like to be in a small minority faced at election times with an alternative (Tory or LibDem) both of which they reject. An Out supporter told us he was going off to live in Bulgaria, apparently not realising that this might not be so easy if his side won.
Next week it's Chiswick again and Feltham but if Feltham turns out to be like Brentford it could be Hounslow for a third time.
Brentford turned out to be a bad choice as there weren't many passing by, so we moved on to Hounslow and gave out leaflets, sold the Socialist Standard, made a few contacts, even got a £5 spontaneous donation, and engaged in discussions with workers from eastern Europe including one from Russia who agreed with us. That's the second week running that we've been in Hounslow, so people there will be beginning to note our presence.
The stall in Kingston went on as planned despite the cold (8 degrees centigrade). Both the Remain and the Leave campaigns were leafletting, so we changed our tactic and gave out our election leaflet inside our one on the referendum headed "An Irrelevant Sideshow. The Socialist view on the EU referendum". This provoked a discussion with three young supporters of staying in. They put us on the spot a bit when, after we had said that one minor benefit of being in the EU was the free movement of workers and the relaxing of border controls and couldn't see any benefit to workers from leaving, they said why not vote to stay in as an out vote would take this benefit even if minor away. We had to reply that for us the over-riding issue was capitalism or socialism and that, in or out, capitalism and its problems would still continue. They turned out to be Labour Party members from Leatherhead in Tory Surrey, so they must know what it is like to be in a small minority faced at election times with an alternative (Tory or LibDem) both of which they reject. An Out supporter told us he was going off to live in Bulgaria, apparently not realising that this might not be so easy if his side won.
Next week it's Chiswick again and Feltham but if Feltham turns out to be like Brentford it could be Hounslow for a third time.
Sunday, April 10, 2016
South West street stalls
West London branch's experiment with doing two street stalls in different parts of the constituency with two members each rather than one with four members worked. Successful stalls were held in Hounslow and Chiswick. As it happened, with the same result: leaflets handed out, a few pamphlets sold, a contact made and our presence noticed.
It also gave us a chance to get the feel of the areas which are in fact different. Richmond and Kingston are leafy suburbs with only a couple of Labour councillors between them (the one in Richmond a defector from the LibDems rather than directly elected). Hounslow is Labour-dominated with only a handful of Tories (from wards in Chiswick as it happens), with a large population of people from a South Asian background and migrants from Poland and Rumania.
In Hounslow there were three rival stalls, all religious, two christian and one muslim (who gave us a free copy of the koran), fulfilling the role of being the heart of a heartless world as Marx once put it.In fact we had to discuss religion as much as politics, with a sikh and a christain who were both highly critical of islam and, as they saw it, the preference given to its followers by the government and the likes of the SWP. We said that we were not afraid to criticise islam as a religion, but we were opposed to all religion and all religions. We would have sold another copy of our pamphlet How the Gods Were Made if we'd another one with us.
On the political side, a man from Poland shouted at us that he had come from a "post-communist country". We shouted back that he'd come from a post-state-capitalist one. At least two people defended extending Heathrow airport as this would provide more local jobs, one saying that Boris was mad because he wanted to close down Heathrow. A bit of an exaggeration of his position, though in line with its logic because this would be the only way of stopping the inhabitants of the leafy suburbs being disturbed in their back yards by aircraft noise.
Next Saturday we'll have two stalls again, one in Kingston and the other in Brentford.
It also gave us a chance to get the feel of the areas which are in fact different. Richmond and Kingston are leafy suburbs with only a couple of Labour councillors between them (the one in Richmond a defector from the LibDems rather than directly elected). Hounslow is Labour-dominated with only a handful of Tories (from wards in Chiswick as it happens), with a large population of people from a South Asian background and migrants from Poland and Rumania.
In Hounslow there were three rival stalls, all religious, two christian and one muslim (who gave us a free copy of the koran), fulfilling the role of being the heart of a heartless world as Marx once put it.In fact we had to discuss religion as much as politics, with a sikh and a christain who were both highly critical of islam and, as they saw it, the preference given to its followers by the government and the likes of the SWP. We said that we were not afraid to criticise islam as a religion, but we were opposed to all religion and all religions. We would have sold another copy of our pamphlet How the Gods Were Made if we'd another one with us.
On the political side, a man from Poland shouted at us that he had come from a "post-communist country". We shouted back that he'd come from a post-state-capitalist one. At least two people defended extending Heathrow airport as this would provide more local jobs, one saying that Boris was mad because he wanted to close down Heathrow. A bit of an exaggeration of his position, though in line with its logic because this would be the only way of stopping the inhabitants of the leafy suburbs being disturbed in their back yards by aircraft noise.
Next Saturday we'll have two stalls again, one in Kingston and the other in Brentford.
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
South West constituency: Nomination accepted
The nomination papers and election deposit for our candidate in the South West constituency (Hounslow, Kingston, Richmond), Adam Buick, were handed in and accepted this morning at Hounslow Civic Centre.
This means that we will be on the ballot paper. There are 432,000 electors in the constituency. If it's the same as last time only about 40% will turn out to vote, but every elector there and in fact everywhere in London will receive a booklet with the manifestos of the candidates for mayor but also a list of all those standing for the Greater London Assembly. So even some of those who won't be bothering to vote will still be able to know we're standing.
As we arrived in Hounslow early we distributed a few of the election leaflets. A bit premature but we did see some evidence of other political activity -- a glossy leaflet from the Stay in the EU campaign headed "More Jobs. Lower Prices. Your family is better off with Britain in Europe". Rather misleading as more probably staying in will make no difference either to jobs or prices. We also spotted a sticker on a lamppost saying "Refugees, Fuck Off Back Home". So UKIP will be able to count on at least one vote here.
This means that we will be on the ballot paper. There are 432,000 electors in the constituency. If it's the same as last time only about 40% will turn out to vote, but every elector there and in fact everywhere in London will receive a booklet with the manifestos of the candidates for mayor but also a list of all those standing for the Greater London Assembly. So even some of those who won't be bothering to vote will still be able to know we're standing.
As we arrived in Hounslow early we distributed a few of the election leaflets. A bit premature but we did see some evidence of other political activity -- a glossy leaflet from the Stay in the EU campaign headed "More Jobs. Lower Prices. Your family is better off with Britain in Europe". Rather misleading as more probably staying in will make no difference either to jobs or prices. We also spotted a sticker on a lamppost saying "Refugees, Fuck Off Back Home". So UKIP will be able to count on at least one vote here.
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Civic Centre formalities
Our candidate in South West and the election agent went to a briefing at Hounslow Civic Centre yesterday evening. Didn't learn anything we didn't know but it's always useful to be reminded of the regulations and meet those who will be enforcing them. The acting Returning Agent was a bit shocked when we said we'd pay the £1000 election deposit in cash. Apparently, she'd never seen that amount of cash before.
We'll be handing in all the nomination papers next Wednesday 23 March at 11am.
There was confirmation that the election booklet distributed to all 5 million or so electors in London will contain not just the candidates for Mayor and their statements but also the names and parties of all those contesting the GLA seats. So everyone who reads the booklet will know we are standing in 3 of the 14 constituencies and covering 8 of the 32 London boroughs.
We took the opportunity to look for a suitable spot to hold a literature stall one Saturday in April. Not difficult because most of the main street is pedestrianised.
We'll be handing in all the nomination papers next Wednesday 23 March at 11am.
There was confirmation that the election booklet distributed to all 5 million or so electors in London will contain not just the candidates for Mayor and their statements but also the names and parties of all those contesting the GLA seats. So everyone who reads the booklet will know we are standing in 3 of the 14 constituencies and covering 8 of the 32 London boroughs.
We took the opportunity to look for a suitable spot to hold a literature stall one Saturday in April. Not difficult because most of the main street is pedestrianised.
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