Junction ward result

Here it is (counted this morning) in Islington

Lab 2391
Lab 2236
Lab 2192
Green 621
Green 389
LD 331
Green 326
LD 289
Con 280
LD 271
Con 262
Con 256
Martin (Soc) 52

This result confirms that we do better Labour safe seats.

All over bar the voting

North London branch report that they had distributed by last Saturday all of the 3000 leaflets they needed to cover Junction ward in Islington. West London had also distributed 3000 by last Saturday, mostly in Barnes ward but all in the Barnes area of Richmond. South London distributed between 1000 and 2000 of the 2000 they ordered, all in Southwark but not all in Borough & Bankside ward which contains many council blocks which cannot be accessed easily. A couple of hundred were distributed yesterday at a May Day rally in Clerkenwell, which is actually in the borough of Islington though of course most of the marchers will have come from all parts of London, not that that really matters. A few replies to the leaflet (which contained a cut-off Freepost reply coupon) have already been received.

In Southwark one of the Tory candidates in London Bridge & West Bermondsey ward has died, meaning that the election there has had to be called off and will now take place on 14 June. As this is the ward next to the one we're contesting any leaflets left over could be distributed there.

Tomorrow two of our candidates, since they live in their ward, can "vote for themselves for a change"; which is what we advocate all voters to do.

Who are opponents are

The list of candidates has now been publshed.

In Islington Junction ward there are 13 condidates for the 3 seats: 3 each from Labour, the Tories, the LibDems and the Greens, and us.

In Richmond Barnes ward there are 10: 3 each from the Tories and Labour, 2 from the LibDems, 1 Green, and us.

In Southwark Borough & Bankside ward there are 14: 3 each from Labour, the Tories, the LibDems and the Greens, and 1 each from us and the Women's Equality Party (their headquarters are in the ward).

Where we are standing

The three wards we are contesting are Junction ward in Islington, Barnes ward in Richmond, and Borough & Bankside ward in Southwark. The candidates are, respectively, Bill Martin, Adam Buick and Kevin Parkin.

Nominations have to be in by noon next Friday, 6 April, and members of the branches running the campaigns (North, West and South London) are in the process of gathering the 10 signatures of those on the electoral register required to stand.

More psephology

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.

Greater London Assembly elections

We're off again.

On 5 May there will be elections for the Mayor of London and the Greater London Assembly. We won't be standing a candidate for Mayor but we will be contesting 3 of the 14 super-constituencies. These are Lambeth & Southwark once again and North East (made up of the London boroughs of Islington, Hackney and Waltham Forest) and South West (Hounslow, Kingston and Richmond). In all, over a million electors will have the chance to vote for a socialist society based on the common ownership and democratic control of the means of production with distribution on the basis of ‘from each according to ability, to each according to need’, and against present-day, capitalist society of minority class ownership and production for profit which all the other candidates will be standing for in one form or another.

Watch this space for more details.

And all over in Islington too...

So, last night four of us made it out to the Tufnell Park end of the ward, and we got rid of almost all our leaflets (a few will go out today, put probably outside the ward). It was hot work, but many hands made light work. When someone refused a leaflet, I tried to tell him we were from the campaign to re-route HS2 through their street (which would need to be demolished). After all, we have to let them learn it might be a bad idea not to read election leaflets. One man asked us if we'd seen the sign saying "No Junk Mail" we told him it was an election address, which he pompously declared he considered to be junk mail. I refrained from saying what I thought of him. We meekly collected our leaflet and went about our way. The only real difficulty of the night was my colleague, who became ill at the thought of deliering to houses with Arsenal posters in the window. Maybe when Spurs win the sup too, he'll recover...

It pays to advertise

After trooping up and down stairs yesterday (with two other party members off doing the flat bits, I'm please to Read this It pays to put ourselves out there. The only question is, will we let him vote for us? Only if he actually wants socialism!

Letter printed

The below letter has been printed in this week's Islington Tribune and the Islington Gazette

Dear Friend,

in the Islington local elections, we have a choice between the Labour Party (who will cry as they cut), the Tory Party (who will laugh as they cut) or the Libral Democrats (who will just wet themselves while choosing whether to laugh or cry). Or you can vote for the Green Party, who promise not to cut, but will end up having to anyway because austerity is beyond their control.

Any party in govrnment, whether local or national is constrained by the power and interests of them as own the world. The power of private property. So long as the world is owned by a tiny minority, it will be run in their interests, rather than that of the majority. We cannot have functional democracy until we have common ownership of the whole world's wealth.

The Socialist Party is contesting Junction Ward making no promises. We will do nothing for you.

It is the people who vote for us who would be making the promise: to campaign and build for common ownership. Voting for the Socialist Party is saying we refuse to be governed or dragged into implementing the policy of the wealthy. Politics as normal is over. A vote for the Socialist Party is a revolt.

We campaign for nothing short of the abolition of the wages system and the common and democratic ownership of the wealth of the world.

Your for World Socialism,

Bill Martin (Socialist Party Candidate, Junction Ward).

Statement of persons nominated

These for Lambeth can be found here. We're standing in Clapham Town, Ferndale and Larkhall wards. As you'll see, it's us and the usual suspects (Labour, Tory, Liberal, Greens and newcomers UKIP) plus, in Ferndale and Larhall, TUSC.

Those for Junction ward in Islington can be found here. Same usual suspects except without UKIP (perhaps because they consider it too Irish, but one of the Tory candidates is called Michael Collins). No BNP either as there was in the by-election last year.

The Party that keeps it's promises

As promised: I went to Islington Town Hall this lunchtime (by bike, that was fun), and my nomination papers are in, and we're off. The returning officer spotted that we had just gone along a street asking for signatures 9thanks to those who came and helped out on that). And then there were four candidates.

Junction all systems go...

It took a record short 45 minutes for us to collect our signatures for nomination up here at the top of Islington. People were nice, either telling us flat they don't vote, or that this is a solid Labour area, or that they won't vote for us but, hey, they'll be nice and sign the form to give other people a choice. So, today, I'll have to hot foot it to Islington town hall in my lunch hour to get the form in. Fingers crossed it'll all be square. Later this week, there seems to be a "Meet the candidates" event, that I may have to wrangle my way into. Stay tuned for further reports.

Socialist election activity in Islington

We have stood in Islington before, but mainly in the south, in the Islington South & Finsbury constituency, three times in general elections (1979, 1983 and 1987) and in 1981 in the GLC election. Despite having a super-active branch we never did well in terms of votes or percentages (around 0.2%). This was attributed to the constituency being a marginal Labour/SDP (remember them?) one. But then we contest elections, at the moment, to publicise the case for socialism.

We did contest Islington North (into which Junction ward falls), forty years ago, in the 1973 GLC elections and got one of our best results ever in London:

Labour 7463, Con 2798, Socialist 284 (2.7%)

But no doubt this was in part due to us being the only opposition to the two main parties, but there was an unpopular Tory government in power centrally under Ted Heath.

Our percentage of 0.8% in Junction ward is in fact higher than the 0.3% we got in Vauxhall in the 2010 General Election. If we'd have got that percentage there, we'd have had 300 votes.

We'll probably be back again in the London borough elections in May next year.

Just a bit of fun...

Just a bit more analysis, based on the vote movement:

Junction:

#Lab 1343 (62% +23%), #Green 381 (18% +6%), #LibDem 276 (13% -27%), #Con 120 (6% -4%) #BNP 31 (1%) #SPGB 18 (1%) #Lab GAIN

Also last night, this ward took a vote too:

St Georges:

#Lab 1,698 (71% +37%), #LibDem 371 (16% -27%), #Green 206 (9% -5%), #Con 87 (4% -6%) #BNP 20 (1%) #Lab HOLD

Noticeably, Labour have gained, hugely. I recall noting when going through our historic London votes how our vote rose during an unpopular Labour regime, and then fell under the Tories, as people veered back to Labour. I would have expected a higher vote for us if we'd stood three years ago, say, in the same ward. Those numbers look horrific for the Lib-Dems (and the Greens in Junction may be soaking up some of their votes and the general protest vote).

Out for the count

If it'd had been an episode of some soap or other, the audience would have tutted at the lazy clichés: the tousle haired besuited Tory; the shabby bejumpered Greens; the studenty Labourites; the naked goat sacrificing Lib Dems (OK, small lie, earnest and bebeiged Lib-Dems); and the BNPers keeping themselves to their own, which in this case meant two lads in bomber jackets and DMs, and an agent-cum-ring master in a smart suite and dodgey glasses.

There were more polling agents than counters, and for some reason they spent the night trying to guess the result, rather than just watching the process for fairness. Why on Earth they were trying to count the votes for their party during the ballot verification count I'll never know. As you'll have seen from the size of the turnout, the whole process didn't take long, about an hour and a half, beginning to end.

I did at least come close to taking Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn's seat from him, when I realised he was sitting on my jacket, but he stood up anyway before I could make that joke. Bum. When the results we announced he cried "Shame!" when the BNP vote was announced. For a while I thought we were in with a chance of beating them (I was disturbed to hear their Glorious leader say they'd only distributed a couple of hundred leaflets on their easier to post-through streets). I spotted him looking twice at a Labourites lap-top why was emblazened with "This machine kills fascists" on it's top, he didn't seem fazed by it.

Thanks and praise are due to the election count staff who did their job efficiently and accurately (and with good humour). Also they gave out a little sheet explaining the process of the night, which I told them other councils haven't done, it was good to have some grasp of the order of events.

The people have spoken...

Labour	1343	(61.9%)
Green	381	(17.6%)
Lib Dem	276	(12.7%)
Con	120	(05.6%)
BNP	31	(01.4%)
Socialist	18	(00.8%)

Turnout:2,181 (24.2%)

Vote early, vote once...

Well, that's what I did today. I made my way round the warren of a School to find the ballot box (I kind of went through the wrong door, but was pleased to see, unlike my old school, this primary school has a school council made up of infants, so at least in Islington they are being taught about democracy from a young age).

There was a Labour polling agent, who informed me that they were only checking my number so they didn't come round later knocking me up: I'd be impressed if they were actually organising a get out the vote campaign. More likely, they just want the data for future canvassing purposes.

So, for the third time in my life, I vote me! (No ego kick there, then). I always enjoy voting, it's strange how a quiet prosaic act, so insignificant in itself, can wield such power and, I'll say it, majesty. I look forward to the time when we have enough of a base to put out polling agents and a get out the vote campaign, that's the other lesson of contesting election, you see how it's done and organised, something stay away rrrrrevolutionary groups won't see.

Turn up again, Dick Whittington

As I write, otherwise placid people are outside, demonstrating. In modern political parlnce, demonstration simply means the right to petition. More pertinently, it means demonstrating how strong you are; how many you are; and just who you are. Clearly, the civil society of Islington, Camden and other nearby boroughs have turned out, and a good couple of thousand are marching in the cold and rain; supported extempore banners from nearby residential windows and the beeped horns of cars. I wonder if politicians take their holidays in summer, because that is the time we'd have bigger and better demos -- best for them to make the unpopular decisions at cold times of the year.

A small group of us turned up at Holloway tube, and handed out our leaflet (based on my blog post, below, about the Whittington sell off). The march passed us by in fifteen minutes, and we got shot of a few hundred leaflets. We'd turned up a bit too early, because I'd suggested meeting at the same time as the march's muster, even though that meant it wouldn't be passing that station for another 45 minutes. My appologies to those who waited in the cold and rain. Our leaflets were taken pleasantly,by the contingents in the march. As predicted, Jeremy Corbin, the Islington North MP, and the leader of Islington Council were at the forefront of the march (actually, behind the jazz band in the bus, only in Islington). The Green Party, Labour Party and even the Liberal Democrats had contingents. There were leafleteers from the SWP, Militant andeven the fabled Socialist Equality Party.

The campaign has already had some success, the hospital had an advert in the Gazette for a series of public meetings, so that's going to be the second chance top make the point clear, whether or not the cuts are stopped or changed, a clear point has been made by the local community.

We're off again

We're contesting the by-election in the Junction ward of Islington council on 21 March. The nomination papers for Socialist candidate, Bill Martin, have just been handed in and accepted. We don't know if there will be any other candidates apart from the usual suspects (Labour, Liberal, Tory, Green).

The ward is a stone's throw from Highgate Cemetry but Marx won't have a vote.