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.

Two media interviews

For the record, two online interviews with our candidate in Lambeth & Southwark, Kevin Parkin, can be found here (Southwark News) and here (SW Londoner).

The count in the three constituencies we are contesting will be under way soon with results expected some time in the afternoon.

Jacqueline: Door to Door in Streatham area

Sunday 3 April 2016 (4.00-8.00) Palace Road, Lupin Close, Probyn Road, Lanercost Road, Lanercost Close, Kinfauns Road, Kingsmead Road, Northstead Road (350 leaflets): Excellent feedback, good leafletting

Monday 4 April 2016 (6.30-9.00) Amesbury Avenue, Barcombe Avenue, Hillside Avenue, Hillside Road, Elmsworth Street (800): Very long roads, usual bullshit of "I'm a socialist don't want a leaflet".

Tuesday 5 April 2016 (4.30-7.15) Cricklade Avenue, Downton Avenue, Nuthurst Avenue, Normanhurst Road, Wyatt Park Road, Daysbrook Road (500)

Wednesday 6 April 2016 (6.00-7.30) Wavertree Road, Barstow Crescent, Palace Road (125): Disappointing few leaflets, few houses, locked tower blocks

Thursday 7 April 2016 (6.30) North London Branch at Tufnell Park: 6 members in all, designated areas, 2 members leafletted election leaflets (100+) and advertising talk NLB (100+)

Friday 8 April 2016 (6.00-8.30) Weir Road, Radbourne Road, Hydethorne Road, Haverhill Road, Burnbury Road (400): leafletters dream roads, 4 doors/ 4 letterboxes per entrance, very long roads, encouraging sounds from area, usual Labour nonsense - poster in window "Labour fighting for Britain" or something similar, todays leafletting made up for Wednesday's disappointing leafletting

Going to concentrate on roads in/ around this area, all roads since started leafletting have posted 1 leaflet per door, rarely 2, leafletted 2,000+ leaflets, have precisely 500 leaflets left

Tuesday 12 April 2016 (2.30-5.00) Cambray Road, Midmoor Road, Telferscot Road, Fieldhouse Road, Glenfield Road (500): very fast leafletting, mainly 4 doors/ 4 letterboxes per entrance, no leaflets left

Thursday 14 April 2016 (morning) Hazelbourne Road, Englewood Road (200)

Friday 15 April 2016 Gaskarth Road, Honeybrook Road, Rudloe Road (250)

Sunday 17 April 2016 Cathles Road, Dagnan Road, Yukon Road, Cubitt House (325) loads of accessible flats

Monday 18 April 2016 (5.30-7.30) Clarence Crescent, Thorncliffe Raod, Kingswood Raod, Felsberg Road, Dumbarton Road, Doverfield Road, Lyham Road, Thornbury Road, Valentine House (400+)

Tuesday 19 April 2016 (morning) Bonneville Gardens, Cautley Avenue, Lessar Avenue, Lynette Avenue (200+) (afternoon) Leppoc Road, Caldervale Road, Franconia Road, Elms Road (200+)

Wednesday 20 April 2016 (1.00-4.30) Abbeyville Road (142 silly Labour Poster vote Labour, leafletted 2 Q&A leaflet), Crescent Lane, Tableer Avenue, Allnutt Way - Flats and Notre Dame Estate (crap low letterboxes/brushes, due to severe backpain/ sciatica had to abandon rest of Notre Dame Estate - large estate accessible), Park Hill, Dryden Close, Briarwood Road (poster vote Sadiq Khan shite, 2 x Q&A leaflet) (400)

Total leaflettting 4,500+: Have finished my leafletting have approx 800 leaflets left which I will leaflet when I can, need time for self, just got my cycle back after repairs

Fraternally Jacqueline

Lambeth and Southwark constituency: nomination accepted

The nomination papers and deposit for our candidate in Lambeth and Southwark, Kevin Parkin, were handed in at Brixton Town Hall this morning and accepted.

We won't know until, appropriately enough, 1 April who the other candidates, all standing for capitalism in one form or another, will be, though it's certain that Labour, Liberals and the Tories (all three same old, same old) will be standing along with the Greens (imaginary return to small scale capitalism) and UKIP (imaginary capitalism in one country).

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.

More analysis

This time Lambeth and Southwark.

In Lambeth we got 1700 (2.1%) and in Southwark 1238 (1.6%).

In three wards in Lambeth (Coldharbour, Larkhall and Brixton Hill) we got over a hundred votes, respectively 111, 102 and 101, or 3.4%, 3.3% and 3.0%. What this means in practical terms (assuming only about a third of electors voted) is that if you are walking town the street in these areas 1 out of every 100 people you pass are likely to have voted Socialist. I think that means that we should have a regular literature stall in Brixton High Road (which these three wards plus Ferndale where we got 2.9% surround). It also suggests that we should consider contesting the proposed new Brixton constituency (which will include all these wards) rather than the proposed Battersea & Vauxhall constituency -- if these and the other proposed boundary changes ever come in and are not dropped in exchange for not reforming the House of Lords.

In 9 of the 21 of the wards our candidate got more votes than the UKIP, or rather "The Fresh Choice for London", candidate. Not really surprising, as their main campaign slogan was "Save the City" and who wants to do that except the likes of the City bankers and lawyers who figured on their list?

In the 8 wards making up the parliamentary constituency of Vauxhall, the vote (not including postal votes) was 593 (or 2.5%). This contrasts with the 143 (or 0,3%) we got there in the 2010 General Election and the 240 (0.6%) in the 2005 General Election. In the 2008 GLA elections the figure was 351 (or 1.6%). An analysis of how we did in all the 10 parliamentary constituencies the GLA constituency covers follows separately.

In Southwark the best ward was Nunhead (which we did happen to leaflet) with 76 (or 2.7%) and we beat UKIP in 2 wards.

The higher vote in Lambeth than Southwark is no doubt to be explained by the fact that we have put a lot of work into Vauxhall, having contested 3 General Elections and 3 Council elections there as well as the last GLA elections and the European Parliament. We have also been leafletting regularly Larkhall and Ferndale wards (chosen because that's where we did best last time). This doesn't explain why we did better in Streatham (the other Lambeth parliamentary constituency) than in any part of Southwark.

Southwark readers learn who was standing

Last Thursday's Southwark News gave the results in the form of a pie-chart. Our share is shown in grey at the top:

It's not very clear here, but we know we 1,938 votes (just under 2 percent). This was the first time that this local paper mentioned who was standing. A bit late since the election was over.

Lambeth & Southwark result

Just been announced by the BBC (we didn't have anybody there):

Val Shawcross (Labour) 83,239 52.8%
Michael Mitchell (Conservative) 30,537 19.4%
Rob Blackie (Liberal Democrats)18,359 11.6%
Jonathan Bartley (Green Party) 18,144 11.5%
James Fluss (UKIP/Fresh Choice for London) 4,395 2.8%
Daniel Lambert (The Socialist Party) 2,938 1.9%

Both the number of votes and the share went up from last time in 2008 (from 1588 and 1.0%).

Later, when the mayor and London-wide counts are done, there'll be a breakdown of how people in Lambeth & Southwark and in Merton & Wandsworth (and the other constituencies) voted for the the mayor and the lists. Later still, we'll get a breakdown by borough and local council wards.

Socialist Party election video

A couple of weeks ago, as we announced, the London on-line magazine, the Big Smoke, interviewed Danny Lambert, our candidate in Lambeth & Southwark, as part of their policy of giving less well-known parties and candidates a chance to put their views across. Technical difficulties prevented them putting it up earlier, but better late than never.

Anyway, here's the 10 minute video interview, the nearest we've got to a party political broadcast in our 108 year history.

One day to go...

By this time tomorrow I will have voted. Voted for socialism, in fact. Since where I live there is no socialist candidate standing, I shall be taking part in the Socialist Party's write in vote, and writing "World Socialism" Across my ballot paper.

Lucky souls in Mertin & Wandsworth and Lambeth & Southwark constituencies can at least for for the socialist candidates there; but, to be clear, if you do, you are the one making the promise. The promise to campaign for, to build for, to work towards attaining common and democratic ownership of the means of producing and distributing wealth. If you're not capable of making that promise, we really don't want your vote.

Since we're not standing a list or a mayoral candidate, if you're in those constituencies, you'll need to carry out a write in vote on two of your three ballot papers.

Of course, there are elections and referendums going on across the UK, and we hope socialist readers will write in their vote for socialism. The more of us rejecting the choice of the factions of the capitalist party, the better.

Let's take a risk, anyone out there reading this, if you intend to vote socialist, either directly or by write in, let us know in the comments box. The more the better.

Our opponents

The full confirmed lists are out: Lambeth and Southwark

BARTLEY Jonathan Charles - Green Party

BLACKIE Rob - London Liberal Democrats

FLUSS James Gordon - Fresh Choice for London

LAMBERT Daniel Peter - The Socialist Party (GB)

MITCHELL Michael - The Conservative Party Candidate

SHAWCROSS Val - Labour Party Candidate

Merton and Wandsworth

COOPER Leonie - Labour Party Candidate

KULENDRAN Thamilini - Independent

MANZOOR Mazhar - Fresh Choice for London

MARTIN James William - The Socialist Party (GB)

SMART Lisa - London Liberal Democrats

TRACEY Richard Patrick - The Conservative Party Candidate

VICKERY Roy - Green Party

Apparently "Fresh Choice for London" is the UKIP tag line, though, given there is a UKIP list, I wonder if they are trying to maximise their chances by standing as two "parties" (i.e. if they win any constituency seats as Fresh Choice it won't count against the total for UKIP on the list). Either that, or they are just trying to tart up their image.

Other Nomination in too

While the Chancellor, as a good custodian of the interests of UK capitalism PLC, was announcing yesterday a further reduction in corporation tax and still more cuts in services and benefits as far ahead as 2017, the nomination papers for the Socialist candidate in Lambeth & Southwark (Danny Lambert) were being handed in and were accepted. So we're off.

It seems that the candidates here will be the usual suspects, including us as we're one here too as we've contested every election in Lambeth (parliamentary, local borough, GLA, European parliament) since 2005. That would be 6 candidates (last time, in 2008, there were 10). But we won't know for certain till nominations close next Wednesday.

Progress report

The nomination papers for Lambeth & Southwark have all been signed. Those for Merton and Wandsworth will be signed tomorrow. The intention is to hand them in to the Returning Officers as soon as possible after the date for this opens on Tuesday 20 March.

The election manifestos are at the printers and will be delivered to us (20,000 of them) on Friday or Monday. Meanwhile we are distributing other leaflets, mainly in outlying parts of the constituencies which we are not planning to cover with the main leaflet. Today was Raynes Park, which is part of Merton.

Leafletted the Raynes Park Conservative Club and found a LibDem leaflet which revealed the name of our LibDem opponent -- Lisa Smart. A householder handed one of our leaflets back saying he didn't want "junk mail". I said it wasn't junk mail but an election leaflet but he insisted.

The ironic thing is that if you go to stopjunkmail.org.uk, which some householders give on their letter boxes and which campaigns to limit and ideally ban junk mail such as pizza menus, you find a petition to sign. It calls for a change in the Data Protection Act. This of course is a political demand which could only be achieved by political action and so by candidates standing for election and distributing their programme including door-to-door. So you'd think that people who want to ban junk mail wouldn't mind political leaflets.

South London branch will be handing out the manifestos and running a literature stall outside 52 Clapham High Street on Saturdays 14, 21 and 28 of April from about 11 am.

Our Election Address

Greater London Assembly elections 3 May 2012

It’s up to you

No politician can help you. They all say they are going to have to make you worse off because of the crisis. In other words, to make you poorer to protect the wealth of the 1% who own the world. It’s their system of making goods and services to sell for profit that led directly to the crisis. So long as we have this production for profit, we’ll have periodic crises and politicians wringing their hands over them.

The only way out is to change the rules of the game: to change the system by putting an end to minority ownership by replacing it with the democracy of common ownership by and for everybody. Enough resources, know-how and skills exist already to provide comfortably for everyone. It’s the profit system that prevents this. We need to do away with it and instead produce and access goods for needs.

At the moment so many people think that there’s no alternative that they are shrugging their shoulders and hoping for the best. If a few of us stand up and say “we will not put up with this, we want something better” then the idea that resources should be owned in common and used to satisfy people’s needs can get on the agenda as the only genuine alternative to capitalism and austerity.

We need to organise to bring about a world where the Earth’s resources have become the common heritage of all and where every man, woman and child on the planet can have free access to what they need to lead a decent and satisfying life.

If you want this, vote for the Socialist Party candidate in this election, to let people know where you stand, and then come and join us in campaigning for socialism.

The Socialist Party candidates are:

Lambeth & Southwark: Daniel Lambert
Merton & Wandsworth: William Martin

It's election time again

On 3 May electors in London will be voting for a new Mayor and also for the members of the Greater London Assembly. We're not standing for Mayor (even if we had the money) because we don't believe in mayors but we will be contesting two GLA constituencies: Lambeth & Southwark (as 4 years ago) and this time also Merton & Wandsworth.

One reason for contesting two constituencies is that, under the Boundary Commission's proposals for the 2015 General Election, 4 wards from Wandsworth will be joined with 4 wards from Lambeth to form a new Battersera & Wandsworth parliamentary constituency which we will probably contest.

The Socialist Party candidate in Lambeth & Southwark will be Danny Lambert and in Merton & Wandsworth Bill Martin

As always, we will be standing on a single platform: the need to establish socialism as a society based on common ownership and democratic control where goods and services are produced to meet people's needs instead of for profit. This has never been tried (and certainly not in Russia or China) and can only come about democratically when a majority want it.

Follow this blog for regular updates on the campaign.

The list votes

Found the party list vote in the constituency:

The Labour Party 58554
Conservative Party 33466
Liberal Democrats 28071
Green Party 20711
British National Party 4945
The Christian Choice 4823
Abolish the Congestion Charge 4603
Respect (George Galloway) 2910
Left List 1846
UK Independence Party 1757
English Democrats 1255
Unity for Peace & Socialism 499
One London (Leader Damian Hockney) 254
Independent 68

Technical and Turnout for Lambeth and Southwark
Good votes 163762
Rejected votes 2583
Blank votes 1919
Total votes 166345

The term "good votes" is taken from the official "London elects" site and wouldn't be mine. I think they mean "valid votes".

More figures from Lambeth and Southwark

Here's how the electors of Lambeth and Southwark voted in the mayor election:

Livingstone LAB 80,172 48.92
Johnson CON 47,754 29.14
Paddick LD 20,530 12.53
Berry GRN 7,190 4.39
Craig CPA 2,838 1.73
Barnbrook BNP 2,448 1.49
German LL 1,199 0.73
Batten UKIP 848 0.52
O'Connor END 506 0.31
McKenzie IND 392 0.24

Figures for the party list votes were posted last night on a screen at Olympia where the count took place but I've not been able to find them anywhere else. All I noted were the percentages of the some of the lists and the votes given to Respect George Galloway and the Left List:

BNP 3.02%
Christian 2.91
Abolish Congestion Charge 2.81
Respect 1.78 (2910 votes)
Left List 1.13 (1846 votes)
"Peace and Socialism" (Old CP) 0.30 (499 votes)

Also perhaps relevant is that the Militant Tendency candidate in nextdoor Greenwich and Lewisham got 1587 votes.

Late, late result

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

The last leaflet

The last of the nearly 20,000 leaflets distributed in the constituency was put through a letter box in Woodsmansterne Road, SW16 this afternoon. This is a long road at the southernmost point of the constituency. It's actually in Streatham (part of Lambeth), but continue too far along it and you end up in Croydon, take a wrong turning and you end up in Merton (one Labour canvasser had done the opposite as we saw a Labour leaflet supporting their candidate in Merton).

This is a reminder that "Lambeth and Southwark" includes areas which are not traditionally associated with these two historic places. Another is a letter we received from a Miss Wright of Pymers Mead, West Dulwich, SE21. She wrote:

"Dear Sir/Madam,
I am returning the leaflet you put through my letterbox as I don't you putting anymore of your leaflets through my letterbox again".

We don't know if she wrote similar letters to the other parties about the leaflets they put through her letterbox, but they seem a polite lot down in Dulwich (she actually put a stamp on the letter, if she'd read the leaflet properly she could have sent it to our freepost address and saved herself 27p). Normally, people who don't like our leaflets tear them up in front of us and tell us they're voting for the BNP.

But the most common reaction we got on the doorsteps was "it doesn't make any difference anyway who gets in". Which corresponds with our analysis and shows that workers are not stupid: a lot of them do realise what's going on. Only they don't think they can do anything about it, so they just abstain and don't bother to vote at sll. It is highly likely that, tomorrow, the abstainers will be the absolute majority.

So, why if it makes no difference who gets in, were we standing? First, to use a period of heightened interest in politics to put across our case for a society of common ownership, democratic control, production for use, and distribution on the basis of "from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs". And, second, because if workers use their votes intelligently in their own interest they could change things, they could use the vote to help get rid of the profit system and bring in socialism.

It's voting for leaders to try to run the profit system in the interests of the majority that makes no difference, not voting in itself. That's why, where there's no socialist candidate, instead of abstaining we go to the polling station and vote, even if it's only a write-in vote. A way of keeping a potential weapon sharpened for the time when a majority are ready to use it in their own interest. Where there is a socialist candidate standing, we vote for them.

And there is a socialist candidate in Lambeth and Southwark.

The last day

Yep. Today is the last day. After today, there are no more. Tomorrow is the apocalypse. Or is that election? I've tramped up so many stairs,. spiralled down so many 20-storey tower blocks, caught my fingers so many times in letter boxes, been so cold and wet that I quite forget the difference between the two. Tomorrow I may rest.

But, not until after I've been down to the polling station to cast my write-in vote for World Socialism (SPGB)! And you, faithful reader, especially if you live in Lambeth and Southwark where you can actually cast a ballot for the Socialist Party's candidate Danny Lambert.

Remember, we are the party that makes no promises - it's you that makes the promise when you cast your vote to say "I am a socialist, I will work for common and democratic ownership and control of the wealth of the world between me and my fellow workers."

Lets see, come Friday, just how many promises we can collect, eh?