And so as Civil War looms around the rest of the country, no real surprises in Lambeth as the results for the general election were declared. Congratulations to Kate Hoey for (surprise, surprise) being returned to Westminster via Vauxhall, and well done @ChukaUmunna for winning what has been a jolly decent campaign in Streatham.
Policies aside (and I *really* tried not to ponder some of the bonkers proposals whilst at the ballot box,) and the most promising after thought to come out of Vauxhall is the half decent 57.7% voter turnout.
This favours rather well when compared the dire 46% back in 2005. It shows that the majority of voters in Vauxhall take an active interest in local democracy, even if that means returning the same MP for over two decades.
Of course the downside of democracy is that pictures of funny men waving silly flags also get be published during the campaign. The self-proclaimed “intelligent” Tory Boy, Glyn Chambers, polled an impressive 9,301 votes.
Vauxhall is an up and coming affluent area, I tell you…
Green Joseph Healy polled a respectable 708 votes. I’m surprised that Anticapitalist PPC @VoteDrinkall only managed 109 votes, in what has been a very vocal (and decent) online campaign.
As for Daniel Lambert and the Socialist whatever party? Slightly higher with 143 votes, but the traditional Left rally call of “Splitters!” is probably coming out of the hardcore of South London right now.
Over in Streatham and it was a win win situation for the electorate. Yer man Chuka and @Chris4Streatham, his LibDem rival both would have made for strong constituency MP’s.
20,037 people voted for Chuka, with Chris coming in a close second with 16,778 votes. A turnout of 62.8% of the electorate is very impressive for what has been a constituency that has had to suffer a complacent MP for the past eighteen years. Pity the poor tenants of Lambeth Living.
The future is looking good for the fine folk of SW16 – build the Hub and hold Tesco to account.
The 6am declaration of the Lambeth vote shows just how high the voter turnout has been. Here’s hoping that participation in the local council elections is just as positive.
Here’s an interesting pre-election night story coming out of South London as we prepare to select Parliamentary candidates who are going to be directly accountable to us (yeah, right…) for the next four or five years (or even four or five months – cripes.)
The results have been counted, and the good people at @democlub have published the #hyperlocal answers to the #hyperlocal issues that were raised by @democlub activists back in February. I was at the Kennington meeting of @democlub, and helped to formulate the questions that I wanted answering from my future MP.
The rationale for selecting a Westminster MP seems to have changed since that miserable South London evening sheltering from the SE11 rain in a Kennington boozer. The Leader’s Debate has made the general election a beauty contest, and an old woman in Rochdale who went out to buy a loaf of bread has changed the world.
But back in my little patch of South London, and the key issues for me remain the same: housing, leisure, cycling and the local economy. It is with these thoughts in mind that the South London branch of @democlub came up with ten questions to put forward to the PPC”s.
“The council should commit to running their own leisure services as all three swimming pools in Lambeth are operated by third parties and are closed or under limited operation.”
Green Joseph Healy strongly agrees with the statement, as does @VoteDrinkall, showing that yes, both Left candidates have a good grasp of the local agenda and the problems that Lambeth leisure users have had to suffer over the past six months.
At the risk of writing a Labour party love in, Hoey also comes out fighting in answer to the question of:
“Extra public money should be spent on more safe cycle storage in the neighbourhood.”
In what seems like a complete reversal on the Vauxhall MP’s previous “lycra lout” stance, Hoey seems to have found a new cycling agenda. Or maybe even votes in embracing a cycling agenda.
Either way – well done Kate for putting your name next to such a progressive idea for our constituency.
Other statements that the candidates are asked to rate include:
“The 17% raise in Lambeth council tenants rent is not justified.”
“Extra public money should be spent on an increased provision of social housing.”
“The deadline for the Elephant and Castle / Aylesbury Estate redevelopment needs to be established.”
“Driving a car in South London should be more expensive.”
“The expansion of the Brixton pound concept should be encouraged.”
The answers are no substitute for a sustained, local debate, but they do at least give an overall indication as to what type of ideology we are being asked to vote upon in the next twenty-four hours.
The mostly “neutral” response from the Socialist whatever candidate draws a similar response from me, in terms of my commitment to endorse him as my next MP.
The @democlub exercise is not so clear-cut in the neighbouring Vauxhall constituency of Streatham. With the big guns (and Gordo) being rolled out in SW16 over the past few days, make no mistake – Streatham has now become a key national political battleground.
Which makes it all the more disappointing that Labour’s @ChukaUmunna hasn’t answered any of the questions asked of him by @democlub. The Guardian endorsed online initiative has found nationally that it is the Tories who aren’t taking part in the exercise. Only 6% of Dave’s Tory toffs decided to reply to @democlub.
Buy why has the Streatham PPC managed a very decent online campaign locally, yet hasn’t answered the simple questions that his LibDem rival, @Chris4Streatham has kindly offered his opinion on?
“The Streatham Hub is, on balance, a good thing for the area,”
…plus the supplementary Streatham Question of:
“Tesco must be closely monitored during the Streatham hub development,”
…really should be the bread and butter for Chuka and his SW16 campaign. Chuka has been incredibly approachable offline, happy to talk to anyone about any issue. He passionately backs the cause of Lambeth leisure users. It would have been decent though to have this data online, and on record for all to see.
Causing slightly more embarrassment for the Labour PPC may have been the statement:
So has @democlub been a decent exercise in local democracy? Maybe not so much in terms of the actual responses given, but it has been an interesting exercise in understanding which candidates are actually committed to putting their name by specific policies.
The real benefit will not be seen until the next Parliament starts to mature. It is only then that we can go back to the data, and truly hold our local representatives accountable.
Perhaps this is why Labour’s @ChukaUmunna hasn’t participated? Let us not forget that it was a local @LambethLabour candidate that asked me back in February:
“What mandate do you and @democlub have for criticising elected officials?”
*every* mandate, my friend, especially so when candidates don’t have the decency to put their name to their polices as part of a national campaign that has been rolled out in collaboration with The Guardian.
Hoey isn’t perfect (see voting record on homosexuality and lesbian rights) but then which MP’s are? Hoey was incredibly dignified at the Vauxhall hustings on Tuesday evening, with childish provocation from the Animal Protection party candidate.
The leaflet from the Animal Protection party’s PPC, James Kapetanos, makes some interesting points. It’s a shame that James wasn’t able to back them up, face to face, with the candidate he has been so critical of.
Hoey needs to be held to account on some of her more unsavourynon-South Londoninterests. Sadly I think the Animal Protection party has overlooked the wider picture, not to mention the opportunity.
*Friday 30th, 18:30 update*
More analysis over here on the ‘campaign’ being run by the APP.
The Oxbridge chap (Gyln Chambers made a point of mentioning this in his opening address) then raised a bonkers question about why crime has risen from 100,000 reported incidents one hundred years ago, to over four million in 2010.
Um, population expansion, an increase in laws and probably more Tories with their nasty right wing policies to criminalise people who are simply having a good time.
This was actually a rather ace event. It restored my faith in local democracy and my local area. It also *shhh* gave me some confidence in the sitting Labour MP, Kate Hoey (I think we can lose the Tally prefix now – Kate took enough stick on the night from James Kapetanos of the Animal Protection party.)
Given the ludicrous assertion by Daniel Lambert of the Socialist Party on poverty and domestic abuse, it was also rather reassuring to find the only other female candidate, the LibDem’s Caroline Pidgeon, to be on mighty fine form as well.
Elsewhere and @VoteDrinkall of the Anticapitalist party confirmed his credentials as a skilled, and yes, an intelligent public speaker. Joseph Healy of the Greens gained my support as he addressed the local Vauxhall constituency.
The English Democrats failed to show up (not very English, old boy.) Likewise for the Bible bashing Larna Martin of the Christian Party. You would have thought that holding a hustings in a church could have killed two birds with one stone.
The man with the mic for the evening was Mike Starkey, the Vicar of Vauxhall (crappy TV sitcom ahoy!) The Vauxhall Vic (“I use to be a radio DJ“) rather liked the sound of his own voice, not to mention paraphrasing questions from the floor.
In true hustings tradition, each candidate was given two minutes to put forward their case to represent the good people of Vauxhall at Westminster. The intelligent Tory Boy boasted of his IQ and campaigning skills, and then blew it by uttering:
@VoteDrinkall repeated his call to nationalise the banks and to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. In return, the Anticapitalist candidate pledged to spend the money saved on eradicating poverty from Vauxhall and building new homes. I rather like @VoteDrinkall’s connection between the international and the #hyperlocal.
Joseph Healy of the Greens described himself as:
“A community and health activist.”
He has the background and credentials to back up his claim. Healy called for a “new type of politics,” but added the disclaimer that a Green agenda is a radical approach, and not a Nick Clegg style surge for a voter friendly fresh agenda.
Kate Hoey (that wasn’t too hard now, was it?) proudly declared that she would stand on her previous Parliamentary record:
“I want to concentrate on the poorer parts of our constituency. My caseload is higher than most in the country. I campaign on community interests, and I help people who are not being heard by the local council.”
James Kapetanos of the Animal Protection party (I wouldn’t even try and Google it) stated, “a vote for me is a protest vote.” There’s some honesty for you.
“I want to stand up for the voiceless – the animals”
There was a bark to the bite of the Dr Doolittle type PPC:
Here lies the rhetoric for the rest of the evening. Kapetanos was content to avoid any debate, much in the same way that Hoey was happy to avoid any eye contact with her would be political nemesis.
Daniel Lambert (nope, not *that* one) of the Socialist Party of GB introduced himself as promoting the “ethics of the family.” Tory Boy’s eyes lit up…
“We all have the same, shared needs. Families function if the workload is shared. When this breaks down, families become dysfunctional. Life is good – it’s worth a look.”
I thought Lambert was also worth a look, until he disgusted the entire audience at St Mark’s with his casual link between poverty and wife beating.
Caroline Pidgeon of the LibDems completed the candidate list. Given her transport brief at the London Assembly, Pidgeon spoke of her “disgust” at the Northern Line closures. She recognised the Clegg bounce, but was keen to offer up her own abilities as:
“An incredibly hard worker and a strong voice to represent the people of Vauxhall.”
The LibDem drew the most applause from the opening speeches.
The Vauxhall Vicar then did his best Alan Partridge Aha! and tried to steal the agendaoffered a semi-religious question for all of the candidates to answer:
“What is your moral compass?”
Note the omission of the prefix of political. My churchhouse, my rules etc, but I was hoping that most candidates would offer an answer that wasn’t tied down to some bonkers fairytale approach that was somehow linked to the rather dubious (and dangerous) issue of religion.
Tory Boy played by the rules and muttered some twaddle about “family and faith.” @VoteDrinkall urged for “the whole of humanity to share in the beauty of the world. We want to liberate the oppressed people of Vauxhall.”
And the vicars.
Green Healy stated that:
“I am not religious but I am spiritual. I have a reverence for the planet.”
Hoey confirmed her faith, whereas the fox loving, Hoey bashing Kapetanos, stuck by his stock trade answer for the evening of trying to out-score an incredibly experienced political opponent with cheap (and crap) gags about fox hunting. He failed, of course.
The “socialist code of the morality of the market” was the moral compass for Lambert. I don’t think he was talking about the rather wonderful Farmer’s Market staged outside St Mark’s every Saturday morning.
Caroline Pidgeon mentioned a “service to the community” as her guiding moral principle.
But enough of the politicians, what of the good people of Vauxhall? I have learnt at these hustings that you need to sit as close to the candidates as possible. If you can’t see the white (and fear) in their eyes, then they ‘aint gonna get yer vote.
Rule #2 is to always get the first question is. People will think you are either brave or bonkers. Or possibly even both. This is no bad thing.
So… deep breath:
It was quite a rambling question, but at least it gave Tory Boy the chance to get rather confused with the population rise and the way that we interact with one another as a community. This man is an Economist by day. I’m not sure what he is by night.
A rather deviously framed question asking simply about “the triangle” followed, put forward with the distinct aim of questioning the #hyperlocal knowledge of the candidates. The background is the threatened closure of the Triangle Adventure Playground close to the Archbishop Tenison’s School.
@VoteDrinkall wasn’t fooled and knew his patch well. Much the same for Hoey who blamed the “council machinery.” You can see why I was starting to rather warm to our *shhh* Labour friend.
Education was next up on the agenda. “I am proud of what we have achieved in Lambeth,” stated Hoey. Rightly so. Education and the massive improvement in exam results is one of the genuine success stories in the borough in recent years.
Tory Boy demonstrated his complete failure to grasp the local agenda, describing Lambeth as “below par” (education, not PPC’s.)
@VoteDrinkall drew upon his own status as a teaching assistant, congratulating teachers and support staff locally, but calling for an increase in funding.
By law and every hustings event has to have at least one bonkers moment. The hands on head moment on Wednesday involved calling the Vauxhall Vicar a w****r, and then giving away the secret address of the *very* nearby cabinet member Jack Straw.
Yikes.
“Should Tony Blair and Jack Straw be put on trial for war charges,” was the half-decent, and very serious question posed from a chap at the rear of the hall.
My house, my rules etc, and the Vicar of Vauxhall paraphrased this to the watered down:
“What do you think of the war?”
Whoops.
A question is a question is a question. Politicians need to be able to stand their ground and answer these. Sadly they weren’t given the chance, and the rather excitable young man didn’t get the chance to hear a watered down answer, as he was led away for insulting a man of the robe with a profanity.
The clock was also ticking down on the evening, and so a fast paced agenda rattled on. Global warming – Hoey arguing a strong cause for local food growing project, Tory Boy pledging not to build any nuclear power stations in Vauxhall – phew. Green Healy had the upper hand.
A question on LGBT rights was aimed specifically at Hoey, who has a ‘questionable’ voting attendance record in the House over gay issues. Tory Boy shuffled nervously as Caroline Pidgeon mentioned the dreaded B & B issue.
A general question on the merits of global capitalism, and then the rather tasteless point made by Socialist Lambert on poverty and wife beating.
Save the best for last, and we finished with a rather fine question asking:
“If elected as our MP, and assuming that you don’t fulfil your cabinet ambitions [eek] – what would be the one piece of legislation that you would like to introduce in a Private Member’s Bill?”
A fine question, Sir.
Kapetanos finally caught up with the idea that the audience wasn’t interested in his continued Hoey bashing: “A law not to harm animals” was offered. @VoteDrinkall repeated his line to nationalise banks. “Legally abolish capitalism” came from Lambert and the Socialists. Green Healy stated his aim to create one million new green jobs through taxation.
Caroline Pidgeon put forward her policy of having a passion for fixing the social housing mess in Vauxhall. Tory Boy kept with this theme and attacked @LambethLabour’s ALMO’s. Hoey had the same idea, and put forward her aim to tackle overcrowding in the housing market.
Petty politics aside, this was a rather ace evening for local South London politics. The Church was packed at its peak (probably something the Vicar of Vauxhall hasn’t seen in a while) and the level of debate was excellent.
Given that Hoey will be returned to Westminster next week, I felt that the contribution of the other candidates at least helped to shape the debate and ideas for the next five years ahead.
Housing and poverty in the ward remains a strong theme across all parties. The sitting MP seemed to genuinely take on board the points form the panel and the floor, and hopefully will continue to fight this cause in Parliament.
*This overview of the local political landscape was first published via Londonist*
The London Borough of Lambeth has thankfully moved on since the Loony Left days of refusing to set a rate. The political breeding ground that gave us Ken Livingstone in Norwood, plus John Major walking the mean streets of Brixton, is still very much a Petri dish for national political thought and ideas.
The local elections on May 6th are being used by the national Labour party to gauge the public reaction to the much-mooted John Lewis model of local government. The right of centre Labour led Lambeth Council decided to announce the mutualisation of local politics just two moths ahead of the local elections, gaining a Guardian front-page piece in the process.
This is a key election issue, both on the ground in Lambeth, as well within wider political discourse. Essentially it allows local people to run local services, taking away the financial burden from Council Tax payers. Critics argue that it also removes the democratic accountability under which we entrust our politicians with via the ballot box.
Lambeth Labour promised a consultation with residents throughout March. Come April, and there is still no sign within the borough that this has been rolled out. A Freedom of Information request asking what the savings have been to the public purse in a John Lewis style managed housing block, revealed that no savings have been made.
Housing is also a key issue in Lambeth for campaigning local politicians. The revelation that out of the entire count of empty homes in London, one in five are located in Lambeth, has shocked many locals who are stuck on the housing waiting list. The incoming head of Lambeth Living, the ultra Blairite Keith Hill MP, will be a busy man when he steps into his new role on May 7th.
The housing policy in Lambeth has been masked however by the complete meltdown of Leisure. Streatham Leisure Centre was closed because the Council couldn’t afford to pay for essential repairs. A private developer closed Clapham a few months later. The only other pool in the borough, Brixton Rec, introduced a 7am – 9am only public swimming session, whilst a refurbishment to the changing rooms took place, less than two years after a £2.7m similar project.
But it’s all about events dear boy, events. The Labour group finally managed to seal a deal with Tesco in Streatham, after almost a decade of political and corporate dithering. Just weeks ahead of the local elections, Tesco has been give planning permission for a new superstore, in return for re-building the leisure facilities.
Likewise in Clapham, the bulldozers have moved in this month to build a (reduced size) pool, plus of course the private residential property on council land as the corporate paymaster payback.
Housing, leisure and Petri dish politics aside, the Labour group in Lambeth have managed to freeze Council Tax for the past two years. This compares to the massive 40% hike by the LibDems when they held power four years ago. Not surprisingly, Lambeth Labour leads heavily with this in its election manifesto. One would imagine that the other twenty-four local authorities that have also frozen Council Tax in London ahead of May 6th are also keen to talk about this on the doorsteps.
The high profile, twittering @mayoroflambeth has been a genuine success story in the past twelve months. Taking a sabbatical from his Labour party duties in the Clapham Town ward, Councillor Wellbelove has worked wonders in trying to unite the borough. The introduction of a Youth Mayor of Lambeth is also to be applauded. Over 10,000 Lambeth youngsters took part in the democratic process to elect Darren Tenkorang last month.
The challenge for the LibDems in Lambeth is to not only come up with a credible alternative to the John Lewis form of government, but also to actually get their message heard. Cuts in the public sector are the driving force for the Petri dish experiment in Lambeth. Whoever takes control of the borough will need to make massive savings.
It is unclear if the LibDems have any grand plans to manage the “financial tsunami” that has been spoken of, or simply if they are poor at communicating their ideas to the public. The slogan of “only the LibDems can beat Labour” is still rolled out, conveniently overlooking the fact that the LibDems in Lambeth will actually need the support of the Tories to take back power in the borough.
Which brings up nicely to the Lambeth Conservatives. It is very difficult to have any feelings either way to the blue rinse mob in the borough. The Bullingdon toffs of Dave and his Notting Hill set are a far cry from the leafy Lambeth Tory stronghold of Norwood and West Dulwich.
Lambeth Conservatives are equally as nice as they are wet. They are almost universally liked, probably safe in the knowledge that they will never gain any real political power in the borough.
The Greens in Lambeth are defending their current seat held in the Herne Hill ward, as well as targeting Brixton Hill as a possible coup. Toppling council leader Steve Reed in his own backyard would be a significant scalp.
Elsewhere in the borough and The Oval ward looks like being a key battleground. Labour have set their sights on the current three LibDem seats. The policy of putting forward a candidate who lives outside of the ward, not to mention simultaneously having serious Westminster ambitions down in the East Hampshire constituency, is sending out a confused message to locals at The Oval.
Campaigning by all parties is now in full flow. Labour is dominating the agenda, thanks to high profile online activities, using twitter, Facebook and youtube. Lambeth Labour has posted some incredibly vile and vulgar videos to youtube leading many sympathetic voters to look elsewhere come Election Day.
Lambeth Life, the council funded newspaper, is seen by many in the borough as simply being the mouthpiece of the ruling Labour Group. The continuation of the council newspaper has also become a major election issue in itself. The Labour group is currently involved in a stand off with the South London Press. This has become highly personal, with the chief SLP reporter for Lambeth having been cautioned by police for the common assault of the Lambeth cabinet member for Community and Safety.
The council has pulled all statutory local authority advertising from the local paper, conveniently placing it in Lambeth Life instead. The justification is that the SLP carries ‘escort ads,’ something that doesn’t sit too well with a local authority that has put in place a prostitution strategy.
The end result is a hostile local newspaper to council reporting, and the Chief Reporter now having a ban on entering Lambeth Town Hall. Democracy and accountability have been lost somewhere in between.
The national picture in Lambeth is not nearly as exciting as the local picture. Kate Tally Hoey is a shoe in for Vauxhall, despite a risible 46% turn out by the electorate back in 2005. Streatham is slightly more interesting. The youthful Chuka Umunna is taking over from Keith Hill as the Labour PPC. With some truly preposterous expectations placed upon Chuka (“A Barack Obama for Britain,”) the Streatham boy is up against Chris Nicholson for the LibDems.
The departing Streatham MP, Keith Hill, cowardly used his Parliamentary privilege to make allegations about the funding of Nicholson’s campaign. The LibDem has been transparent in his funding; yet still the local Labour group continue to repeat the allegations.
To his credit, Umunna has not made any political capital out of the issue. He has actually made efforts to distance himself from the right wing members of his own local Labour party. Despite the clean-cut, vibrant youthful image, Umunna is actually a left of centre Labour candidate – something of a rarity in Lambeth.
And so the choice for Lambeth voters on May 6th is to sign up for participation in a Petri dish style of local government under an ultra right wing Labour administration, or leave it to chance with the unknown policies of the LibDems.
Tally Hoey will be returned to Westminster via Vauxhall, whilst Streatham voters have the choice of a high profile left wing rising star, or a credible LibDem who is not afraid to fight back.
Battle lines have been drawn, let the voters decide…
I’m hearing that Tally Hoey has been cut off from the outside world (figuratively speaking) with no modern interweb to engage with the electorate in Vauxhall.
You can’t beat face-to-face debate with your constituents ahead of you shoe in back to Westminster on May 6th. But online engagement is also good for democracy.
To be fair to Tally Hoey, she was one of the few Labour MP’s who spoke out against the railroad approach taken to rush through the Digital Economy Bill during the fag end of the last Parliament.
The humiliating climbdown for Nu Labour was to let the 50p broadband tax be dropped, in favour of a witch-hunt for criminalising file sharers.
But with other PPC’s in the ward managing a decent balance between an online and offline campaign, Vauxhall would have been served better if the sitting MP was able to actually get online.
Vauxhall may be lacking in a decent general election campaign, but it is certainly not lacking in cheap internet cafes. Perhaps the lack of broadband for Tally Hoey in Kennington explains why her site is still borked?
No modern interweb may be the excuse for the delay in supporting cyclists, but it doesn’t explain the non-appearance at the Stop the War hustings in Brixton this week. Tally Hoey did kindly leave an email address for constituents to contact her, but given her offline status, I’m not holding out for a reply.
It wasn’t a great a start for the local offline love affair between Joseph Healy – the Green Left PPC for Vauxhall – and the leadingSouth London blogger. If international banner waving ‘aint yer thing, then there’s no need to scroll down to read the happy ending.
The PPC and the *ahem* leading South London blogger kissed and made up, all thanks to much love for @audioboo of course.
But yeah – it was something of a weird Brixton evening…
Stop the War is a very active group in South London. It’s a political domain which although I broadly support, I confess to showing little interest. This probably explains my online tiff with the internationalist Green PPC.
It’s all about the local for me. I want to find solutions and make progress around my little patch of South London. Palestine is important, yes, but it doesn’t occupy my mind when I see yet further fly-tipping around Palfrey Place, as was the case when I went out for the milk this morning.
The hustings organised by Stop the War drew in a packed crowd at Babalou in Brixton. This was old skool Lambeth politics. No surprises then that squeaky clean Nu Labour in Lambeth decided not to take part in the debate.
Tally Hoey demonstrated her passion and concern for the constituents that she has represented for the past twenty-one years (and in all honesty, probably the next four or five years) by sending a brief letter of apology. Oh, and an email address (although her site remains borked.)
@ChukaUmunna, the Labour PPC for Streatham, also sent out a letter of apology, as well as offering some thoughts on his policies regarding issues raised by Stop the War. Not ideal, but at least Chuka had the decency to make an apology and post it on his blog earlier in the day.
It was probably for the best, given that the other members of the panel included @VoteDrinkall, the Anticapitalist candidate, Dan Lambert from the Socialist Party of GB and yer Green Left guy, Joseph Healy.
Oh, and also @Chris4Streatham, the LibDem candidate whose odds of winning the Streatham constituency were dropping by the hour ahead of the meeting.
Each candidate was given five minutes at the start of the hustings to bash a local bloggerintroduce themselves and set out their solutions for the issues posed by Stop the War.
@VoteDrinkall made the connection between the “one billion pound bail out of the banks” (his figure) and the gap in public spending. The link of global capitalism was given, as the Anticapitalist candidate then argued that working class kids in South London have more in common with kids in Iraq, than the bankers benefiting from the bonuses.
Tally Hoey was referenced for voting against the war in Iraq, yet still supporting it during subsequent parliamentary debates. @VoteDrinkall claimed that the Greens are inconsistent, and concluded by saying that “a vote for me is a vote for the troops out of Afghanistan.”
It was fighting talk, in every sense, and a speech that Joseph Healy from the Greens was going to find to difficult to follow. “The whole debate is about the enemy within,” claimed the Green Left guy. I shuffled nervously in my seat.
Keeping it in line with the style of his blog, Healy name checked the many fine causes and demos that he has supported of late. Not one of them was in Vauxhall, but at least Healy is passionate and true to his cause. Oh, and at least he turned up…
Daniel Lambert from the Socialist Worker’s Party of GB (sitting to the left of the Anticapitalist candidate, natch) came up next. Lambert didn’t get past his “war is an instrument to overt a worker’s revolution” before I was transported back in time to my Essex sociology undergraduate days. Happy memories ‘n all that, but once again, Brixton? Vauxhall?
It was strange to see @Chris4Streatham cutting a lone figure on the top table. The LibDem candidate has probably been in more voter friendly environments, and it was weird to see a Love Me I’m a Liberal guy singled out by the other politicians as being part of the old political problem.
@Chris4Streatham almost seemed lost without @ChukaUmunna, his sparring political partner over the past six months. He was brave enough to state that:
I don’t agree with Stop the War, but I am in favour of withdrawing our troops from Afghanistan.
The LibDem then set out a timetable of leaving Afghanistan before the end of the next Parliament. He voiced his anger in the way that Nu Labour flaunted international law over Iraq.
Questions from the floor then followed – Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine and Iran – are we at war with the latter two? Each candidate pretty much moulded an answer to fit in with their opening declarations. With three hard Left candidates and a Love Me I’m a Liberal sitting on the top table, the divisions were hardly going to be the tense affair that you find at a full @lambeth_council meeting.
@VoteDrinkall did take issue with his Socialist comrade over Palestine. The issue seemed to be one of direct action (@VoteDrinkall) and a more theoretical socialist revolution. I almost longed for @ChuckaUmunna to be around, to try and unite the Lambeth Left.
And that was about your lot. We ended as we began, as I headed over to the top table to thank Green left guy Joseph Healy for giving a name check of my blog. I actually rather like the agenda he is proposing locally, as outlined over at the wonderful Lurking About in SE11, earlier today [final comment, epic debate.] It’s just a shame that it took a hefty online prod to get back to the South London patch.
Joseph very kindly agreed to a brief chat, and over the love of @audioboo, I think we finally found some common ground. I wish him luck with his campaign.
Likewise @Chris4Streatham. It was jolly decent for a mainstream candidate (with a very realistic chance of becoming the next MP for Streatham) to actually turn up and stick to his cause against an unsympathetic audience.
As for @LambethLabour? I’m sure our hard-working local cabinet had more pressing #hyperlocal #labourdoorstep duties to carry out, rather than discussing Palestine. And quite rightly so.
@ChuckaUmunna is almost excused because he sent a decent letter outlining his policies (and he would actually blend in rather well with the general Left feel of the panel.)
