Another local by-election in Lambeth
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The EC has today authorised standing a candidate in the Vassall ward of Lambeth Council in London where one of the Labour councillors has resigned to try to move further up the greasy pole by getting adopted as a candidate for parliament.
Vassall ward is part of the parliamentary constituency of Vauxhall which we've contested at a number of successive general elections and will probably do so again in May 2015. So the electors will be more familiar with us than in the other two local by-elections we contested earlier this year (which were in a different parliamentary constituency).
The date of the election is Thursday 28 November. The Socialist candidate will be Danny Lambert. The campaign can be followed on our election blog here:
Our nomination accepted The nomination papers for our candidate were handed in and accepted yesterday morning. So far ours is the only nomination. So, if there are no others, Danny Lambert will be elected as the first Socialist councillor in Britain. But of course there will be more — the usual suspects, Labour, Liberal, Tory, Greens and UKIP.No doubt TUSC too though they won’t have been planning to contest Vassall since they were courting Kingsley Abrams, the resigning councillor, who had been suspended by the Labour Group for opposing the cuts. Here’s the BrixtonBlog on why he resigned (to try to move further up the greasy pole by becoming an MP). The result the last time we contested the area in which Vassall wards falls — the Greater London Assembly elections in May 2012 — was as follows (not including postal votes): Labour 1683 (56.7%) Cons 430 (14.5%) LibDems 379 (12.8%) Greens 336 (11.3%) Socialist 82 (2.8%) UKIP 52 (1,9%) A safe Labour seat then.
Are there any local papers in this area, that members and sympathisers could flood with letters? It would help get our message across. It would also help, for future elections, if a constant stream of letters were to flow to any local paper that may exist! Steve Colborn.
Have we got a short video of Danny to circulate on the web…or did another procrastination mean no…Perhaps we can re-edit the last one and post that. Should we also be proactive and issue an invite to the Brixton Blog people to the HO to meet the oldest existing socialist party in Britain and its candidate. Just takes a email to ask them and make the offer. But all the best and good luck, and again appreciation to all the volunteers that will be delivering the leaflets
alanjjohnstone wrote:Ooops, i forgot to ask what will the party's name be on the ballot?The Socialist Party (GB).
Local elections for local people Apparently the Labour candidate comes from the wrong street:”As usual Labour have taken local people for granted and put forward an unrepresentative candidate from another part of Lambeth.According to the Liberal Candidate. Apparently, he lives almost 200 metres outside the ward. How despicable, how can he possibly understand the needs of Vassall Ward while living in Oval Ward? OK, so politics is often devoid of policies these days: but this is ridiculous. Given the problems that we share worldwide, such myopia is hideous rather than merely hilarious.
It's actually even sillier than that. The Labour candidate lives in a street which forms the boundary of the ward, with one side in it and the other not. He lives on the wrong side, The Liberal candidate lives a few streets away. They both probably shop at the same corner shop and wait at the same bus stop.It seems the campaign is sorely in need of elevating beyond the level of parish pump politics, as it will be with our leaflet "Revolution the only solution".
Spoilt for choice…? Kelly Rebekah BEN-MAIMONConservative Party CandidatePaul GADSBYThe Labour Party CandidateElizabeth Eirwen JONESUK Independence Party (UKIP)Danny LAMBERTThe Socialist Party (GB)Rachel Anna LAURENCEThe Green PartySteven Paul NALLYTrade Unionists and Socialists Against CutsColette THOMASLiberal Democrats So, seven candidates: six proposing to work within capitalism (however reluctantly) and ONE proposing standing on a platform of revolution and nothing but. No tinkering, we need to turn the world upside down. C’mon Vassall Ward, do us proud.
Here's another attempt to successfully upload the election leaflet in the Vassall ward.
We’re off The 5000 election leaflets duly arrived this morning. A couple of hundred have already been distributed in the north of the ward opposite Kennington Park. We thought we’d be the first, but the Liberals had been before. Unusually their leaflet didn’t claim that “it’s a two-horse race”, probably because no-one would believe it as it’s a one-horse race which Labour can’t lose.
Nearly done Five of us finished off covering the ward today (11th). Some 4000 of the 5000 have now been distributed. Only 500 or so needed for what’s left, so we’ll have some over for handing out in the street or if we do a stall. The remaining 500 letter boxes should be covered before the deadline we set ourselves of 13 November when the ballot papers will be sent to postal voters (some 10 percent of those on the electoral roll). We had planned to meet at lunchtime in a cafe in Mostyn Road called “Revolution” which sounded suitable and which we hoped might give us a free coffee for the free advertisement we’d been handing out for them entitled “Revolution the only solution”. But it was closed. Came across more Labour and LibDem leaflets, also one Tory one on glossy paper (in the posh part of the ward between Brixton Road and Clapham Road). It too said it was a two-horse race claiming “Only the Conservatives can beat Labour here”. Very doubtful if anyone can, though the Labour candidate must think he has something to fear from the LibDems as he has started a scare campaign pledging to stop LibDem attacks on council housing. It’s a dirty business, conventional politics. No sign of UKIP, the Greens or TUSC as yet.
I notice the TUSC have slightly amended their name for the election. Trade Unionists and Socialists Against Cuts
They have actually registered the following variations of their name with the Electoral Commission:Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition Trade Unionist and Socialist Candidate Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition Welsh Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition Carlisle Socialist and Trade Union Candidate Solidarity – Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (Joint Description with Solidarity – Scotland's Socialist Movement) Trade Unionists and Socialists Against Cuts Preston Independent Socialists Against the Cuts Scottish Coalition Against Cuts Scottish Anti-Cuts Coalition We have also registered variants of our name, eg World Socialist Movement, World Socialist Party (GB) and World Socialist Party (EU) but we've never used them. Perhaps we should use one of them in next year's Euroelections which are going to be a festival of xenophobia so we stand out against all the others..
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