ALB
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I don't know what it's like in the other constituencies we're contesting (or in the rest of the country) but in Oxford there are a record number of hustings (one nearly every evening last week and one every evening next week) with record turn-outs (200 in Abingdon and 150 last night in Botley, near Oxford). Maybe people like the Question Time formula. Not that have been much fireworks, at least not in Oxford West but then the UKIP candidate there has not turned up at any hustings since being exposed as a racist and homophobe. Their candidate in Oxford East, who has turned up, has been more circumspect emphasing the lack of accountability of politicians rather than the usual UKIP xenophobia.There's still a problem with selective hustings in Oxford East, this time involving the BBC:http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/elections_2015/12896113.Hustings_chaos__one_abandoned_when__excluded__candidate_while_woman_talked_down_from_balcony_at_another/?ref=mac
Only a couple of snags with the deliveryof our election leaflets by our printers to Royal Mail: Swansea went to the wrong address (which Royal Mail gave us) and the ones for Islington were delivered too late. This means that these won't go out to suboffices for delivery to houses until Monday and so won't be in elector's hands till Tuesday.Everything went ok for the other 8 constituencies. Electors there should be getting our leaflet tomorrow.
Now Andrew Neill jokes that SPGB stands for Special Patrol Group … You can't win on this name question !
TUSC's own-produced Party Election Broadcast is also on today at these times:Friday April 17th….. BBC2: 5.55pm… ITV: 6.25pm… BBC1: 6.55pm… Channel4: 7.55pmif anybody wants to watch theirs as well as ours and contrast and compare (Revolution and Reform).
Here's the result of a ballot yesterday by six formers at a school in Oxford West & Abingdon after hearing representatives of all the candidates (except UKIP, which got no votes anyway):https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FqpZmfbmJSz6bGkrYE-WZw65AcVa4CRk9aV31x8vYAI/edit(Now we are ex-Militant )I don't know if the result means anything but this was not in an area where you would expect Labour to come second, let alone first. Doesn't say much for the future of the Tories either (unless people get less radical as they get older). Our 2 votes had to be write-in votes as our party was not on the ballot papers given to the students.Report of the meeting in this morning's Oxford Mail:http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/elections_2015/12893005.Candidates_go_back_to_school_to_debate_housing_and_uni_fees/
Lambeth Council has invited all candidates in constituencies in the borough to present their case in a few hundred words. Here's that from our candidate in Vauxhall, Danny Lambert:http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/general-election-7-may-2015-vauxhall-candidates#danny-lambert—the-socialist-party-of-great-britain
Our candidates were invited to put over our/their case in 30 seconds. Here's three who took up the offer (filmed at Head Office over Conference using the same basic text):https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SZTmCcxrCQEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=btxMpZ3c63Ahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=H5L2njvcaQ4
gnome wrote:BTW, an email has been sent to the organisers of the Botley hustings advising of them of their error in describing us as the SWPGB.Yes of course. That was done straightaway.
Oh dear! Now we're the SWP:http://botleyhinksey.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Which-way-to-vote.pdfNot as bad as last night, at a hustings in the Marston part of Oxford, where our candidate was introduced as from the "National Socialist Party". Whatever the nostalgics here for using the full name all the time might think, the arguments for calling ourselves (except in legal, historial and ceremonial contexts) the Socialist Party are just as valid today as they were when the party voted for this at the end of the 1980s. "Great Britain" does have natiinalistic connotations, whatever people say.Apart from that the hustings was one of the best as the candidates were allowed five minutes to make their case and the questions were about world rather than parochial affairs (despite being in a church — packed with 80 people, no doubt more than they get on a Sunday).Another two this evening, one at Oxford Brookes University and the other in the Guildhall in Abingdon.
And here's what happened next ….http://www.marxist.net/namechange/mainframe.htm
Steve has posted this on the North East branch section but it's of general relevance too (including the exchange of comments):http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/election2015/north_east_election_news/12881415.Breaking_down_the_stereotypes/?action=success#comments
robbo203 wrote:I don't know if Jeremy Rifkin's ideas have been discussed on this forum. He is a bestselling futurist writer somewhat in the style of Alvin Toffler and has written numerous books the most recent one being The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism (NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).Actually, there was a bit of a discussion on this here about a year ago:http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/forum/general-discussion/zero-marginal-cost-society
Another hustings last night in Oxford, this time in Cowley in Oxford East. These are becoming run-of-the-mill affairs now with some of the candidates making the same speeches, that is, those who turn up themselves and don't just send a representative. We've never seen either the LibDem or Tory candidates (the Tory is vice-chair of nextdoor Cherwell council). We did see the Independent candidate, Artwell, this time wearing his controversial golliwog (see Daily Mail report here). He is calling for "Interest Free Loans from the Banks to the Treasury to End Austerity and Bring Us Prosperity" as a payback for having been bailed out. He doesn't explain where the banks are to get this money from but is probably one of those who mistakenly think that banks can simply create money out of thin air. Which they can't, one reason why his plan won't work or even get off the ground. But his is only slightly less realistic than those of the other parties who think they can make the capitalist economy operate for the benefit of all.Before the meeting we held a stall at the nearby Cowley shopping centre and distributed a few hundred leaflets, also to the 50 people at the hustings.
He's definitely not standing for Kensington:https://yournextmp.com/upload_document/584/It's against the law to stand in two places, so (assuming that he's not that much of a firebrand anarchist as to break the law here and risk going to prison for perjury), we must assume that he's only standing in Lewisham West & Penge.
