Friday, July 24, 2009

Greens Win Another Brighton Council Seat

I don't normally comment on individual local council by elections, but there was one last night in Brighton, which merits a couple of words. The Greens took Goldsmid Ward from the Conservatives with 38% of the vote, which means the Tories have lost overall control of Brighton council. The Tory vote remained steady, but there was a 12% swing from Labour to the Greens. The LibDem vote also went down by 7%.

GRN 1,456 - 38.5% (+17.6%) GRN GAIN FROM CON
CON 1,104 - 29.2% (-0.9%)
LAB 816 – 21.5% (-6.8%)
LD 280 - 7.4% (-7.32%)
UKIP 129 - 3.4% N/A (others 6% last time)

I'm not sure which of the three Brighton seats this ward is in, but Caroline Lucas has already trumpeted the assertion that it means she's on her way to Westminster.

This is a spectacular win. It signals an unstoppable surge to elect the first Green MP at Westminster, whenever Gordon decides to go to the country. With this result, we’re on the threshold of taking Green politics to the heart of Westminster.

Nothing like a bit of OTT hyperbole is there? The Greens got 22% in 2005 in Brighton Pavillion. Tory candidate Dr David Bull had been making good headway but now he's stood down and hasn't yet been replaced who knows what will happen? All of this makes it one of the most interesting seats to monitor over the next nine months.

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

They only got 1,456 votes! That wont get them very far! LoL

Anonymous said...

It is in Hove constituency. The first time greens have taken a seat in Hove, and the first seat taken from Conservative.

Fausty said...

It's not such a far-fetched claim.

I can see 'Trendy' lefties who cannot bring themselves to vote Tory, who want a modicum of EU scepticism and who want to biff the three main parties voting Green.

Heaven help us if this happens in Norwich - it might start a trend in the North.

Anonymous said...

It's in Hove, though it's right on the border of Brighton Pavilion and demographically is probably similar to Brighton Pavilion.

I would say Hove is a nailed on gain for the GE, but if the Labour vote collapses in Pavilion (feasible), then the Greens could make it a gain if they get a high proportion of those labour votes.

David Boothroyd said...

Goldsmid is in Hove.

Anonymous said...

Should add that Brighton Kemptown is also likely to be a Con Gain, as the constituency covers areas outside of the trendy part of the city that voted very Conservative at the locals.

The Greens will concentrate in Pavilion, where Carolyn Lucas is standing, hence her excitement.

Anonymous said...

It's Brighton Pavillion they got 22%. In Brighton Kempstown they got 7%

Demetrius said...

Green grow the rushes ho!

Anonymous said...

I'm sure most fair minded people would be delighted if every disgruntled Labour, Conservative, Lib Dem supporter voted for the Green Party as opposed to the BNP or UKIP.

Well done Greens - They deserve to in Westminster.

Mark Senior said...

The Conservatives also lost the deferred Cambs CC Ramsey election to UKIP yesterday and came 3rd in the Huntingdonshire DC Ramsey seat also won by UKIP .

Anonymous said...

This week also saw the LibDems win their first ever election in Kensington & Chelsea... taking a seat in Colville ward with an 18 per cent swing.

Anonymous said...

Iain, the delayed moderation stifles discussion and debate. Can't you just get rid of the 'anon' option and go to real time? Delayed moderation does not work!

Dick the Prick said...

'whenever Gordon decides to go to the country'!! First name terms love? I too am on first name terms with the prime minister but not before the watershed. Typical bloody lefty.

James Mackenzie said...

I do love seeing Greens get ten times more votes than the Liberals. In Australia, the Greens finally did for the "Aussie Democrats", and a similar outcome seems inevitable here over the next couple of decades or so.

Anonymous said...

I agree - remove anon posts. If I want to talk to other people or them to talk to me I get a telephone. Commentators can get an identity.

I appreciate that it might put off visitors and reduce revenue from advertising but on the other hand you have the benefit of building up a community. People can visit but not comment.

Other blogs work by making you put down your email (*will not be disclosed) and a pen name.

Anon comments are disruptive as you do not know if one person is faking several identities.

Brighton - how can I put this, is it not 'trendy' and 'pink'? A bit of a target market for namby pamby tree hugging fancyful idealist greens?

Anonymous said...

A case of don't vote Blue, get Green!

Stepney said...

Even if in their wildest dreams the hippies can fool enough gullible fools to vote a tofu hugger to be an MP do they really think that's it? Job done?

I speak as one who knows-in 1989 I was a member of the party and attended the conference in Wolverhampton. Dear God alive- they couldn't even run a bath...

I'd be scared to leave my garden in their hands let alone a constituency.

Clueless numpties of the very highest order.

Mark Senior said...

Conservatives lost a seat to Labour on Derbyshire Dales DEC with a 20% swing against them .

Anonymous said...

Please please please Sussex Tories, keep that ghastly sanctimonious holier-than-thou quasi-Marxist harpie Lucas out of Westminster!

Anonymous said...

Not worth mentioning that you lifted the result wholesale of the Green Party site then?

Iain Dale said...

No, because I didn't. I was sent it in a press statement from Scott Redding.

Mirtha Tidville said...

Local elections are often decided on local issues and which councillor looks after your interests the best regardless of party. The GE is different...as for Greens in Parliament..Dear God, clueless numpties, as someone said,is bang on the button..

Lucas is far far worse than Mad Hattie, and thats saying something!!!!

Anonymous said...

The motorcyclist? Or perhaps Green Party PPC for Coventry?

neil craig said...

I consider the Greens to be enormously more damaging to the country than the BNP could ever be. They are trying to destroy our economy, indeed seeing the comparison with the BRICK countries they are clearly succeeding.

This success is because governments like a new excuse to tax & regulate us & because no politician has been brave & honest enough to say that their programme would mean the collapse of our electricity supply & other infrastructure & deaths 100s of times greater than the 24,000 people who already die annually because of fuel poverty.

Lola said...

Greens = fascists.

Anonymous said...

I hope not. The Green Party is a cancer that needs excising. I say that living in a country that has allowed a Green Party to do its damage.

James said...

It's a choice; Greenery or barbarism. You lot are off your chumps if you think business-as-usual (Tory flavour or Labour flavour) is going to work in the long term.

Anthony said...

Whoever said the ward is more like Brighton than Hove is right - but there are other parts of Hove constituency like that too. I don't doubt that Hove will be CON gain at the election but the race for second will be interesting.

I think the Greens do have the potential to displace the Liberal Democrats as a third force (fourth force?) in politics - particularly since they have a stronger and more identifiable set of beliefs that young people seem to identify with. It will be interesting to see whether a Green MP (which is a real possibility next time) will be a breakthrough moment for them.

Where we in Brighton go, the rest of you follow :-)

Anonymous said...

So, why did David Bull really pull out of the Pavilion seat? I suspect he has his eye on a safer option, or, perhaps, a Peerage and Under-Secretary of State for Health come the GE... Is it true the Tories will now hold an open primary to replace him? If so, I hope the electors do as they did in Totnes, and avoid choosing the council hacks who are usually brainless and have milked the system for decades in Brighton. A worthy, honest and hard-working professional local would be best.