Another local by-election in Lambeth
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Not sure that nearly half the votes cast will have been postal votes. The figure on the council website for postal votes is that for the number of people sent ballot papers by post rather than the number returned. It will be true that 40% or more of these will have been returned, meaning that about a quarter of the votes cast will have been postal votes. It also means that in at least one of the four polling districts the turnout will have been less even than 19%.
The council have just confirmed that 539 of the 1055 postal ballot papers were returned (or 51%). That means that 539 of the 2206 votes cast (or 24%) were postal votes. Which also means that less than 16% of the 10,563 non-postal voters voted. That must mean something. Not sure what for the moment.
ALB wrote:Which also means that less than 16% of the 10,563 non-postal voters voted. That must mean something. Not sure what for the moment.It means that over 84% of the non-postal voters thought it was not worth making an effort to go to the polling station…
New reformists on the block A new reformist party was founded in central London on Saturday called “Left Unity”. It has a branch in Lambeth, but from this on Syria, calling for “arms without conditions for the freedom fighters”, i.e mainly jihadists fighting to impose sharia law, appears to be continuing the “loony leftism” associated with Lambeth in the past.In any event, we look forward to confronting them at future elections (though we suspect we might already have done so at the 2010 General Election when they then called themselves “Workers Power”).http://www.workerspower.co.uk/2013/08/dont-attack-syria-model-resolution-for-left-unity-branches/
I'm pleased to see ex-member Stuart has not dropped all his principles when on the thread he comments that the resolution on Syria was "lefty windbaggery and posturing." It is just a pity he didn't go further in his condemnation of his new comrades.But it is perhaps the first signs of the lack of unity in the unity party. We can expect many more divides in the coming months as party political positions are established . Nor was it only the Workers Power faction supporting the resolution. According to the thread the other factions in LU, the International Socialist Network and Socialist Resistance agreed with it.
Does anyone know the number of votes the SPGB has received over the years? And geographically, have some areas received more votes than others? If so, why? Perhaps there is something to be learned from a 'scientific' approach? (I use the term 'scientific' in quotes in order do avoid the thread drifting off ). One branch learning from another branch's experiences etc. Perhaps certain approaches bring better results, who knows?
All the results since 1906 are in the archives at Head Office, ready for someone to do their Ph D thesis on. Having looked at them over the years my impression is that any research would reveal that we do better in Labour seats and that in fact our vote could be proportional to the Labour vote. The explanation for this would be the language we use (capitalism, socialism) and that our appeal is directed to the "working class" (which will tend to be heard more by those who consider themselves this).Other factors affecting our results will be the total number of candidate (the more, the less we get; in fact the less all the candidates get) and also if there is another candidate describing themselves as "socialist" (which also reduces our vote).In any event our average must be between 1 and 2 percent. Steve Colborn in Seaham gets much more than this because there we are in a straight fight with Labour (the shape of things to come in the last says of capitalism?). John Bissett in Hebburn has also done better than average probably because he is known also as a local activist (school governor, etc).Anyway, the material is there for whoever wants to do the research.
Thanks Alb,I guess 'digitalisation' will be the first step: getting it all on a computer! Scanners are becoming more and more sophisticated.
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