Brixton Hill local by-election

[Anonymous]

ALB wrote:

Things must be different up North if TUSC can get 31 votes and beat both the Liberals and the Greens ! Perhaps we should have a go there.(but then we'd have to persuade our Northern branches to take up local election activity).

There's no rhyme nor reason really.  In the other Wirral ward TUSC managed just 19 votes whilst the Greens got 110.Both Tory 'safe' seats of course.

[Ed]

Young Master Smeet wrote:

I suspect if TUSC hadn't have been there we'd have attracted some of their voters, so it's interesting to see the effect of a head-to-head like this (at the GLA election they didn't contest the seats, that may be why we did slightly better last year).

Are they votes that we would want if they have a straight choice between voting socialism or reforms and choose the latter?

ALB wrote:

But we didn't contest primarily for the vote (except to avoid a derisory score, which we did) but to publicise the case for socialism. Here we exceded our expectations, thanks to a lively and very fair local on-line newspaper, the Brixtonblog (which we hadn't known about before). Here is a list of the internet publicity we got, not just for the fact that we were standing but also discussion of our ideas:

I'll admit that I was initially sceptical about the amount of publicity we would gain from standing in a by-election. I'm very happy to be proven wrong on this occaision.

[Young Master Smeet]

Quote:

Are they votes that we would want if they have a straight choice between voting socialism or reforms and choose the latter?

Not really, but it clarifies the vote we got back last year.  And if those people might come to us at a later stage, so we know there's a "fringe" if you will, who we can speak to.

[SocialistPunk]

I wonder if the party where ever to get hundreds of votes, would there be any voices questioning as to whether that is actually what is wanted?Perhaps some would say something along the lines of  "I bet not all the voters are socialists, so do they really count?"Numbers are important, whether or not every single vote cast for the party is from a devout socialist at such a stage is irrelevant. The more votes the party can attract, the more people will start to listen to what is being said. Unfortunately it is a numbers game.

[alanjjohnstone]

SPEW have had their say on the by-election and are even more upbeat than our own election committee on the result.http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/749/16021/23-01-2013/building-an-anti-cuts-voice-in-council-elections"New Labour-led Lambeth council called the Brixton Hill byelection for 17 January, minimising scrutiny of their cuts programme with a short election campaign period.In near zero temperatures, the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition campaign – supported by the local anti-cuts movement – was enormously positive.Despite the short campaign, the whole ward was leafleted with two-thirds canvassed. Unlike many elections, TUSC received coverage in the local press and 80 people heard our candidate speak at a hustings meeting organised by the Brixton Bugle. A complication was that the purely propagandist Socialist Party of Great Britain also stood. However the combined TUSC and SPGB vote was 4.2 %. The campaign raised TUSC's standing. We finished above Ukip, despite that group's continual media coverage. Crucially the campaign has given TUSC authority to call a meeting to coordinate an anti-cuts challenge across Lambeth in the full council elections in 2014."Seems that they depend upon  fair-weather socialists for their vote. And we will be facing them again in 2014. No mention of their man and a dog and SPGB member meeting! We are a complication!!

[ALB]

For the record here's the challenge to us issued on 18 January by someone on the Militant Southwark Facebook page:

Quote:

The second largest party after labour gets 344 votes. We get 72 votes beating all the small parties. SPGB get  34. They must aknowledge our superior electoral machine now & see if they have the stomach for 2014. Lol. SPGB, if  u want to play big boys games u face big boys consequences. lol

We will be contesting Brixton Hill ward again in the Council elections next May. We'll see. After all, it is not as if 72 votes is all that much. Lol.

[Author]

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