General Election 2017 campaign

[Anonymous]

Brian wrote:

ALB wrote:

alanjjohnstone wrote:

I'm hoping that the minority government is too unstable to maintain and we have another election at the end of the year.

Oh no, not another one! People won't stand it. There are local elections in London next year. That's what we need to concentrate on.

You are missing the point.  What we need to concentrate on is providing the opportunity for workers to express their agreement with the socialist case.  This hung parliament is not going to last long, they never do.  Which means that we have start planning for the next general election NOW with more candidates standing.  And more distribution of the election leaflet.

Fairly much echoes my sentiment over on this thread.http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/forum/general-discussion/what-just-happened#comment-41358

[ALB]

Here are the detailed results:Swansea West:

Quote:

Geraint Davies Labour 22,278Craig Lawton Conservative 11,680Rhydian Fitter Plaid Cymru 1,529Michael Ely O’Carrol Liberal Democrats 1,269Mike Whittall Green Party 434Brian Johnson Socialist Party of Great Britain 92Turnout: 65.5%

At 0.2 percent (1 in 500) that's par for the course for us in general elections. The other two results are well below par.Battersea:

Quote:

Labour 25,292Tory 22,876LD 4,401Ind 1234Green 866UKIP 357Socialist 32

That's 0.06 percent or 1 in 1666, i.e. over three times worse than Swansea.Islington North:

Quote:

Labour (Corbyn) 40,086 (73 percent)Tory 6871LD 4946Green 2229UKIP 413Ind 208Monster Raving Loony 106Ind 41Socialist 21Communist League 7Turnout: 73.3 percent

That's 0.04 percent or 1 in 2500. Corbyn, incidentally, got more than 50% of the whole electorate. In 2015 we got 112 (0.2%, as in Swansea yesterday).  This drop is to be explained partly by the increased number of candidates (and so a wider spread for random votes) but also, maybe, that others were also prepared to vote for the Labour Party under Corbyn (see the other thread).

[Brian]

Swansea Branch General Election ReportSaturday 20th May Stall in Oxford Street, Swansea.  100 election manifesto's handed out.Saturday 27th May 100 election manifesto's handed out in Oxford Street.Thursday 1st June attended hustings in Swansea University.  Attendence 40, 20 Q&A and Identity leaflets handed out.Saturday 3rd June 250 election leaflets handed out in Quenn Street, Cardiff, 150 in Thornhill, 50 in Barry and 50 in Beddau.  First quarter page advert appeared in South Wales Evening post.Sunday 4th June attended hustings in Swansea University.  Attendance 60, 50 election manifesto's handed out.Tuesday 6th June Second quarter page advert appeared in South Wales Evening Post.Two letters in South Wales Evening Post.Vote for SPGB candidate 92.

[alanjjohnstone]

The party features in the Irish News 10 least popular candidates.Danny at Number 8 with a rather unflattering picture of him.Bill is at Number 4 and might feel slighted that they didn't bother with his photohttp://www.irishnews.com/magazine/daily/2017/06/09/news/here-are-the-10-least-popular-candidates-from-the-general-election-1050396/

[alanjjohnstone]

I await the feedback on those voters/public who followed up our leaflets and ads.When will we see the numbers on people who contacted HO during the election campaign?

[Anonymous]

alanjjohnstone wrote:

Danny at Number 8 with a rather unflattering picture of him.

I don't think it's at all unflattering considering it's a blown-up and cropped image of him on a platform at Speakers' Corner in London.      For the 'full monty' see our Wikipedia entry:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Party_of_Great_Britain#Organisation

[DJP]

Lord Buckethead gets more votes than us, 249. Personally I think we should really reconsider this fixation with standing in every election.. I know some people are keen on them but really do the figures show that it's worthwile?

[Brian]

DJP wrote:

Lord Buckethead gets more votes than us, 249. Personally I think we should really reconsider this fixation with standing in every election.. I know some people are keen on them but really do the figures show that it's worthwile?

And the alternative is?????  Becoming involved in election activity is not a tactic but a strategy.  Which by default includes long term planning.  In this respect our experiences in the North East and now in Swansea illustrates that eventually this pays dividends either with an increase in the vote and in membership.  Obviously, at first we can only expect very small gains and these may well be wiped out when a branch is unable to stick the pace.  However, at least we are trying.Unfortunately our election strategy spelled out in 2015 was derailed due to the lack of forward planning and the pre-selection of a candidate in Vauxhall.  What these present figures show is that each constituency on average contains approximately 48 workers who support the socialist case.  The problem is our lack of ability to identify these voters.

[ALB]

alanjjohnstone wrote:

Bill is at Number 4 and might feel slighted that they didn't bother with his photo

Actually Bill's photo is there. In the picture of the candidates standing in Islington North under No 2 (the Trotskyist who got 7 votes).Seriously, DJP has a point. We don't contest elections to get votes but to get our message across. At the same time, however, we want to avoid a derisory votes that makes us a laughing stock and is counter-productive. The next time we get on the Daily Politics Show (if we do) one of the questions is likely to be "Nobody takes you seriously, do they, last time you only got 21 votes?" It was getting 32 votes in a by-election that led to the Party voting not to contest parliamentary by-elections any more.Basically, we shouldn't have stood in Islington North, for the same reason that we abandoned contesting by-elections — that, being the constituency of one of the Party leaders,  it was bound to attract joke candidates like Screaming Lord Sutch, Lord Buckethead, Mr Blobby, etc who get more votes than us.

[alanjjohnstone]

Seems like that apart from a Danish newspaper report, our most publicity is post-election as the joke candidates. http://www.nottinghampost.com/which-election-candidates-received-the-fewest-votes/story-30381309-detail/story.htmlAgain Bill should feel piqued…he isn't even mentioned in this re-hashed storyI think i made a tentative suggestion in the past that we should up our profile and gain publicity by means complementary to standing in elections – agitprop.Some said we would be ridiculed like the Fathers For Justice movement stunts…now it seems the case could be put forward …better hung for a sheep than a lamb

[alanjjohnstone]

And Brian, stop gloating…you only got 96 votes

[Brian]

alanjjohnstone wrote:

And Brian, stop gloating…you only got 96 votes

I'm not gloating far from it and it's the party not I who got 92 not 96 votes.  Indeed I incessantly promoted 'it's the case not the face' approach and consistently put over the message we were out to attract convinced socialists.  Much to the disbelief to those attending the last hustings.I've always promoted and favoured a long term election strategy which remains focused on consistently contesting specific and targeted constituencies.  In other words, wandering from constituency to constituency is not going to do us any favours.  

[alanjjohnstone]

Oh, yes, you are ….

[ALB]

By way of comparison, the Money Free Party candidate in Bristol West got 101 votes. Given that this was a bigger constituency than Swansea West, this was only about half the percentage Brian got  (0.14% compared to 0.25%).

[alanjjohnstone]

As i said in a previous post, this time around, i definitely got the feel that we didn't get receive as much publicity and attention as we got in 2015.Perhaps it was a reflection on the fact that we had 10 candidates and most were outside of the metropolis where the local media are more involved. And yes we can be more choosy and picky on the constituencies. I saw Green Party Derek Wall up against Theresa May got less than a thousand votes, not a very rewarding return for him or his Party. Perhaps as i suggested in another early post, that we engage with voters more at a "parish council" level, less official costs to stand so we can devote more money our publicity with local press ads and participation in grass-root  "media events". 

[Author]

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