General Election – Campaign News
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Magna Carta 800 Hustings on 28 April cancelled…..
The Organisers wrote:Dear Mr Cox,With great regret, I write to inform you we have had to cancel this hustings. We were encouraged to receive warm acceptances from you and all the other candidates, except the Conservative Party candidate, Julian Brazier. Despite giving Mr Brazier first preference on the date, risking compromise of our equal treatment principle, he refused to attend or be represented. We made repeated entreaties, but he politely maintained he had already committed to several 'single issue' hustings and needed to draw the line. We clarified that our event is themed, and absolutely not single issue on learning disability, but no avail. We appreciate Mr Brazier's courtesy, but are deeply disappointed. As you no doubt agree, a broadcast hustings, uniquely featuring the interests of all disadvantaged people, is well worth two hours of a candidate's time.It was fundamental to our plans that existing power would be both challenged and defended. With the Conservative Party absent, we could not escape the conclusion that the quality of debate would be degraded. Being intent on doing this well or not at all, the decision to cancel became unavoidable.You are of course welcome to use content from this update in your campaign. You may also be interested to know the Conservative Party was the only absentee at the recent Learning Disability Alliance's Citizen Jury: http://learningdisabilityalliance.org/Warmest thanks again for kindly accepting our invitation. We do not take this for granted, and wish you well in your campaign.Matt CliftonTo which our candidate replied:
Rob Cox wrote:Dear Mr Clifton,Thanks for letting me know. I too am disappointed; its a shame that Mr Brazier and his Party is obviously too busy looking after “advantaged” people than to attend your event.Could an empty chair not have been found? I am sure the rest of us who do care enough to attend would have managed without his illustrious presence.I hope you have not felt under pressure, given the political dominance of the Tory Party at County Hall, not to cause more embarassment to Mr Brazier.I will share your message with our Blog committee. I am sure they will have something to say on the issue.Robert CoxSocialist Party Parliamentary Candidate – Canterbury and WhitstableWebsite: http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb Our candidates get emails from all sorts of campaigning groups asking them to pledge support for particular measures they want. Here's the reply of Kevin Parkin, our standing in Oxford East, to a questionnaire from a local cyclists' group:http://www.cyclox.org/raising-the-profile-of-cycling-in-oxford/elections-2/may-2015-general-election/kevin-par
Danny Lambert telling it like it is at an open air hustings in Vauxhall on Saturday.
http://www.islingtontribune.com/news/2015/apr/%E2%80%98use-right-buy-money-get-more-people-private-homes%E2%80%99Below is the full text I sent to the tribune (when asked) I've bolded the buit I quoted. Anyone get the reference? "The new extension of the right to buy is another hilarious example of the Tories making despotic inroads into the rights of private property: after changing the law to allow fracking under people's homes, they now want to seize the assets of private charitable associations to give away as electoral bribes.It is part and parcel of the problem of reforming capitalism, that so long as the market remains in place, any reform can be undone in a knock down fire sale by any party in government. In this case, the right to buy seems, to my mind, to be a smoke screen for making councils sell off their most valuable homes. In any case, the temptation to buy votes with state assets will always exist for governing parties.If any party succeeded, through taxation or borrowing, in building thousands more new social properties, they can be given away by the stroke of a secretary of state's pen at any future date. This is what we call primary accumulation, or accumulation through expropriation, where piles of money are made for individuals by sales of public or common properties. It has a history as old as the dissolution of the monasteries and the Enclosure Acts. As long as representatives of the capitalist class wield political power this sort of thing will go on.Bringing the wealth of the world into common and democratic ownership would prevent such accumulation of wealth, since land assets would have no economic value, only use value. There would be no more buying and selling, so there would be no means of disposing of common assets as private wealth. There would be no state power to sell them off a the whim of a minority. This is especially so, as common ownership is not possible without the active conscious decision and action of the overwhelming majority of people: why would they vote to give their homes away again?The Torie's plan is to enrich a minority. We could all own our homes, and have secure tenures, through common ownership."
The passage in bold comes from part 2 of the Communist Manifesto:https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch02.htmIt's near the end, introducing the (in)famous 10 points that Marx and Engels thought the proletariat should implement if it got control of political power in 1848 (though there was a fat chance of that).
"If elected, I would take instructions on how to vote on specific issues from those who elected me."Just to be pedantic about your answer to the cyclists, Kevin…according to the rule book you'll take your instructions from us…the Socialist Party, not your voters….i'm sure that is who you meant by those who elected you to stand as our candidate.
ALB wrote:The passage in bold comes from part 2 of the Communist Manifesto:Who'da thunk it would become the Tory manifesto…
Is 'twitter' being used during the Election Campaign?
Vin wrote:Is 'twitter' being used during the Election Campaign?Can't speak for anyone else but I 'tweet' certain events both during the election campaign as before it.
A non-constituency specific version of our election manifesto has been printed. 3000 will be delivered to Head Office tomorrow. Members and sympathisers can order some from Head Office bearing in mind that it's possible to distribute around 150 door to door in one hour. These should not be distributed in any of the 10 constituencies we are contesting as the manifestos encourage those who want socialism to write 'WORLD SOCIALISM' across their ballot paper! We do have other leaflets that members and sympathisers living in Brighton, Oxford or Islington North can distribute if they want.Remember too that we have ballot paper stickers which can also be used as general stickers simply by removing the top of line of text at the perforation.
Report of one of the recent Brighton Pavilion hustings attended by our candidate Howard Pilott, who's seated at the far end of the table in this picture:http://gscene.com/news/lgbt-hustings-all-candidates-support-proposal-for-nhs-gender-clinic-in-brighton/
Islignton Gazette Hustings last night, full slate of candidates. It was a bit hectic, the chair moved the goalposts a couple of times, and at one point it turned into a version of Juat a Minute with candidates having to quickly work through about 10 questions each. Got a couple of points across, that seem to have been picked up on the twitter feeds (search for Islington North and scroll down). Kind of fluffed my last lines (partly because the chair suddenly told us that instead of summation, our last batch of answers was a wind up as well). I made it about 60 present.
Video of the hustings in Botley, near Oxford, last Friday from a local on-line newspaper:http://www.oxfordshireguardian.co.uk/hustings-text/Mike appears about 3.36 minutes in for a minute and a half. Only problem is that we're again called in the accompanying text the "Socialist Workers Party". It seems that in remotest Oxfordshire that's all they've heard about socialism. A correction has been asked for and will no doubt be made. This evening Mike ventures even deeper into remote Oxfordshire, to a hustings at Wooton and Dry Sandford Community Centre.
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