General Election – Campaign News

[alanjjohnstone]

Many thanks for the clarification but i was right in the sense that the legal reason is not the Lobbying Act but as your link says Political Parties Elections and Referendums Act 2000 …So following this…shouldn't the political parties be paying for the TV debates which are by definition selective hustings? If so, could we make an official protest that they aren't following their own rules. i do note the get-out clauses in "good practice recommendations" but will the tv companies actually abide by these by issuing an official disclaimer before or after their broadcasts…i very much doubt it…  Lets be awkward and those members with pedantic hair-splitting legalistic minds draft our official protest. Just cost the price of a stamp and might result in publicity….It worked for the Greens…Who knows …perhaps Cameron will say he won't participate unless the SPGB are involved. 

[ALB]

Mark Chapman, of the Pirate Party, a minor reformist party, is also standing in Vauxhall:https://london.pirateparty.org.uk/2014/09/30/mark-chapman-selected-as-ge2015-candidate-for-vauxhall/Why do they just want open access to the internet and not to the other things in life?

[ALB]

Thanks, Brian, that's an important document that we need to make sure all our candidates and election agents have:http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/169480/sp-hustings-npc-ukpge.pdfIt is a considerable improvement on past advice the Electoral Commission have given. There is still a let-out clause but hustings organisers will need to be careful if they try to exclude us as we will force them to show that they were being impartial:

Quote:

To show your hustings is non – selective you should : • be able to give impartial reasons why you have not invited particular candidates or parties. Y ou should be prepared to explain your reasons to candidates or parties you haven’t invited • make sure that candidates or parties you invite represent a reasonable variety of view, from different parts of the political spectrum • allow each candidate or party representative attending a fair chance to answer questions and, where appropriate, a reasonable opportunity to respond to points made against them by other candidates or party representative • inform the audience at the meeting of candidates or parties stan ding who haven’t been invited. Impartial reasons may emerge from the following considerations: • local prominence of some parties or candidates over others • the number of elected representatives at the local or national level • recent election results in the area • resources and other practicalities constraining numbers of invitees • security concerns Impartial reasons do not include reasons such as your views on the policies of a candidate or party.

[jondwhite]

ALB wrote:

Mark Chapman, of the Pirate Party, a minor reformist party, is also standing in Vauxhall:https://london.pirateparty.org.uk/2014/09/30/mark-chapman-selected-as-ge2015-candidate-for-vauxhall/Why do they just want open access to the internet and not to the other things in life?

Well they'd probably say the economic cost is low to opening access to the internet.On a more interesting note, if you look up Policy Beta, they appear to have a more open democratic structure. 'Probably the most democratic party in the world', as someone once recently claimed albeit not about the Pirate party.

[Anonymous]

Two more invitations to participate in hustings.Tuesday, 21st April at Cheney School, Oxford, between 5.30 and 7.30pm (exact timings to be confirmed)Friday, 24th April at Christchurch College, Canterbury. (more information in due course)

[ALB]

AlsoMonday 16 March 7pm. Hall of Wesley Memorial Church, New Hall Street, Oxford (centre)Wednesday 15 April 6pm. Student Union Hall, Oxford Brookes University, Gipsy Lane Campus.More details nearer the time.Other news from Oxford is that TUSC will be standing in Oxford East.

[Anonymous]

The two prospective candidates for Brighton Pavilion and Brighton Kemptown, Howard Pilott and Jacqueline Shodeke respectively, will be attending an election briefing, along with myself as election agent, at Brighton Town Hall on Monday, 2 March.We're hoping to be able to pick up our nomination packs on the same day.

[ALB]

ALB wrote:

Mark Chapman, of the Pirate Party, a minor reformist party, is also standing in Vauxhall:

It doesn't look as if we're going to need Screaming Lord Such to liven things up in Vauxhall. As well as the Pirate Party the Whig Party will be standing:http://spgb.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/after-pirates-whigs.html

[Anonymous]

Report from Rob Cox on the Canterbury Hustings last night.

Quote:

This was my first experience of appearing at a hustings meeting. There must have been about 80 people there (mostly students  at the University) – many more than I expected.The evening started with a two-minute statement from each candidate.  I had the ‘privilege’ of going first instead of the sitting MP, Tory candidate Julian Brazier, who was late attending.In my statement, I pointed out that “We live in a world where we can send machines into space to land on distant planets. Yet hundreds of millions lack basic human needs or live just a salary cheque away from destitution because making profits has to take priority” and that “The Socialist Party is standing to raise the issue of ending this system and replacing it with one which is designed to meet people’s needs.”Interestingly the Green candidate described himself as an “eco-socialist” and held his views “for some of the reasons that Rob mentioned”.There were then three questions from the chair and nine from the floor, which each candidate answered.There was one question on how our policies would impact on the university so I introduced them to the concept and consequences of the abolition of money and wage slavery, which went down well with some of them.The UKIP candidate put his foot in it by saying they would fund students as long they took the right courses, and even the chair had a go at him about that.There was a question on national debt so I explained how booms and busts are natural in capitalism.I also got to explain how nation states were an artificial creation and about how there are only two classes and racial divisions are not scientifically valid.  And that they were better joining a trade union than expecting governments to support human rights.There was a question on NATO membership which gave me an opportunity to explain that we have opposed all wars since WW1 and were the only party to do so, and advised that the best way they could stop a war was to refuse to join the army. The Tory didn’t seem to agree as he went out of his way to say “I support the soldiers”.At the end the audience was asked to vote on whether they planned to vote in the election (most did), if they had made up their mind how (most had), and whether the debate had changed their minds (a handful agreed).A couple of the candidates and several students said they thought I had done well – maybe out of sympathy!There was a drinks reception afterwards and I was there until gone ten chatting to students. They were interested in how we compared to the left and anarchist groups, and our stance on Marx and elections. I took a few Q&A leaflets along that went down well.One of them said he was persuaded to vote for us and would like to go on the branch contact list.I also got an invite to speak on a student union radio show and today the Whitstable ‘Churches Together’ group phoned to invite me to a Hustings on Thursday 30 April at 7pm (details to follow).

Rob has also received an invitation to talk to residents of a retirement complex sometime in March.

[ALB]

Our candidates in Swansea and Vauxhall have received between them nearly a hundred identical emails, apparently via 38 Degrees:

Quote:

I'm concerned about the recent revelations that HSBC has been helping the super-rich dodge their tax, and that the government has not been acting to stop this. As a prospective parliamentary candidate in my area, can you let me know what you pledge to do to crack down on tax dodging and prevent scandals like HSBC from happening again?

To which we have replied:

Quote:

Thanks for your enquiry. The Socialist Party is not particularly concerned
that the super-rich dodge paying their taxes. We are more concerned with
the existence of a class of super-rich within society.

Their income and wealth derives from the exploitation of the rest of us
who, by our work, produce all the wealth of society. Socialism will put an
end to this by making the means of wealth production common property under
the democratic control of the community. There will be no rich or
super-rich nor poor or super-poor, just a classless society of free and
equal men and women cooperating to produce and distribute what they need
in accordance with the socialist principle of "from each according to
their ability, to each according to their needs".

If you wish to know more about what the Socialist Party stands for don't
hesitate to ask.

[steve colborn]

Capitalism controls governments Readers' LettersPublished on the 11 February201511:19 0 comments Be the first to commentACTUALLY, David Ridley (Gazette, Feb 6), governments have no control over the economics they espouse! If capitalism is in a boom phase, governments claim success, and to be the ‘authors’ of this success.If capitalism is in one of its slump phases, governments throw up their hands and say ‘Not our fault, guv, it was the world economy what done it!’The latter is the cause of the good times and bad, full stop. Steve Colborn,The Socialist Party,Ivy Avenue,Seaham,Letter Shields Gazette Wed 11 Feb.

[steve colborn]

. ‘Capitalism is the problem’ Readers' LettersPublished on the 18 February201512:16 0 comments Be the first to commentI CAN see where you’re going with your letter Mr Wiffin (‘Stranglehold of Labour’, Gazette, Feb 16) If, as I believe, you are positing getting UKIP elected, this is no choice either. The cause of the problems will remain: capitalism. UKIP, as with all the others – Tory, Labour, LibDem, Green etc – support this system of insanity!The idea is not, nor can it be, merely to change the organ grinders. We have to take possession of the organ into our own hands.Then, and only then, can we, as the majority, decide what tunes are played – tunes that will be in the interests of all mankind, not merely a tiny, select few.Steve Colborn,The Socialist Party,Ivy Avenue,Seaham,Letter Shields Gazette Wed 18th Feb.    

[alanjjohnstone]

A daring election video by a spoof political party challenging UKIP in Farage's constituency. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9Gn04SLiyYhttp://rt.com/uk/233831-zebab-troll-ukip-farage/We could be just as controversial in our satire too…with a video of a declaration of our class war upon capitalism and capitalists…

[ALB]

We have a new opponent in Vauxhall: Left Unity..Their candidate is Simon Hardy, ex-Workers Power, the Trotskyist group that stood against us there in 2010,http://leftunity.org/simon-hardy-left-unity-candidate-for-vauxhall/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=simon-hardy-left-unity-candidate-for-vauxhall He still seems to consider himself a bit of a Bolshevik-Leninist but one of those who try to argue that Lenin wasn't really a Leninist, i.e didn't really believe in a top-down, highly disciplined vanguard party to lead the discontented masses  (when he clearly did):http://anticapitalists.org/2012/12/28/building-a-revolutionary-organisation-i/In any event, he still seems to be a member of the Dead Russians Society.

[alanjjohnstone]

To repeat from the WW article

Quote:

Left Unity’s officers make a solemn “public pledge”. They say: “we will support any candidate, whether they are from the Greens, the Labour left or a smaller party committed to equality, who states clearly that they will never vote for austerity and whose record leads us to believe that they are sincere.” On that basis our officers write: “Not only will we not be standing against these candidates: we will actively campaign for them where possible.”

I wonder if there is any advantage to be had in officially emailing the LU directly and asking for an explanation in what sense they consider us to be pro-austerity and therefore to be stood against….Get it in writing how they actually view the SPGB politics…they may provide ammunition that we can use against them.I wonder if the Green Party who are standing also in Vauxhall might also be querying this ambiguity. 

[Author]

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