Our Euroelection campaign
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The BBC One South East Today TV news programme is due to interview Andy Thomas, one of our EU election candidates, this morning.
According to the schedule ,the programme goes out at 13:30, 18:30 and 22:25You may also be able to access the interview online via these links:
To do this you need to be registered with BBC I Player but it’s free.It wasn’t on the lunchtime news so presumably it will be on the 6.30 one.
Meanwhile, here’s our other TV appearance, last Sunday, by Anton Pruden on BBC East for the benefit of their viewers in the Milton Keynes area. It’s about 21.30 or so minutes in (you need to be registered with BBC I Player):
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0005d1w/sunday-politics-east-19052019
If you continue listening you will notice that another candidate in the South East, Pacelli Ndikumana, of the UK European Union Party, gets more time.
It was on the 6.30 South East local news, in the second half of the programme with our logo prominently shown at the beginning with those of the other parties as well as the interview with Andy Thomas.
I did the last hustings of our campaign in Brockenhurst last night. It was organised by a Remain group, New Forest for Europe. There were about 100 people present and 10 parties represented (no Brexit Party candidate, unsurprisingly). After opening statements all candidates were asked a few questions and I’ve briefly summarised my answers to them below:
Q. We find ourselves in a unique position where some of you (the candidates) wish that the positions you’ve proposed yourselves for didn’t actually exist. Can you tell us how you see your party’s role within the EU Parliament if you’re elected?
I said that our party’s approach to the Euro elections is the same as our approach to national elections, which is that we would take our seats if elected, but we would use it as a platform or tribune to advocate solely for socialism. The reason being that our party has no intention of trying to reform capitalism, an approach that cannot work.
Q. Many people are saying that democracy is broken. Do you agree? What would you do to fix it?
I said that we have limited political democracy in the UK (although elections are massively subverted by donations and vested interests). But there’s no economic democracy: we must all work for an employer who will exploit us, or we will starve. And no democracy in distribution – 8 men have much wealth as half the world’s population. So we need a truly democratic society where ordinary people control production and distribution. We are a party with a fully democratic structure that reflects the kind of society we want – no leader, run by members, no personality cult.
Q. Last week the UK Government were the only EU state to miss the deadline on claiming aid to benefit the poorest people in this country, losing £600k and jeopardising £2.9m in future payments. What would you do to ensure that the UK Government uphold and take advantage of all EU funding opportunities?
This is not really a question for us, because even if the interpretation of the UK government’s missed deadline is correct, we don’t need to take part in the ‘reorganisation of poverty’. We live right now in a society of potential abundance. Therefore we don’t need a system of rationing, which is all that a money system is. We need to unlock the wealth that is being kept from us and use it to transform society. We don’t want crumbs, we want the bakery.
Q. EU migration to the UK has dropped to a 10 year low putting increasing pressure on our agricultural, hospitality and service industries. Who will fill these roles if we leave the EU?
This is partly a question about ‘freedom of movement’. The limited freedom of movement that the EU has afforded some workers is one of the few benefits of EU membership for ordinary people; but let’s also remember that the EU is also preventing freedom of movement elsewhere, effectively drowning refugees into the Mediterranean (not much response to this from the Hard Remain audience). The question of who ‘we’ (i.e. capitalists) will find to exploit if EU workers are not here is not our concern as socialists representing the working class. We want a world without ANY exploitation.
In the open questions at the end, I challenged the Labour candidate’s claim that Labour represent the only challenge to the ‘rise of the right’, pointing out that the last Labour government actually ‘out-righted the right’ with dawn raids on immigrant families, detention centres and Gordon Brown’s infamous ‘British Jobs for British Workers’ slogan, taken from the BNP (I think?)
A few people I spoke to at the end said thanks for our contribution to the debate. ‘I didn’t know you could be so far left’, said one! (I pointed out that we’re not on the left and she said she’d explore our literature). A kindly email from one of the organisers this morning: “Out of everyone I think you stirred the most interest, in a landscape where we are used to politicians using different words to say the same thing, to have a view that is completely different was great and for me completely fascinating”.
Not sure how to post either Stephen.
“Other” polling at 2% for South East. What else is included in that? Three independents and the UKEU Party?
UKIP and Change had their own stat
Yes, that’s all “other” can be: the UKEU Party and the 3 Independents (who have done virtually no activity) and us. Could include, I suppose, those who intend to cast a blank or spoiled ballot paper. 2% is what you need to get your deposit back. If there is a chance of us getting that, as election agent I’ll need to go to Southampton to be able to ask for a recount if we get 1.99% ! At the moment I’m only planning to go to the count in Guilford. Where did you see that stat?
“Sorry, but I can’t work out how to add photos here. Perhaps somebody more technically proficient can add them here from Facebook?”
Right click on photo to open link in a new window then copy image and paste.
Thanks but there’s something odd about those figures. They show people saying they are going to vote for “Other” when there are no “Others” standing, e.g. in Wales and the North East. In that case “other” could include any party that those polled said they would vote for even if not standing, e.g. BNP, CPB, Women’s Equality Party, etc. We will have to see what happens today (though of course with postal voting a substantial proportion of people have already voted), but which won’t be revealed till 10 o’clock on Sunday.
Perhaps it included spoils as you say? Either way , just a poll.
How has everyone’s polling day been. Whacked a couple of stickers on my ballot and wrote in each box for good measure.
Upon leaving I realised I’d actually used the wrong phrase in the Labour box…but think it still fits 😂
I put the sticker on my ballot paper, one of the longest I’d seen because there were eleven independents each paying £5000. Also had a phone call from the widow of a member in Surrey who was so pleased that she had been able to vote for socialism for the first time in her life.
Once again the i newspaper has been shown to be a useful publication in which to place our inserts and, currently, our election manifestos. 185k went out with last Wednesday’s South edition (15 May) and has so far brought well in excess of 100 requests for the 3 free Standard offer. Around 75% of respondents also asked for an information pack.
On Sunday some of our candidates will be attending the South East regional results collation in Southampton.
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