Green Councillors, Labour MPs

Dec 3, 2020

My blog for LSE British Politics was published this week https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/green-party-strategy/. In it I argue that the electoral and political obstacles faced by the Greens necessitate a change of strategy.  At the local level the Greens should give their all to elect councillors who will increase the prospects for climate action in local communities. But at the national level, the vain quest for more Green MPs should give way to a recognition that the best hope for a decisive change in national direction is the election of Labour government at the earliest possible opportunity. This will require progressives of all hues to stand aside in nearly all cases to enable Labour to unseat as many Conservatives as possible. Can the Greens rise to this challenge, putting aside the short-term wishes of its activists in the interests of a change in government? Or is the party totally invested in an illusory quest for more parliamentary representation no matter what the likely consequences? A lot depends on the answers.

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Paying the Price

Paying the Price

Why parties that turn their back on civil society face electoral upheaval My blog on the article I wrote with Sarah de Lange and Wouter van der Brug, published in Party Politics last December, has gone live on the LSE European Politics blog site. In it we argue that...

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Holding onto voters in volatile times

Holding onto voters in volatile times

My first paper with Sarah de Lange https://www.uva.nl/en/profile/l/a/s.l.delange/s.l.delange.html and Wouter van der Brug https://www.uva.nl/en/profile/b/r/w.vanderbrug/w.van-der-brug.html was published online by Party...

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UK Greens – stuck in the slow (bus) lane.  Time to turn local?

UK Greens – stuck in the slow (bus) lane. Time to turn local?

The Greens in England and Wales have had a couple of good showings in recent opinion polls. The reality though is that the Party has no foreseeable chance of increasing its parliamentary representation or enacting its own version of the Green New Deal. Only the Labour Party can effectively represent progressives hope of a decisive change of direction for the country.

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