The Green Party should stand everywhere
One of the strengths of our general election campaign last year was standing a full slate of candidates; it underlined that we are a major political Party and contributed greatly to our best ever result.
I strongly believe we should continue with this strategy. There is a lot of speculation at the moment around the new Corbyn / Sultana left Party (‘Your Party’) and what our relationship with them should be.
I remember the hype around ‘Respect’ when it launched 20 years ago and how it was portrayed as a major threat to us – it’s a distant memory now. ‘Your Party’ looks like it will be more substantial, but we don’t know yet what its shape, priorities or full policy platform will be. Jeremy Corbyn in his recent Guardian article focused on grass-roots community action rather than political strategy. It has been noticeable that Corbyn and Sultana barely acknowledge the existence of the Green Party, talking as if there is no current option for left-inclined voters.
I hear and see discussions among some Green Party members around ‘alliance’, ‘joint candidates’, possibly even merger – I don’t think this is the right direction for us to go at all. Standing down weakens us and deprives the voters of choice. There’s widespread recognition now that the ‘unite-to-remain’ arrangement we made with the Lib Dems and others in 2019 was a mistake.
The ‘split the vote’ argument is generally exaggerated – people vote for parties and candidates for all sorts of reasons; they don’t generally think in terms of ‘left’ and ‘right’. There will be voters who would vote Green but never for this new party, and vice versa, and we will both take votes from people who would vote Reform in our absence, despite the ideological gulf. Also, and I would argue and have argued that the more broadly progressive parties that are in the mix, the more it shifts the ‘Overton window’ to the left; currently it is far too far to the right.
The thought of a Reform government horrifies me, but recent polling suggests an absolute Reform majority under first-past-the-post, on no more than a third of the vote. We need to up the pressure for a proportional voting system; what will ‘Your Party’s position be on that? It’s not exactly been a fixture of Corbyn’s long political career.
Our approach to this new party (and to other parties or independents with whom we share some values) with regard to the next general election should be one of ‘non-aggression’ – no standing down but communicating informally about where we are each targeting (which soon becomes obvious anyway). Those who want to vote tactically will do so.
In election after election over decades Labour in particular have hassled us to stand down. I don’t want to see any other party treating us like that (and by the same token we should not treat other parties or good independents in that way).
Our Parliamentarians already liaise and work with other broadly progressive MPs and peers on an issue-by-issue basis and will continue to do so. At council level our councillors work extensively with other parties and independents to run councils. At both levels we retain our own philosophy and culture, whilst negotiating from that position to achieve the best outcomes.
Our broad policy platform based on climate, social and economic justice and refined by our members over many years is unique and worth fighting for. Our full slate approach, enabling every voter to have the choice to vote Green is very much something that I will continue to support and argue for if I am re-elected to the post of GPEx Elections Coordinator.
Brian Candeland is a candidate for the Green Party’s elections coordinator
Image credit: Jon Craig – Creative Commons
Absolutely agree, we should be telling like minded parties where we are targeting so we don’t split the vote, but still stand non target seats in every single seat.
This piece seems to conflate ‘alliances’ and ‘joint candidacies’ with ‘standing down’. There are many ways of working with other parties to maximise the number of seats won by parties whose values broadly align with those of the Greens, and minimise hard right seats. These ways of working are all based on mutual respect, co-operation, and trust – in other words, Green values. Surely it’d be better to have a majority of seats won by parties on the left, particularly if the candidates support PR, rather than risk splitting the vote? Ideally we’d have PR and could vote for our first choice, but being more pragmatic could be a path to PR. It’s all very well giving voters a choice, but if the far right win a majority of seats, they will surely limit choice.
It’s not just a binary choice between ‘standing everywhere’ or ‘standing down’. There are hundreds of Green councillors working constructively with councillors representing other parties, so it wouldn’t be such a huge leap to build trust and talk with their colleagues from other parties about how they could work together.
The Corbyn /Sultana camp , have always dismissed The Greens , they don’t see us as a left party, a serious party, I find some of the talk coming from their supporters quite unsettling, why would we merge , or stand down our candidates, some have even called for the party to be dismantled, that kind of talk is not very comradely, and so very like the Labour Party. I vote Green and will campaign for Green candidates I certainly am not interested in voting for a candidate with no Green credentials,what would the point be , my experience around these people years ago tells me they care very little about animal kind , and the environment, let’s be wary of the party with no name , but most importantly let’s focus on giving people a choice and getting our policies out there ,
Sorry can’t agree. Hearing peoples opinions I believe we should treat the new Party as partners in an alliance until they are not.
It’s not about winning it’s about the policies and if they can inject them better in an area and let them do it. I would like us not to stand against Jeremy Corbyn or Feinstein (Independent) , Sultana and any other people with whom many of us agree. Starmerites and Farage are our enemy, not radical lefties. We don’t have time , the planet doesn’t have time for squabbling and rivalry.!
The labour libdem strategy of non aggression in target seats worked well for them could be a model to replicate