Greens in London- I must have been living under a rock!

[UhOhRatPoo]

I have been quite busy at work recently so not following local politics that closely, but I had been reading the leaflets through my door and got the impression that my local council was a simple Labour v Lib Dem race.

I’m in a London Borough with a long history of Labour control. Thought it was time for a change, duly cast my votes for the Lib Dems only to wake up today and find that the Greens had come within 100 votes of unseating Labour in my ward, they have won loads of other wards, Labour has lost control and it’s now NOC with Greens second biggest party.
And the borough next door has a Green mayor and there are Green controlled councils all over London!

The Lib Dems are nowhere to be seen.

(I am ignoring Tories and Reform as they are totally irrelevant round here). How did I not see this coming?

I have nothing against the Greens, would possibly have voted for them if I’d realised they were a viable second party.

So you said “are you anti-Semetic?” And he said “gosh no, not I!”

How do you manage to reduce “I talked to him about” to just asking if someone is antisemitic and them saying no, except through ill will and a determination to disparage? If all your conversations are as unnuanced and abrupt, your household must be restful, if not well informed.

I work with existing Green Party councillors where I live and they are amazing...doing huge amounts of good in the community. Naturally they were reelected and more in neighbouring boroughs too.
Proven track record and a hopeful message I'd say

am confident the councillor candidate I voted for is not antisemetic. I specifically talked to him about this before making my decision.
How then did you ask? Did you manage to ask him the questions without the random personal derogatory comments? N.b I am assuming you meant to be snide/derogatory in your response to me.

This is lovely to hear! What do you make of the comments about the greens wanting to legalise drugs? And not respect women’s spaces? What good things have you seen from them?

Wonder what the job spec is for a deputy mayor of Hackney? I mean, being the mayor of Hackney can't take much time, can it? So what does the deputy do, other than make moronic statements to the media like this?

Reeling here. I've lived in the Borough of Lewisham for over 40 years. Labour stronghold all that time. For the last few years there's not been a single Councillor from any other party. Now we have a Green Mayor and 40 out of 54 Councillors are Green. Mayor has told Times Radio today that he'd like us to be twinned with a settlement in Gaza. Interesting times ahead!

This !

The orthodox Jewish community is represented on Hackney council. I think they have about six councillors, who all run under the Conservative banner and regularly get voted in - the only Tories on the council (that I know of)

Well, he wouldn’t have admitted he was, would he? Candidates tell people what they want to hear. All candidates.

The Lib Dems round here are exceptionally good at telling people they are the only viable alternative to the unpopular party in power (the Tories in my particular case here).

No they are not an anti semitic borough. They are in fact a borough with high levels of poverty and poor housing. Greens have been very vocal in the area about tackling these issues particularly housing and they are the only hope some people have. They’ve been extremely active with canvassing and seem genuinely concerned and want to help with these issues that really affect residents especially children. I think they’ll be a force for good and bring about change and improvements to the local area.

Unlike reform who have now got elected councillors who fully admit they are completely racist and seem to get away with whatever they want. Sunderland has a particularly bad one who made awful comments about pot holes and there are many others.

Happy to hear what the positives are some of the negatives sound concerning. I want them not to be the worst case scenario for our sakes.

From what you've said I think you live in the same borough as me, and it’s been widely anticipated since the election campaign began that the labour council would be very significantly challenged by the Green Party, and also that the neighbouring council would get a Green Party mayor and lost control to the greens. I think the final result in my Borough is actually slightly better than the polls suggested, and the Green Party didnt get an overall majority, but not in the neighbouring council which has been a labour stronghold for most of the time since 1968. There’s been loads of coverage in the news, and Ive noticed a sea of Green Party boards outside people’s houses in both boroughs, with comparatively few labour. I don’t think I’ve seen a single Lib Dem or conservative board anywhere in either borough.

I'm guessing part of the reason the Green wave has blindsided some is down to Polanski’s shrewd use of social media to campaign - The Algorithm will find you, if you’re that way inclined, but if you’re not, it’s a continuing landscape of blissful ignorance.

People want change.
Labour & conservatives are a shit show. Public services are in turmoil.

Politics feels increasingly tribalistic and divisive, which is reflected in the rise of the greens and reform - who I see as the most 'extreme' parties in terms of right & left.
They've both got 'charismatic' 🤢 leaders who get a lot of airtime for their empty promises.

I mean we're all fucked if this is the future, but apart from casting a vote for the least worst of these self serving egomaniacs, what can you do? I have not the time, appetite nor the character traits to go and stand for election myself. So I go to work, pay my taxes, feed my family and hope for he best.

At least the Greens & Reform are only deciding what potholes to fill and how often the bins are emptied at the minute. Polanski & Farage havent yet got the power to send me to the gulag.

Leaflets are put through your door by local party activists for free, and it's likely that labour & lib Dems have more of those that the greens do.

However a lot more noise online about voting green to stop reform and all that, so their success probably coming from there.

LDs didn't do terribly all in all, they look to have gone up about 15% more seats and won more seats than the conservatives (*in this round)
But all everyone wants to talk about is reform 🙄

My borough has gone Green from Labour. I wasn’t surprised. I’m interested to see what difference it’s going to make on the day to day life of the residents. Time will tell I guess. I read a FB post from an outgoing Labour councillor this morning who had been in post for many years and certainly seemed to have done a good job and was well liked. One person commented about her role in (extremely unpopular) planning decisions. Our area have had several high rise developments in the last few years. One of the Green’s key policies is around housing.
Her reply was to explain how the planning process works, that she had absolutely no role / vote in it at all and how decisions will go to government level if declined locally. She said that the Green’s won’t know this. So essentially are up for a rude awakening (not her words, she was polite and measured).

So, let’s see what happens next and what differences we see. I’m thankful though that there was never a risk of my borough turning pale blue!

In the run up I heard a few people in London very fired up about voting Green. By and large they were comfortably well-off people. The sort who will end up paying the new mansion tax.

But you can see all the Green party London councillors here:
https://london.greenparty.org.uk/about-us/london-councillors/

They'll get between around £11,000-15,000 a year for the basic role (plus expenses, and more for more senior work) and it can be a second job. 10-35 hours a week.

With that in mind, I'd like to encourage more Mumsnetters to consider becoming councillors as I think it's the type of role that works well around childcare.

https://www.local.gov.uk/be-councillor/becoming-councillor-0#1-why-become-a-councillor-

I tend to drive the same route every day from a fairly high average income bit of my borough to the most affluent part. Lots of Labour and Lib dem placards in gardens, maybe 2 or 3 Green party posters taped to the inside of windows. I obviously wasn’t in the right parts to see this sea of Green that you did. Must get out more…

There was an article in the Guardian yesterday about paper candidates and that both Reform and Green stood candidates where they had no expectation of winning and where the candidates were not expecting to be successful. Several Reform and at least one Green councillors have already resigned because they never seriously wanted the job. The candidate they interviewed had previously seriously stood but now had more work commitments. He said they hadn't campaigned in his area. However, now he's in he intends to do the job well.

Apparently it's to do with wanting to appear on more ballots. Personally I think it should be banned - what a waste of time and money now by elections need to be held.

The Greens regularly oppose house building so not sure how they’re going to sort housing. Same for building renewables infrastructure. Which is ironic.

Improving current housing conditions

I voted green, but would have voted lib dem if they had fielded a candidate. I don't think I would vote green in a general election, but I do strongly support their policy of a wealth tax. So many people state Gaza as the reason they are getting votes, I don't support the genocide but its not something I give much thought to day to day. I can't see a lot of people thinking about it as much as mumsnet seems to.