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.

It's genuinely frightening. Both parties are extreme and will be disastrous, but it's as if people are sleepwalking.

I agree - the thought of a Reform or Green government scares me.

Maybe people will vote more cautiously in a General Election?

No, because the government won't have solved every social and economic problem without raising taxes.

I can imagine someone who is a party member being outraged at the current governments attitude to the situation in Gaza and wanting to jump ship, I'm sure its happened before with the Iraq war and other wars.

However a PP has stated 'I can't believe X borough voted green, are they a borough of antisemites?' it's pretty ignorant to the other issues people are facing on a daily basis, along with the huge unpopularity of the labour party right now.

Who do you think dissatisfied labour voters should vote for?

Preferably not a party known for having so many antisemitic candidates.

Lib Dems maybe?

@LivingDeadGirlUK
You should vote for a party that isn't so extremist. The Greens would cause absolute anarchy with their policies on education, policing, defence etc. Have you read their manifesto?

You don't see a difference between the Iraq war, in which UK forces were fighting, and the conflict in Gaza, where no UK forces are fighting? Why is Palestine the only diplomatic issue that some UK politicians and voters think is relevant in local council elections? What about the long-lasting conflicts in Sudan, Myanmar, Ukraine? China's persecution of the Uyghur people?

💯

I really miss Caroline Lucas! She was clever, sensible, articulate, courageous, and genuinely cared about the environment. And was not an extremist lunatic. Why are there not more like her? Is that really too much to ask for in our elected representatives?

I agree. Unfortunately the party seems to have been hijacked. There must surely still be some genuine ecologist members to stand up to this?

A lot of the old “ecologists” have left. The Greens unfortunately have been infiltrated by omnicause activists on one side and opportunist Trojan Horse extremists on the other.

I can only hope that the successful candidates devote themselves to examining dreary budgets and licensing applications and do not imagine they’ll be funding endless transgender programmes or twinning with Palestine (some of the promises made….).

Yes, I do wonder how some of these people who rant online will actually cope in a council chamber, where chanting and memes will not suffice.

Having been involved in local council, a fair few councillors don’t turn up to meetings (but happily trouser the allowances). Also very few people are financially literate, and the job of councillors is to oversee/question budgets and projections.

In my borough a not inconsiderable number of councillors were very elderly and one or two were well into dementia. Parties find it difficult to field candidates so old Norma/Norman stands again. I may be wrong, but I’m a bit sceptical of whether many of the more “alternative” new councillors will be up to the job.

I think that's probably a fair assessment, however, in my local council, a couple of good, hard working, decent councillors have lost their seats to the Greens. Which is regrettable.

I suppose the difference is that the UK government is not selling weapons to the aggressor in those conflicts. My understanding is that the protests are about putting pressure on the government to reduce it's support for Israel.

I think the clearest analogy is the anti-apartheid protests of the 1980s, which also became a cause celebre among the left, including many labour councils, while being decried by the right.

If it's true that the protests are about putting pressure on the government to reduce it's support for Israel, then why isn't that reflected in the chants?

From the river to the sea ... Globalise the Intifada ... these are not about the UK government.

Suggest you take a look into UK arms being used in Sudan and then ask yourself if your understanding is correct? Maybe join the next mass-march in London protesting the conflict there and the hundreds of thousands of lives lost…oh wait! When is the next one?

Lib Dem’s won 44/48 seats in my London borough

Yes, I don't recall chants and banners calling for the release of the hostages, either.

The biggest purchaser of UK arms sales, by far, is Saudi Arabia. Who are they using them against?
Why are there no marches and protests about that?

Neither do I and surely we all wanted that so where were those who like to protest then??

I wonder how many of their councillors have a low capacity for work related activity, UC claim.

Indeed. After all, that's what precipitated the war, so their release would have been a move towards peace, surely?

You would think so...

They are mostly using them against the Houthis. Presumably there is no protest about it because no one gives a shit about them or Yemenis in general.