Would or will you vote Green if it was the only way to change a Council that has traditionally been Labour?

[IwantToRetire]

That's the situation in my council area.

Not going to list issues in my area as maybe a bit identifying, but in terms of local issues they have lost the plot.

I am not a member of or ever been a supporter of any political party.

I usually just vote for a local independent candidate, but as the suggestion is the Greens could get in, should I vote for them to get Labour out, when I despise their treatment of women.

These guys in Sheffield did advertise, but then Charlie Downes went on X and said this was fake news. As far as I've been able to discover, they're former Reform members who went to Advance last year and then to Restore. A bunch of people forming Restore branches fit that profile.

They seem to be bona fide members to me, and the only explanation I have for Charlie throwing them under the bus is that he's trying to appease Restore's very different online fanbase, most of whom are American and/or too young to remember when the BNP had its whites-only membership policy ruled illegal.

Hypnoboobs"s new press officer spews vile anti-Semitic hate over social media and denies the (documented) rapes and other sexualised violence that took place on Oct 7.
https://theantisemitismfiles.substack.com/p/the-antisemitic-oct-7-rape-denialism
The Mail reported the same story.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15602697/Green-Party-spin-doctor-denies-women-raped-October-7-attacks.html

I sympathise. This is my situation. The behaviour of Labour Councillors has been so bad. Not sure if it is complacency or the fact that far from traditional Labour values they think "ordinary" people are just an irritant to them ingratiating themselves with richer incomers.

And not clear when Labour's policies about women's sex based rights are no better than the Greens, why anyone thinks local residents should have their rights as residents disregarded.

If getting rid of Labour is enough of a shakeup for the Town Hall to actually remember it is there for its rate payers not for local politicians to indulge their vanity projects (many of which are the same as the Greens).

The only real difference is probably the public position of Labour on Gaza as opposed to what members think, and the Green's public position.

@IwantToRetireI agree, and the stance on Gaza is something that I feel passionately about. It’s the reason why I couldn’t bring myself to vote labour at the last General Election.

Absolutely batshit.

never

Will be fun watching them collide with reality when they have to manage budgets where 90% of council spending is on social care and SEN. Plus having to empty bins and fix potholes and fly tipping. Emoting over Gaza isn't going to get these jobs done

The Gazans aren't going to empty your bins.

I find him as creepy as Mandelson, with a strange deathly pallor, which granted he can't help! The scary thing is that the young, like my 24year old son, think he's the bees' knees.

I think you cant have been reading this thread.

Throughout I have said I am only interested in local issues and services.

As politically on a national level there isn't much difference between Green and Labour policies on women's sex based rights etc. And the bit you picked out of context was about how similar greend and labour are, apart from Gaza, and the difference there probably wasn't that different between members of each parties but not the leaders.

But what you and others haven't been able to say is if there is a serious problem with how local people are being treated by Labour councils whether your opinions on the national politics of each party should decide whether local people should be disrespected by Labour on the off chance that the Greens might be better.

So you might have thought it was clever, but your comment doesn't deal with the issue itself.

Local people being stitched up by Labour and the only option for change is to get the Greens elected.

Or are you saying that local people should just suck it up and be disregarded because on a political level you want to grand stand about the Greens.

And if so will you pay me compensation at the end of the next 4 years of Labour maladministration for the negative impact on my and other local people's lives.

The city in which I live is a Labour stronghold, but also one in which the Greens already have a few councillors, and maybe stand a chance of taking one seat at a general election. The problem with the Greens, though, is that they are so anti development. They oppose almost every proposal; right down to opposing a long vacant park gardener's shed being turned into a cafe for local neighbours and people visiting the park. ( it went ahead.....providing jobs, paying local business rates and is enjoyed by lots of people)

What many cities require is regeneration and new development; new and upgraded facilities and public realm; new housing; new businesses; more diversity of employment and so on. The greens are anti capitalist and anti profit; they seem to think a city can survive and thrive on credit unions, ceilidhs, local bakeries and community laundrettes. Even without the rest of the mad-cap stuff, they'd be an absolute disaster for my city.

One benefit of the Greens’ surge is that Labour will be much less likely to act on its stupid idea of giving 16 year olds the vote in a GE.

Not only giving 16 year olds the vote, but asking them to choose a government when they've been banned from social media.

I swear, we're seeing the constitution being rewritten in real time based on what might help this useless PM survive a little longer.

As for local government, my council (Labour) is underwhelming, and the main local opposition (Greens and Gaza independents) do not fill me with tremendous confidence either.

Though I still haven't seen a canvasser, so I might end up voting for whoever bothers to ask me.

Could I ask you @IwantToRetire to promise to come back to this thread on May 8th and let us know what the results were in the ward you are voting for and the overall control of the Council so we can understand that you genuinely had no other way to remove Labour from having control of the Council than by voting for 3 (as I assume your area is like most having an all-out election due to boundary changes) local councillors from the Green Party?

I live in a Liberal Democrat Council which is well run and that’s who I will be voting for. I have never lived an a council run by Labour apart from when I lived in Brighton a long time ago.

Donkeys years ago I used to vote Green in the EU elections, when they had green policies. I can't see how putting the current lot in charge would be an improvement on Labour. They genuinely frighten me, not just their policies but as individuals.
I look at the state of things now and wonder how these people got so much power so fast.

I totally hear you on Labour. I want them out too. Sadly the Greens seem to think they are the only ones who can do it here.

I still won’t vote for them, I just can’t endorse some of their stuff with a vote.

I look at the state of things now and wonder how these people got so much power so fast.

That's a debate for another thread, but when the established parties decided during the run-up to the last GE to ignore the IFS and just about everyone else pointing out the gaping holes in their economic plans they made life much easier for populists selling the notion that if you will the end, you also magically will the means.

Lab campaigned on a one word manifesto, promising that corruption and cronyism would end and everything would be fixed, with their morally impeccable guy in charge. No more politicking, just reassuringly dull competence. By my count that promise didn't survive the summer of 2024 and it's been downhill since.

We need politicians with the courage and skills to make and win a political argument.

No. I have voted Green many times but they are absolutely batshit crazy now and have some really dangerous policies imho.

Yes. Same here. I voted for them in the past, specifically because of their environmental policies. In fact, Tories Ben and Zac Goldsmith are more campaigners for the environment than they are!

No. They've gone utterly mad.

Most voters were tired of the musical chairs of constantly changing leaders in the Tory Party and the chaos it caused. The MSM cream themselves over this with orgasmic joy. Ordinary voters just feel insecure. Starmer looked like a stable leader who would provide a stable Government. That's all. There was no great love for him. What the media do is cause a climate of suspicion and instability. They are LOVING the chaos!

Most of us would like Ministers who sit down at a desk and get on with their effin job without being replaced every 6 months. The NHS, transport, youth unemployment, housing etc really does need sorting out. We also like councils who empty bins, repair roads and sweep the streets and don't waste our time agonising over conflicts in the Middle East.

Labour caused it. They only have themselves to blame.

To a certain extent, the various factions who want rid of Starmer. The next incumbent doesn't bear thinking about and whoever it is will get a mauling from our lovely tabloids.