Corb Blimey!

[George C.]

Good work Agent Gonzo. The prospect of an extended dry boke for you probably guarantees another Green surge...

Except am not 'Gonzo', Illiterate Tool.

[johnr]

The number of seats where it doesn't really matter (ie, where Labour are widely forecast to be as hapless or worse than ever) isn't the handful of your wishful thinking, but pretty close to 300- NI, Scotland and almost all of Southern England outside London.

I promise you that I have no wishful thinking, as I have no idea what the numbers are on this. It was a more general point - as Lucas says the Greens are socialists, why doesn't she and her supporters back Labour, who have a chance of implementing socialism?

[Snake Plissken]

She has been much more clear-headed and sensible about Labour's Brexit position than anyone.

[johnr]

I can't believe you're being so obtuse John, other than it's a chin-stroking point which works for the Brighton Pavilion Labour activist community to resolve their cognitive dissonance.
She doesn't advise her followers firstly because they're not her followers; that whole 'I have a certain amount of support which is 'mine' and can be moved around like soldiers on General Melchett's war map' is a distinctly Labour way of thinking, and lies at the enmity between the two parties in Brighton. Secondly, because she's trying to build a party she's spent her whole life building which has a fundamentally different political starting point.

Sorry, NHH, I wasn't meaning to be obtuse - I find it genuinely interesting/intriguing. I agree that it might appear insular though. And I didn't mean to imply that her followers are sheeplike, or that she has unwieldy power over them - just that any popular politician can espouse a view, and that people who like them might then agree.

[NHH]

It was a more general point - as Lucas says the Greens are socialists, why doesn't she and her supporters back Labour, who have a chance of implementing socialism?

Really? This is sectarian cockrot John, and you know it.

[johnr]

I feel like I'm stirring up here, which wasn't my intention (I am genuinely interested). So I'll stop there.

[Duncan Gardner]

I promise you that I have no wishful thinking, as I have no idea what the numbers are on this

I think you do John. 18 seats where you don't even bother to stand, then victimise local activists who disagree; 59 where most Scottish contributors here agree they're only likely to hold a handful at the GE; 197 of which you hold 22. The Tories have 170, of which only about 20 were marginal last time.

It was a more general point - as Lucas says the Greens are socialists, why doesn't she and her supporters back Labour, who have a chance of implementing socialism?

She has "backed"/ encouraged/ advised where appropriate as others say above. She- and I- aren't going to ignore an election in Sandwell and Dudley so that Austin, Watson and co can get back in and fail to take their chance of implementing socialism

[George C.]

More incoherent, paranoid gibberish.

[Duncan Gardner]

Lighten up or fcuk a duck, Gonz

[Lucy Waterman]

Let we forget, old tankies can change their spots. Milne and Murray may not be the firebrands of old.
One only has to look at people like John Reid, David Triesman, Peter Mandelson, Charlie Whelan etc. Who were British Communist Party members before going all New Labour and embracing the centre.
Or the current crop of ex-commies palling around with Farage and the B(N)P.
Or on the other side, the sensibles who have gone all in with the Tories on Brexit.
People change LW. Like parties who have deeply held beliefs about student fees and higher taxation etc. Who droo those beliefs like a stone for the sniff of the inside of a Jag.

Murray left the Communist Party of Britain to take up a role with Corbyn, so if he went on an ideological journey, it was at the speed of a bullet train.

[Lucy Waterman]

She has been much more clear-headed and sensible about Labour's Brexit position than anyone.

Could Lucas command support as an interim PM?

[johnr]

I think you do John.

I promise you, I don't (though maybe I should have). I wouldn't have written it otherwise. As I say, didn't mean to inflame, so I'm out on this.

[George C.]

Lighten up or fcuk a duck, Gonz

More Illiterate gibberish.

[George C.]

Could Lucas command support as an interim PM?

Ha ha, no mandate whatsoever.

[Snake Plissken]

Could Lucas command support as an interim PM?

Nope.

[Lucy Waterman]

Ha ha, no mandate whatsoever.

What mandate do you think the current PM has, Gonzo?

[George C.]

Except I'm not Gonzo, you moron.

I despise the current PM, but even that clown has far more mandate than Lucas sadly.

[Nefertiti2]

The shadow Chancellor on climate change

[URL]https://twitter.com/mrbensellers/status/1180801665097764869?s=21[/URL]

[Nefertiti2]

Militant anti Corbyn campaigner Tracey Ann Oberman attacking him for visiting a theatre (which he helped set up) in his own constituency

[URL]https://twitter.com/tracyanno/status/1180205255126142980?s=21[/URL]

[Etienne]

I think the movement that Labour has made on climate is fantastic, and I fully support it. But a) I would like more concrete action - Labour still seems to be supporting airport expansions and road building across the country and b) I think a viable Green party helps to continue to push in that direction.

As to whether the Green party is a left party, at the first meeting I attended, I said that though I'd not been a party member before I'd been active in left wing organisations going back to university and someone immediately piped up that the Greens are not a left wing party, but open to everyone who supports action on safeguarding our environment. And I think that there is a deliberate reluctance to proclaim it as a left-wing party because there are lots of people who care about Green issues but who wouldn't consider themselves left-wing who might vote Green in some circumstances.

But Green party members, activists and policies are overwhelming left-wing.

As I've said before, if Labour want Green voters to vote for them in every seat they could possibly win in, then they need to offer something in return (electoral reform being the most obvious one, but not the only one).

[Nefertiti2]

Agreed. Etienne, and McDonnell has spoken out in favour of PR


Of course standing a high profile Green MEP in a Labour/Tory Marginal wasn't a great start to that conversation

[Etienne]

Yeah, I think McDonnell does get a lot of the key issues.

We've discussed Stroud before. But if the Greens can't stand a local candidate (she's been a councillor in Stroud, and lives there) in a seat where these were the European election results then where would you suggest she stand?

Brexit : 12,501
Green : 12,143
Lib Dems : 9,134
Con : 3,741
Lab : 2,863
Change UK: 1,206
UKIP : 1,003

[Nefertiti2]

In a Conservative seat.

not a Labour seat where there was a Labour majority of 687 votes in the last election.
and the greens got 1423

The Tories will get in.

	Labour Co-op	David Drew	29,994	47.0	+9.3
	Conservative	Neil Carmichael	29,307	45.9	+0.2
	Liberal Democrat	Max Wilkinson	2,053	3.2	−0.2
	Green	Sarah Lunnon	1,423	2.2	−2.3
	UKIP	Glenville Gogerly	1,039	1.6

[George C.]

Agreed or a LD one?

However this puts it in perspective...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List...neral_election

http://www.electionpolling.co.uk/bat.../targets/green

Basically the Greens are almost a universal handicap, no matter how well meaning they are.

[Nefertiti2]

The Shadow Chancellor

https://twitter.com/johnmcdonnellMP/status/1181167166864920578?s=20

The Mayor of London

https://twitter.com/simonharrisitv/status/1181144206305370112?s=20