PC's Green Blog

It's time to sleep!

2005-05-06T04:19:00.000Z

Riverside Result:

Labour 17,951 (57.6%)
Lib Dems 7,737 (24.8%)
Tories 2,843 (9.1%)
Green 1,707 (5.5%)
SLP 498 (1.6%)
UKIP 455 (1.5%)

We are very pleased to keep our deposit although I'm obviously disappointed not to have beaten the Tories which was our top end target. UKIP did a lot worse than I expected, and the SLP did well to get nearly 500 votes. A good result for Labour and the Lib Dems as well. Oddly enough, only UKIP seemed disappointed by their result and the rest of the candidates could draw some satisfaction from the final percentages.

From a national point of view, we haven't yet made our Parliamentary breakthrough. However, Brighton Pavilion's 22% is a significant improvement and we are continuing to build our local support. To see the real moves forward for the Greens, we have to wait for our local election results to come through tomorrow.

End Game

2005-05-04T22:46:00.000Z

Today was a loose ends day. I've just had a debrief and virtual email discussion with my Young Greens group at the university tonight. They are outside a couple of critical student halls all day tomorrow, encouraging some increased voting. I'll be paying them a visit at around midday to check on their progress.

We are also launching our online campaign and text messaging viral campaigns early tomorrow, which are intended for Liverpool Riverside but can filter out as well.

Thanks to all who have read this blog. I'll post up the Riverside result along with our Election highlights as they come in Thursday / Friday morning. I'm on media duty until all night Thursday before gladly handing over to our waking politicians on Friday.

The last push

2005-05-03T18:55:00.000Z

Just one full campaigning day left. Sleep deprivation and a full day working in court today stole one of my better opportunities at the hustings organised by Liverpool University. Fortunately I had Chris Whitehouse (Young Greens National Committee) to stand in for me.

Right now I am ploughing through my very many emails and policy pledges from NGOs to ensure that any really important ones that I've missed are now covered.

Monday 2nd May

Spent most of today getting an audio manifesto recorded due to a previous technical error that meant that the quality of the CDs we had produced was not good enough. Arrived back in Liverpool at 10.45pm and to met my student canvassers who had been out in the south of the constituency all day.

Sunday 1st May

Some Green Party Executive discussions following on from yesterday's issues, but our financial repair work has been successful. Went out to the Labour Day march on the Liverpool side of the water, before leaving my team to cross the water and returning to check emails and messages before a hastily arranged trip down to London to sort out our audio manifesto problems. This was one four hour train journey I could do without.

Randomly bumped into Steve Radford, Liberal Party candidate for Liverpool West Derby. He finished 2nd there last time, ahead of the Liberal Democrats, and we exchanged mutual good lucks. Steve is nothing if not a committed councillor, and is the best anti-Labour vote in that constituency this time round, although it will undoubtedly remain a safe Labour seat.

A long train journey later and I arrive into London, for more emailing and phone calls, and another visit to my brother who I thank again for his hospitality. His "Vote Green" poster seems to be attracting quite a few door knocks from worried canvassers representing Stephen Twigg.

Saturday 30th April

A great day of canvassing. We got round a large number of voters around Sefton Park and Greenbank Park, with some really positive responses. I have to thank the campaign team for their work and also the Young Greens, who worked really hard all day.

Khalid Hussenbux (my campaign manager and fellow member of the Green Party executive) unfortunately had to cut short due to a national budget crisis. We are virtually spent up, and need to find a way to pay for the final week's press events. A few hours later and after many phone calls, somehow, we have found the money to do it.

Any blog readers with an ethical eye - we need donations! Unlike UKIP or the other 3 we won't accept corporate funding, but that makes it really tough to compete.

Election Broadcast Response

2005-04-28T22:45:00.000Z

Party office has just knocked off know after fielding Party Election broadcast calls all night. We are really pleased with the telephone response and that's before we get to checking the website entries. The feedback I've had from members has been pretty encouraging and if you google "green party" + "franz ferdinand" the hit total is fantastic. We've reached the parts that other party broadcasts don't reach.

Hustings for tomorrow night have been cancelled, but there is plenty of work to do instead. Managed to get seven hours sleep last night so I'm feeling absolutely super charged today!

Hectic Day

2005-04-27T20:04:00.000Z

Started my (paid) work at 7am this morning and worked through until a necessary appointment at 2pm. This clashed with hustings organised by http://www.tenantspin.org/ with all other candidates able to attend. Fortunately for me, my very capable deputy, our student organiser Rob Smith, was able to stand in for me, and the recording of the debate will be available on the above link within seven days.

I met a new activist who I had spoken on the phone to previously, who has impeccable environmental and campaigning credentials. I've already discussed the possibility of her standing for us as a candidate in the next local elections.

Now ploughing through admin and emails. All on 4 hours sleep. I can't believe I do this for free sometimes, but then I look on the internet and see over 100 hits for "Franz Ferdinand" & "Green Party" and it all seems worthwhile again.

FRANZ FERDINAND!!!

2005-04-25T23:09:00.000Z

Yes - I can tell everyone now, as it's out on our website and into the media. That's right, Franz Ferdinand are doing the music for our Party Election Broadcast this Thursday (28th).

Labour can pay U2 for their songs but we actually get a song donated by a band that topped the album chart this year. You have got to see this broadcast. It is groundbreaking and the advance hype is starting to build up http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,19809-1584533,00.html

Newsnight Screening

2005-04-25T22:56:00.000Z

Finally made it on tonight. Nothing explicit about the Greens, only that the "big 3" all got negative ratings. Check out the article at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/newsnight_election_2005/4483237.stm

One of our online surfers - yes we have dedicated people monitoring blogs and all that - has picked up a very misleading headline saying that a poll in Brighton has the Greens at 13%. What the article writer fails to point out is that this is a Brighton wide poll, and includes two other constituencies Hove and Brighton Kemptown, where we will do nothing like as well. In advance, I apologise for the number manipulation which is intended to prove a point...

Our Brighton wide vote was 5.3% last time, so it indicates we are up to 13%, Brighton wide.
This is nearly a 2.5 times increase across the city.
We know that most of that increase is going to come in Pavilion.
If the Green vote is static in Hove and Kemptown, that could mean the Green vote in Pavilion could be up at the 32% mark!
Even allowing for all of this, without the strict methodology, there is a limit to what we can draw from this poll. However it confirms my expectation that we are polling in the mid 20s in Pavilion, although you can see how people can manipulate figures to suit themselves.

Despite this kind of headline, which hopes to portray a false reality of a straight Lab/Tory fight in Pavilion, it is becoming increasingly clear that things are going well. There is a bit of a buzz about the place. The Young Greens have been down, active with the local party and getting a lot of work done. I've heard some positive feedback from the days in support, and I know that Brighton is drawing in Green canvassers from across the country.

Haven't listened to myself on Radio 5 yet, but might try and do so before I go to bed.

Canvassing and Radio 5

2005-04-24T19:50:00.000Z

After having encouraged most of Liverpool's canvassers to Leeds to help out in one of our target constituencies, two of us set out to cover Kensington Fields today. In general it was quiet, with some definite votes coming to us, but with quite a lot of non voters. Without being pushy, we made it clear we would be trying to nudge Labour in the right direction with a good vote here. Even a committed Lib Dem resident was pleased to see us and thanked us for being out on the streets, as they felt people needed to see politicians in person and not just on the leaflet.

Radio 5 rang during the afternoon and I did some phone recording on our policies for tomorrow's(Monday) breakfast show. They are featuring the Riverside constituency and the Lib Dem's seeking to focus on Iraq. Having just been out canvassing, I told them that this was not coming up on the doorstep, but was for many members of campaigning groups, the biggest focus in this election. I also managed a plug for the Capital of Culture, but emphasising that culture means local businesses and local focus, not national department stores.

Some good news on national fundraising. We are approaching our target amount after an appeal to members, although we would hugely benefit from more donations coming in. Unlike the other parties we have to squeeze every last penny to maximise the impact of our campaigns. With Newsnight now scheduled to broadcast the Speed Date Voting stuff tomorrow, looks like a double media hit day.

A Week is a Long Time in Politics

2005-04-23T17:38:00.000Z

If I do this in reverse order, it will probably make more sense for blog readers.

Today, Saturday 23rd

My freepost leaflet arrived today. It means they are going out everywhere, just in time for postal votes, which is good news.

We had hustings at the Pakistan Centre on Mulberry Road in Granby. I really enjoyed it and was pleased with the response I got. The Conservative candidate was an absolute nightmare! I'm sorry to personalise it, but she got up and read a script, talked about asylum seekers as "they" even though up to half the audience had been asylum seekers. You all know enough about Tory policy to fill in what the content was like. It was not just offensive, it was also very embarrassing.

Returned home to find a Tory leaflet (just one) posted through the letterbox. Considering their are five flats, it doesn't look like they are running even a basic campaign. Will add it to my recycling after my fellow residents have had a chance to look at it as well...

Friday 22nd

I dropped off the four different version of our Radio Election Broadcast through our party office letterbox at 5.15am before catching the first train back to Liverpool, which unfortunately was delayed. Then a full day at work while ensuring (from a distance) that all versions got delivered to the appropriate stations.

Discovered I have a real clash on the 3rd May. I'm working in court with my paid job (not something that I can rearrange) and it is also the hustings at the Guild of Students. This is going to be a difficult one to sort out, so I'm sounding out one of our Manchester candidates about standing in for me.

Thursday 21st

A lot of work from home today. A critical email from a local Lib Dem councillor arrives in my inbox, complaining about the content of my election leaflet. I must have got it right!

Then a quick trip down to London by train. I dropped off our PEB previews to an Eastern region candidate at Euston before spending most of the night and early morning finalising our radio election broadcasts. Two hours sleep - great.

Wednesday 20th

Met with our Young Greens group - up for an award as the most active political society at Liverpool University - and passed on materials for distribution. Quite a few volunteers for canvassing on Sunday, but keeping my national head on, I urged those who had booked to go and help out our target constituency in Leeds to still make the journey.

Tuesday 19th

It's all gone quiet on the constituency bulletin board on this site. The SLP and UKIP are now also standing in Liverpool Riverside and those very vocal socialists who were going to vote Labour have moved on to pastures new. Lots of new anti-Greens though, just to keep it interesting. It's not exactly a pro-Green publication, but just for those who are inquisitive about my position on UNISON, please check out http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php4?article_id=3324

Monday 18th

I finished the speed date voting stunt in London at 10.15pm which is due for broadcast on Newsnight next Monday (25th). We got a very respectable +1 approval rating, only being beaten by Plaid Cymru and the SNP who got +2. All the major parties, plus the hard right ones performed badly, with negative ratings from our 14 speed dates.

Back on again

2005-04-14T23:41:00.000Z

I can't believe it is ten days since my last blog entry. Things are moving at such a pace right now.

We did our bike stunt in London last Thursday which brought us some excellent national publicity and with the press treated as our launch. Fortunately our timing was perfect this week when our actual launch (including manifesto) went out on Tuesday, with no major launch clash. Again some excellent national coverage.

I spent a lot of last week discussing the final editing of the PEB with our director, Alex Cox, who has done a fantastic job with the brief we gave him. From a local perspective, we've been able to get some great coverage as all the work has been done in Liverpool, by six local businesses. This is a prime example of Greens supporting regional industry as opposed to just throwing the contract at London. The special effects are superb, the music provided by a band that is currently more popular than U2, and our candidates are not too bad either.

Our National Executive met on Saturday to discuss the campaign and plan the remaining launches and policy initiatives. Can't give too much detail here obviously...

Did a BBC3 interview on Tuesday, BBC Radio Merseyside twice on Wednesday (with coverage of our regional launch) and am catching up with my web and blogging responsibilities now.

I'd invite anyone with the time to do it to take a look at the Liverpool Riverside thread. For a safe Labour seat, the amount of personal stuff being thrown in my direction is quite surprising. First it was because I was standing and we should all vote Labour to stop the BNP, then when that went, it changed to "isn't a community activist" and the latest is to attack my paid job (because I do the politics for free!) because I work for a private company (which I partly own) that I helped set up over 10 years ago.

I can only think that local Labour is genuinely rattled for some reason. They've perhaps got the private polling responses to give them that reason. Frankly, I don't know, but I do know that it just gives me further encouragement. For the first two years of standing in local elections for the Greens I was pretty much ignored, couldn't get letters in the local press and didn't appear on the Labour radar. Things have obviously changed!

Final bit for tonight - one of the local hustings organised by health organisation has been cancelled because not a single Labour or Conservative candidate was prepared to attend. This is a pity. I hope that it is not a sign of things to come.

Party Election Broadcast

2005-04-07T21:44:00.000Z

After interviews, discussion, debate and some logistical hassle, the Party Election Broadcast (PEB) is coming together nicely. We are lucky enough to have Alex Cox, the well regarded independent film director (Sid and Nancy, Revenger's Tragedy) doing our PEB and it is very, very good. I know I'm biased, but I am really looking forward to seeing the impact it has when it hits the screens. The fact that a very well known British band are willing to let us use one of their songs is also going to generate more than a bit of publicity.

We've booked our launch date for the 13th April here in Liverpool, and I hope to be able to pre-screen the PEB along with giving the audience the opportunity to pose questions and make recommendations about the issues we should be highlighting in this campaign.

My nomination papers are due to arrive tomorrow and my agent is picking up the register. I am also desperate to get into some local campaigning. Merseyside TUC are leafleting in support of the RMT tomorrow and Saturday and I'm not going to be able to do either day due to work and PEB editing tmw and our Green Party Executive meeting on Saturday. This is the point at which being involved nationally gets frustrating, because you miss out on doing the things on the ground which are the real essence of politics.

Student votes

2005-04-05T16:50:00.000Z

I'm delighted to see Liverpool Riverside named by the NUS as one of the 27 seats that could be decided by student votes. I think anything that will increase student turnout will be a positive thing for the opposition parties in Riverside, but not every student will vote and I'm sure that even if all of them did, it would not be for a single party.

Greens have actually got the most active political society in the two main Liverpool Universities, with probably more weekly stuff going on than anyone else. We've also made the student vote matter for the first time in a a Liverpool council election last year.

Over 1000 students did not get a full opportunity to vote in the Liverpool Central Ward last year. This was because halls failed to distribute their postal ballot papers as they arrived on the 26/27th May. That weekend, the majority of students left for home. The Green Party was the only one of the local parties to spot this. We contacted the electoral returning officer, and in partnership with the student hall concerned, we forwarded on every ballot paper. However with just a couple of days left before close of poll, very few were able to act on this.

Our Labour opponents widely criticised us post-election for our strategy of targeting the student vote (which is a notoriously poor turnout). However, this year has seen the newspaper of Liverpool's Guild of Students give a column to the narrowly elected local Labour councillor. I've complained about the obvious bias. So have the Liberal Democrats. Reluctantly we've been forced to conclude that this is an "editorial" policy.

The last edition had a full half page dedicated to Louise Ellman's fight against the BNP and how important it was to vote, without mentioning any other party. I'll let readers draw their own conclusions. The positive point is that we have changed the view that the student vote is irrelevant, particularly in key city centre marginals.

While I'm having a bit of whinge, probably because I'm at party office today in London, doing a day of commuting from Liverpool (I left before seven and I'll get back about midnight), I'll add in a bit of New Labour style naming and shaming. A hustings, in the heart of my constituency, has somehow failed to invite me... I've of course contacted the Duncan Society (health) and I'm awaiting their prompt response. Unfortunately this kind of thing happens not just in Liverpool but elsewhere. I have reason to be aggrieved though, as I'm pretty certain the Tories will be there, despite the fact that we outpolled them by more than 2 to 1 at the last local elections.

Pledges

2005-04-03T19:36:00.000Z

I've had Louise Ellman's "Labour Rose" leaflet through today with its six New Labour pledges, all very local (and a couple that I'd enthusiastically endorse). I should take each one in turn:

1. Being approachable to all residents should not be a pledge. This is a requirement of the job. It would be like asking a teacher to pledge to go into the classroom.

2. Work with the government and local councillors... against anti-social behaviour. No one wants anti-social behaviour, but I think the emphasis should be on what to provide for kids in local communities. This should really be the point that Labour attacks the local Lib Dem council for cutting youth provision in Liverpool.

3. Increase jobs, investment and training to benefit all residents. I AGREE.

4. Expand opportunities through local Sure Start and well funded schools. I AGREE but I'd like to point out that we shouldn't be penalising local students who want to go to university by asking them to take on debts of £4000+ each year. Unfortunately Louise Ellman voted for tuition fees in the last parliament.

5. Better public transport and a cleaner, greener Liverpool. I AGREE.

6. A Capital of Culture that reaches every community. I AGREE (but this one is a bit cheesy and vague).

So having looked at the pledges, I'm going to suggest a few that I would like to suggest to Louise Ellman, and I look forward to putting these forward as my pledges in the entirely theoretical position of being an MP in May:

To vote against a war with Syria or Iran.
To vote to withdraw all UK troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.
To campaign to fund public services from taxation and end PFI initiatives.
To campaign for a peak time congestion charge to reduce city centre traffic.
Better public transport and a cleaner, greener Liverpool (I really mean it)
Prevent the destruction of communities and local housing for short term gains.

Very glossy paper. Can't see the recycled logo anywhere yet, but I'm sure Labour really are working towards to a greener Liverpool. I think I'll finish blogging now before my cynicism moves onto the overload setting...

So tired

2005-03-31T00:47:00.000Z

Brief note just to say I'm completely shattered. Got in from work at 8pm tonight and with about 30mins worth of breaks, I've been solidly on the phone until just now.

If I had a 26hr day I'd be absolutely fine. Just going to get something to eat before getting six hours of sleep and going to work again. Don't let anyone persuade you that elections are just glamorous ego-trips. There is a hell of a lot of hard work that needs to go in every day.

Media hits

2005-03-28T22:39:00.000Z

The good news is that Keith Taylor's reply to Tariq Ali went straight into the letters page in today's Guardian. I'm also expecting a letter from me in the Telegraph tomorrow that talks about "the gardening vote" which I think I've invented (in this campaign at least), but not patented.

Rainfall over the winter has been minimal. We are already looking at hosepipe bans in place by late spring and this is just a sign of things to come. Gardeners come in all political colours but if their gardens are threatened by the changes in climate now, quite a few might start considering who exactly is going to deal with the long term problem. The obvious answer is to elect a couple of Green MPs as a start. I'm not expecting everyone with a hoe to rush out and vote Green, but just a couple of thousand non-typical Green voters might be enough to swing things in Brighton.

Back to Liverpool briefly. I've found out that a local public meeting is clashing with our national campaign launch (which I can't yet reveal) so I'm trying hard to rearrange and offer early personal apologies. A lot of this electioneering is about managing time. My personal wish right now would be a 26 hour day, with an extra hour of work + an extra hour of sleep. All this after what was supposed to be a restful Bank holiday weekend.

Mini rant addition from me - Labour are still trying to sell us the concept of a Tory government. The latest poll suggests a 12 point Labour lead. I think that Labour are trying to have their cake and eat it. Although a lot of traditional Labour voters will desert them because of the Iraq war, the fact that the economy is sound and that Blair is now virtually indistiguishable from pre-Thatcher Conservatives means that Labour can expect to attract voters that might in the past have voted Tory.

Howard's negative "dog whistle" politics will encourage a lot of moderate Tories to vote Labour or to not even bother. People think of the Tories as a tribal allegiance for 35% of the population. That might have been true 15 years ago but not now, which is a simple fact of demographics. Right now, if you ask the average voter to name 3 front bench Tories other than Howard they will struggle. The Tories are not a government in waiting. The worst thing for Britain would be for us to wake up on May 6th with another 100+ Labour majority but as things stand, that looks the most likely outcome for me at this point.

The Times and our PEB

2005-03-26T14:14:00.000Z

The interview with the Times reporter yesterday went well. The Times is preparing an election supplement that will go out shortly after the initial announcement and the first positive is that we have been included. The second point is that they listened to the points I made, particularly on Brighton Pavilion, but also on Leeds West and Lewisham Deptford. The new information for them was on the strategic voting websites, and they were very interested to learn we were being backed by not just one, but all of them in particular locations.

The first priority today was to get a response to Tariq Ali's article in the Guardian, where he chooses to rule out voting Green at the General Election. Not only is this factually wrong if you live in Brighton, Lewisham or Leeds particularly, but I also think it is the wrong way to go about bringing change in the UK political system.

Today I've so far been rushing around to drum up volunteers for our Party Election Broadcast filming at Toxteth TV. The event went well and I'm really looking forward to seeing the final product mid-April. Our director is a famous independent film producer/director and he is doing a marvellous job. My impression is that the broadcast will be groundbreaking in its impact.

I'll get on with some more work now as it is still early in the day.

Phone conferences

2005-03-24T22:08:00.000Z

I'll be honest and say that I struggle with phone conferences. They are very green and save on travel and expense, but you miss so much without the visual cues at meetings. Our Communication Committee meeting hammered out the final details for our campaign launch and a couple of the up and coming pre-election events. Can't really give anything confidential away right now, but you'll probably find we spring a couple of surprises on the other parties.

The Press Office have asked me to contact The Times who are running an election supplement apparently. They've asked for our input and an overview of the Green campaign. So I'm swotting up on some figures tonight ahead of tomorrow morning's phone call. Times readers are not perceived to be our natural supporters but there is clearly no such thing as bad election publicity.

Final point tonight. I'm going to start running a tally chart on ideas that other parties take from the Greens (for example):

2004 Green slogan at the Euros "Real Progress"
2005 Lib Dem slogan for the GE "Real Alternative"

Although we obviously we can't patent "Real..." I only hope the Lib Dems didn't pay marketing bods lots of cash to come up with it, and actually did lift it from us, otherwise they might feel as though they haven't got value for money. Imitation is of course, a sincere form of flattery.

Great day

2005-03-23T18:55:00.000Z

All round it's been a really constructive 24 hours. We seemed to have hammered out the final editorial points on our General Election Manifesto and my day job has been pretty rewarding as well.

I'm currently working with a number of disadvantaged kids in Manchester, and I'd recently tried writing to some of the local football clubs, which form a big part of these kids lives. Man City, Man Utd and Oldham have all come good with 2 tickets each, 1 for the child and 1 for a carer. It has been an absolute pleasure to ring up the residential workers and let them know that their kid gets the chance to go to a match - something they might never get the chance to do otherwise.

Back to politics though... Tory posters are springing up around Liverpool. I'm still assessing the reason for this seemingly pointless use of election budget in an area where they won't win seats. If we break it down into some kind of Tory calculation, I think it goes something like:

Tory results in 2001 + Boris Johnson effect = Lost deposits

In Liverpool Walton the Tories got just 6.1% last time and Liverpool Riverside was not a lot better with a poor 8.4%

Already local Tories increasingly vote Lib Dem on a tactical basis, and will do so again this year. Without some kind of election expenditure, the Conservatives may be looking at lost deposits in places like Liverpool, Salford and Manchester. The inside information that anti-racist campaigners have about the local Bullying No-action Party is that they are actively targeting weak Tory areas in an attempt to displace them. This could also be a factor.

Success for most long standing Liverpool Greens would be a 5% vote and us holding our deposit. I personally would like to be more ambitious than that. I think we can actually finish ahead of the Conservatives as long as we are visible in the local media. The Tories don't seem to have found a candidate yet, and after John Prescott's slip of the tongue today, they need to get a move on. Someone parachuted in from elsewhere will also have a negative effect on their support, as Liverpool's people tend to prefer someone who lives locally.

Finally, I've noticed that the usual online suspects that chase me around on the net are making their comments wherever possible. I'll always try and keep the debate on the issues or analysis, but the party political hacks quickly give themselves away as they just can't help personalising things when they are struggling in the debate. This tends to be worse from the Labour Party side. I reluctantly admit to having campaigned for Labour in a marginal seat in London in 1997, when the country was crying out for change. Since then I think disappointment is my overall feeling about this government, punctuated at times by real anger. The fact that I was once a Labour supporter explains the New Labour hostility.

2005-03-22T22:27:00.000Z

Keith Taylor PPC Brighton Pavilion at the Peace Poster launch.

Weekend campaigning

2005-03-22T21:48:00.000Z

A lot of this weekend has been taken up with national campaigning. Our Peace Poster was launched on Friday and despite initial coverage from Epolitix, the Guardian and Independent failed to run this on Saturday. I'll be trying to upload the image to this blog if I can.

It is fairly tough to get coverage as a smaller party. Greens are polling about 2% nationally while the Lib Dems are polling around 20%. When you think about 1/10th of the coverage for the Lib Dems, you can see how tough it is to get national media coverage.

Saturday saw the filming of some of our Party Election Broadcast down in London with the Peace March well supported by Greens. Caroline Lucas was much in demand (as usual) but was able to do her bit as well! I was also able to combine a meeting on party finance with the 2nd half of the Wales v Ireland game.

Back in Liverpool on Sunday for an envelope stuffing day as we prepared campaign packs for local members and supporters and updated the Liverpool Green Party website. Fortunately for team building reasons, we then took a break to attend to the most important event in Liverpool's calender that weekend. Liverpool of course won, but Everton's late goal kept blue Greens interested until the end. My personal final draft leaflet has arrived as a PDF and I am happy to see it completed.

Monday was taken up fielding telephone calls, particularly on our national manifesto and manifesto launch. More details to follow, but suffice to say that we are doing something that no other party has yet thought of. I also find out that we've had a councillor defect to us from the Liberal Democrats in Suffolk. The key members of the national executive discussed a couple of strategic matters by phone conference and we distributed our election timetable to candidates.

Today's poll in the Guardian is positive. We remain on 2% nationally but the key for this election in my opinion is to re-establish us as the 4th party in Britain. Unlike certain single issue parties, we are trying to fight all elections and make real changes at a local level. Brighton Pavilion is still looking good for us and 3 of the tactical voting websites are now backing the Greens to win there. It is still an uphill struggle but it is a sign of how far we have come that we are now considered contenders for a seat at Westminster.

Campaign Meeting and Freepost

2005-03-18T21:27:00.000Z

Liverpool Green Party met this Wednesday with 15+ attendees... That number is more than 1/4 of the party membership within Riverside, so the enthusiasm for the election is building.

As an underfunded party, our best resource is our members and our supporters. The campaign has formal positions, but essentially the membership is organic, and can support me by providing contact details for local groups and acting as a network campaign. It is a really positive feeling to hear some of the creative ideas coming from the meeting and includes a great deal of stuff I would never have thought of. Our collective intelligence and abilities is a lot greater than I could ever generate as an individual.

The final editing for our Freepost leaflet is now complete, and I've put my money where my mouth is by upgrading to the addressed Freepost scheme within the Green Party. Every voter on the Electoral Roll within Riverside will now receive a leaflet, which is of course going to be 100% recycled. This is one example of Green principles in action - why can't Labour or the Lib Dems use recycled paper for their leaflets?

When I asked one of my rival candidates about this at last year's local elections when they might start using recycled paper, the response was, "when it is cheaper". Short sighted. If everything in a campaign is based on how cheaply they can get things done, it makes you wonder what kind of council or government decisions get made on the same principle.

Basic campaign aims

2005-03-15T21:38:00.000Z

I'm being absolutely honest when I say that we will not win Liverpool Riverside. New Labour got over 70% of the vote in 2001 and even with a substantial swing away from them, will hold this seat. Unsurprisingly faced with the same situation in 2001, voters didn't bother to go to the polls in Riverside, as they were unable to influence the result.

Our campaign in Riverside will let people know that although voting Labour (or Liberal Democrat) will have no effect on the result, a vote for the Green Party will have an impact. I'd also invite people to take the radical step of voting for a party they can believe in, rather than choosing the least worst option.

We didn't stand in 2001, but our share of the vote at the local elections for Riverside was over 10%. I'm optimistic that we can hold our deposit and my ambition is to ensure that the Tories finish a poor 4th behind us. Our constituency is symbolic for the Mersey region as it is Riverside and has a large area of land susceptible to flooding as the impact of climate change increases in the next decades. A strong vote here will resonate elsewhere on Merseyside.

A vote for the Greens is the only vote against PFI initiatives and the future privatisation of Liverpool's city centre. Labour and the Lib Dems are essentially singing from the same (neo-Conservative) songsheet.

Introduction

2005-03-15T21:33:00.000Z

My name is Peter Cranie and I'm going to be standing as the Green Party candidate in the Liverpool Riverside constituency. Add that to my role as the Election Co-ordinator on the Green Party Executive and working full time, I expect to be pretty busy over the next couple of months. If you are reading my blog then I'm pledging to try and keep things as up to date as possible for you.