Ed Balls and Peter Hain have now given Labour supporters carte blanche to "bite their lips" and vote tactically in seats where Labour cannot win. It makes sense.
Better a hung Parliament than a Cameron government and, as it's come to this sad and sorry state of affairs, that is probably the best we can do.
Voting with our heads and not our hearts is our best bet of stopping the Tories - not the unanimous view it must be said in a debate yesterday at the Trades Club in Hebden Bridge . I enjoyed a Mayday chat with a bunch of activists including Paul Holmes, Labour Party stalwart , left candidate for UNISON General Secretary and LRC supporter.
Also there was Kate Sweeney, currently standing as Green candidate in Calder Valley and vowing to be lefter than left. However this self-styled "socialist" was frankly unable to answer my pertinent question as to why the Greens are on Thursday fielding candidates against both Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell - the only reply being they represented the party of "war and privatisation." What utter tosh.If the Greens think actually impeding the chances of two of Labour's best socialist representatives is an acceptable strategy then they are living in a parallel universe. And, as they stood down to help Salma Yaqoob in Birmingham why not help Labour's Left? The fact they won't means they would never get my vote , no matter how good tactically it might be. quite honeastly what is the point of espousing radical policies if you don't support radical candidates ? The ones who are actually, er, on your side........
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
TACTICAL VOTING.....
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4 comments:
Susan, this is absurd. You are seriously suggesting that Labour voters cross class-lines to support the Lib Dems, but that voting for the Greens is completely beyond the pale. It just makes no sense. Even in your own terms it is self-defeating: the Lib Dems have not ruled out going into coalition with the Tories. How does it help, then, to elect a Lib Dem MP who will help Cameron form a government, as opposed to a Tory MP who will, um, help Cameron form a government?
More generally, there are big questions about socialist strategy. Whatever happens, from May 7th onwards we have a job to do reclaiming our movement and our Party, and rebuilding our vote. Do you actually think asking people to vote Lib Dem is ultimately going to help with this?
I think electing Lib Dems rather than Tories is, yes, the better option.
I also think the Greens strategy of standing candidates in left Labour constituencies has exposed their ignorance of class politics. How can they possibly justify it? It has diminished my respect for the Greens. And, as I said, they were completely unable to justify their position in Islington North and Hayes and Harlington.
Oh, and by the way, I'm not asking anyone to vote Lib Dem. But the fact remains there are constituencies where it is a straight fight between Lib Dem and Tory........so what do you do?
To be frank I think its probably a local decision with the Greens
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