Daily Archives: 24 August 2011

This evening Green Party activists will be out canvassing in Brighton & Hove again. This is an unusual political manoeuver. Most political parties only remember to go calling on the electorate immediately before an election. Unsatisfied with winning an MP, control of a council & recruiting hundreds of members, this evening we’ll be out again pounding the doorsteps asking for more. More votes, more members, more funds!

Why are we doing this? There is a difference between us and the other three main political parties: we really believe in our politics. We don’t treat politics as a game or a business. We’ve become activists because our consciences wouldn’t allow us to sit around watching the world go to hell in a handcart. We’re determined to see real change in time for it to make a difference.

The thieving Tory bastards have become the official opposition on Brighton & Hove City Council. You won’t find them out canvassing at any time of year because they are mostly too old to manage it and don’t believe in human contact. Contrary to the popular urban legends, these zombies do crave human flesh: they actually live in fear of contact with ordinary people. Their advantage is wealth; they campaign by spending money rather than by being part of the community. They don’t knock on doors, they pay for postal deliveries instead. These people have not been affected by the recession and never will be. Prior to the most recent general elections, our local thieving Tory bastards organised a litter clean up at Stamner Park. Just the one. Perhaps that sums up their world view of the public services: that the whole caboodle is as simple as picking up some litter once every four years. Unfortunately the world is a vastly more complicated place than that.

To date Brighton & Hove Labour Party have effectively joined the thieving Tory bastards. Although there have only been procedural motions so far, they have voted with the official opposition in a number of votes. Their members and voters must be wondering why they didn’t just join the thieving Tory bastards? Before negotiations could begin, straight after the local elections, they snuffed out any hope of a formal alliance to run Brighton & Hove City Council by way of a press release. It saddens me personally because I used to be a member of the local Labour Party. I thought that they would work with progressives against the thieving Tory bastards. No-one enjoys being disabused of their heartfelt beliefs. I’m not sure which is worse: harbouring war criminals or joining the thieving Tory bastards. Not much point voting for a party which doesn’t provide an alternative vision.