A progressive alliance: can it work in Lewes? A Green Party discussion event, 14 Sept, Westgate Chapel, Lewes

Transcription

1 SUMMARY The evening got underway with a few words from the Green Party s new co- Leader, Jonathan Bartley. He set the scene by talking about the case for a progressive alliance and the prospects for building one, not just in order to get the Tories out of government but as a way of bringing about real change - in our electoral system, and potentially in the way we do politics. Anthony, the local party s Elections & Campaigns coordinator, then presented some potential options for how a progressive alliance might work, as outlined in The Alternative, a new book of essays co-edited by Caroline Lucas, Labour MP Lisa Nandy and Libdem activist Chris Bowers on issues related to the idea of progressive parties working together. Options ranged from an explicit electoral pact, with parties signing up to an agreed set of common values and policies known as Platform, to simply continuing with tactical voting in marginal seats. These options were presented as food for thought rather than as a set menu from which one choice had to be made. The room then divided into four groups so that discussions could happen on a smaller scale and everyone could have a chance to speak. There were two parallel but closely intertwined questions to explore: How would it work? What do we want to get out of it? What are our lines in the sand? The following is a selection of the points raised in all the various discussion:

2 1. How would it work? Some form of fully-fledged electoral pact - with the working title Platform - was the favoured option among the majority of those present. In the conclusion to their book, The Alternative, Caroline Lucas and her coauthors quote at length a proposal from the Guardian journalist Stephen Moss, who wrote a long feature last summer looking at the possibility of building a new party of the left. His vision of Platform would feature four partners: a socialist Labour, a social democrat Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens. He suggested they could agree a set of common values and policies, and then in any seat put up the candidate most likely to win, eg. a LibDem Platform candidate in Lewes. The others could stand aside, or just put up paper candidates. Paper candidate, to paraphrase Wikipedia, is 'the term often given to a candidate who stands for a political party in a constituency where the party in question enjoys only low levels of support. It means that the candidate is really just a name on the ballot paper; the party will usually not actively campaign or seek votes, but are at least offering the electorate the option of voting for that party. Simply standing a paper candidate - sitting on our hands and quietly giving people our blessing to vote LibDem, in order words, doing what we used to do in the Norman Baker years - was strongly rejected: it would be like the Greens simply admitting their own irrelevance, rather than being an activepart of the solution. It was also agreed that standing a paper candidate alongside a Platform candidate could be confusing for voters: we d be asking them to vote Platform, but still standing as Green Party'. On the other hand, some voters will not want to have their choice restricted. It was noted that some members present, and others not present but mentioned anecdotally, would only vote for a Green candidate. Otherwise they would probably not vote at all. After 2010 I swore I would never vote LibDem again - I don t want vote for anything other than Green - local member But a local Platform agreement between Greens, Labour and LibDems, with the active involvement of Greens and with strong commitments to Green priorities

3 like electoral reform and swift action on climate change, would be a more positive alternative which the Green Party could actively campaign for - see What we want - Green lines in the sand' An independent candidate - with the progressive seal of approval? One idea in The Alternative was that of a progressive kitemark, to which candidates at the 2020 election (and even earlier elections) could sign up to demonstrate to their electorate a commitment to a core set of priorities, which would include red lines for all the progressive parties. Some thought that one way to deal with the Gordian knot of competing local parties would be to go independent - put up a Lewes Platform candidate, not an actual LibDem candidate. Many Greens and Labour supporters won t want to put their cross next to LibDem, alliance or no alliance. Such a candidate might have to be selected through some kind of open primary - all the voters in the constituency having a chance to select a candidate to go forward and contest the Tories for the seat. Of course, it was agreed that any alliance of this sort would only work if there was a serious commitment to non-tribalism from the other parties, especially Labour, who have thus far shown little enthusiasm for any kind of alliance, apart a handful of MPs like the aforementioned Lisa Nandy and shadow defence secretary Clive Lewis. There would be a need to 'get Momentum on board, locally as well as nationally, given that the local Labour party is strongly pro-corbyn. It was also suggested that we might build up to some form of alliance, develop a form of cooperation over a number of General Elections, starting with an informal agreement not to compete with the LibDems in Some ideas on how it would work in practice came through; campaign material could be clearly branded as Green, but calling on people to vote Platform. Vote Green? Vote Platform posters could sit alongside Vote Libdem? Vote Platform posters. For Greens, at local or national level, if we are to agree to a Platform, we need to be clear with the electorate which of the ideas and policies in the platform come from the Greens. We need to insist on our own distinctive vision and identity.

4 2. What we want - Green lines in the sand' This cannot be a coalition of the losers - we ve got to have a positive message about why we re doing it. - Neal Lawson, Compass Our primary target is our archaic and unrepresentative electoral system - Molly Scott Cato, MEP Contemplation of any pact requires us as a party to work even harder to keep our brand intact. If we are doing any kind of deals with Labour or LibDems, it makes it all the more important that we insist at every juncture on what is distinctive about us. Otherwise, we ll go the way of the Irish Greens, [or] the LibDems' - Rupert Read, Eastern region Green Party There has been much talk of a progressive alliance but if this includes the Green Party it should include a policy agreement and dialogue that considers the links between environmental sustainability and limits, and social diversity and equality. - Jonathan Essex, Green Party chair, South East Region The meeting was agreed that an alliance needs to carry a postive message - it can t just be Tories out. Amongst other reasons, voters will resent anything perceived as a backroom stitch-up to deprive a certain party of power: it might drive people to the Tories, especially UKIP supporters, as UKIP starts to lose relevance. But an alliance - even a progressive one - might even attract UKIP votes if it had the promise of bringing a fair voting system at its core. Electoral reform: is it a vote-winner? The another question arose: how do we get people to vote for a platform centred on electoral reform? Whether or not they think the system is fair, for the majority of people who don t take an interest in the nuts and bolts of politics, it s a difficult thing to get them interested (especially if large sections of the media are hostile, as they were in the AV referendum in 2011). It was suggested that a Platform alliance in the Lewes constituency should campaign on issues that affect the local community: it should work with issue-based lobby groups like Stop TTIP, Lewes Living Wage, and Homes 4 All. The Platform could be implemented at the regional level - across the South East, for example - to ensure some balance in the representation of Platform parties in the area.

5 Green lines in the sand : Electoral reform: a system of true proportional representation (PR), not a poor compromise like the AV referendum Greater representation for environmental and social issues, particularly housing LibDems need to re-establish some credibility One election only: the alliance is only temporary. Once we have PR, further electoral alliances (as opposed to coalition governments) will be unnecessary anyway No coalitions with Tories: once the Platform has disbanded, none of its partner parties must use their new position to prop up a Tory government Europe: a second referendum (NB: second as in subsequent referendum,on the proposed terms of Brexit - not a re-run of the first referendum. These two ideas are frequently confused) Another possibility was campaigning for proportional representation in council elections. We in the Lewes District party will certainly need something in return for our support and the support of our voters, in addition to the short-term goal of ousting the Tories. Perhaps an agreement from LibDems not to contest Green target seats in local elections? How would the LibDems and voters in general view such horse-trading? RISKS 1. WILL IT WORK? A pact might be successful in unseating a Tory MP in Lewes, but will a nationwide electoral pact be successful in ousting the Tory government? In England, the Green Party is nipping at the heels of the Labour Party, with Green voters outweighing Tory majorities in 10 constituencies, threatening Labour majorities in many more and likely to expand ever more as voters see the party as a more viable option. (Eliot Folan) It isn t clear yet that a national progressive alliance would gain enough seats to deprive the Tories of a majority. More research needs to be done on whether, at a national scale, all the potential compromises and risks to the Green Party s standing among current and future supporters are worth it if the main goal of Tory defeat is not a strong possibility.

6 Stitch-up: People in the district vote differently to those in the town. Could this end up looking like the people of Lewes town arrogantly attempting to decide the fate of the whole constituency? We need to build the case across the constituency, not just among progressive voters in Lewes. Otherwise it could severely damage our future prospects in the area and our potential growth in support. The risks if we don t? This is a crucial political point: taking this question seriously and (in due course) maybe putting the ball into Labour's court, will - whether or not we then succeed in the incredibly difficult task of actually cementing any pact - help to immunise us Greens against the charge of being wreckers. No- one, then, will be able to say that we didn't at least try. - Molly Scott Cato Greens, and to some extent Labour, are directly or indirectly blamed for letting the Tories in in Lewes. Certainly the LibDems and Norman Baker in particular choose to view it that way. It s important that we don t allow ourselves to be portrayed as the main obstacle in the way of getting rid of our Tory MP, or a Tory government. I m not asking for people to sell their souls give away your most trusted policies. Think about what is actually going to score with the British people. There are so many people out there waiting for the progressives to get together Chris Bowers, co-editor, The Alternative and Libdem candidate for Brighton Pavilion, 2015 It was noted that the parties found a way to work together towards a common goal in the EU referendum campaign. But it s also worth remembering that the Greens didn t throw in their lot with Stronger In: we ran our own parallel campaign, with the same ultimate goal of Remain but a very different message as to why. We didn t enter easily in that coalition. Could we survive in a partnership between two or more larger parties? Or will it be a compromise too far?

7 Conclusion There is a broad spectrum of opinion within the local party about this issue: some members are very strongly opposed, some are wholeheartedly in favour, and all points in between are represented even in a small gathering of 40 members and supporters. ACTIONS This is one of the biggest decisions facing the local Greens in recent memory. We need to hear from as many members as possible in order to arrive at a policy that has the backing of as many members as possible. ACTION: Elections & Campaigns officer will put together an online survey that we can share with the wider membership, and make sure we get as much input as possible on the eventual proposals or policy that we arrive at. ACTION: Elections & Campaigns officer will also communicate with the South East regional Green Party about how our discussions are progressing so that they take our views into consideration when developing strategy around broader political alliances. One of the strongest points of agreement was that input from the electorate, not just the parties, is essential. It has to be a grassroots movement, not something top-down that s imposed by local parties or national parties. ACTION: We will start making plans to conduct a non-partisan survey of what voters in Lewes constituency actually want although with proposed boundary changes, perhaps we would have to cover Uckfield and parts of the current Wealden constituency as well. For more info, contact Anthony Shuster, Elections & Campaigns officer info@lewes.greenparty.org.uk