So what do you think of Respect?

[JavaScriptDonkey]

Maybe.

When I was a member of the Green Party in the days of paper membership cards in the late 80s the local activists were mostly commune-leaning hippies. Great understanding of ecology but virtually no understanding of people. Lots of meetings where policy could be proposed and the like but no real idea who was going to fund it all other than 'tax the rich'.

It was students that made up a large part of the Lib Dem swing along with those disillusioned with Labour. We will never know what this government would have been like without Cleggy & Co but think we'll have chance to find out next time when the Tories win a land slide victory.

If the Green local council annoy too many local voters with their green agenda then Lucas could find herself unseated.

Hell if the 10,000 LD voters all vote Labour to keep the Tories out then they'll lose the council as well.

[kenneal - lagger]

............ Most of the permanent, voting population consists of students and weirdos.

I didn't know you were a student, UE!!!

[UndercoverElephant]

............ Most of the permanent, voting population consists of students and weirdos.

I didn't know you were a student, UE!!!

I'm not anymore. I was for 3 years, ending 3 years ago. A lot of the electorate are ex-students who haven't got around to leaving Brighton.

[UndercoverElephant]

Maybe.

When I was a member of the Green Party in the days of paper membership cards in the late 80s the local activists were mostly commune-leaning hippies. Great understanding of ecology but virtually no understanding of people. Lots of meetings where policy could be proposed and the like but no real idea who was going to fund it all other than 'tax the rich'.

I joined the green party at the same time. I went to one meeting, where they spent a very long time discussing why the Green Party couldn't have a single leader, and concluded it was a total waste of my time.

A lot of people left the Green Party in the late 80s and early 90s, and I think it learned from this experience.

It was students that made up a large part of the Lib Dem swing along with those disillusioned with Labour. We will never know what this government would have been like without Cleggy & Co but think we'll have chance to find out next time when the Tories win a land slide victory.

The tories are not capable of winning another landslide victory in the UK. EVER. It certainly won't happen at the next election. The best they can seriously hope for is to remain the largest minority.

I don't think you understand how much the non-tory-voting public HATES the tories.

If the Green local council annoy too many local voters with their green agenda then Lucas could find herself unseated.

Very unlikely. Why should people who voted green get annoyed at a green agenda being implemented?

Hell if the 10,000 LD voters all vote Labour to keep the Tories out then they'll lose the council as well.

Won't happen. Libdems will generally vote green over labour if they think the greens can win. If they want to keep the tories out, the last thing they are going to do is vote labour. It's just not natural labour territory. The main rump of typical labour voters are in the other seat in Brighton (Kemptown). They live in a no-go council estate called Whitehawk, but the tories are likely to win that seat because of the amount of "costa geriatrica" elderly people who are also in that seat along the coast in places like Peacehaven, plus the richer part of the gay community who live in Kemptown itself. I expect the tories will hold both Kemptown and Hove. The greens will hold Pavilion. Labour will win nothing.

[JavaScriptDonkey]

The tories are not capable of winning another landslide victory in the UK. EVER. It certainly won't happen at the next election. The best they can seriously hope for is to remain the largest minority.

I don't think you understand how much the non-tory-voting public HATES the tories.

Possibly. However everyone hates Blair and no one trusts the Millibands. It will be interesting what happens after Scottish devolution when there maybe a lot less Scottish Labour MPs in Westminster making laws for them to ignore and us to follow.

I know people who will always vote Tory because they remember the financial shambles left by Callaghan and equate it to the mess left by Blair. I know that ignores the bean feast of North Sea Oil but that's how they remember it.

Very unlikely. Why should people who voted green get annoyed at a green agenda being implemented?

Because most people didn't vote for the Green agenda. Barely half the electorate voted and little over a 1/3 of those voted Green. That leaves 5/6 of the electorate who will be impacted by Green policies who didn't vote for them.

[UndercoverElephant]

Very unlikely. Why should people who voted green get annoyed at a green agenda being implemented?

Because most people didn't vote for the Green agenda. Barely half the electorate voted and little over a 1/3 of those voted Green. That leaves 5/6 of the electorate who will be impacted by Green policies who didn't vote for them.

If more people had voted, Caroline Lucas would have got a bigger majority.

This is not a normal constituency.

[JavaScriptDonkey]

I'm not so sure.

The Green option is still an activist's vote. People that want to see a Green MP generally get up and vote. A similar thing can be said for LD. I think that the silent majority that can't be bothered to vote would plump or either L or C as it's the easy choice that isn't really a choice. Many people just don't like making decisions.

I think that to suggest that if more people voted then more people would vote Green is a fantasy although I have no evidence for it either way.

As you look further up the age and wealth charts so you find more people voting Conservative and that includes house owners. As all towns will have fewer students at the next election due to the increased fees that means less concentrations of activist votes.

I think it will be decided on a desire for financial stability and historically that favours a Conservative government. If I was a betting man I'd put £10 on Caroline losing her seat.

[UndercoverElephant]

I'm not so sure.

The Green option is still an activist's vote. People that want to see a Green MP generally get up and vote. A similar thing can be said for LD. I think that the silent majority that can't be bothered to vote would plump or either L or C as it's the easy choice that isn't really a choice. Many people just don't like making decisions.

I think that to suggest that if more people voted then more people would vote Green is a fantasy although I have no evidence for it either way.

You only think it is a fantasy because you don't know the area. I do, and I am telling you that it is packed to the rafters with "activists" - or rather people who are well outside the political mainstream.

The constituency of Brighton Pavilion has for a long time contained an over-sized proportion of greens, vegetarians and for want of a better term "new agers." This situation was intensified when the boundaries changed at the last election. The district of Brighton which I live right in the middle of (Hanover) is well-known as the heart of alternative culture in Brighton (in terms of residential areas.) This district was part of the Kemptown constituency before but at the last election it was moved into the Pavilion consituency. When I walk down my street at election time, pretty much the only posters you see in windows are for the green party. This isn't going to change any time soon either, because everybody round here knows what Hanover is like and it continually attracts more like-minded people from surrounding areas.

I think it will be decided on a desire for financial stability and historically that favours a Conservative government. If I was a betting man I'd put £10 on Caroline losing her seat.

And you'd lose it.

[SleeperService]

Makes me wonder why the Greens didn't get in at Glastonbury. I'd have thought that would be a natural for them based on impressions gained while visiting a year or so ago.

[JavaScriptDonkey]

You only think it is a fantasy because you don't know the area. I do, and I am telling you that it is packed to the rafters with "activists" - or rather people who are well outside the political mainstream.

I trust your local knowledge but all these activists voted last time. It's the people who didn't vote but that will be compelled to action by financial constraints that will decide the next election. People from Withdean & Patcham

And you'd lose it.

Probably although the Guardian projected the last results on to the new boundaries and you came out as being the only Labour constituency in a sea of blue.



Maybe I'll make that bet after all.

[UndercoverElephant]

OK...that's the first I've seen of the latest boundary changes. They are so enormous (in Brighton) that it is almost impossible to predict what is going to happen.