Comments on: London European election results

By: Damian Hockney

Damian Hockney — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:29:26 +0000

Buddhdev Pandya is right about the counterproductive references to the BNP. When discredited politicians go on about it being a “sad” or “tragic” day they should think about what they say – fewer than one in 10 of the London electorate voted Labour. Elsewhere it was much lower. Assuming that a large number of these people are now actively hostile to the party, it is likely that anyone party hacks say is evil or bad will attract some sympathy, and even support. The BNP in its present form can surely be argued to be the creation of the political class and its buddies in state radio and tv and other media. An all-purpose Orwellian bogeyman to be held up to frighten voters into supporting a discredited collection of tired old parties. In that regard it is amazing that the moderate and decent people in UKIP managed to outflank the BNP electorally – maybe the electorate is not as daft as the politicians and media think we are…

By: Damian Hockney

Damian Hockney — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 12:24:15 +0000

An interesting result all round and good to see my former colleagues coming in second nationally. I heard an interesting point made by the Greens, which reflects the dangers of the current electoral system being used on a regional basis for ‘minor’ parties. In two changes in the past 10 years, the numbers of seats have been reduced for many of the regions. All of which is particularly cruel to a party like the Greens which nationally increased their vote but not into the UKIP major league. The most striking example is the North East, a small region which had four MEPs for years and now has just three. In spite of UKIP/BNP/Greens et all scoring around 40% of the vote, they picked up no seats. But in the South East with 10 seats, a similar percentage yielded three. Slicing from the bottom each time assists the ‘main’ parties.

By: Buddhdev Pandya

Buddhdev Pandya — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 09:38:08 +0000

This is one more disappointment for Labour. Since the departure of Mr Livingston, somehow Labour has seemed to have lost a hold on London. he has been a an important political charmer for the Labour, there is a vacumme. Many Labour activtis spent more time talking about BNP and other right wing parties, but was some what counter productive. I think the party is almost over.