Monday 7 June 2010

Signing Off

Well a month has passed since the election and it’s probably time to bid farewell to this blog and return to other blogs such as Mancunian Green which has been very much neglected recently.

Despite the low vote I received (798 votes and 1.8% well down on the 1595 votes of 2005), I have been struck by the favourable comments I have received both during the campaign and since. The response bears out my own opinion, that I was particularly squeezed by tactical voting; in many cases, people were voting Liberal Democrat to achieve a change in the system (particularly the voting system). A second group of tactical voters, worried about the return of a Tory Government, were backing my Labour opponent.

In several respects the election reminded me very much of 1992, where my vote count and percentage were similar but I also received many favourable comments. In those far off days of course the squeeze was between Labour and Tory.

It is some consolation that my fellow Greens were squeezed across most of the country, the big exception of course being Brighton Pavilion where Caroline Lucas made the breakthrough becoming our first Green MP!

Well, we now have a Conservative / Liberal Democrat coalition government, and we will soon see how much things change, and in what direction.

I will keep a close eye on what happens.