Take a look at the Sheer Breath-taking Arrogance of this Labour Blogger

I should say at the outset, that I quite like The Skwarkbox blog. It is pro-Labour Party, pro-Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, and the blog has some interesting, informative and entertaining posts on it. It is one of the blogs that I find myself reading from time to time.

But, a post appeared today on The Skwarkbox entitled, ‘Greens have stepped aside in several seats. Why hand Wirral West to Tories?’ The final paragraph of the post implores readers to ‘Please share this post and let’s build a groundswell calling on the Greens to step aside…’ So here I am, sharing the post, but not in an attempt to persuade the local Greens in Wirral to stand aside, far from it. Instead, I’m taking this golden opportunity to highlight the arrogance and sense of entitlement which is sadly commonplace in the ‘people’s party.’

As the Skwarkbox headline informs us, the Green Party have stepped down from standing in ‘several’ seats, particularly where these seats are marginals, mainly in favour of the Labour Party, Ealing central and Acton, Derby North and Brighton Kemptown, amongst them. The Greens have also stood aside for the Lib Dems in seats like Richmond Park and Twickenham in south west London.

Even the Lib Dems threw the Greens a penny, by pulling out of standing against Green MP Caroline Lucas in Brighton Pavilion. I say a penny because the Lib Dems only got 1500 votes in 2015 in this constituency and Caroline’s majority was nearly 7,000, so the Lib Dems didn’t give us much.

Labour has failed to even stand down in hopeless seats for them, in favour of the Greens (or anyone else), that would constitute a symbolic act of electoral fraternity. Take the Isle of Wight, which the Green Party is targeting in next month’s general election for example. The sitting Tory MP, Andrew Turner is standing down, after making homophobic remarks when addressing students at a college on the island.

This was the result of the 2015 general election on the Isle of Wight:

CON 40.7%

UKIP 21.2%

GRN 13.4%

LAB 12.8%

LD 7.4%

IND 4.5%

You will notice that even the combined totals of Green, Lib Dem, Labour and the independent, is less than the Tories total, and that is without the UKIP vote, most of which is likely to go to the Tories this time. In short, this looks like a very safe seat for the Tories. 

In some ways I can understand the Lib Dems standing as they were second in the 2010 general election to the Tories, but Labour has not a cat in hell’s chance of winning this seat. As I say, probably the Greens haven’t either, but what would it have cost Labour to stand down here? Nothing at all, really. But this is just what the Labour Party is like, fiercely tribal, and incredibly arrogant.

The Skwarkbox post also demonstrates a complete misunderstanding of how the Green Party goes about its business. Take this example:

‘The SKWAWKBOX calls on the Green party leadership to get hold of their representatives in Wirral West. The Greens have no realistic prospect of victory…Merseyside would not forgive or forget the Greens persisting in such a short-sighted course of action.’

Note the arrogance, of course, but also this is not the Labour Party where central party diktats are handed down, like in Surrey where three Labour Party activists have been expelled from the party for supporting a National Health Action Party candidate against the Tory Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt. In the Green Party, any decision to stand or not in elections, is left to local parties.

I’m an in principle supporter of a progressive alliance to kick the Tories out, but I’ve always suspected the idea wouldn’t come to much, mainly because of the Labour Party’s attitude, and you can see this amply demonstrated by The Skwarkbox post.

Why doesn’t The Skwarkbox piece recommend that local Labour offer the Greens something in the Wirral area in return for standing down, instead of attempting to bully them via social media? One word, arrogance!

Oh, and the Greens will be taking the seat of Bristol West off Labour this time, and no doubt more seats in the future. Happy electioneering comrades!