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The Good Guys
Despite an incoming Tory Government ready to enact a brutal austerity Government, possibly in coalition with Liberal Democrat’s selling out, there are a few good results from the general election worth mentioning. A small number of left-wing and Green MP’s were elected to Westminster that are worth a mention.
Caroline Lucas, already elected to the European Parliament was elected as MP for Brighton Pavillion. She’s the first Green MP to be elected to Westminster, and was a welcome surprise when it was expected any non-mainstream party MP to be elected would come from the far or radical right – BNP or UKIP. Lucas says she won’t go into coalition with the mainstream parties but will decide how to vote on a case by case basis. Lucas and the English Greens are well to the Left of the political ground in England, backing the legalisation of cannabis and an increase in the minimum wage – 2 policies SSY supports and has campaigned for. It’s just a shame the Scottish Greens are nowhere near as radical as their English counterparts.
Most of the other good guys in Parliament are left-wingers in the Labour Party. The best known is probably John McDonnell, who tried to challenge Gordon Brown for the leadership of the Labour Party unsuccessfully. He’s the chair of the Labour Representation Committee, which is a campaign to push the Labour Party back to it’s Socialist and Trade Union roots. SSY doesn’t believe you can reclaim the Labour Party back to the Left, but we support folk like John McDonnell who are part of the few remaining Socialists in Labour. That said we’re unhappy about McDonnell’s support for the digital economy bill, which criminalises people who download films or music off the net! Poor show John.
Two other goodies are Katy Clark and Ian Lavery. Katy is the MP for North Ayrshire and Arran, and was a supporter of John McDonnell’s leadership bid. Katy is also a member of the Socialist Campaign group in Labour, and has voted against Trident, restricting abortion rights, 90 days detention and ID cards.
Lavery was elected as the Labour MP for Wansbeck, but previously served as the President of the National Union of Mineworkers. He was attacked in the run up to the election in the Daily Mail, for saying he had “absolutely no respect for the police” for their actions during the miners strike. Nice one Ian.
A few other folk who weren’t elected but deserve an honourable mention – Eamonn McCann, a living legend of the Irish civil rights movement stood for the Foyle constituency and got 7.7%, taking votes off the Shinners and the SDLP and coming ahead of the Ulster Unionists and Conservatives. McCann was active in the Northern Irish Civil Rights Association and was present during the Bloody Sunday massacre. Eamonn’s vote shows the Left can pick up support outside of the tribal system of Northern Irish politics – and despite Sinn Fein trying to censor his electoral material.
Another unlucky candidate was Salma Yaqoob. Salma is the leader of Respect, and was their best placed candidate for election to Westminster. She stood on a platform of building more social housing and withdrawing troops from Afghanistan.
She came very close to being elected in her constituency of Birmingham Hall Green in 2005 – and it was hoped with the collapse in the Labour vote and the sustained community work she’s done in the constituency where she is also a councillor, she might be the first female Muslim MP to be elected. Despite a swing to her, and an increase of 14% in her vote Salma came second. Respect were always going to have a harder time in an election where the war was not as big an issue as it was in 2005, but hopefully this won’t be the last we see of Salma.