Political

Why one Liberal Democrat councillor will be voting Green this May

Knowsley’s Liberal Democrat leader Carl Cashman is voting Green this May as part of a local pact between the parties:

As the Liverpool Echo reports:

Carl Cashman’s vote for Kai Taylor, who’s standing for the Greens in Prescot, will work as part of a ‘loose deal’ between the two parties in the current local election campaign.

The Lib Dems and Greens aren’t standing against each other in any of the council seats up for election, with Cllr Cashman saying the parties were instead focussed on challenging Labour candidates on May 3.

The council is currently 42 Labour and 3 Liberal Democrat.

This arrangement is part of a small but persistent pattern in the last couple of years of some local deals between Liberal Democrats and Greens, including this year in south west London and last year in Broxtowe.

I’m usually dubious about the value of such pacts. The evidence suggests there are better ways for people in different parties to cooperate over shared aims. But also, long-term success for the Liberal Democrats in particular places has usually come from the party making local politics a two-party contest with the Lib Dems one of those parties.

Helping another party make gains risks reducing the chances of having the right conditions for long-term success, that is a good core vote, a strong local reputation and the ability to pull in tactical votes as the clear rival to the local political establishment. This provides the trio of vote sources – core votes, local votes and tactical votes – that adds up to winning first-past-the-post results.

Some local exceptions will always apply, and in the Knowsley case Carl Cashman is very positive about the community work of his Green candidate. But for an overall party strategy, cooperation is best seen as something done through ways other than standing down candidates.

5 responses to “Why one Liberal Democrat councillor will be voting Green this May”

  1. Until we can secure Proportional Representation I think this sort of deal has to be part of our strategy.

  2. It makes sense to me. Every little bit helps. May also help put distance between the Tories and the legacy of the coalition years, like tuition fees and the current Windrush scandal.

  3. I agree it’s the only way forward but we need to advertise it . However we need to make similar pacts where we are a clear 2nd to the Tories. If Labour ever want to be back in power they need us to take seats off them ( the Tories ). It seems Labour just won’t come to the party.

  4. BEWARE OF GREENS BEARING GIFTS! In Brighton and Hove the Greens controlled the Council from 2011-15. In 2015 they LOST TWELVE SEATS and were close to losing more despite the Green Party putting a huge amount of their national resources into the area and spending the full amount of their Parliamentary and Council election amounts. Some Greens have dodgy and authoritarian views as well on issues such as Population Control; Euthenasia and Housing. Unfortunately, some of their policies get compared with the extreme green-ism of the Nazis. Remember also the former leader of the Greens/Ecology David Icke, with his dubious views. In Brighton and Hove, some of their policies included:-
    1. Closing down a Community Mental Health Centre/Learning Disability Resource Centre owned by Public Authorities for decades and selling it off cheaply to Private Developers.
    2. Abolishing doorstep recycling in some areas (making it difficult to recycle for many people) which together with other strange policies resulted in this Local Authority having one of the worst Recycling records in the Country.
    3. Removing (at great expense) Safety Railings and Pelican Crossings at a busy Road Junction.
    4. Narrowing the road space in some important areas of the City, making it difficult for buses and taxis,creating more congestion and pollution; and making it difficult for essential traffic to flow (including emergency vehicles).
    Some of their other bizarre and dangerous policies could not be implemented. Would YOU like to be tarred with the same brush as them?
    5. Spending vast amounts of Public Money and Officer Time on the building of a “Corporate Pod” when what was urgently needed in this City was investment in Affordable and Social Housing.

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