Tags
Brent Poland, Hs2, Joe Rukin, Politics, Railways, The Green Party
Today’s the day voters go to the polls in three by-elections in different parts of England. Selby and Ansty, Uxbridge and South Ruislip and Somerton & Frome, all very different constituencies – apart from the fact they’d elected Tory MPs. Now it’s looking extremely likely that’ despite the fact two of them were Tory ‘safe seats’ held with huge majorities, all three will change hands. The first two are expected to fall to Labour whilst the Lib-Dems will gain the third.
Most eyes will be focused on Uxbridge, the former seat of Boris Johnson until he ran away after being censured by Parliament for telling porkies. Johnson? Lying? Colour me shocked. The man’s made a career out of lying, but for once they’ve caught up with him and hopefully ended his time in politics.
There’s a diverse range of candidates standing in Uxbridge one of whom I’ve mentioned before. Anti HS2 obsessive Sarah Green has managed to secure the Green Party nomination. Despite her failing to get elected to roles as a local Councillor in the past the local Green party are daft enough to put her forward in an important by-election. She doesn’t stand a chance of course (I’ll be reporting back on the actual results tomorrow) but her nomination made me look at how some other Greens who’ve stood on anti HS2 tickets have fared in the May 2023 local elections. I hadn’t realised until now but former StopHs2 ‘Campaign Manager’ Joe Rukin has joined the GPEW. Well, he does have a lot of free time on his hands nowadays! He was one of 11 Green party candidates in the Kenilworth Town council elections, and guess what? He was the only one who wasn’t elected! You can find the results here.
Meanwhile, over on Erewash Borough Council, another area which HS2 will run through, serial ‘wannabee’ and regular moaner about HS2, Brent Poland, stood in Breaston ward where 2 seats were up for grabs. The party put up 6 candidates across Erewash with Poland the ‘spokesperson’ for the group.
Of the two Breaston seats the Tories won one and the Greens the other, but not Poland, another Green candidate – Ann Marie Mills – was the one elected. As for poor Poland – he even less votes than the 2nd Tory candidate! You can find the full EBC results here.
There’s a message here that the Green party would do well to listen to. Opposition to HS2 – no matter how strident – is not a vote winner, even in constituencies HS2 affects where you hope to pick up the Nimby vote. In fact, the previous high-profile antics and car-crash history of candidates like Rukin and Poland might have proved to work against them, hence the results.
We’ve seen this in election after election. The most recent being another high-profile by-election in Chesham and Amersham where GPEW candidate Carolyne Culver ran an appalling anti Hs2 campaign – to the exclusion of almost all else – including Climate Change!
Sadly, this is a message much of the Green party ignores. Despite the fact the core part of HS2 is almost halfway to completion they still pretend they can somehow stop it and that doing so is somehow ‘green’. It’s baffling, but then so much about GPEW politics is. You do have to wonder if they’re really serious about politics or getting into Government and holding real power and influence. The evidence suggests not…
I’ve a small favour to ask…
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