Oldham East By Election

[okra]

What does the fact that the Green Party only got 530 votes or 1.5% of the vote and the BNP got 1560 or 4.5% about environmental politics in the UK?

[Green Aura]

I don't think it really says anything, okra, fortunately.

The constituency is a very strange one - extremely poor urban mixed with some very well to do countryside and it's always been a marginal seat which has had all three main parties holding it at some point in the last fifty years.

Part of it is also the scene of the Oldham riots a few years ago and still is a highly segregated area. So extreme parties like the BNP can tap into some of the underlying mistrust. But there's not much for the Greens to tap into.

And, to be quite frank, if the Green Party around Oldham is as much of a shambles as up here appears to be then I think they did extremely well to get as many votes as they did! I've been a member of the Greens for nearly a year now. In that time the only communication I've had from them are ballot forms for new candidates - I have no idea who these people are or if the party even meets anywhere or any time. How they expect to do well in the May Elections in Scotland is beyond me. I have the words p1ss up and brewery running through my head

My membership, I think, will be short-lived.

[oldjerry]

Note the turnout,what does that say about parliamentary politics full stop?

[okra]

Note the turnout,what does that say about parliamentary politics full stop?

Yes, at 40% turnout the constituents should not be allowed an MP - that is if you extend Cameron's argument the other day when he threatened to ban any strikes if at least 50% of all eligible voters in any trade union did not vote in a strike ballot.

I hear what you say about the type of seat but it's still a sad reflection that more vote for fascists than environmentalists

[TheGoodEarth]

What does the fact that the Green Party only got 530 votes or 1.5% of the vote and the BNP got 1560 or 4.5% about environmental politics in the UK?

It tells me that there are more uneducated racists than educated environmentalists.

[The Riff-Raff Element]

Don't the BNP espouse organic farming and so forth? Perhaps people got confused.

At least your nazis have little chance of gaining real power. Our lot (shortly to be led, I suspect, by the fragrant and voluptuous Marine le Pen) are currently third in the polls and climbing.

With my ancestry I'll be among the first up against the wall

[okra]

It's not only Marine Le Pen it seems the right are gaining ground across Europe. Why does economic depression go hand in hand with fascism

[southeast-isher]

What's your situation Okra, are you a Briton living in Cyprus?