Liam redux

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Bristol results

Jerry Hicks got a pretty credible vote in his attempt to get elected to Bristol City Council for Lockleaze, coming third behind the Lib Dems and Labour with almost 15% of the vote. Jo Benefield got 4% in Ashley ward. Less happily Mo Ouammi won 97 votes or 2.6% in Easton. Liberal Democrat92336.54% The Labour…

Liam
1–2 minutes

Jerry Hicks got a pretty credible vote in his attempt to get elected to Bristol City Council for Lockleaze, coming third behind the Lib Dems and Labour with almost 15% of the vote. Jo Benefield got 4% in Ashley ward. Less happily Mo Ouammi won 97 votes or 2.6% in Easton.

Liberal Democrat
923
36.54%

The Labour and Co-Operative Party Candidate
516
20.43%

Jerry Hicks
Respect – The Unity Coalition
377
14.92%

The Conservative Party Candidate
309
12.23%

British National Party
210
8.31%


Green Party
191
7.56%

Jo Benefield
Respect – The Unity Coalition
167
4.04%

13 responses to “Bristol results”

  1. jim jay Avatar
    jim jay

    Did Respect stand for any other county council seats? I can’t seem to find any others.

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  2. ks Avatar
    ks

    good score for jerry so well done on campaign

    ks

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  3. Joseph Kisolo Avatar
    Joseph Kisolo

    I didn’t even realise either of them was standing?

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  4. RobM Avatar
    RobM

    Joe, didn’t you see Jo Benefields piece in current issue of respect Paper?

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  5. Adamski Avatar
    Adamski

    Tom Woodcock who was on the other side of the Respect split got almost 18%, if the Greens hadn’t of stood in the ward his vote may of been even higher. Not all Green voters would vote for a socialist candidate, but the two votes combined would be around 30% of the vote.

    “the result is in! We stood under the slogan ‘make the bankers pay – defend jobs, public services and the environment’. Our result shows that where we put up a left fight we can win support. We need to build an alternative all over the country in order to build the resistance and challenge the major parties and the fascist BNP.

    Kilian Bourke (Lib Dem) 34.4% 829
    Chris Freeman (labour) 20.46% 493
    Tom Woodcock (Independent) 17.63 % 425
    Phil Richards (Green) 12.32% 297
    Sam Barker (Conservative) 11.2% 270
    Marjorie Barr ((UKIP) 3.98% 96”

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  6. RobM Avatar
    RobM

    So, why Independent rather than Left Alternative?

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  7. jim jay Avatar
    jim jay

    RobM – I live in the ward that Tom stood in, his election literature said that he was standing as an independent because there was no viable left party in this country.

    My flat mate contacted him to ask whether this meant he’d left the SWP, but apparently not. My mate was pretty annoyed about this.

    I don’t know if anyone else pulled him up on this but he’s altered the text of the letter that was sent out on his website so it no longer gives his explanation of why he stood as an independent.

    I still have the original wording on the hard copy around here somewhere though…

    ps as Tom and the Greens have very different political perspectives there isn’t much reason why one would stand down for the other and certainly no reason to think that Greens voters would automatically go to Tom.

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  8. Adamski Avatar
    Adamski

    Tom has good environmental activist credentials, I understand and is a socialist.

    Re. RobM’s point why ‘independent’ rather than ‘Left Alternative’? given that nobody has heard of ‘Left Alternative’ and it is a name that has zero brand recognition & new formations may emerge in the future that will render the name ‘Left Alternative’ obsolete, then ‘independent’ seems better and voters would probably be more likely to vote for an ‘independent’ socialist candidate than one standing under a name they’d never ever heard of. I don’t know if this was TW’s thinking, just my own.

    Re. Jim Jay’s point, he seems to have some weird axe to grind. ‘No viable left party’ – well, in reality this is true on the electoral terrain: there is no viable broad left party to replace Labour as the workers party & in terms of not being a ‘mass party’, the SWP is currently not viable in one sense, it’s quest is how to become viable or part of the process of building something viable. So I don’t see the problem of standing as an ‘independent’ especially if his election campaign inolved wider forces than the SWP.

    (Though just on an aside, I thought it would be interesting if the SWP did start standing SWP candidates)

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  9. Paul Avatar
    Paul

    I too live where Tom was standing and found it an interesting, if a little odd campaign. For a revolutionary socialist, there was little revolutionary in the election platform and no mention of socialism. It was a liberal election ticket, nothing essentially wrong with that however only vaguely mentioned the ward once and no mention of socialism or trade unions. As far as I could tell there were no wider forces involved in the campaign and for me the Green Party platform was more radical and more supportable.

    A reasonably good result though, and hopefully something comes out of it. Does this mean that the SWP have changed their line on there being no space for an electoral alternative? That would be a positive step in the right direction.

    Interestingly, TW stood as Left Alternative in the ward previously (as well as Respect) so I think that means that LA has been wound down which explains ‘independent’. Either that or the thinking that independents would fare well after the expenses scandal.

    Adamski – not sure Jim has an axe to grind. There is a very good reason why there is no viable left party at present. Don’t you think it a little opportunist to stand as independent instead of SWP?

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  10. jim jay Avatar
    jim jay

    I don’t have an axe to grind – I rather like Tom (although I’ve never seen him on any local environmental campaigns, not that I’m worried by that, he concentrates on other worthwhile things).

    A question was asked and I was in a good position to answer it. Tom stated clearly on his leaflet why he was standing as an independent – but I couldn’t link to it because he’d removed the section from his website.

    The reason he’d removed it is probably linked to the fact that people had contacted him saying they thought it was dishonest (I didn’t do that, I always assumed he was still in the SWP and had no problem with him standing as an independent as it’s simply the word used for those standing for election without being a member of an electoral party).

    My flat mate was very angry about it as it goes and so it was probably wise for Tom to retreat from the wording he’d chosen.

    I don’t support him because I don’t think he’d be a particularly good councillor – doesn’t mean I have an axe to grind, weird or otherwise.

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  11. external bulletin Avatar
    external bulletin

    Tom is on the national council of the Left Alternative – he was elected in October (November?) last year. It does sort of show how the SWP works, the fact that it has completely abandoned the name, the website, the organisation and everything around it, without even mentioning it.

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  12. David Ellis Avatar
    David Ellis

    If I had voted for this bloke thinking he was an independent socialist only to discover later that he was actually a member of the SWP I would be sorely pissed off.

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  13. Jason Avatar
    Jason

    Jerry’s result, Tom’s, even the practically non-existent but well named Socialist Labour vote, and results such as Lasa Hammond winning for Education Not For Sale in Barrow
    http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=114582095782
    show that there is potential – if this was backed by a series of local campaigns and even an alliance of socialists then it would be a step forward

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