Yesterday there was a local election for the ward of Hotwells and Harbourside in Bristol. I had an invitation from the local Labour party to help them campaign for it, but circumstances prevented me from physically going and I do not believe in phone banking. Anyway, the results are in. It was won by the Green party, who took it from the Lib Dems by 26 seats. This is quite ironic, as in the last election the Lib Dems only won that ward by the same number. This victory now makes the Greens the largest party in the council, though I gather that none of them have an overall majority.
Hotwells is one of the city’s historic districts on the banks of the Avon running through the city, and where Bristol’s harbour was before it was abandoned in the 70s and the port moved to its present location at Avonmouth. It’s a mixture of retail, office and residential buildings, including some dating from the 18th and 19th centuries when it, along with Clifton, were the city’s spa districts. Some of the housing is very modern and upmarket, while there are also a couple of 60s/70s brutalist tower blocks. It’s also the location for one of Bristol’s private schools, Queen Elizabeth’s Hospital. It’s population also includes lecturers and academics from Bristol university, which is literally just up the road in Clifton. Just across the river are a couple of converted tobacco bonds, one of which now houses the city’s archives while another is, or was, the site of a green technology centre.
Bristol is quite a green city. Under the Labour mayor, Marvin Rees, the local authority’s put in a number of new cycle lanes and in that part of the city you do see people pedalling away, including women with their children in trailers behind them. The council has also announced other plans for developing a local green economy, including a clean air zone which has caused controversy in recent weeks because of the way it affects traffic.
Bristol Live reported that the new councillor, ‘ 24-year-old Cllr McAllister, who works in legal services, said his party was now preparing to take power in Bristol.
He said: “Successive Conservative-led governments and our Labour-run council have left our residents feeling frustrated — whether it’s through botched consultations on new developments, repair works to public throughways going on for years, the cladding crisis, or even threatening to take away our library.
“There’s never been a more vital time to speak up for our communities, and that is exactly what I’m going to do from now on. The Green Party is now the biggest group in the council, with 25 councillors, and I recognise the weight of that responsibility. As a team we are putting together our programme so we are ready to run this city from next year.
“In the meantime, I think that the city council’s current leadership has a responsibility as well — they have to now recognise the mandate that the Green Party has. I’m really looking forward to getting on with the job and representing this amazing community with the commitment and enthusiasm that it deserves.”’
See: https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/greens-win-bristol-election-race-8106783
He undoubtedly has a point about local service. Roadworks with the attendant diversions have been going on in Temple Meads for many years now, as well as in the rest of the city. And the council is considering closing Bristol Central Library and moving it to another location. Rees has also made decisions that make little sense, and have ignored the wishes and opinions of local people. The city wishes to build a new, top-level stadium. The ideal location would be Temple Meads, because it’s the site of the railway station and is a very short drive from the motorway. Rees decided against that, ruling instead that it should be build in Patchway, a district miles away in the north of Bristol. He also upset the local people in Hengrove and Whitchurch in his plans for the redevelopment of Hengrove Park. This was to be the site of new housing, but locals objected because there were too many homes planned and no amenities. They voiced their complaints to Rees, who politely met them. They also submitted them, and their alternative plans, to the relevant supervisory authority, who ruled in the favour. But Rees ignored them, and bulldozed his plans through.
But some of those 26 voters may also have been swayed by national issues. I’ve got very strong reservations about the Greens’ social policies. I’ve got the impression they’re very woke. It was the Green-led local authority in Brighton and Hove which caused controversy a couple of years ago by teaching Critical Race Theory in its schools. In Bristol, former Green councillor Cleo Lake put forward the motion calling for the payment of reparations for slavery to all ‘Afrikans’. In Scotland, it seems to be the Greens behind the Gender Recognition Act, which would lower the age of consent for children to identify as trans to 16, cut back on the amount of time a transperson would have to live as a member of the sex they wish to transition to. As well as the policy that has seen dangerous biologically male rapists locked away in women’s prisons.
But they also have great economic and welfare policies. As I posted a few days ago, I caught their party political broadcast the other night, and they said all the right things when it came to the NHS and the utilities: they want them renationalised along with a proper welfare state. Brilliant! These are the policies that Jeremy Corbyn put forward in his brilliant manifesto, and which Starmer promised to retain. Until he dumped them during a policy review. A few years ago the Greens were gaining on Labour in Bristol before Corbyn became leader, and I have no doubt that some of that was due to the Blairism of Miliband’s leadership.
The Bristol Live report speculates that the victory could mean trouble for Labour in the local elections here in 2024. That’s a real possibility. Novara Media has put up a video today in which Michael Walker and Dalia Gebreal discuss the failure of the Labour leadership to voice support for the strikers. There has been no messages of support from their front bench and Starmer has been going around sacking those that have stood on picket lines. On the other hand, when asked about this, the local MP for Bristol south, Karin Smyth, said quite rightly that the party still defends the right to strike and gave some reasonable objections to MPs standing with the pickets. But it still looks to me like Starmer not wanting to be seen backing strikers and alienating all the Tory and Lib Dem voters he wants to atract.
The Greens have won by a very narrow majority, which could vanish come 2024. But it’ll be very interesting to see how well they do and how the local Labour party responds to their challenge.
Tags: Bristol, Bristol Central Library, Cleo Lake, Conservatives, Councillor McAllister, Dalia Gebreal, Ed Miliband, Green Party, Hengrove Park, Hotwells, Housing, Jeremy Corbyn, Kier Starmer, Labour Party, Local Councils, Marvin Rees, Michael Walker, NHS, Novara Media, Patchway, Prisons, Public Utilities, Queen Elizabeth's Hospital, Rape, Schools, Slavery Reparations, Sports Stadium, Temple Meads, Temple Meads Station, tony blair, Transgendered People, Welfare State, Women
Beastrabban\'s Weblog 
February 3, 2023 at 8:03 pm |
“I’ve got the impression they’re very woke”
Saying I’ve got the impression they’re aware of social injustice, especially racism, doesn’t have the same tabloid-esque sensationalism does it?
The GRC act in Scotland has been on the table for six years and has cross party support, also worth remembering similar applies in the likes of Denmark and the ROI.
Cleo Lake is just one person, and the nature of democracy is that policy ideas get sensibly debated (I hope so anyway)
And I read a good balanced article on critical race theory in The US, can’t remember where but it should be easily found.
It was also discussed on the podcasts I mentioned in a previous comment.
February 4, 2023 at 4:57 pm |
I take your point, Jim. 🙂
February 4, 2023 at 3:53 pm |
Tell me if I’m wrong. My impression is that the Greens have a vague commitment to the environment, but no commitment to public services in general or the NHS in particular. In other words, they are ALMOST as devoid of principle and direction as the LibDems, though neither of them are as morally bankrupt as the tories or as ruthlessly negative as Starmer’s storm troopers.
February 4, 2023 at 4:58 pm |
That was one of the complaints made about them the other year. Their chief at the time, Caroline Lucas, had made various promises in this direction but then dropped them when it came to an election.
February 4, 2023 at 4:58 pm |
P.S. Perhaps my comments are over the top, but Starmer has turned me into an incurable cynic, and it’s all too easy to commit to policies you don’t have a hope in hell of implementing. At one time the Lib Dems did have some bright sparks, but they quickly quenched them when they entered the Cameron coalition. It will be the same, I’m sure, with the Greens. They will find themselves shoring up some monstrous political dinosaur!
February 4, 2023 at 9:09 pm |
No, I think that’s a very good point. We all remember the U-turn the Lib Dems made on their left-wing policies as soon as they jumped into bed with Cameron. The big one that affected students was obviously tuition fees, and Cameron was quite prepared to freeze them as Clegg said he wanted. But Clegg decided that now he had power he was going to raise them.