Well they arrived en masse today. Couldn't see the doormat. So, time for a round-up. We know most of us can't get what we actually want this election, but here's my take on the choices in Hastings, and then why we all need to pay attention, and why we all need to vote...
First off, don't worry about the Tories. They are not going to win. After 14 years of heart-breaking destruction, our Tory MP at the hustings claimed she was dealing with this and had just started doing that, and ended with an audible wail in her voice, telling us she'd worked everso, everso hard. Once could almost feel sorry for her.
The Labour leaflet - and the letter that arrived the same day - were adorned with pictures of Starmer. I won't grieve you by sharing them but will just point out that slogan of his, "country first, party second". For all the union flag pics he plasters his mail outs with, the country he's talking about appears to be Israel.
This is what our Labour candidate looks like, and she sounds a lot like Amber Rudd, the last Tory MP we had, when she first turned up.
So Labour are going to win, and our job is to find the best opposition to Labour, and the best national fight-back against their pro-austerity, pro-privatization, militarist outlook that we can. To me, it seemed painfully obvious at the hustings that the best candidates were the ones who could not win. The whole system had failed, but this was our chance to get a good look at the people we must support and work with for the next four years, to begin the job of building a decent alternative to what our government has become.
I said most of this in my last but, for the record....
The Communist Party have by far the best manifesto and as we very well know, most people in this country will not vote communist but we should give attention to The Communist Party of Britain over the next few years because they are good at political education, they do the analysis and they know how and why things do and do not work.
A few years ago, Green Party activists were agonizing over why they were still so far away from being a force in government. They pointed to Germany, and other places where Greens were becoming established and saying 'what are we doing wrong?' My answer back then would have been that most of the people they pitch simply don't know much about politics. Now though, it would be this...
... the Green candidate for Hastings and Rye seems quite popular. If only she could drag her party out of the identity politics hole it fell in, perhaps she could get on and do what it says on the tin...
Guy Harris for the Lib Dems was making a lot of sense at the hustings so if you're looking for an alternative that's not too radical, he's your man...
Me, I just can't forget this...
Phil Colley is standing because of Palestine - and that's not just about Palestine, it's about our desperate need for some politicians with more compassion and less embroilment in the arms industry...
Phil and Nick both have a lot to say about one of the major problems we face in Hastings - Southern Water, and both were at that other hustings, the Surfers Against Sewage one, held on the beach last week...
Click here to see Phil's speech from that day.
And I think after Southern Water, probably our worst problems are poverty and housing so, as Hastings always says when confronted with problems, let's have a song!
Nationally, it's unlikely that many of our small party and indie candidates can win but we can express our views and encourage them. They are the people and parties who we will need after the election, when we set out to organize and mend our politics.
So I'll finish on this note: as a small press publisher, I know not many people buy small press books but that doesn't discourage me. I know that it's not because people don't like indie books, it's because they don't usually know they are there. It's the same with indie politicians. They don't have the budgets to put their names and their faces all over town like the establishment parties do, so may I ask you this: in these last days before the election, please talk about the best indie candidates you've seen - talk about them on social media and in your local pub, cafe, or gathering place. See if you can tempt a few more people to put their X somewhere new.
Use your vote to encourage the activists we'll want standing up for us down the line.
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Cheers,
Kay
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