As a follow-up to yesterday’s profile of the UK race for the European Parliament, I thought I would feature this campaign website for the Green Party’s candidate for North-West England, Peter Cranie.
The Greens, in addition to their seats in London and South East England, are focusing on North-West where BNP leader Nick Griffin stands a real chance of winning a seat.
The Greens have managed to get left-wing party RESPECT to withdraw in North West to avoid splitting the vote, and to explain the voting system and why this means a vote for the Greens is the best method of defeating Nick Griffin, they have produced this YouTube video.
MEPs in Great Britain, and in many other EU countries, are elected using the D’Hondt method. As explained in the video, in each round the party with the most votes is elected, and every party’s votes are divided by the number of seats they have previously won, + 1. It is similar to the counting system used to fill seats in the New Zealand Parliament (although in that system votes are divided by twice the number of seats won, plus one, so the divisors are 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, etc, rather than 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 etc).
In 2004, the second Liberal Democrat was elected on a vote that was about 8%, while Griffin polled 6.4% and the Greens polled 5.6%. Considering recent polling following the expenses scandal, the scenario the Greens put in the video seems plausible.
Below the fold I’ve posted a request for donations I received, if anyone feels like giving money.
Dear Greens,
Britain has had its problems with racism but I’m proud that we have never elected a fascist candidate to any office higher than the London city assembly.
That could change next month, as the fascist British National Party seek to benefit from a scandal over big parties’ parliamentary expenses to elect their first ever MEP, in the North-West region that includes Liverpool and Manchester.
*** For the good of anti-racism across Europe, we want to keep the fascists out of the British European delegation ***
The race for the final seat in the North-West region is likely to be between the BNP’s leader Nick Griffin and the Greens’ Peter Cranie.
The BNP have been getting an easy time from the media and we need your help to fight back
*** Please watch this film that explains why it’s down to the Greens to stop the BNP, and donate £15 to help us win ***
http://www.stopnickgriffin.org.uk/sites/stopnickgriffin/blog/2009-05-19-votingsystem.html
Under UK law, overseas citizens can donate to political parties as long as their donations are not more than £200.
I donate 15 pounds today. The thought of Nick Griffin in the EU parliament is like Pauline Hanson back in parliament, only much, much worse.
The F-Word, a UK feminist website, posted a good article on some of the BNP’s misogynist positions and particularly nasty comments made by some party members.
http://www.thefword.org.uk/blog/2009/05/why_fascism_is
Thankyou Tally Room for the link to the North-West British Greens. I also have donated 15 pounds to the campaign to help stop the stench of the British National Party getting anyone elected to the European Parliament. Thank God for Paypal!
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