The Electoral Commission have released campaign expenditure for parties who spent under £250,000 in the European elections. The full figures are available to view here.
There are two sets of figures that stick in my craw. The 153,236 votes (1.01%) cast for No2EU came on the back of a campaign costing £118,326.
The Socialist Labour Party won 173,115 votes (1.14%). And the cost of their campaign? £5,354.
Per vote, No2EU spent 77p and the SLP three pence(!) I'm lost for words.
Here are the figures for other left campaigns:
Scottish Socialist Party - 10,404 votes (0.07% - Scotland only), campaign cost £4,733 (45p/vote).
Socialist Party of Great Britain - 4,050 votes (0.03% - London only), campaign cost £3,760 (92p/vote).
12 comments:
'Socialist': value for money. Same with 'Labour'.
Definitely - I know a couple of pissed off non-politicos who voted SLP because they have socialist in their name. There's a lesson there.
No one buys votes of course... but here are a few extra stats for the collection
Mebyon Kernow
13,886 GBP 14,922 Votes
93.1 pence per vote
Christians
222,251 GBP 249,493 Votes
89.1 pence per vote
Animals Count
4,512 GBP 13,201 Votes
34.2 pence per vote
Scottish Greens
11,108 GBP 80,442 Votes
13.8 pence per vote
English Democrats
37,500 GBP 279,801 Votes
13.4 pence per vote
Too much time on your hands tonight, Jim? lol
It's not that surprising that NO2EU, a party launched only a few weeks before the elections, should have to spend so much more than the SLP who have the benefit of years of contesting, even if they never get anywhere. Moreover, I'm not that sure anyone, outside the hard left, really knew what NO2EU was about, or that they were a left-wing party. I'm willing to bet that most people who had never heard of them before would assume they were a right-wing party from their name alone, and with UKIP and the BNP around, there were far more established anti-EU parties to vote for.
You started it!
My thoughts exactly, Salman.
Incidentally for left watchers some updates on the CPB split here.
Yeesh. For a left-winger, I really don't watch the left as much as you'd think, and this is a good reminder why. It's just plain depressing.
One of my comrades says *not* watching the left is a precondition for healthy socialist politics, lol.
Ahhh...but since the SPGB only ask people who understand and agree with the idea of socialism and want socialism to vote for them , they received 4050 socialist votes.
The others appealed for votes on a whole platform of reforms and got non-socialists votes .
And there lies the reason why the SPGB's idealist approach has never exerted any influence over British politics in the 100 years of its existence.
Cue Darren with a smart alec reply ;)
I personally doubt there are only 4,000 people who would genuinely want socialism in Britain. Lord knows something's wrong with the world if that is the case.
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