Sunday 7 June 2009

Far Left UK European Election Results

Far left (i.e. No2EU, SLP, SPGB, SSP) election results as they come in ...

East Midlands
No2EU - 11,375 (0.93%)
SLP - 13,590 (1.11%)
Total - 24,965 (2.04%)

Eastern Region
No2EU - 13,939 (0.87%)
SLP - 13,599 (0.85%)
Total - 27,538 (1.72%)

London
No2EU - 17,758 (1.01%)
SLP - 15,306 (0.87%)
SPGB - 4,050 (0.23%)
Total - 37,114 (2.11%)

North East
No2EU - 8,066 (1.37%)
SLP - 10,238 (1.74%)
Total - 18,304 (3.11%)

North West
No2EU - 23,580 (1.43%)
SLP - 26,224 (1.59%)
Total - 49,804 (3.02%)

Scotland
No2EU - 9,693 (0.88%)
SLP - 22,135 (2.00%)
SSP - 10,404 (0.94%)
Total - 42,232 (3.82%)

South East
No2EU - 21,455 (0.92%)
SLP - 15,484 (0.66%)
Peace Party - 9,534 (0.41%)
Total 46,473 (1.99%)

South West
No2EU - 9,741 (0.63%)
SLP - 10,033 (0.66%)
Total - 19,774 (1.29%)

Wales
No2EU - 8,600 (1.25%)
SLP - 12,402 (1.81%)
Total - 20,002 (3.06%)

West Midlands
No2EU - 13,415 (0.95%)
SLP - 14,724 (1.04%)
Total - 28,139 (1.99%)

Yorkshire and Humber
No2EU - 15,614 (1.27%)
SLP - 19,380 (1.58%)
Total - 34,994 (2.85%)

What a surprise, already No2EU and the SLP are getting blamed for letting the BNP in. Nothing to do with Labour's policies at all.

National
No2EU - 153,236 (1.01%)
Peace Party - 9,534 (0.06%)
SLP - 173,115 (1.14%)
SSP - 10,404 (0.07%)
SPGB - 4,050 (0.03%)
Total - 350,339 (2.31%)

And for those readers who are interested in how things went in Stoke, the full break down can be viewed here.

25 comments:

Simon said...

Unfortunatly looking like the SLP has taken the lead with the Left vote

Anonymous said...

What a surprise, already No2EU and the SLP are getting blamed for letting the BNP in. Nothing to do with Labour's policies at all.


Pure desperation by Labour Party hacks.

Phil said...

Indeed. Some serious rethinking on anti-fascist strategy needs to be done by those who rely on voter turn out to see off the BNP.

Anonymous said...

the slp will get more votes, they have a better name.

it's that simple i'm afraid, they do no campaigning, they have no active branches.


ks

Phil said...

It's starting to look that way, ks. I've got my humble pie out the freezer and it's looking increasingly likely I'll be popping it in the oven first thing.

Anonymous said...

i predicted correctly to two$ cdes that slp would get nore votes. i'm good at predictions now though after seeing a good few far left elections!

i think if no2eu gets 1-2% nationally that's ok though. lutte ouvriere are on 1-2% as well (yes i know better name and programme).

anyway who cares... lets just hope it's the start of a new left and trade union backed party that can build more serious support in future.


best wishes,


ks

ps. spgb got 4,500ish in london! only a few more votes and they will achieve socialism!!!

Jon said...

Europe-wide, the trend is that the centre-right is doing well and the centre-left is doing badly. The far left and greens are doing well, and the far right are having mixed results.

I suspect that this is a consequence of social-democratic parties moving to the right across Europe. Voters are polarising between left and right, and the New Labour clone parties are neither fish nor foul.

In the UK, the BNP are doing so well because there is no established far-left party. We on the left should be ashamed of ourselves if we cant establish a credible challenge in time for the general election.

Phil said...

You're right,the campaign mattered more than the vote - an argument I've put forward on here from day one.

Right, that's it. Time for bed!

Anonymous said...

light weight!

serious marxists stay up all night!

Anonymous said...

SLP have got a name, the legacy of a working class leader, and a popular working class actor. They always had a good chance of mopping up left-of-labour votes with this. A new formation coming from nowhere a couple months before the election with a could-be-better name & bugger all media attention and getting 90% as many votes as WE'VE GOT ARTHUR SCARGILL!!!1one is not to be sniffed at. Let's also not lose sight of the fact that the number of people voting No2EU or SLP exceeds the number of extra BNP votes this time around, and equals the increase in Green votes.

ModernityBlog said...

how miserable

PakPunk said...

No need to panic mate, we have plenty of time, let's begin from the beginning, study the details of the history of the russian revolution to the 19th decimal place, since human history starts with it or was it Marx or the Enlightenment, I forget... the british working class (do we even know the meaning of that phrase) cannot afford to miss this, can it?

Well, the second most urgent task at hand is to decide who was correct Trotsky or Stalin or Mao (remember the rivers of blood separating your factions), once concluded we need to devise perfect arguments and backstabbing tactics to decimate the other factions, also we shan't forget to discredit them as loonies in public. It should be the real vanguards leading the masses through the pearly gates come the day of the revolution. Afterall wasn't it Comrade Lenin who said that without the revolutionary theory there can be no revolution.

And yes, the campaign was more important than the votes, for we're fighting the good fight and all that.

Beside, I suppose, Socialists, especially if white middle-class, will be send late to the gas chambers it's the Muslims, the Pakis, the Niggers, the asylum seekers, the immigrants whose turn is coming soon, no?

Nevermind, keep the good work up, we don't wanna miss being enlightened on how North Korea's present situation links up to Stalin, do we?

Great day to call oneself a Brit Socialist, hurrah!

Phil said...

Someone's been taking the moron pills.

Anonymous said...

I don't want to blame the left for the success of the BNP, there's plenty more reasons to blame Labour and the media, but if you'd supported the greens in North west and Yorkshire there wouldn't be any BNP MEPs today. If we had had a single list across all regions there'd be 8 or 9 left/greens heading to Europe, instead of just two.

Daniel Hoffmann-Gill said...

How can 900,000 people vote for the BNP?

Phil said...

Daniel, I plan to write something about that tonight.

Duncan Chapel said...

So the far left vote went up from 2.1% in 2004 to 2.3% this year, probably on the basis of left active campaigning in many areas.

Organized Rage. said...

Come on, before comrades start looking around to blame some left faction, the Greens are responsible for their own failures. They need to learn a lesson here, it is their refusal to enter any progressive alliance that is partially responsible for allowing the BNP in.

We must all stop throwing stones at each other and learn the lessons from here on in.

i e a Broad progressive electoral alliance is the way forward and for christ sake keep the name simple.

More on this tomorrow at http://www.organizedrage.com/

PakPunk said...

@ Phil BC -

Go on Phil, try explaining why a million brits voted for BNP with the clear understanding that it is bunch of racist thugs. Afterall, trots, historically, have been experts in providing brilliant 'scientific' disaster analysis.

ModernityBlog said...

Yeah Mick, THAT is precisely the problem

The quick reflex to blame someone else for this horrible situation, but it doesn't lead us anywhere.

Phil said...

As fate would have it PakPunk I was going to contribute something on that very topic. It might come as a surprise to your addled brain that not everyone votes for the BNP because they're racist - at least going on in my experience of Stoke.

Daniel Hoffmann-Gill said...

A million Brits voted for the BNP because they are idiots.

The BNP have a raft of non-policy that would bring the UK crashing to its knees both economically, spiritually and morally.

We'd be laughed at and left on the fringes of the global communiyt, which is where we deserve to be if we vote for the BNP enmasse.

And thank goodness the Greens beat them.

Anonymous said...

unfortunately they aren't all idiots, and they aren't all racists even.

true, some of them are definitely racist scum.

BUT... some of them are just very pissed off ordinary working class people who want to shock the establishment and see this as their chance.



KS

Vengeance and Fashion said...

By my reckoning, the far left vote went up by 75,000 or about 30% compared to 2004. I've looked into the results a little more over at Vengeance and Fashion, and find some cause for optimism.

I don't think it's helpful in any way to deride people as stupid for voting BNP, any more than its helpful for those tagging along with New Labour and the Greens to falsely blame No2EU and the SLP.

prianikoff said...

The question isn't whether the SLP and No2EU were "to blame", it's about their tactics and their relationship to the rest of the left.

That's not just a question of the "far left", but also those who still vote for the Labour Party.
It's still very unclear whether No2EU was formed as a prelude to a new party with TU backing, or was simply an attempt to repeat what happened in Ireland over a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

Their results don't seem very encouraging either way.

At least the SLP don't fudge the "S" word, but as is widely recognised, the SLP don't have any real party organisation.

Their electoral campaigns are purely propagandist exercises and they refuse to cooperate with any other sections of the left, pretending to be the true heirs to the Labour Party.

This is the real problem; a plethora of independent initiatives, usually based on the possession of a political fund, which fail to look at tactical questions and fail to cooperate with the rest of the left.

These don't help solidify the left around a basic position that everyone should be agreed on - keeping out the Tories, UKIP and the BNP.

So they aren't effective at undermining New Labour's control either.