Just to get the discussion going - Hexham is a great constituency - very diverse - urban and rural bits. In recent elections it has been a pretty safe Conservative seat. The combined vote for the other parties could make it more of a marginal - but the issue is that the opposition vote is split. The Labour, Green and Lib Dems could get together and agree that 2 parties step down and leave the next election open to one candidate who everyone could get behind. That assumes that Labour, Lib Dem and Green voters would be happy to vote for any of the 3 parties. which might not be true for everyone Another approach would be to have 3 candidates on paper - but encourage people to vote tactically. At the recent bye election down south - that's kind've what happened and the Lib Dems got in by a landslide. The Labour candidate got about 600 votes - but who cares! Labour were never going to win and it's sent a massive message to the Conservative Government who are now nervous about the "blue wall". The blue wall isn't just in the south - Hexham constituency is in the blue wall......

The idea of a progressive alliance (PA) between the 3 "left of centre" parties is being discussed a bit. Could that work? Could you imagine a single PA candidate?  But it could be PA-Labour, PA-LibDem or PA-Green. It kind've predisposes that there is a willingness for the parties to work together both to get PA candidates elected and then work in coalition after the election. I am a Labour Party member - but i would love it if Caroline Lucas was asked (begged!) by Keir Starmer to be in the shadow cabinet. Similarly I like a lot of Lib Dem policies. There is much more in common between Labour, Lib Dem and Green than differences. A successful PA would have to have a lot of common ground in key policy areas - but the individual parties could still have their differences.

So, what does everyone think about this for Hexham? Could it work? What's the best strategy?

Comments

  1. Paul FletcherJune 24, 2021 at 2:56 PM

    A relevant article....

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/24/how-progressive-alliance-tory-britain?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

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  2. Progressive Hexham ConstituencyJune 25, 2021 at 2:37 AM

    thanks Paul. V interesting article. This bit caught my eye:

    'We start with the “why” of an alliance. The driving reason is political. The critical alliance is not one of parties or voters, but minds and then actions'

    At the end of the day all political parties/movements are coalitions of individuals with different ideas, but enough common ground to work together and, if successful, gain political representation to convert ideas into actions. For those of us who want a non-Conservative government we need to work out how to achieve this at the next election. Understanding the reasons this has not happened in recent elections is crucial but we need to convert this analysis into an effective strategy for the next election.

    This involves people getting over some of their current positions like Labour members saying "will never work with the lib dems because they went into coalition with the Tories" or Greens saying "never going to work with labour of lib dems unless they embrace all Green Party policies" or Lib Dems saying "we won't sign up to a coalition until after the election" - if all 3 said "lets work together to win the election with a view to a coalition government" we might be in business! Especially in a constituency like Hexham where the Conservatives can more or less sit back and laugh at us because they win when the opposition is divided without making any effort at all! Imagine how the Hexham Conservatives would react if they faced a single candidate at the next election!! Just think about that for a few minutes.............

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