Election Hangover. posted by Richard Seymour

The London elections? Fantastic! The local council elections? Some hot, some not. The Euro elections? Absolutely fucking miserable!

Although I sort of expected it, I have never been so gutted in all my life as to witness the UKIP storm ahead while Respect gained only pitiful votes in areas where we might have had reason to poll well. London was the only exception. As the Respect website reports , "Respect polled 4.8% in the European elections in London with 91,175 votes. This is 4,000 up on the 87,533 votes (4.57%) Respect obtained for the Greater London Assembly."

In Wales, however, a mere 5,000. Five thousand! Overall, our vote across the country was 1.5%. Now, this could have been worse - but not by much.

The lessons are two-fold in my view:

1) Betting so much on the Euro elections was a poor strategy. We had more chance with the local elections. In the Euro elections, the issue was going to be Europe and our relationship to it. Since the anti-Euro arguments have been hegemonised by the racist and nationalist right, it was never going to be possible for a small, 20 week old party to frame the argument differently. Partially, there were heavy factors beyond our control - media disdain or just plain ignorance, for instance. While UKIP got hours of free advertising and loads of press coverage just for bagging one out of work television presenter, Respect was either sidelined or derided. But it is noticeable that across Europe as a whole, the voting swing generally benefitted the right - or at least, did not benefit the far left, who lost approximately 2% of their total share of the votes across Europe.

2) We have a few pockets of strength where we have been able to put down roots. These are a good base to grow from. If we target our energies in the areas where we are likely to be able to win council seats, there is every reason to expect long term growth. Like the SSP, which started with votes hovering around 1 to 2%, we should play a long game - we have to patiently build membership and presence in the areas we already show potential in. We should stand in council elections and bye-elections in such areas, as well as the General Elections.


The next thing we have to tackle is the fight against racism and fascism. Those two forces are evidently on the increase, with the rise in votes for UKIP and the BNP. Now, whereas I believe the former are a bit of a flash-in-the-pan, and will not have the lasting appeal for hard-right Tory voters that the BNP may have for racists, the latter is going to be the enduring presence in pockets of England - particularly in the industrial North and parts of the Midlands. They saw a 6.8% increase in their vote in Yorkshire and Humber. They did noticeably less well in the South, where the racist vote has either stuck with the Tories or graduated to UKIP. So, a targetted campaign in those danger areas is called for.

What else? Well, the SSP made a nice improvement on their vote... Small mercies.

(PS: Respect have done an honourable job at placing the best possible light on the Euro results while high-lighting our real achievements. See here .)