Respect Is Looking Good. posted by Richard Seymour

I'm amazed. I never expected anything like this, but unless The Guardian has its figures all mixed up, then the Respect Coalition has polled as follows in the GLA:

Brent and Harrow.
Albert Harriott (Respect) 35,214 (23.79%)
Second place, beating Labour into third place.

(It transpires The Grauniad did have it wrong - wildly wrong. Harriot got closer to 4,500 - only beating the Christian People's Alliance into 7th place. So we didn't oust Labour, but we stuck it to those fucking Christians. Cue some Islamophobic remarks on the comment box).

City & East.
Oliur Rahman (Respect) 19,675 (15.03%)
Third place, beating Lib Dems into fourth place.

In Preston, the Respect website is saying we took 30% of the vote in the five inner-city wards that we stood in - without, however, winning any seats.


It looks like my predictions - yes, they were nosebleedingly obvious - will turn out to be accurate. However, I think now that my pessimism about Respect's chances may have been wholly unfounded. It's early days yet. If we fail to win a seat despite polling so well in the limited areas we are standing in, then we will still have reasons to be cheerful. If, however, we get an MEP, and perhaps an MLA, then we have real momentum. Crossing my fingers, toes and teeth...