I tuned in to the Andrew Marr Show, and there was Caroline Lucas, impressive, charming and authoritative. Then there she was on Sky with Adam Boulton, surprisingly, impressive, charming and authoritative. Later I turned on the Politics Show, and there was Caroline Lucas once again, surprisingly impressive, charming and authoritative.
This contrasted with the Tory Amanda Plattell who ‘contentedmummy’ described on Twitter as looking “as evil as she sounds”. Together with some non-descript journalist, they attempted to rubbish the Greens and their prospects, but came acros as bitter and sectarian.
And immediately after the Politics Show, as if by imaculate planning, there was a knock on the door – a Green Party worker. Yesterday I bumped into several Green Party workers. The mood of all is upbeat and positive.
By contrast, the mood amongst Labour supporters is one of demoralisation, in Brighton Pavilion, Brighton Kemptown, and in Hove.
As for the Conservatives, The SussexSquare (Geoffrey Bowden) tweeted to Charlotte Vere last night, “its amazing that the majority of your tweets are devoted to attacking Caroline Lucas. You must be scared of her!”.
So I looked at the previous 10 tweets posted by Ms Vere. Seven related to Ms Lucas! Ms Lucas is everywhere – even having the highest profile on the Twitter account of her Conservative opponent.
And what about Ms Lucas herself? How many of her tweets made reference to Ms Vere? I looked at her tweets, not just the last 10, but every one over the last 10 weeks (I must get a life!). How many referred to Ms Vere? 50%? More? Well, none actually. Not a single one. Zero. It is as if Ms Lucas is not even aware of the existence of Charlotte Vere.
The amazing thing about Caroline Lucas is her energy, and how she remains pleasant and totally focused, no matter who she is talking to. She has the rare talent to relate to ordinary people and make them feel special, while charming those beasts known as Marr, Boulton and Sopel.
Filed under: General Election 2010 | Tagged: Adam Boulton, Amanda Plattell, Andrew Marr, BBC, Brighton Kemptown, Brighton Pavilion, Caroline Lucas, Charlotte Vere, contentedmummy, Geoffrey Boweden, Hove, John Sopel, Politics Show, Sky, Twitter |
Brighton Politics Blog 
Brighton Pavilion Labour party people demoralised? Dunno who you’ve been talking to. Personally, I’m upbeat, we’re gettng plenty of material out and our contact rate is high. I’d call our mood jolly.
Nearly three years of hard work for the Nancy campaign is paying off and whilst Team Green has more showbiz and money we’re fightng it on the doorsteps, not the telly. 😉
Dan you’re spinning, slow down.
‘ whilst Team Green has more showbiz and money’
Facts:
Reported donations to Labour 2009 : £16.2m
Reported donations to Greens 2009 : £0.35m
Source: Electoral Commission Website
http://registers.electoralcommission.org.uk/regulatory-issues/regdpoliticalparties.cfm
Yes, the Greens have targeted their resources at three constituencies. Nothing to stop Labour doing the same should they choose to. They can certainly afford to.
BTW how much did it cost Labour to post me SEVEN directly addressed cards via TNT? Plus my posted letter from Gordon Brown?
Multiply that by the 40-50 thousand households in Pavilion – hmm looks like you are benefiting from a lot of that £16million!
As for getting on the telly, thats because something exciting is happening in Brighton!
Pavilion gets the Rod Liddle treatment in The Sunday Times. Vulgar but readable.
First I have seen Nancy Platts not sound upbeat.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7094276.ece
I have no idea where this “feeling of demoralisation” idea comes from. More and more people are coming forward offering to help with Nancy’s campaign to keep Brighton Pavilion Labour. There are posters going up all over the city. I’ve spoken to loads of people on the doorstep who are right behind Nancy. Caroline Lucas gets a more favourable write-up in the media, but from an activist on the ground’s perspective, it’s all coming together – and it’s pretty exciting.
Re the Times piece. Not sure anyone should be happy with that. But Dr Lucas’s comments re Nancy are interesting, if true.
Preston Wilson,
What you’ve done there is confused national donations to a national party who can form a government and against the national donations to a pressure group who desperately hope they can win a single seat.
I was obviously commenting on the local situation. And not spinning at all. Nil spin.
dw
Now, now….Dan, this really is big spin…
What you don’t explain and neither do your Labour mates is how much money is channelled into the Labour Pavilion campaign through national Labour accounts.
– that is either explicitly ‘national’ expenditure such as the privately couriered TNT national mail shots (Royal Mail’s so passé and public isn’t it?) or funds which are not declared as donations to the Electoral Commission because they are already accounted for in national party accounts.
It *is* highly relevant to the local campaigns here who donates to Labour nationally as some of this cash finds its way into local constituency Labour Parties and so does not have to be declared to the Commission.
So do tell: how much does Brighton Pavilion Labour CLP receive from London HQ in Victoria Street, SW1?
Keep up the spinning, Dan – you’re rather good at it 😉
Dan
If it was ‘nil spin’ then you would at least have had the manners to treat us with enough respect to acknowledge that Greens are a valid political party, just as valid as Labour are. This whole Greens are a “pressure group” angle smacks of arrogance.
You may not want us to win, but you can’t wish us away: on the council we represent a large chunk of the constituency. Regardless of the election result, we’ll still be there afterwards. I don’t like Labour’s policies but I absolutely defend your right to contest elections, and I respect your party’s history. I would hope you could share that sentiment for the Greens.
All the best,
Jason
With regards money, I think a fair way to show how much is being spent is to divide the donations by target seats.
Labour Party: Target seats: 352 it already holds, all it needs to reform government.
Donations: £16.2 million (not checked, but no reason to disbelieve).
Total per seat: about 46,000
Green Party: Target Seats: Publically declared to be 3, (Here, Lewisham Deptford and Norwich South
Donations: 0.35 million (again not checked, no reason to disbelieve).
Total per seat: about 116,000.
So it would suggest that the Greens are spending more per seat than Labour.
Hmm, that maths seems pretty dubious to me. First of all, I don’t really buy into your way of coming to the conclusion you have, I think it is too simplistic. But taking your methodology at face value for the moment, I’ve done a new sum for you.
I don’t belive for one minute that Labour are targetting all the seats they currently hold, some seats being so safe that no substantive acitivty will be occuring. I don’t know enough of their strategy but lets say that about 150 of their seats are safe beyond all reasonable doubt (needing a swing of around 15% if I’ve got it right) before there’s even a whisker of a chance of losing the seat. That leaves around £81k per target seat. The greens are also standing over 300 candidates across the country, and while there is a short list of top priority targets, we still need to stump up the deposit of £500 each time, so over £150k to factor in straight away from the £350k. £200k left spread over 3 seats is £67k. Um, less per seat. And that’s assuming zero spend in any other area which is unlikely. So even by your questionable way of reaching a conclusion, Greens are still not flooding the constituency anything like Labour are.
However you want to look at it, the Greens are small fry in the political piggy bank, Labour can pull it out of the money bags when they need or want to – if they aren’t maybe they just don’t believe that this is a seat worth their effort… ;^)
Tim,
The Greens don’t have the same access to the mainstream media as Labour, Tories or the Liberals.
The election is decided by how the press reports on the parties and how slick a press operation the parties have. Media narratives are a strategic part of any election campaign.
The chances are that the majority of voters anywhere in the country will not be canvassed by anyone from any party.
Take my parent’s constituency of Arundel and South Downs (the seat you’re contesting this time round). My parents have lived in the same house in Pulborough for 22 years and not once have they ever been canvassed by anyone. How depressing is that? To go 22 years and not have a single candidate or MP or councillor ever engage with them?
It makes sense for the Greens to spend a little more in the their target seats to redress the inbalance nationwide. And, this is important, it’s not as if Labour are exactly short of cash to spend if they wanted to, they just spend it in the ‘marginal’ or ‘swing’ seats.