So here’s a rather harsh irony: because of the fall in the Green Party vote compared to the 2015 General Election, Caroline Lucas (as the Green Party’s sole MP and Co-Leader) will see her support in Parliament halved – by around £8k a month. That ‘short money’ is calculated on the number of votes cast for any party in the most recent Election, and one of the reasons why the Green Party saw its vote decline was that around 30 of its candidates agreed to stand down in their constituencies to ensure they didn’t take votes away from the progressive candidate (from either Labour or the Lib Dems) with the greatest chance of winning.
As you know, neither Labour nor the Lib Dems showed the remotest interest in any kind of reciprocal interventions on their part to help the Greens in either Bristol West or the Isle of Wight. To be fair, looking at the result in both those seats, it wouldn’t have made any difference anyway, but it proved really hard for the Green Party being the only party at the national level taking seriously the whole idea of progressive alliances at the local level. And Caroline has been absolutely in the vanguard of that advocacy for progressive politics.
Caroline’s voice in Parliament over the last seven years has been uniquely significant – on so many issues, in so many different ways. And it’s been as much about the tone of that parliamentary contribution as about the clear radical vision of just how much better things could be if people of like mind combine forces to ensure a majority for progressive parliamentarians.
But that means Caroline now has to make up at least some of the deficit caused by the Green Party’s reduced vote – which is why I do very much hope that you’ll support the crowdfunding campaign that Caroline has just launched.
http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/help-fund-caroline-lucas-in-parliament