There
has been a movement recently in the papers and on social media to promote the
idea of ‘vote-swapping’. The basic idea is that Green voters in marginal Labour
seats should vote Labour for tactical reasons, to keep the Tories out of power.
Where this is promoted by Labour supporters like Owen Jones or Sunny Hundal, it
is understandable. But when this is recommended by erstwhile Green Party
supporters, it is harder to swallow.
All over the country thousands of activists are working flat out to get
their council and parliamentary candidates elected, for what is now the third
biggest political party in the UK. Despite our rapid growth, we don’t have the
same fat cats to bankroll our campaign. We rely on membership fees, donations
from members and crowd funding campaigns. Those donors and all this hard work
would be totally undermined and quite frankly betrayed by vote swapping.
If
we are to achieve real change in our political system we must vote with our
convictions and do it now. Whilst the FPTP system will not favour small
parties, if we hope to have any influence over a future Labour government we
must ensure that our opinions are heard and the proportion of votes in each
constituency is representative. Voting tactically means Labour can sit back
under the impression they have an unquestioned mandate and their continuing
austerity policies have popular support. We must shake them out of their
complacency and open the debate.
The
argument that ‘by voting Green you get Tory’ is a poor reason to vote for a
party that does not represent you. If they cannot win on policy, they must not
win on fear. This might be a principled and un-pragmatic approach – true we do
not want the Tories to regain power – but how much difference is there between
Tory and Labour now? Remember that since Blairism and New Labour, we have less
and less in common with a pro-fracking, pro-austerity, pro-Trident party under
Miliband – a party that even went so far as to copy a UKIP policy and then sold
mugs that proudly announced it.
So
if you are a Green voter or are considering voting Green, then that is exactly
what you should do no matter where in the country you are.
