Tim Stanley misses the real story with this article. His critics - especially in the Green Party - will also no doubt miss the real story, which is in fact the impotence of local government. This reduces Brighton Greens to tokenism and trivia, even more so than Labours municipal socialism of the 1980s due to massive cuts, the centralising of power and the entrenchment of neoliberalism since then. However, his ending is actually perceptive, eloquent and scathing, whatever you think of his right-wing politics and regardless of whether you like or dislike what he describes: How did the Greens, with no real experience of governing, get the votes to do all this? It’s down partly to the collapse in traditional support for Labour post-Blair. But it’s also due to the migration of middle-class London liberals to the south coast, with its cheap houses and easy rail access. And in this regard, the Greens are indeed the inverted image of Ukip — and not only in the sense of being philosophical opposites. Where Ukip represents a revolt of natives against newcomers, the Greens represent a revolt of newcomers against natives. Old Brighton was a working-class seat that voted Conservative until 1997. The new Brighton is becoming a colony of Islington: it’s what the entire country would turn into if it were run by the people who bought Russell Brand’s new booky-wook. Trendy, yes. But they are impractical and very irritating.
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 12:29:07 +0000
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