If you look at this BBC demographic, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/events/vote2014/england-council-election-results
you’ll see that apparently the Greens hold 36 council seats, up 16 with last
week’s voting.
Go to the Green Party website http://greenparty.org.uk/news/2014/05/24/local-elections-the-surge-is-on!-green-party-gain-ground-across-britain/
and you’ll find a whole other story – in which we are up 23 seats, giving us
162 councillors across 56 councils, and making us a bigger presence than UKIP.
If you’ve been following election news in the mainstream
media, you could be forgiven for thinking that the Green Party doesn’t exist.
What happened
locally? We had candidates for all wards. We gained Central (previously
Independent). We held RWR and with a new candidate. There was an outstanding
result in Coaley/Uley where Jim Dewey came just 27 votes short of defeating the
Tory. Our vote share was 18.5% of the total votes cast (Lab 28.1, Con 38.1) which
made us winners in 2 seats and 2nd in 5. That’s a very significant
presence and a firm basis for future growth.
Our story is being
ignored by national media, and the treatment of Labour’s successes at local
election is really shoddy. We should be profoundly uncomfortable about this –
democracy does not function without good information, so we need to protest not
only what’s happened around the Green surge story, but also the media
mistreatment of Labour and the misleading, right wing narrative that is being
fabricated with no reference to facts.
There’s a petition here:
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/bbc-news-stop-this-media-blackout-of-the-green-party?bucket=&source=twitter-share-button
via @38_degrees
You can also complain directly to the BBC.
Finally, if you are on social media, please copy and share
these links and help raise awareness of what’s going on.
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