Due to Labour Councillor, Candida Jones stepping down, there will be a council by-election in Furzedown on the 20th June.
The results will be carefully watched by all parties following the serious drubbing the country’s two main parties have suffered in the European Elections. In the Euro’s, the Green Party was 3rd favourite for voters in Wandsworth, knocking the Conservatives into 4th place. This turnaround in party fortunes was certainly influenced by bungling over Brexit but there are two other important factors that come into play; the widespread recognition of the urgency of action on climate change saw voters turning to the Green Party to voice their concerns and the voting system was fairer because the Euros are run on a form of proportional representation.
In the Furzedown by-election the usual disadvantages of our ailing first past the post system, which favours the bigger parties and leads to tactical voting, will be faced by Green candidate Gerard Harrison. But the growing awareness of the terrible impact that fossil fuel dependency and environmental vandalism are having on our lives will make it much harder for our rivals to claim that a Green vote is a wasted one or to ignore the climate emergency. As Caroline Lucas told protesters at the Trump protest on 4 June “The future is Green or it is not at all”.