Re: Wake Up Call Or 'Great Start'?

Date: 11th June '01

Name: Joe Clemence

Below is the text of an article from The Guardian analysing the poor results of the SA and other left groups:

The Socialist Alliance, fronted by the former Labour MP Dave Nellist, was one of a number of left-of-Labour parties that ran protest campaigns against ministers and other high profile candidates.

In the main these groups, including Socialist Labour and the Communist party, were fighting over the scraps of the disillusioned old Labour rump, but there were notable if minor successes. In St Helens South where the Tory defector Shaun Woodward was parachuted in as Labour candidate by Millbank, the Socialist Alliance retained its deposit with 6% of the vote - a third of the fall in Labour's share - and Socialist Labour (4.5%) came within half a point of doing likewise.

In Hartlepool, where Peter Mandelson had his attempts to fight a low- profile campaign scuppered by a number of fringe candidates, Arthur Scargill, Socialist Labour's highest profile candidate, attracted 2.4% of the vote, just under half of what he needed to retain his deposit for the second election running (in 1997 he took 5.7% in Newport East.)

Where the leftwing parties were ranged against less notable new Labour candidates they did less well. For example, in Birmingham Northfield, a safe Labour hold, three leftwing candidates - Socialist Alliance, Communist and Socialist Labour - divided 1.35% between them, while UKIP took a further 1.86%.

The Alliance launched its campaign insisting that, while it would not take seats at this election, it would use the poll as a platform to build support for challenges in future Euro and local elections.

They have little choice but to face the fact that they have failed to translate discontent with Labour into protest votes.

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