Chris Smith 2010

The view from the other side

In all elections there are winners and losers.

We saw the end of the Respect Party in Tower Hamlets, the BNP reduced to a footnote in history and of course we won our first MP in the houses of Parliament.

Make no mistake this has been an historic election in so many ways.

The local party worked it’s biggest and strongest campaign to date against a background of fear mongering by Labour to vote for them or Respect will get in.

We knew that Respect was over long ago – but for many people the sight of their campaign bus touring the streets every day gave the impression that they were a growing political force.

At the election count they all disappeared early on and their esteemed leader didn’t even turn up.

For us this was one of many victories of the night.

So how did the Green Party do in Tower Hamlets?

Over 5000 people voted for us in the Borough and although we didn’t win any seats we raised our profile and credibility for the future.

The Green Party website crashed with so many people signing up to join us and we expect a tripling of membership in Tower Hamlets over the coming weeks.

With Caroline Lucas in Parliament the Greens are now a credible fighting force in the public’ eyes.

In the online survey Vote for Policies our manifesto was consistently voted number one by nearly 300,000 people.

So a big thanks to everyone who supported us, met us at the stall, joined us at the bus and of course voted for us.

We will continue the journey to bring justice and humility into this world and spread a message of hope wherever we go.

The journey has barely begun yet we are already half way there.