I'M BACK!

After a few exhausting weeks I am back in blogland. Safely in our new home and elections completed.

The Greens did reasonably well in the elections in England and Wales and now have passed the symbolic 100 Principal Authority councillors mark.
Some reasonable results for some of the rest of the left where they stood, Respect gaining a seat in the Labour heartland of Shirebrook in the Bolsover District and retaining their Preston seat

The result in Scotland was more problematic for the left. As predicted the SSP and Solidarity were both eliminated from the Scottish parliament and did not make much headway in the Councils either. The SNP surged but cannot form a majority government or coalition that will deliver an independence referendum, whilst the Scottish Green Party are reduced from 7 to 2 MSPs. Some of this decline on the left is a result of the SNP surge winning over former Green and SSP voters, but some is self inflicted, particularly with the SSP/Solidarity split. Nevertheless, the entry of the Scottish Greens into the Glasgow and Edinburgh Council chambers is good news to offset the parliamentary losses.

The news from France is even worse, with the victory of the neo-liberal rightwinger Sarkozy, egged on in vomit inducing fashion by Tony Blair who is due to announce the date of his departure this week.

It being May Bank Holiday I went along to the traditional Chesterfield May Day parade today, but didn't manage to catch Chumbawamba on stage later.