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I Can Win Today With Your Help

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Labour

If you’re a Labour voter in Kidlington West please consider lending your vote to me in the District Council elections.

After coming a close second to the Tories last year, I have a very good chance of winning the seat this year anyway.  But with the help of a few progressive minded Labour voters I could be assured of that win.

Labour and the Greens share many ideals about social justice, unions, anti-austerity and creating a fairer society for everyone.  I have a chance to forward those aims in Kidlington as the most likely candidate to take the seat from the incumbent Tory.

If you want to see a Conservative defeat in Kidlington West, I’m your best chance of that.  I hope you’ll give real thought to voting tactically today to help me help you send a message to the Conservatives that their days of heartless government are numbered.

Please vote Green today and let’s all score a win against Conservative complacency!

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The Greens and the Libdems Bring ‘Grown Up Politics’ to Kidlington for a second year

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Ian and Layla

Ian Middleton with Libdem MP for Oxford West and Abingdon Layla Moran

The Green Party and the Liberal Democrats are once again working together to bring ‘Grown Up Politics’ to the forthcoming district council elections on 2nd May.

Ian Middleton is standing again in Kidlington East, where he came a close second the Conservatives last year. He is also standing for a seat on Kidlington Parish Council in Exeter Ward.

In Kidlington West the Liberal Democrats will be standing candidates in two seats, including the one vacated by Alaric Rose who moved away from the area recently.

Neither party will be standing candidates against each other in the district council elections and will be endorsing each other’s respective campaigns.  All three candidates have pledged to work to forward the aims of both parties if some or all of them are elected.

They are campaigning for :

  • A stronger and more effective opposition to the Conservatives’ unhealthily large majority on Cherwell District Council;
  • Continued opposition to Cherwell DC’s plan to build 4,400 houses on the Green Belt in Kidlington, Yarnton and Begbroke to meet Oxford City’s housing needs. They want to ensure that any houses that are built should be genuinely affordable and aimed at local need;
  • Strong opposition to the Conservative’s plans for an Oxford to Cambridge Expressway especially with regard to it’s environmental and air quality impacts;
  • An end to Conservative cuts to local services and their failure to maintain local roads, cycle paths and pavements, schools and health facilities.

Green candidate for Kidlington East, Ian Middleton, said: “At a local level our two parties still agree on most key issues and we hope to build on the successes of last year’s campaign for both of us. Far more continues to unite us than divides us at this crucial time for our community.”

Liberal Democrat candidate for Kidlington West, Katherine Tyson, said: “We want to work with the local community to make our area a better place to live. We will stand up for local needs and campaign for the infrastructure needed to support development.”

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A Spectacular Result for the Green/Libdem Partnership

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Another election fought and another campaign behind us n Cherwell

It was very solid result for the Greens in Kidlington East with a convincing second place well above Labour and a tripling of our 2016 vote. Moreover a spectacular win for my electoral partner, Libdem candidate Alaric Rose in Kidlington West who nearly doubled the Libdem vote and completely wiped the floor with the Conservatives!

It would have been great to have won my seat as well, but with such a short campaign it was hard to get the message out to enough people.  Ultimately it was a total validation for both of us of our decision to work together for the common good.

Slightly galling that the Carmen Griffiths kept her seat as I understand she was hardly seen on the campaign trail. She wasn’t at the count, didn’t make an appearance on polling day (to my knowledge) and instead sat back and let local Tory cult figures like Maurice Billington do all the campaigning for her.

Judging by her attendance record at council meetings this seems to be a pattern of behaviour for a pretty lacklustre councillor.  I think many of the voters in the ward didn’t actually know which blue candidate they were voting for and seemed oblivious to the fact that there were more dedicated candidates on offer who would much more effectively represent them in Cherwell.

Perhaps when Carmen and her remaining Tory colleagues fail to turn up at other key planning meetings and the green belt is concreted over, bringing with it traffic chaos, pollution, and the collapse of local infrastructure, all those that trooped into the polling station to dutifully put a cross in the Tory box, regardless of the candidate, will realise their mistake.  It might be a bit late then though.

One other stark reality from the results is that if Labour had endorsed me (as we suggested) and we had endorsed them in one of the North Oxfordshire wards (as we offered) we would both have easily won our seats, meaning a new Labour, Green and Libdem seat on the council and 3 Tory losses instead of 1. Just imagine what sort of message that would have sent out! Especially on important and urgent local issues like the building on green belt in the area.

Labour really need to wake up to the reality of fractured left politics in this country and work with other parties like the Greens and the Libdems. We need to stop living in the past and embrace the future. There’s more that unites us than divides us and if we’re going to stop yet another Conservative government in 2022 we must start building alliances. If anyone from Labour wants to talk, I’m all ears.

In the meantime I intend to go on being a thorn in the side of Cherwell’s complacent Tory leadership and will be working closely with Alaric as part of our pre-election co-operative agreement.  I may not be able to vote on council matters, but I can certainly speak up in the council chamber and outside in the media.  I’ll be fighting hard on local green belt and conservation issues and keeping a wary eye on the attendance record of my Tory opponent.  The Greens will be fighting the elections in the ward once again next year and I hope that will again be in partnership with the Liberal Democrats.

Finally a big thank you to everyone who voted for me and to the dedicated people who helped us pull together such a professional campaign in such a short time. the Greens made historic gains across the country yesterday and I think it’s a credit to all our members that we can do this stuff on such a small budgets and with small teams. Just think what we could do in government!

Stay tuned and follow this website/blog for updates on what I and the Green Party will be doing between now and the next elections.

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