Election News

Thursday 6th May saw voting in the General Election and local elections for Leeds City Council. Farnley & Wortley Green Party were involved in both, as Andy Parnham sought re-election as a councillor, and David Blackburn was a candidate in the Leeds West parliamentary constituency.

In the end it proved a disappointing climax to several months’ hard work. David Blackburn obtained a creditable 1832 votes, but at 4.7% fell just short of having his deposit returned. In the council election Andy Parnham polled a very impressive 2563 votes, but came second to the Labour candidate. In a normal council election Andy Parnham’s tally would have been enough to secure a clear victory. However with the General Election being held on the same day voter turn out was much higher and the local election results saw a rise in the three main parties’ votes, closely following the trends of the parliamentary ballots. We would like to thank all those who voted for Andy and David in the elections. Be sure we will continue to fight to represent your views.

Farnley & Wortley ward has lost an excellent hard working councillor. We would like to thank Andy for all his efforts in  for the people of Farnley & Worley ward, and for the Green group in the council.

David Blackburn for Leeds West

The Green Party has selected David Blackburn as your Green Party Candidate for Leeds West Constituency in the 2010 General Election.

David Blackburn is 58 years old and is married with a grown up son and daughter. He has lived in West Leeds all his life and currently lives in the Farnley & Wortley Ward, where he has lived for the past 28 years.

David was elected to Leeds City Council in 1998 as the city’s first Green Party Councillor and has continued to to represent the Farnley & Wortley area on the Council since that time. He was leader of the Green Party for 11 years. David is Chair of the Outer West Area Committee, Chair of Green Leeds, and Chair of Roseville Enterprises Advisory Board.

A Message from David

I feel it is a great honour to be selected by my party to stand at this year’s General Election. It comes at a time when the world seems to have gone mad. With the spectre of mass unemployment, where the culture of greed has nealy brought the financial system to its kness, yet those who are responsible continue to be paid their massive bonuses. At the same time we are having to live with the massive affects of Climate Change and environmental degradation. And, of course, the scandal of MPs’ expenses.

The time has come to change the way we have been doing things and change those who have been making the decisions. The fact is that if you elect Labour, Liberal Democrats, or the Conservatives you will get the same massive cuts, and they will eventually patch things up and then in 20 years or so we will be back to where we are now, nothing will have changed. On the environment front they will tinker about, talking about Climate Change, but won’t do the real things that are necessary.

Greens offer a sustainable solid state economy, where fairness replaces greed. We would create jobs in renewable energy and insulation – not only creating jobs, but helping reduce carbon emissions and ending fuel poverty.

I ask you over the next few months to consider a different way forward and support me in the General Election, and my Green colleagues in the Local Council Elections on 6th May 2010.