Dear Nshorna,
I stayed up much of last night watching Euro election results for Britain.
Here is a summary.
Brexit Party won most seats, as UKIP did five years ago in the EU elections.
Brexit won 28 seats. In the 2014 EU election they won 24 seats.
Lib Dems won 16 seats.
Green Party got more than 2 million votes and won seven seats in the EU.
Conservative Party did not get most votes in any region anywhere in the UK. They got fifth place in almost everywhere in the country.
They now only have three MEPs in the EU.
They came fifth behind Brexit, Lib Dems, Labour and Greens.
Conservative Party got a mere 9% of the vote.Their worse performance since 1832, yes 1832.
The solid Remain parties, Lib Dems, Greens, SNP, Welsh Plaid Camru got more votes than the Brexit/UKip combined
Remainers did not need the Labour Party to secure more votes than Brexit.
Sitting on the Fence, Labour Party had nearly as disastrous evening as the Conservatives.
They lost massively in Wales and Scotland, and the north – their traditional strongholds of support.
Brexit Party mostly took UKIP votes.
In the latest UK opinion poll, Remainers are at 56% and Leave EU is 44%.
I stood for Parliament for the Greens in 1986 and 1992. In the 1989 Euro election, I was the South Devon campaign manager.
You travelled around Devon with me in these years. Sometimes you slept under the table on the stage in a village hall.
I got the fifth best vote of the Green Party in UK. People enjoyed the two of us on the campaign trail.
In the South-West (Dorset, Devon, Cornwall), the Greens got more votes than the Conservative Party and Labour Party put together in the region.
Green Vote in the UK was the best since 1989.
German Green Party is now the second biggest party in the EU for Germany.
Change is on the way. The real agenda is not Brexit. It is the climate crisis, life for future generations, animals, the environment, support for refugees, racism, Islamaphobia, anti-Semitism, pollution, globalisation, poverty and ill-health.
The stagnant power base of the EU is finally breaking up.
More people voted in the EU in this election than ever before. Engaged politics is on the agenda. (60% voted in Denmark, the highest. Lowest was the UK vote with 37%).
Conservative and Labour Party made too much karma for the most of the electorate to overlook.
I went to sleep for two hours, then got up and started writing on global issues.
Now back to bed for a bit.
Then pilgrimage for holy communion – oat latte.
Love
dad
Thank you Christopher for sharing this letter to your daughter. It’s a clear assessment of where we stand. I also feel change is on the way but future climate catastrophe is still not being addressed and I think only increasing action from Extinction Rebellion will bring that about. Enjoy your oat latte!