In the upcoming UK general election it’s pretty clear that the number one priority for all of us should be to stop the Tories in their quest for continued domination of Westminster. Unfortunately, in our broken First-Past-The-Post electoral system, this usually means a need for tactical voting with Labour or the Liberal Democrats being the typical beneficiaries. This is necessary because there are more parties on the left than there are on the right. This is especially true now that the Tories have lurched to the euro-sceptic side of things. They’re in a good position to mop up former UKIP voters — the so-called #bluekip phenomenon — which is part of the reason they called this election in the first place. For most seats in the country the choice is clear: vote for whatever progressive candidate has the best chance in your area. That said, I feel really lucky because my constituency is Bristol West which holds the distinction of being one of only a handful of seats in the entire country where the tories have no chance, even combined with former UKIP voters. The first, second and third place candidates in the last election are all from progressive parties, and they’re all incredibly qualified. So I’d like to explore who would make the best progressive choice for Bristol West.

Our next MP will be one of the following three people:

Thangam Debonnaire (Labour), Stephen Williams (LibDem) & Molly Scott Cato (Green)

Stephen Williams

Stephen Williams was our MP from 2005–2015. While I generally agree with the LibDems on several issues I’ve never had much confidence in Stephen as an MP and to see why you need to simply look at his voting record. For example, I applaud his support for equality legislation, but his voting record indicates that he’s pro-austerity, supports regressive taxation (VAT), supports privatisation, voted to sell off our forests, and voted for going to war whenever he was given a chance. So I think even calling him progressive is a bit of a stretch. Voters abandoned him in droves at the last election and he certainly won’t be getting my vote this time.

Thangam Debonnaire

Newly elected just two years ago, I have tremendous respect for Thangam. Shortly after being elected to parliament she was diagnosed with cancer. I can’t imagine how challenging it must have been to try and juggle new parliamentary responsibilities with getting treatment for her illness and I think she has performed admirably in the circumstances. Due to this absense, her voting record is fairly sparse, but I’ve been generally impressed by her progressive views and willingness to respond on the occasions when I’ve contacted her. The problem for me is that a large reason I feel I’m able to support today’s Labour party is due to the vision and character of Jeremy Corbyn, and Thangam has been extremely critical of him. For her to be campaigning on a wave of support for him and the manifesto Labour has produced just a matter of months after voting and publicly stating that she has no confidence in his leadership strikes me as a bit hypocritical. If Labour doesn’t win an outright majority in this election (which is almost certain) I’m really concerned that we will see a repeat of what happened after the EU referendum — with renewed efforts to oust Corbyn and another bout of party in-fighting when what we really need is for our MPs to work on addressing the needs of our country. It’s made me sick to see Labour lose the confidence of the electorate over the past few years through their own internal party squabbling. So while I’d be content with her as my respresentative, I find it difficult to be a true supporter.

Molly Scott Cato

Molly Scott Cato is currently one of the South West’s 6 MEPs, and has been since 2014. She is a former economics professor and much of her work in the EU has been around tax justice — ensuring that the rich and companies pay their fair share. She’s as far as it is possible to be from the “hippie” charicature that Greens are often portrayed as. She’s economically literate, serious about sustainability, and she’s ideally placed to challenge whatever government we end up with on Friday. She will fight for a referendum on the final Brexit deal, for the halting of the privatisation of the NHS, and for real action on climate change. Finally, it’s pretty clear that for the next 5 years the primary focus nationally will be Brexit — who better to represent what’s best for us than somebody with such a thorough understanding of how EU law relates to the laws of the UK. How will having a Green MP affect Labour’s prospects? In many ways, Molly’s policy positions are even more in line with Jeremy Corbyn than Thangam’s, and in every scenario, a Green MP will do more good than just one more Labour MP. Green party policy is formed from the ground up and is incredibly popular. Based on policies alone, if we had a fair voting system the Greens would likely be the second largest party in parliament. The only reason we don’t is this endemic fear that a Green vote is a “wasted vote”. Despite this, people still vote for them in nearly every seat in the country. The difference is, in Bristol West it’s not a wasted vote.

To hear the three candidates defend their policies in person, here is an excellent head-to-head video put out by the Bristol Cable.

Our ideal representative

When you think about it, general elections in the UK are quite peculiar. All of the media coverage during election campaigns is about who will make the best Prime Minister. But none of us choose who that is, and unless you live in Maidenhead or Islington, you’ll never have a chance to vote for Theresa May or Jeremy Corbyn. The only choice you have is for your own MP, your representative in Westminster. So I’d like to you to ignore for a moment what your vote might mean in the context of the country as a whole and consider what characteristics might make a person best at representing you. I recently heard a story of a voter who confronted a prospective candidate with a simple question. “If there was a vote in parliament where you knew that your constituency wanted you to vote one way and the party whip wanted you to vote the opposite way, which way would you vote?” If they say they’d vote with the whip, then they’re not the ideal representative for you. The Green party doesn’t have whips (except locally as a titular role), whereas Thangam Debonnaire is a whip. Overall it’s clear to me that Labour would be much preferrable to a Tory government, but there are still things I don’t like about Labour policy — support for Trident and Brexit come to mind, but most of all, their efforts to block changes to make our voting system more representative. You know that tactical thing that we’re stuggling with? Labour implicitly supports that. And why not, when they benefit from it? If we had a Green MP I have confidence that she would vote with Labour when it’s in our interest, but not be ordered by the party to support things that we don’t, and she would always support efforts to make our country more democratically representative.

We have a real chance here in Bristol West to make history by doubling Green representation in parliament. We have the opportunity to vote for exactly who we believe in without wasting our vote. Even if you disagree with my choice in candidate, I invite you to join me in voting with your heart and head and leave tactics behind.