Walk

Am now nice and red after a leisurely walk through Brighton and Hove today.

Not nearly as 'red', however, as the Trade Unionist & Socialist candidate for Brighton Kemptown, veteran campaigner Dave Hill.

I was approaching Churchill Square from the west via the sidestreets, as I merrily chewed away at a pot of pasta. As I got near, I saw a small congregation of men and women gathering outside the back of the Ann Summers shop. They were chatting with eachother and tying together bundles of red balloons, each balloon bearing the number '£1 Billion'. I watched for a minute or so until they moved off in the direction of Churcill Square itself.

Naturally, I followed them. We arrived at the open area where North Street meets Western Road. There was a Pro-Gaza protester present, and men handing out copies of the Socialist Worker, whose front page bore an unflattering picture of BNP leader Nick Griffin, accusing him of being a Nazi. These two groups, Pro-Gazaists and Socialist Worker distributors are common guests in this part of Churchill square. However, there was also a third group, with a long banner encouraging people to 'Vote Dave Hill, Trade Unionist & Socialist candidate for Brighton Kemptown'.

And it was to this third group that the flock of red balloons flew. A crowd built up around the area and Dave Hill emerged with a loudspeaker. And there it started. A tirade against the bankers, each £1 Billion balloon representing £1 Billion which the government had used to 'bail out the bankers', as the emotive phrase had it. From the side came a man dressed as a banker, with a pillow for a paunch and photocopied monopoly money buldging out of his pockets and sleeves. Then came three men in suits, each with a mask representing one of the main three party leaders, Clegg, Brown and Cameron.

What followed was not so much politics put pantomime, the banker being ridiculed as greedy and the other parties as all the same. All seemed to care more about the banker than the working class man or woman. Dave Hill would shout out a question, the audience would echo a hefty Yes or No, as the question warranted. Is the banker greedy? YES! Are the three main parties all the same? YES! Should we have to bail out the bankers! NO!

He then suggested how the £178 billion (there must have been 178 balloons in total) should be raised, the £178 billion which had been borrowed from the public to resolve the banking crisis. First, he suggested, we should scrap Trident! One man behind me disagreed with this, and from the looks of the audience it seemed most were just enjoying the spectacle rather than being particularly interested in Socialism. Many shoppers and young people had been caught unaware in all this and stood as if they were watching a Punch and Judy show. The only difference being there was only one Punch (Dave Hill) and four Judys (Clegg, Cameron, Brown and the Banker).

Early on during the fifteen minute talk an official from Churchill square had come over. He was a manager rather than a bouncer and his presence there seemed only to serve as a subtle reminder that this was private property and anything too 'out of hand' would not be allowed to continue.

It did not get out of hand though. There was absolutely no feeling or threat of violence or disagreement. At the end of the talk they even gave the balloons out to passing mothers and children, and young men who should have known better. I did not take a balloon myself - I have my own principles contrary to their own, and I would have felt a great shame in taking one of their balloons.

There isn't much of an appetite for socialism in Brighton. Obviously I very much support their right to campaign, as I would for any party (even the really nasty ones, not that they are standing in Brighton & Hove anyway). However, you only have to look back to the 2005 result for Brighton Kemptown to see that the two socialist candidates only polled 276 votes between them out of nearly 40,000 cast. Sure this time around the socialists have a 'bogey man' in the shape of the banker, but I can't see this making any real difference.

After a bit more walking I took the train to Hove, where I walked down George street. Though I was pretty amused to see a man in a shirt bearing the words 'REMEMBER MY NAME - you'll be screaming it later' I did not see any canvassing going on. However, I did manage to stumble across the Hove Labour campaign headquarters, where the windows were almost entirely blocked up with posters. I also saw a poster for the Independent candidate Brian Ralfe, who came 9th out of 9 in the 2005 Hove election getting only 51 of the 45,000 votes cast. Well, his position is bound to shoot up three places this time, as there only 6 candidates for Hove this time around.

And it's fairly certain that Mike Weatherly will be the winner amongst them. Simply put, the swing required from Labour to Conservative for Hove to fall is half a percent. It's still pretty difficult to predict how the next eleven days of the campaign are going to pan out, but the political scene would have to be shaken several times harder than it has been of late if there were to be any possiblity of a party other than the Conservatives winning in HOVE.

I predict that the Tories will breach 20,000 votes in Hove and hold a majority over labour of about 4,000.