Why you should vote Green in Tonbridge and Malling

Three reasons you should vote Green in Tonbridge & Malling

Tonbridge and Malling is not a marginal seat. In the last General Election, the incumbent Conservative received two thirds of all votes (64%) – which means that even if every other party had done a deal and stood one candidate together, we still would have lost by a long way. Labour got 22% and Liberal Democrats got 7% of the votes. So it is very clear that there is no value here in ‘tactical voting’. But there are some very good reasons to vote Green:

1. Increasing our overall vote share
Tactical voting is only helpful in marginal seats, where two or more opposition parties have enough in common that they agree to only stand one candidate between them, and their combined vote share is enough to beat the other side. There are, of course, discussions ongoing in these kinds of seats (as there were in the last two General Elections). It is therefore critical in seats like Tonbridge and Malling that we help Greens increase our overall national vote share, to make up for the couple of strategic seats where we might stand down for other parties.
Overall vote share results directly in vital resources, including media air time and short money (funds from Parliament allocated to opposition parties according to vote share, to help them with their costs). The Green Party does not accept donations from big business – we rely on our supporters to fund our campaigns, so these precious resources are even more valuable to us.

2. Showing support for our distinct position on the key issues
The Green Party has a different position from all the other parties on each of the key issues in this election – for example, we continue to lead with the most holistic policies on ending climate chaos, and we think there should be a People’s Vote including the option to remain so that everyone (whether they want to leave or remain in the EU) can have a say over the final deal. So, we are standing in the General Election to give people a chance to vote and show support for this unique position.
Even if we don’t win a seat here, having people show their support for this position will influence how our MP and the government thinks about these issues. Look at how UKIP, with no elected MPs, managed to influence the Conservatives to hold the EU referendum – we can exert this same kind of influence if we can demonstrate significant support for our policies.

3. Building the case for Proportional Representation
The reason we even talk about ‘tactical voting’ is that our electoral system is fundamentally broken. People feel forced to vote for something they don’t really want to avoid an even worse situation.
It is a myth that First Past the Post returns strong majority governments, as the last few General Elections have shown. Instead, it rewards competitive instead of collaborative behaviour. It results in mediocrity by encouraging ‘safe’ centre-ground policies that won’t lose votes (or financial backers!) instead of the bold, innovative solutions we need to address the climate crisis. And the main parties don’t like it, because they know it will mean people won’t feel obliged to vote for them in future – they will instead be free to vote for what they believe in.
That is why it is up to the smaller parties like us to keep on making the case for how unfair the current system is – and we need your votes to show this. In the last General Election, 1 Green MP was worth 525,000 votes, but 1 DUP MP was worth an average of 23,000 votes. With your votes we can make the case for a truly democratic system to make sure everyone’s voice is heard in future.