February 17, 2004
No Respect
The "RESPECT Coalition", a new political party formed by George Galloway (for people who think the Greens are too mainstream, I guess), is already falling apart:
The new anti-war coalition, Respect, suffered a crippling blow today as cofounder George Monbiot resigned over its decision to field candidates against the Greens.
Respect - the Unity coalition, whose figurehead is the expelled Labour MP George Galloway, revealed last week that a potential pact with the Green party had fallen through, meaning the two groups would be competing for the radical vote at this June's London, local and European elections.
In a letter to Respect, Mr Monbiot says he cannot belong to a group, which now threatens to take the seats of "two of the best elected representatives in Britain: [Green MEPs] Caroline Lucas and Jean Lambert".
The resignation will be a blow for the "Unity coalition", which has now failed to attract the backing of both the Greens and the Communist party of Great Britain.
The party is still in the process of selecting candidates for this June's elections and the presence of the Mr Monbiot, who also writes a column for the Guardian, was credited with giving the new group an environmental credibility.
Couldn't happen to a more deserving fellow, eh?
Posted by damian at February 17, 2004 07:58 PM