It's 2 out of 2 for the Green Candidates in the 2024 General Election in Southampton. And a 100% fail on democracy and leadership.
To add to the Southampton Itchen Green candidate Neil Kelly refusing to answer our basic questions, the Southampton Test Green candidate Katherine Barbour has also refused to answer our basic questions, sent to her on behalf of Southampton residents.
We have asked the exact same questions of all candidates*. They are designed to inform residents on their vote. You can see the answers across this website. They are:
1. Why are you standing in this General Election?
2. Why are you standing for the <insert party or independent here>?
3. What will you do in the first 100 days if elected?
4. What do you think are the best top 5 policies of your party?
5. What do you think are the top 5 issues that Southampton people want addressed, and what do you intend to do about them?
6. What track record do you have of winning campaigns?
But they have been refused by Ms Barbour and Mr Kelly.
So who is Katherine Barbour?
According to Ms Barbour's register of interests at Southampton City Council, Ms Barbour is a yoga teacher.
She has been a City Councillor for just over a year. It took her eight years to be elected over seven elections. Between 2015 and 2022 inclusive, Barbour stood and was not elected six times as a council candidate for Southampton City Council. Ms Barbour’s record in local elections is as follows:
2015 Green Woolston not elected
2016 Green Woolston not elected
2017 no local election
2018 Green Portswood not elected
2019 Green Portswood not elected
2020 no local election
2021 Green Portswood not elected
2022 Green Portswood not elected
2023 Green Portswood elected
Eventually, Ms Barbour was elected in 2023 in the all-out elections on the new ward boundaries for the ward of Portswood. She came top of the 3 candidates that were elected. The other two elected were Labour candidates with shorter terms. Ms Barbour pushed out the other Labour councillor, Gordon Cooper.
So perhaps whilst you may admire Ms Barbour’s persistence, it took a long time, eight years and six failed elections.
Green Duplicity on Labour's Portswood Broadway Proposals
Plus let’s not forget, Ms Barbour's election as the first Green Councillor came after a significant intervention on the ground in the Portswood ward from Southampton Independents over the Council’s unpopular plans for Portswood Broadway, as well as our media work.
So let's look at this issue as an example of Green Party confusion, indecision and seeming duplicity.
Our work listened to and represented the views of residents and businesses. We often heard criticism of Labour councillors and the Labour Council during our work in the area.
There was almost universal opposition including on the doorsteps to the Labour Council's plans, however they were cooked up and whomever was involved in cooking them up. That’s why in the interests of democracy, we opposed it loudly, as that is the democratic thing to do.
Despite asking them directly at the time, what the Green Party’s stance on the Broadway proposals was, it was difficult to tell. Greens did seem to pass the buck between each other in an example of indecision and lack of leadership.
Likewise, in a Daily Echo report, the views of the two party representatives Mr Spottiswoode and Ms Barbour seemed to contradict each other. Ms Barbour’s view seemed to both agree and disagree with the proposals too, but under the headline “Southampton Green Party slams Broadway proposals”. It was all very confusing.
Readers will have to decide for themselves, but this yoga-like contortion of a position seems like the typical duplicity of party politicians, something all too common. It's just Green duplicity instead of Labour. Lib Dem or Tory duplicity.
And that is just one example of Green Party indecision, duplicity and lack of leadership.
Southampton's First Green Councillor
Nevertheless, Ms Barbour was elected. Whether she survives for long as a councillor, only time will tell. Surely she should answer questions from voters, as is claimed on the Green Party website. Yet she has not answered ours.
Would you agree that the questions asked of Ms Barbour that she has refused to answer are basic questions for any serious Parliamentary Candidate? When chased, Ms Barbour claimed that she was waiting to see if other candidates were going to answer.
The Greens Lack Answers and Lack Leadership
What leadership is this? It is the leadership of a follower, not a leader. Politics requires leadership and Ms Barbour has failed this basic test, as has Mr Kelly.
But the Greens cannot even decide who their leader is. They have two - called "co-leaders". It's unconventional. And indecisive, just like their view of the Portswood Broadway proposals and their inability to answer the most basic of questions for Southampton people to make a decision on their vote.
Why Southampton Independents Is Covering the 2024 General Election
Southampton Independents recommends no particular candidate in the 2024
General Election. We publish this information and the information about
the other candidates to help inform Southampton residents for their
vote, or for them to choose not to vote or to positively spoil their
ballot by writing "none of the above". The choice is yours.
The other candidates for Southampton Test are here.