News / Bristol
The chance to make history in Bristol West
“Thanks for coming down to support the Greens, mate,” Green Party co-leader Jonathan Bartley told a man from The People’s Assembly who had just parked his van next to a press call to launch the Greens’ new mobile billboard.
It just so happened that The People’s Assembly van had its own message, urging Bristol to vote for anyone but the Conservatives. The pixels flashed in the sun next to the Greens’ calls to “do something special” being launched by Bartley and hotly-tipped Bristol West parliamentary candidate Molly Scott Cato.
Molly Scott Cato (third from right) launches the Greens’ mobile billboard with help from co-leader Jonathan Bartley (fourth from right), German MEP Terri Reintke (fourth from left) and supporters
The rival vans had been cruising around Bristol for most of Wednesday as the General Election campaign reached its final stages.
is needed now More than ever
Bristol West is the most hotly contested of Bristol’s constituencies and despite talk of it being a three-way marginal, it looks likely that it will be fought on Thursday between the Greens and Labour.
On the basis of the number of party posters and placards counted on a stroll from the Memorial Stadium down Gloucester Road, Cheltenham Road and Stokes Croft, the Green Party have the edge with 38 spotted compared to Labour’s 27, with one solitary Lib Dem poster glimpsed from Gloucester Road in an upstairs window on Pitt Road in Horfield (which is within the Bristol North West constituency).
Labour had the lead until Pigsty Hill, when the number of Green posters and placards seemed to multiply, along with their supporters on the streets.
Green campaigners on Gloucester Road
Further down Gloucester Road, Green members were drumming up support outside Sainsbury’s. The mobile billboard drove by followed by a white-haired cyclist pedalling past with two Green flags on the back of his bike and a recorded message to vote for Molly Scott Cato coming out of a pair of speakers.
Two more Green campaigners headed past on foot and then – as if by magic – Scott Cato herself suddenly appeared out of Soul Fish, immediately being surrounded by the party faithful before continuing on her way.
Travelling the other way up Gloucester Road was a pixelated Prime Minister, the words ‘I am a threat’ next to Theresa May’s face The People’s Assembly’s message on their digital mobile billboard:
The People’s Assembly are a community organisation against austerity
Reaching Stokes Croft saw more Labour support, and it looked like some anti-Theresa May graffiti was being sprayed onto the Carriageworks.
Shambarber make their allegiance clear
On nearby Jamaica Street, there was a stark message painted in red, yellow and green: ‘vote them out’.
Back on College Green, the man from The People’s Assembly was handing out badges and stickers. “Do you want a ‘Tories out’ sticker?” he asked one passer-by.
“You must be joking,” came the response. “I can remember when the Labour Party bankrupted this country.”
A fierce debate then ensued, both sides urging the other to check the history books
A People’s Assembly member is confronted by an angry passer-by
Just a few yards from The People’s Assembly members and their van, the Greens continued to hand out their own election materials.
A man in a red dress walked past. “Sorry, the red gives you a clue who I will be voting for, darling,” he told one woman with a smile as she tried to give him a leaflet.
A few minutes later, a red car plastered with Labour stickers headed towards Park Street, enthusiastically beeping its horn as Scott Cato and Bartley took it in turns to talk to the BBC.
The Greens were campaigning on both four and two wheels
“I was a candidate in 2005,” the white-haired cyclist said nostalgically. Looking over to the mobile billboard, he added: “See how far we have progressed from bike power.”
Much progress is still to be made, but voters in Bristol West can make history on Thursday if Scot Cato is elected as only the UK’s second ever Green MP.
Read more: Who will you be voting for on Thursday?
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