Ten Labour Party candidates for Manchester City Council seats have now responded to Friends of the Earth’s survey about their environmental beliefs and policy commitments.  They are second only to the Greens, with 14 responses, and ahead of the Liberal Democrats on 6.  One notable absentee from the list of councillors who have responded is Council leader Richard Leese, engaged in a fierce battle to retain his wafer-thin majority in Crumpsall.

This improvement in responses follows (but correlation is not necessarily causation) a story last week by MCFly which pointed out that only 2 of the 32 candidates had replied.

The Council elections are on Thursday 5th May.  It doesn’t matter that much who wins what seat, because the only things that will make the Council keep to its environmental promises are

a) a miracle

and/or

b) a growing, learning, organising and winning coalition of clued-up social movement organisations, capable of nurturing talent, spreading skills, avoiding burnout and capable of offering ongoing opportunities for ‘legitimate peripheral participation’ (i.e. you can be involved without going to soul-sucking meetings or on idiotic marches in London/Albert Square).

Neither a) nor b) is going to happen, now is it?