Cards on the table, I'm on what people would describe as the "left "of Labour.

Like many young people, I was inspired to join under Corbyn's leadership campaign and have (admittedly quite reluctantly) stayed with the party until this May. I voted for Labour in the council elections earlier this month but it will probably be the last time I do: at least in their current form. For me, the party has drifted into occupying a vapid, tribal political space and, much like their leader at national level, locally they seem willing to say anything to get elected (no matter how far from the truth it might be).

Labour's local council campaign was infantilising and full of untruths and misrepresentations. It blamed everyone else for everything and took responsibility for pretty much nothing at all.

Labour grandees like Steve Bassam told voters that the Greens had controlled the council for seven years and pretty much ruined the city. He, and others, carefully chose their words to presumably give residents the impression that the Green administration had been continuous for many years. Yet here in reality, the Greens had been in control for little more than two and a half years with Labour forming the administration for the five years before that - but according to Labour everything was the Greens' fault.

If the city has been declining for so long, according to Labour, who was to blame for that between 2015 and 2020 when they ran the council?

What our centre right Labour candidates also failed to mention was that their colleagues supported the Greens on pretty much every single local policy until the election campaign swung around. They even had a "memorandum of understanding" with them that formalised joint work on key issues like the environment and housing. And you know what? That worked pretty well. Despite having less money than ever before in relative terms, together Labour and the Greens built council houses, they funded sustainable transport options, they got the city through a pandemic and, in comparison to many other places, protected our city's essential services and public sector jobs in unbelievably difficult circumstances (thanks to central government cuts).

Reading The Argus this week they are now even blaming the Greens for a budget they themselves amended and then voted for.

Nationally it's even worse. We have a slippery leader who rather than offering a principled opposition, will go back on pledges as soon as he's elected. He stands for nothing and is just fortunate that the Tories are even worse. If this is how he is in opposition god help us if he gets into power... Labour have purged their own and kicked anyone in the party who disagrees with Keir and it's no surprise that younger voters are looking elsewhere, in droves.

With the outstanding Caroline Lucas not seeking re-election, the Greens will need an inspiring candidate to follow. But if they get that right, they will have many thousands of votes from this radical city in the bag.

Name and address supplied