For the County Council election on Thursday May 6th, the Green Party will be standing down in Newent in favour of Liberal Democrat Gill Moseley. "If Green Party voters (and Labour ones) can lend us their votes for this election, it will give me a much better chance of being elected and ending the 16 years of Conservative control," says Gill. Newent already has two Liberal Democrat District councillors - Gill Moseley and Vilnis Vesma.

In exchange, Liberal Democrats will not be putting up a candidate in the Sedbury division, where the Green Party came second in the last County Council elections. There are many similarities between the values of the two parties - you can make the comparison here.

Such arrangements are needed to beat the unfair First Past The Post (FPTP) electoral system, which always favours the Conservatives if there is more than one opposition party.

In order to exploit this, the Conservatives are now planning to replace existing fair electoral systems for Elected Mayors and Police and Crime Commissioners with the discredited FPTP system. They are also planning to distort elections even further by increasing the spending limits for elections so that parties with more money can improve their chances of election, while those with less funds are disadvantaged.

Gill's campaign is going well and the response to her survey has been good - but she stiil needs your help if she is to win. Delivering leaflets and letters is the main task for which she needs support - but there are plenty of other things to be done. Just contact Gill (gill@fodlibdems.org.uk) if you can help - or click here if you can donate. Every donation improves Gill's chance of winning!

If you haven't seen Gill's survey yet, you can find it - and some of the results so far - here.