I had been an active member of Labour in the 1980s, but it had become rather feeble. I noticed that in Oxford Labour councillors were voting with Conservatives, and the only person dissenting was a Green councillor
reenex .
"I stood unsuccessfully for them [the Green Party] a couple of times and was eventually elected to Oxfordshire County Council in 2005."
Discussing the Greens' limited success at general elections, Larry points to a "basic Conservative-Labour agreement on the fundamentals of the economy" which makes it "hard for a challenger to break through".
"It's not helped by the electoral system and right-wing press. There's also the problem of sheer money - which is bad, but not quite as bad as it is in the US," he says
reenex.
Larry calculates that he spent £3,000 on his campaign, whereas the official spending limit for candidates was more than ten times that.
Bernie faces a similar hurdle but on a much larger scale. While recent polls have put him within one point of Clinton in New Hampshire, and within 23 points in Iowa - two of the first states to vote - some warn his success may be limited.
"Bernie can only get so far with his small donor fundraising strategy - it might work in Iowa or New Hampshire, but after the small states it gets more difficult
reenex, you can't buy the TV ads you need," says Kyle Kondik, an analyst of political campaigns at the University of Virginia.
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