Despite winning only one seat, the Greens were in chipper form last night. No wonder: their decision to step aside for Labour in Brighton Kemptown resulted in a thumping defeat for Simon Kirby, the Tory city minister. That, said one senior source, was the best advertisement for a progressive alliance one could ask for.
The same cannot be said for Northern Ireland. There is no measure by which this election was a good one for progressive, pro-European politics – nor for co-operation between them. It is true that Sinn Fein, outspoken opponents of Brexit, nearly doubled the size of their Commons cohort with two gains from the Social Democratic and Labour Party and one from the Ulster Unionists (going from four to seven). They will not, however – despite inexplicably fevered speculation – abandon the habit of a century and take their seats.
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