The desperate race to be the Royal Docks best loser – Newham Tories or the CPA?

By last night I had recovered from my very severe bout of "man flu" (which of course I had most stoically endured) so I went off after work to help out the Labour Campaign in the Royal Docks by-election.

At first I was given a local leaflet round to delivery. Which went OK apart from last road since on the map it insisted that there were 13 homes to be delivered but I could not find a single letter box? Lisa our ace local organiser was very understanding.

Later I went out with a canvass team with Cllrs Pat Murphy, Pearson Shillingford and Amarjit Singh. Apart from the unpleasant experience of bumping into Alan Craig from the CPA it went very well. The CPA candidate was with him (see right) and she seemed friendly enough. Craig himself just glared at us from a communal balcony.

The Tories and the CPA (the so-called “Christian People’s Alliance”) are currently fighting a rather bitter war about who really is the No 2 contender in this election. I came across a new Tories leaflet last night which referred to the May 2008 GLA election when the Tories came second to Labour. While the CPA has a practically identical graph on their leaflets which claims to show they are first! While I obviously hate to support the Tories their version is accurate while the CPA can only be seem to be telling porkies. They clearly suggest that they actually came first in the area in 2006 when plainly they did not? The leaflet actually refers to the result in neighbouring Canning town South ward which shares the same post code. Most electors will not know this.

Now on the face of things these things "happen" (not the Labour Party of course he says with his tongue firmly in his cheek!) and that you could well argue that worse things happen in local politics. However, the CPA uniquely claims to be better morally than the rest of us “The Mayflower Declaration is a statement of our Christian Democratic values and philosophy. It is a CPA national party document but we apply its basic principles to our work here in Newham. It shows how we seek to apply Christian inspiration to our politics in theory and in practice”. By printing blatant untruths?

It is interesting mind that in 2006 election in Royal Docks the current Tory candidate Neil Pearce came last out of all the losing Tories? I wonder why? The best news last night was that he has republished his infamous “Vinnie Jones” photo in his latest newsletter. This time in colour and with arms folded! Excellent stuff! Even if I have lost a bet.