Wednesday, March 18, 2009

On the “Dog and Bone” for Steve Brayshaw in Royal Docks By-Election

Just back from a useful and productive evening at the West Ham Labour Party phone bank in its headquarters in Stratford.

There is still no real alternative to knocking on doors and talking to people face to face in elections. However, with many modern residential blocks it is difficult to gain entry so telecanvassing is important.

Remarkably, the people I rang tonight were all very polite and on the whole quite happy to discuss their voting intentions. Our candidate Steve Brayshaw is pretty well known and gets support even from those who don’t usually vote Labour. He is recognised as being a true community activist. We took some hits but I think that is inevitable in the current economic climate but relatively very few.

The community in Royal Docks is diverse and it was interesting to speak to a number of Commonwealth and European Union residents about the elections. Most had never voted in UK elections but many have voted for left of centre and Socialist parties in their homelands in the past and were pleased that the Labour Party was calling them about this election.

The main photo is of Cllr Ron Manley calling Royal Docks voters with Cllr Jon Knott, member Alan Griffiths and Cllr Kay Scoresby.

While 2nd photo is from Monday night with member Ahmed Noor and Cllrs Jo and Ian Corbett.

It's a big day tomorrow – London UNISON AGM!

It will in one way be a relief to do battle with the trots as opposed to the amateur, paranoid and frankly completely batty Tories I have come across so far on this blog over the Royal Docks by-election.

Easy meat” they may be to ridicule and defeat politically but at least with the trots you know while they are completely bonkers and very dangerous in the trade union movement. You can at least dismiss them as having no influence whatsoever in the real wider world.

What is really alarming is that these Tories are members of the main opposition Party in this country and they think they can form the next government...

Such a thought just simply doesn’t bear thinking about.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Any chance you will post the Steve Brayshaw leaflet about the airport?

Anonymous said...

John, I think you are underestimating how dnagerous the Trots are in the TU and the wider world.
They put people off joining TUs and discourage sensible people from becoming activists.
The lower our membership density and lower the density the less we can win for our members.
They feed apathy and antipathy to political activity.
They spout slogans which make politics look simple, not wanting to engage in thinking about complex issues, encouraging a simplistic view about a very complicated world.
They breed a poisonous cynicism about genuine activists and politicians.
They damage our reputation as a serious trade union, and thereby damage our members interests.

Anonymous said...

Hi John
Phil is absolutely spot on, trots are boring sad individuals who want continual revolution in peoples lives. They helped Thatcher get in with their non electable potty ideas as ordinary folk thought we were all as daft as them in the Labour movement.I loathe them as much as tories, they are parasites on the back of unions, where they stand on their own in elections they generally get thumped cos they get exposed when they are in open elections.When they lose they become aggressive and use tactics to smear ordinary members of unions.I have experienced first hand their tactics,utterly humourless drones who are programmed by a head dalek.The trots belong in the trash bin and dont have a place in a modern setting, they are fading but are still as destructive as ever in certain areas.I will always challenge them as they dont scare me, but like Phil said ordinary members are put off by their hard line moronic dogma.People like you and Phil must carry on showing trots up for what they are,a boil on the arse of our union movement!

Anonymous said...

Phil is right, and sums up why I'd never waste my money on joining a union, they're full of precisely the sort of people I wouldn't want on my side in thefirst place

Anonymous said...

Still not posting the Steve Brayshaw leaflet?

If you really really dont want to you could perhaps post the UNISON piece in Private Eye?

John Gray said...

Hi anon 07.24
No the Tories have already posted it – so have a look there (be careful of the porn pop ups)

Hi Phil and anon
Good points but in wrong posts?

Hi anon 22.29
Phil’s point you dipstick is that they are a tiny minority in the union.

Hi anon 22.37
Post on Private Eye? Please tell -what magic mushrooms are you actually consuming?

Anonymous said...

Private Eye Magazine /Yanush Baksh / Unison. Surely you are aware of it.And rightly ashamed?

Nice to see you blaming the Tories on you not posting Steve Brayshaws leaflet.Typical.

Anonymous said...

John are you getting Spinning lessons from Tony or Gordon.
You need to do better as your starting to slip up :-)

Please don't take this as a negative, your doing exactly what needs to be done to show East London and it's neighbors what a real pack of plonkers LB Newham and the whole Labour machine is.

Thank's again.

PS can't wait for your reply, try not to use the word BORING or DIPSTICK as before or you may lose some browny points.