Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Labour Matters – General election called and Brown's Ale consumed


The General election campaign is now officially “on” at long, long last. To celebrate I went off after work and delivered local Labour ward leaflets in some pretty well managed tower blocks in West Ham which have recently been refurbished and brought up to the “decent homes” standards.

As I walked through the estate you had to acknowledge the local top class sports and leisure facilities provided for local people by a Labour government, a Labour Council and local Labour councillors. If the Tories had been in power these past 13 years these communities and housing would have just been left to the market and rot.

See photos from the 21st floor of the historic West Ham Church to the east and Gotham city to the west. There must be some deep symbolism in these pictures somewhere.

The local Council election campaigns in London and elsewhere are already in full swing. I understand that there will be elections in around 50% of England and Wales Councils on the same day as the general election which I suspect will be good for voter turnout and good for us.

At work today there was some gentle teasing from colleagues about the election and who they will be voting for but this was mostly at my expense (as usual!). I guess that given the work that we do and the very high density of UNISON Labour Link levy payers they will be pretty solid Labour.

As the West Ham CLP agent and a local Labour candidate (details to follow next week) I will be just a little bit busy over the next few weeks so blogging will be reduced and comments probably not responded to that quickly (if at all).

I suppose I could have called this post something edgy such as “Game On!” or “Down with the Tory Posh Boys Party” but I decided to use “Labour matters” since this election is so important not only the Party but the whole wider Labour movement. The damage done to the movement and ordinary working class people, pupils and pensioners by the election of another Tory government would be immense and devastating.

We should win this election. We have been right from the get-go on how to save the economy from a depression while saving jobs and homes; we have put real money in the pockets and purses of pensioners and the low paid; built literally thousands of new schools, hospitals and Sure Start centres and employed hundreds of thousands of new front line nurses, teaching assistants, Police staff and carers. We don’t yet live in Nirvana and probably never will but Labour has delivered. We need to build on these achievements and do more.

To mark the occasion I am now quaffing my “Nick” bottle of Newcastle Brown('s) Ale that I obtained here last week. In the early hours of May 7th I plan to toast the Labour victory by consuming my “Gordon” bottle of Newky Brown.

Can’t wait!

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