My ward Councillor colleague, John Whitworth and I (both of us UNISON members) did a double morning and afternoon canvass and street surgery in our ward, West Ham.
The weather was wet in the beginning so we canvassed some of our low rise blocks, which meant lots of up and down communal stairs. Great exercise, who needs to join a gym if you are a Labour Party activist? In the later part of the afternoon the rain stopped and the sun came out which was lovely. The blossom may have largely gone but the greenery is very lush in the sunshine after rain.
We had full English breakfasts for lunch at the Olympic cafe in West Ham Lane (we sneaked into Stratford ward).
Highlights of the day was a long discussion with an elderly resident, who was originally from Latvia and by coincidence, I had watched last night a film called "The Rifleman", which was about the dreadful first world war (and aftermath) experiences of a Latvia soldier. The resident was an ethnic Russian, whose father had been a prisoner of war during world war 2. It was unclear due to language difficulties who his father was taken prisoner by.
I took a wrong turn and got locked into a rear communal garden, where you needed a key to get out (which is a risk in these blocks) and had to be rescued by John W.
We had 161 contacts and I had some very good political discussions on local and national issues. While I did not win everyone over to Labour, the response overall was very good. The depth of support and loyalty to the Labour Party by so many residents is simply humbling.
