"earliest known photo of a mass gathering of people in London - the Chartist meeting on Kennington Common, 10 April 1848"

Hat tip Ali G

"This is a daguerreotype (an early form of photograph) of the Chartist meeting held at Kennington Common on 10th April 1848. It was the last time the Chartists attempted to present a petition to Parliament. Fearing an attempted revolution, the Government prepared immensely for the meeting and filled London with 85,000 special constables, as well as putting 8,000 soldiers on alert. 

Although there were probably upwards of 20,000 (perhaps as many as 50,000) people present, the meeting was a peaceful one. As the crowd dispersed Feargus O’Connor and the Chartist Executive delivered the petition to Parliament in a series of coaches. O’Connor claimed the petition had 5,700,000 signatures, but when the clerks in the House of Commons examined it, they found it to feature less than two million names. 

These included a number of falsely-signed names, such as those of Queen Victoria, Sir Robert Peel and The Duke of Wellington, which only served to discredit the petition further. Despite the huge amount of legitimate signatures, Parliament did not take the petition seriously and it was rejected".

Taken from: Daguerreotype of the Chartist meeting at Kennington Common
Date: 10th April 1848
Copyright: The Royal Collection © 2009, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

"I can't eat applause...Maybe vote for someone sensible next time, eh?"

Love it. Tonight at 8pm there was yet again a fantastic response from local residents who were clapping, cheering and banging on saucepans for our Carers and key workers. But I think this picture makes you stop and think...

Hat tip photo Ali G

Newham Council Dockside Friday evening

Love it. Edited slightly to remove canopy roof (as suggested by Ali G) and with a little help from google. 

Thank you Cllr Veronica Oakeshott - Boleyn Ward

This is simply a lovely photograph of Newham Council Executive Mayor, Rokhsana Fiaz, presenting flowers to Councillor Veronica Oakeshott, who has announced her resignation in order to move closer to her family outside London.

Veronica has been a fantastic and effective Labour Councillor and campaigner for Boleyn ward who was also instrumental in the successful campaign to keep the World Cup Champions Statue in her ward.

She was a ferocious advocate of her constituents and the interests of all residents in Newham. Veronica will be missed and we have lost a talented Vice Chair of our £1.4 Billion Pension Investment & Accounts Committee.

hat tip photo Ali G

The quiet & retiring Pete Willsman speaks to West Ham GC

Each month West Ham Labour Party invites a guest political speaker to our General Committee meeting. All party members are also invited to attend (non voting).

Our speaker last month was the secretary of the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy (CLPD) Pete Willsman.

It is the 40th anniversary of the CLPD. He promoted the 3 websites that they run including Left Futures. Which he claimed was not only for "lefties" but admitted that not many contributors were from Progress!  Mind you he praised Peter Mandelson for his loyalty to the Party.

He promoted CLPD rule changes for the 2013 Labour Party conference including making political levy payers full members of the Party (they use to be), an electoral collage to elect local Labour Group leaders, the Party should have an independent ombudsman to investigate complaints and the right of members to select who are their Parliamentary candidates.

Pete predicted that after the next general election there may be a split in political parties and that Cameron Tories, Orange Book Liberals and Progress will break away and join up together. He finished his barnstorming speech by asking the Blarities currently criticising the Party to all "shut their mouths"!

Pete gave a hugely entertaining, tub thumping and colourful speech which demonstrated his lifelong passion and commitment to the Party even though I am not that sure how many in the room he persuaded to actually join up.

(Picture Pete, Chair Charlene and Ali G)

West Ham Labour London Euro MEP hustings 2013

Picture is from the hustings that took place on Tuesday evening at the Vicarage Lane Community Centre in Newham. The event was organised by West Ham Labour Party (sponsored by London UNISON Labour Link). Chaired by Charlene McLean (middle)

All Labour Party members have by now been sent by email how to ballot on line and I believe next week they will receive postal ballot papers to use if they prefer.

London UNISON Labour Link have endorsed our members Sanchia Alasia (first left) and Ivana Bartoletti (2nd left). So we recommend you vote for either - 1st or 2nd choice on ballot paper. Other candidates are Andrea Biondi, Seb Dance, Lucy Anderson and Kamaljett Jandu.

I was away and couldn't make the event which is a real shame. Hat tip picture Ali G.

Trotski finishes 16th (but still beats TUSC)

Ivan Antonovich Trotski from Belarus finished 16th in the London 2012 Olympics 20k walking road race. Mind you he still did better than the TUSC in the British local elections in May.

:)

Hat tip Ali G.

Plaistow North Labour Party branch "on the knocker"

Picture of the Labour Plaistow North ward canvass team (and a couple of friends) on Saturday. 

West Ham MP Lyn Brown and GLA member for City and East, John Biggs, were also on hand to speak to local residents about the importance of getting rid Tory London Mayor Johnson and electing Ken Livingstone.

Hat Tip Ali G.  Who when I asked if anything interesting or notable happened during the canvass replied "We met a Tory".