Red Newham: 63 – Nil

Not forgetting for a moment that we were beaten nationally and are facing the awful prospect of a Tory/Liberal coalition government. I will congratulate Labour comrades in Newham and across London for some magnificent results.

In Newham as I have already posted here our two MPs were re-elected with massive and increased majorities and there was a swing from the Conservatives to Labour!

Our Labour Mayor, Sir Robin Wales, was elected on the first ballot with an equally huge majority and nearly 65,000 votes (68% of turnout).

While we also won all 60 Councillor seats in Newham Council with thumping majorities - defeating the last remaining Respect Councillor and seeing off the simply dreadful CPA by over 600 votes. The Tories came closest at Royal Docks ward but still lost by over 400 votes.

I was really pleased and very proud to be elected as a Labour Councillor with Ron Manley and Freda Bourne for West Ham ward. Freda came top with 3290 votes, Ron next with 3048 and I was the 3rd elected member with 2906. The 4th non-elected candidate was a Conservative who polled 886.  There was another 6 opposition candidates.

Arguable it was "65 - nil" since our London Assembly member John Biggs and our MEP Claude Moraes are both Labour as well. Check out Newham results here.

I will post further on the campaign and the ordeal of the Counts another time.

Congratulation to Barking and Dagenham comrades (and “Hope not Hate”) who wiped out all the BNP Councillors and also took all the Council seats (51 – nil). Special mention to UNISON NEC member and Lolly pop lady, Louise Couling, who DID defeat BNP Assembly member Barnbrook.

I was also ecstatic that Team Labour was elected in Tower Hamlets.   Rushanara Ali was elected MP for Bethnal Green & Bow, Respect were practically wiped out (only one seat left) and the utterly loathsome (and now exposed as cowardly) Mr Galloway, was soundly defeated by Jim Fitzpatrick in Limehouse and Poplar.

I understand that Labour will now control a majority of “London Councils”.

Finally Commiserations to all Labour Parliamentary and Council Candidates who were not elected. We must not be carried away with our relative local successes but must concentrate now on getting the National Party in shape, revitalised and re-organised in time for a probable general election coming some time soon.

Meet Alan Craig

While our canvass team tried to shelter from the wind and the rain of yesterday morning in Canning Town we came across this person lurking in the communal area of a block in Mason Close, E16.

“Hello Alan” we said - but for once the usually full of himself wannabe Ayatollah of Christian Fundamentalism in Newham had nothing to say!

Too busy thinking about ways around the ninth commandment I suppose....

Victory to Steve and the Labour Party in Royal Docks By-Election.

Just back from the Count at Newham Town Hall. We now have a new Labour Councillor for the Royal Docks ward, Stephen Brayshaw.

Labour 723
Respect 35
Tories 708
CPA 94

22.81% turnout.

A tight result but in the present political environment I think a stunning victory. I will discuss the result in more detail later (and the let us say “ungracious” comments made by one of the losing candidates).

Congratulations to Steve, our organiser Lisa and everyone in Newham Labour Party for rallying around Steve and the campaign.

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.

Gray’s Anatomy of the Bible – Alan Craig & the Gutter

This is a classic local politics blogging story. Tonight I was canvassing on behalf the Labour Party in the Newham Royal docks by-election when one of my team mentioned that they had read a post about me by Christian People’s Alliance (CPA) Councillor Alan “no to big mosques but yes to big churches” Craig.

In this post Craig said “a friend drew my attention to another Labour Party Biblicist in Newham, albeit a reluctant one. The references are in the blog (http://grayee.blogspot.com/) of local Labour and trade union activist John Gray”. The post was in September last year. Since no-one reads or comments on Craig’s BBB (Bigoted Boring Blog) it wasn’t noticed until recently.

Now Craig is slagging me off good and proper which is his right I suppose. I am to him apparently some sort of "Life from Mars" 1970's "old left" throwback. Which will come as a surprise to my "comrades" in UNISON United Left. But I'm not complaining about this.

Anyway tonight I posted this comment on his post which I await his reply.

Hi Alan

Tonight while out canvassing in Royal Docks a Labour Party comrade told me about this post. It would appear that you as ignorant as you are bigoted. I would be pleased to be compared by anyone else but you to Jack Jones who is a hero who risked his life to fight fascism and was wounded as a young man in the Spanish civil war.

As anyone who has read my blog would realise Arthur Scargill is no hero of mind even if the coal miners are and I did proudly support them on the picket line during the strike. Nick Cohen’s book “What's Left” is on my bookshelf and while I would not agree entirely with everything he writes upon I am a firm supporter like Nick of the Euston Manifestos.

I note that you do not have the courage to actually reference my posts about you. Nor my fears about the suspicion and division that your hypocritical comments about “mega mosques” provokes in our communities. Anyone interested can check my blog out and in the search button type “CPA”.

It’s not really that I think you ought to keep your opinions out of the pulpit - it is that you should keep them out of the gutter.

Christian Bigots Alliance

I received an email via this blog the other day from the creator of a “take-off” site attacking the fundamentalist Political Party in Newham, the (so called) Christian Peoples Alliance (CPA).

This site is modelled on the MegaMosqueNoThanks which was set up by the CPA to attack a proposal to build a large mosque in Newham.

Now, I have had a dig at the CPA, especially their Megalomaniac leader, anti gay, anti pro-choice, Alan Craig, who makes Sarah Palin seem like Richard Dawkins. I think that Alan Craig’s behaviour over the mosque has been an utter disgrace and he has deliberately pandered to islamophobic sentiment to try and gain political support.

The parody site does make some very serious allegations against the CPA and its connection with the BNP, which I don’t totally share, but I do understand why many people in Newham equate the CPA with the BNP.

The CPA appear to have had to change their website design due to the spoof site and on the “real” CPA website, their “Poll” on the building of the mosque now shows a vast majority of people in favour of it. Well...

Newham is in East London, and it is a great place to live and work. It is also one of the most diverse communities in London. There are of course problems, nowhere is perfect. The deliberate stoking up of fear and ignorance by Craig does nothing for Newham. All he has done is to offend and cause division.

This morning I heard a very good “Thought for Day” on the “Today Programme” Radio 4 by Clifford Longley, about US Protestant fundamentalism and the phrase “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars’ and unto God the things that are Gods’”. Now I am probably the last person to quote scriptures but frankly it would be better for everyone if Craig kept his views for his pulpit rather than trying to ignite modern day crusades.

Tackling the CPA in Canning Town South

Yesterday evening we had a Newham wide Labour Party mass canvass in Canning Town South. This is one of only 2 wards in the borough that are represented by Non-Labour Councillors. The so-called “Christian Peoples Alliance” (CPA) holds all 3 seats in this ward. Their leader is the awful Old Testament fundamentalist and super egotist Alan Craig.

While I am sure that the vast majority of CPA supporters are sincere about their concerns and beliefs. I believe that Craig has deliberately stoked up division between our communities in Newham in order to appeal to his own vast personal vanity that he is some sort of “an important thingy”. For example he attacks the building of a big mosque in East London despite supposedly being a religious leader himself? Would he object to a big Christian church in Newham? Let me think about this for a moment? Nope, of course not.

Recently Tom Duncan, of the local weekly newspaper, the “Newham Recorder” compared leaflets put out by the CPA with those of the BNP.

We had 50 Newham Labour Party activists out and about in Canning Town South, knocking on doors, delivering leaflets and talking to local people about the forthcoming election.

I ended up in a canvass team with Newham Councillors, Andrew Baikie and Lester Hudson (see action pic at Stubbs Point tower block). I think we had a very good reception. Some of the other canvassers apparently had some problems with BNP supporters. I met no body willing to admit that they supported the CPA (or BNP).

Again, another positive canvass. Must not be carried away by this since most boroughs in London are not currently natural Labour territory.

Fanning the Flames of Hatred?

Before we "tut, tut" too loudly about the morons in Sudan who have locked up a volunteer teacher for allowing a teddy bear to be called “Mohammed”, we shouldn’t forget we have more than our own share of home-grown religious berks. I’m not this time referring to Galloway and his Respect Renewal but rather to the new Christian Fundamentalist website “MegaMosqueNoThanks”. This site appears to be run by a certain Newham Councillor, Alan Craig, from the “Christian Peoples Alliance” (CPA). His name and telephone number is on the press release.

In one way I am reluctant to pay any attention to such ignorant and puerile nonsense. However, it’s hard to do nothing and stomach people in your own neighbourhood who simply want to inflame age old religious prejudices by trying to divide our communities.

Religion and race is a sensitive issue in Newham which is probably the most ethically mixed borough in Britain. However, by and large, despite problems, I think that communities in Newham interact and get on much better than elsewhere in Britain, especially when compared to some northern cities. This hasn’t happened by chance, but due to hard work by many local political, community and faith leaders. This is what makes these opportunistic attacks on the proposed mosque so despicable.

The simple facts of the matter are this, a Muslim religious group (Tablighi Jammaat) has been trying for some time to build a large mosque (seating for 12,000 - a little bigger than the East London Mosque in Tower Hamlets) on an isolated Brownfield site in West Ham, Newham.

As well as Craig, a number of others including the British National Party (BNP) have been deliberately provoking tension by spreading lies and misinformation about the mosque.

For example, Craig claims that even more Muslims will move into the area because of the mosque (untrue, but so what?), others have wrongly claimed that £100million of public money will be used to fund the mosque, reports have linked the mosque with the Olympics and deliberately exaggerating the size of the mosque.

There are claims and inferences that in some way Tablighi Jammaat supports terrorism and that there is a “threat” to the Olympic site?

This is irresponsible gutter rabble rousing at its worse.

Sensible decent Christians such as the Newham Christian Socialists Movement CSM have attacked Craig over this issue.

Does anyone seriously imagine that Craig would have opposed the building of similarly sized Christian evangelistic church? No, I don’t either. I really do not know how anyone who calls themselves a religious leader can be so upset and concerned about another faith building a religious centre, regardless of its size? Good luck to them if they can fill it! would be the response of most reasonable people.

By all means you can express your views, but send out press releases, to post videos of your self on YouTube, to pay for and set up a web site on the subject? There are plenty enough real issues of concern in Newham such as poverty, poor housing and gun/knife crime. Why is all of this of secondary interest to the building of some mosque?

I am afraid that I am left with the distinct impression that Craig is using his own followers, his electors and the media purely to stoke up his own ego and sense of importance. He is a squalid, grubby, tin pot politician who will do anything regardless of any cost in order to chase cheap headlines and notoriety.

Now, come to think of it, perhaps this post is about Galloway......?

Bigot is Not Guilty

It seems that even the Fundamentalist Far Right can be unfairly treated by the Courts and the Police. On the face of it, the quashing of the conviction on appeal of Newham Christian Peoples Alliance (CPA) Councillor, Simon Ademolake (very far right), of assault on Police and Court bailiffs, is somewhat surprising. Especially given that the judge in the original trial clearly expressed the view that Ademolake was lying and that this Christian Councillor choose to evidence without swearing on his bible?

However, the legal system has decided that he is not guilty and can leave the court “without any stain on his character”. So he is obviously sweetness and light.

I’m not going to comment about the circumstances about this case (Court admin cock-up?) but I think that anyone with slightest bit of honour would actually resign as a Councillor over this issue (no matter what else - he clearly broke the law of this land and failed to pay his fines when he should have).

However, his CPA leader (they have 3 seats on Newham Council), Alan Craig, is obviously keen to keep Simon on in order to continue his crusade against non fundamentalist Christians, gays, Muslims and rest of us who have stone hearts that need ripping out.

What on earth did Newham do so wrong as to deserve having both Alan Craig’s Fundamentalist Christian and George Galloway’s Fundamentalist Muslim bigots as opposition Councillors? I blame Thames Water?

“Christian” Councillor refuses to swear on Bible over assault on Police

Newham in the news again. The "Christian People Alliance" (CPA), a bigoted right wing fundamentalist (and so-called) “Christian” Political Party, has 3 elected borough councillors in the Canning Town South Ward of West Ham CLP. One of its Councillors, Simeon Ademolake (left), was convicted last week of assaulting two Police officers and fined £1000 in total for these offences. Apparently this was in connection with a visit by bailiffs over unpaid parking tickets. See my previous post on this thoughtless thug and serial Parking ticket offender. The judge last week made it clear that he thought Ademolake was lying (at best) during his evidence.

Despite this, he has not resigned from the Council and is appealing against his sentence. Now, normally if someone was appealing I would be careful about saying anything until the appeal is heard. However, I was amazed to hear that Ademolake (and interestingly the CPA leader Alan Craig) refused to give sworn evidence at his trial on the bible, despite being so-called “Christian” politicians? His wife did. I have searched the CPA websites for some sort of explanation but there is nothing.

What is going on? What hypocrisy? Why hasn’t the Alan Craig, the leader of the CPA kicked Ademolake out of his Party? Why does Craig not give swear on the bible when giving evidence at court? Something stinks. The CPA are surely the mirror image of the "Respect” Islamist fundamentalist bigots in Newham and Tower Hamlets.

Hat tip thingy to local newspaper Newham Recorder which was also picked up again by Marsha on Union Futures.

UPDATE: He wins the appeal because the CPS lose his file and fail to warn witnesses to attend the appeal! Check out