Best Labour Victory in the UK – West Ham GC report

On Wednesday was our first Constituency Labour Party General Committee (GC) meeting for a number of months due to the EU election. It was very well attended and despite the pretty dire state we are supposed to be nationally, the mood was strangely upbeat and buoyant.

In the course of things I gave my report as agent on the recent election and tried to number crunch my take on how we had done.

Firstly the good news (and it was largely good locally) in Newham we had just over 40% of the vote. Not only was this share of the vote the best in London but also I understand the best anywhere in the UK. The Tories in Newham came a poor 2nd with just over 16%. London as a whole did much better than the national trend with only a 3% average drop. Our sister borough Tower Hamlets had the 3rd largest national Labour share of the vote. Maybe it is something in the water. Or maybe it’s Labour Councils delivering Labour Policies?

The borough of Newham includes the CLPs of East and West Ham as well as part of Poplar and Canning Town.

The Labour vote in Newham had actually gone up dramatically compared to 2004 but this was due in part to the collapse of the Dis-Respect vote which appeared to have pretty much returned home to Labour. For this election at least. The Labour vote mind is still down from the 50% plus of the vote that the Party use to enjoy 10 years ago. The independent Tamil candidate did take about 7% of the vote which if we earn the respect of this community next year should return to Labour.

Turnout was still very poor – we should have delivered more votes for the Party if we had mobilised better. Good news that the BNP had a drop in support and the Tories are still well behind their 1999 relative high points.

We then had a constructive debate on the lessons to be learnt from the campaign and I believe we are even better placed than before to go into a General and local election. We need crucially to keep up the campaigning and ward based activity. There was a constructive discussion on what worked and what we still need to work on. The new Newham Council policy of free school meals for all primary children is great example of clear red water between us and our opponents. More please more.

We also had another very positive discussion this time on the current state of the National Party. There was a wide range of strongly held views but delegates were polite and fair. Largely full of ideas, enthusiasm and positivity towards the future. It was suggested by the Chair that we will have these wide ranging debates on a more regular basis.

Our MP, Lyn Brown came hot foot from the House of Commons to give her report. We congratulated her on the promotion to the Whips office!

Afterward we retired to The Goose (where else) to complete the putting right of the world at £1.64 per pint.

(Picture is of Labour poster painted on meeting room wall in West Ham Party rooms).

Hope Not Hate “Not in My Name” Anti-BNP Petition

“Hope not Hate” have set up an on-line petition for people to register their opposition to BNP Griffin and Brons who were elected as MEPs.

It is pretty clear that they were only voted in since many electors decided not to go to the ballot box because of the British Parliamentary allowances crisis.

Despite the BNP total vote being reduced when compared to 2004 they still won this time due to a low turnout and very marginal improvement in their % vote.

We know that democrats do have to address the issue of why people vote for the BNP and that just name calling (or even “egging”) is not enough. But I really don’t think that people understand that the BNP leadership are supporters of Hitler and Nazism.

I also think that the Labour Party everywhere needs to get its act together and start knocking on doors and listening to people; tele-canvassing; holding street stalls, creating local Labour Action Teams, delivering leaflets and most importantly countering face-to-face the lies and hate of the BNP and their fellow travellers.

You can take a picture of yourself holding a message “Not in My Name” and upload it. Some 56,000 people have voted so far.

Labour smashes all opposition parties in Newham Euro contest

I’m back from the Count (and a swift beer at Millers) and thought that I will post on Newham result first. I’ll post on the Gordon Brown meeting later.
1st The Labour Party - 19,331 votes
2nd Tories - 7,866
3rd Jan Jananayagam (Tamil protest) - 3,501
4th Greens - 3,356
5th Lib Dems - 2,761
6th UKIP - 2,717
7th Christian Bigots Party - 2,419
8th BNP (Hitler worshipping cult) - 2,144
9th No2EU (Trots and CPers love fest) - 660
10th Socialist Labour (our beloved leader Arthur) - 534

There were another 9 minor parties. Turn out I think was 27% (47,994). Great result for Labour – well done to our ace organiser Lisa and all activists in Newham Labour Party.

The count itself went very smoothly although it took a long time to go through all the “doubtful” ballot papers (742). Congratulations to all Newham Council staff (mostly UNISON members no doubt) who took part. Now stuff elsewhere ain’t looking that good for Labour so far but we will have to wait and see.

Off to Newham Euro count

I’m now off to be a Labour Party agent at the European elections count in East Ham town hall.

It shouldn’t take too long but the result cannot be given out until 9pm. I believe that this is the time that all Euro-polls across the EU will be finished.

On route I am going to a special meeting which should be very interesting and I will hopefully post about later.

VOTE LABOUR

Final countdown to London Euro-elections

This morning I was delivering this leaflet to my ward. By co-incidence the UKIP MEP Gerard Batten lives close by and yesterday I posted one of our leaflets through his letter box. No matter how daft and ignorant UKIP is at least they take votes away from the BNP.

This evening I was at West Ham HQ in Stratford busy trying to organise for tomorrow.

The Labour Party is going through a difficult time at the moment and it will be silly for activists to pretend otherwise. However, I am really encouraged by the relatively very high level of political campaigning activity recently in West Ham and Newham. I think this is a sign that Party is not quite in the state that some would suggest.

We are probably going to get a bit of a kicking tomorrow but I am still convinced that the General election will be fought “on the economy stupid”. The Government has bravely taken huge risks to rescue the economy which I believe are working and will soon expose the Tories who have unbelievably stuck to their “do nothing” and “lets have a depression” policies.

Now the back of a beermat calculation about the importance of turnout tomorrow.
e.g. If the BNP need 8% of the vote in London to secure an MEP then if only 1 million Londoners vote then they only need 80,000 voters across London to succeed. They can probably get that support.
BUT if 2 million Londoners vote they will need 160,000 voters to get a MEP. Which they will find very, very difficult.

So everyone - get the vote out! But still Vote Labour.

Lest we forget: BNP: Traitors to our Country

This is another superb leaflet from “Hope not Hate” reminding people of the true nature of the BNP/Nazi beast. They are traitors to our country for supporting Hitler’s Nazi ideology in Britain. Especially during a time when we remember the bravery and sacrifice of our troops during the D Day landings which led to the liberation of occupied Europe from the Nazi.

No pasarán!

Galloway is a Norwegian Blue in Green Street West.

We had some 20-ish Labour party members out yesterday morning from all over Newham. This was despite the glorious warm sunshine and blue skies.

Green Street West use to be the “heartland” of diss-Respect in Newham. All their 3 councillors were elected to this ward. They have now pretty much disintegrated.

I didn’t find a single person who admitted to being a Respect supporter. It was quite, quite different from canvassing here during the very stormy Council elections in 2006. When we faced a largely non-Newham imported motley collection of ultra left revolutionaries and the far right Islamic extremists screaming abuse and threats at us.

Lyn Brown MP joined us as well. No-one at all mentioned MP expenses (Lyn said if anyone brought it up then bring her over and she would speak to them personally) but I suspect that some Labour voters will punish the Party by staying at home on Thursday. Hopefully not that many and I think they will return to Labour next year.

Fellow UNISON Labour Link activist Alan Griffiths and I got shut inside a modern gated development off Romford Road which had no internal entry door opening - so we had to climb over a 6ft brick wall to get out. Why waste money getting fit by joining a gym when if you are trade unionists you can join the Party for only £1 per month and go canvassing!

Afterwards we had a debrief and forward planning session at the “Black Lion”.

It was a good day locally despite difficult national circumstances.

Labour Euro Election Street Stall in Stratford (2)

Today I returned from my long skive on holiday to help out with the 2nd EU Election stall in Stratford High Street outside the shopping centre. East London and City London Assembly member John Biggs was also there to help campaign.

Over 25 local councillors and Party members from across Newham spent some time at the stall. It was quite a colourful affair since in front of us there were evangelic Christian preachers preaching to passerby’s while behind there was a Hare Krishna band and dancers.

When you consider the difficult national political circumstances it was pretty successful I thought. The overwhelming response from people was positive. There were two dipsticks that walked past quickly shouting abuse before rapidly disappearing into the crowds. With the few people who brought the matter about MP expenses we had an open and honest conversation about what is going on.

One elderly bloke approached me and asked how many MP’s will be getting “Bird” over their expense claim. I said I was not sure that any will be but a number will be quite rightly stepping down as MPs because of this. He then asked if I thought it was right that the women who lied about her address to get her child in a good school were facing 5 years in jail. I agreed that this was wrong but also said I doubt very much that she faced any sort of a prison sentence even if convicted. He then tapped me on the shoulder and said “you boys have a lot of courage asking people to vote Labour at this time” and he walked away shaking his head.

The other side of the coin was that a women from the Teviot estate (I think) in Tower Hamlets came up to John Biggs to thank him for helping to get their communal gardens sorted out 7 years ago. We also had a Labour Party member who lived outside Newham come up and complain that she had not been contacted at all by her local party to help out with the election. I gave her the number of her local organiser.

The most amusing moment IMO was when a small group of Ultra left extremists (I believe they called themselves members of the so-called “Revolutionary Communist Party”) were lecturing some of our black members on how dare they support the “racist Labour Party” that had been deliberately set up to “support Empire and the colonies”? Our Black members dealt with the situation with humour and tolerance while gently explaining that the Labour Party was not racist and that they were proud to be not only supporters but activists.

To me it was a delicious irony to see these (all white and middle class) toy town revolutionaries lecturing and patronising working class black people on the “meaning of Racism” and demanding that they should follow their own perverted politics. Do these people simply have no insight on how normal people actually perceive them? Obviously not.

Canning Town Canvass

Today we split up into 2 canvass teams outside St Luke’s Church in Tarling Road, E16. It was quite a positive canvass. There were a large number of east European residents who did not know that the election was on and that they could vote. A lot of people were also out because of the good weather.

I met up again with local residents I had talked to on the Rathbone Market stall the other week. I discussed “succession” rights with an elderly tenant who was worried that her son would be evicted if anything happened to her. It was a one bedroom flat. He had the bedroom and she slept in the living room. Her rent book said that her flat was big enough for 3 adults to live in.

The local housing estates seemed to be well managed and looked after.

We stopped and had a chat in the sunshine with two Police PCSO on push bikes from the local Safer Neighbourhood team.

It struck me that so far there had been no sign whatsoever of any other political parties campaigning in Newham during this election.

The MP expenses issue did come up but again most people who mentioned it expressed disappointment rather than anger. The mess the government had made over the Ghurkhas was brought up as well. An elderly resident was quite rightly very critical of the government over this matter but he did admit that the Labour government had done a lot for him financially over the years.

There were a relatively high number of people who said they would not be voting. However, the most often heard remark by those who spoke to us about Political Party preference was “Yes, we’re Labour, we have always voted Labour”.

We also had another resident asking us how they can join the Labour Party (as well as the two on Saturday).

Custom House "on the knocker".

On Sunday I joined West Ham comrades at the meeting point in the Custom House Hotel (see photo) to carry out door knocking Voter ID in this traditional Labour Heartland.

It was raining when we started but despite predictions it turned out to be dry and even sunny. I led a canvass team with Councillor Ali and Williams (photo) and despite somewhat confusing road and housing block layout we found our way around ok.

The feedback on the whole was pretty solid – instinctive Labour support amongst all communities. There has always been a working class Tory vote in Newham but even the few true blues we came across were not overtly enthusiastic.

For the first time I did come across a small number of voters who said they were traditional Labour supporters but will not be voting this elections because of the expenses scandal. Despite this we had a reasonable conversation on what issues they thought were important. Their issues and concerns are still Labour e.g. low wages, the important of the NHS, state pensions, fairness and equality.

We will get them back once the current Parliamentary mess is sorted out.

Green Street Labour Party Stall

Picture of a lively West Ham Labour party stall held yesterday in the heart of the famous Green Street.

The weather held out although it was a little breezy which sent leaflets and newsletter flying. The Party balloons went down very well as usual.

Our MP Lyn Brown, local councillors and party activists (double click on photo) from all over Newham helped out distributing newsletters on both sides of the road and taking up case work. Once again, despite the recent pretty dreadful headlines the feedback was very positive but many peopel were still unaware that the European elections were taking place.

At the same time there were also canvass teams “knocking doors” all over Manor Park ward.

I didn’t really speak to anyone since I spent most of the morning trying unsuccessfully to locate 2 boxes of anti-BNP “Hope not Hate” leaflets which Parcelforce are claiming have been sent to Forest Gate Post Office who in turn deny all knowledge and refer me back to Parcelforce. Hey Ho!

BNP Nightmare

I received this email tonight via I think this blog:-

“Hi, I've just joined the campaign to stop the BNP - you should do the same.While the BNP pretend to be a "legitimate" political party, once you scratch the surface they're the same old racist organisation that they've always been.

But scarily, people don't know the truth - and this year the BNP are running candidates in the elections in June - and their leader Nick Griffin is standing for the European Parliament.

I remember people saying they wouldnt get a seat in the London Assembly.We can stop them if enough people sign up and join the campaign. action.hopenothate.org.uk/defeatthebnp

It is really serious - can you imagine Nick Griffin earning £50plus grand out of the public purse.We can't let this happen. Please get involved by signing up here:action.hopenothate.org.uk/defeatthebnp

Thanks!”

(I have removed the name)

Just imagine it ...“Nick Griffin – British Member of the European Parliament” – if this doesn’t get you out campaigning against the Nazis this year what will?

Check out also the main Hope Not Hate (searchlight) website.