Hampstead Heath Walk (Down at the Old Bull & Bush)

Another “off message” glorious Summer Sunday walk. Gospel Oak is only 29 minutes from Wanstead Park station, Forest Gate on the “Overground”. This is a great train service that also gives you a “heads up” on London via a brick viaduct (aka the “magic train”). Come out of Gospel Oak station, turn left and the Heath is only a couple of minutes away.

Walk 12 “In and around London” Pathfinder. Only 4.5 miles but it is surprisingly hilly in parts. While for most of the walk it was pretty busy other parts were very quiet and peaceful. Started at point F of walk near the “Stone of Free Speech”. Which is either a 17th Century “focus of political and religious debate” or a just a trig point. Google it and you get different accounts.

The views of central London from the top of Parliament Hill is very, very impressive (see main pic & double click).

Carry on past the mixed bathing ponds. First pub on route is the Jack Straw Castle which is supposed to be where this leader of the Peasants Revolt in 1381 met his followers. I gave it a miss since it was almost totally rebuilt in the 1960’s. I had planned to have lunch at the “Old Bull and Bush”. This is the pub made famous by the musical hall song “Down at the Old Bull and Bush” (see Florrie Forde YouTube link). I was slightly horrified to find that my expected London Cockney boozer had been converted into a Gastropub! Despite my misgivings, I was starving and thirsty and actually had a first class freshly cooked and tasty meal. Recommended.

A little further on there was the Spaniard Inn. Which I had a quick look (only) around and this was more like your traditional London former coaching inn. It claimed that Dick Turpin was “probably” born here. 

Soon after I bumped into Carolyn from the Unison London regional office who was off to lunch nearby with her youngest son. We had a quick chat about the next regional health and safety committee.

Next was the 18th Century Kenwood House now owned by the English Heritage. The rain then started falling. Not too heavy but enough to make the rest of the walk a bit soggy if not unpleasant. The kids and the dogs in the Heath didn’t seem to mind the rain and carried on playing while the adults ran for shelter. On the way out you were serenaded by live jazz being played in the bandstand. Back home via the magic train. More pics on my Facebook here.

A good day.

Rae Voller - Labour’s Voice for Romford

After canvassing for Rachel Saunders in Mile End East Ward, I then went last night to a reception for Rachel (Rae) Voller in Committee room 5, House of Commons.

Rae is the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Romford in the next general election. She is also a UNISON activist and elected member of UNISON National Labour Link committee (and its deputy chair).

Local Romford Labour Party members and UNISON members who live in Romford had been invited to meet Rae and discuss local issues.

I was there with my colleague, John Gough (London Ambulance Service) on behalf of the London UNISON Labour Link committee.

Rae gave a confident and very coherent “off the cuff” talk (without any notes!) about who she was, her background, why she joined the Party, her trade union and why the Party was so important for her and what she believed in. She mentioned her passionate belief in better social and childcare facilities for young and old. Her fear that the Tories have committed themselves to cutting Surestart. Rae is a midwife by profession and her colleagues, who are community based, are horrified at this prospect since they see the good that these centres achieve with families. For her Politics is all about making a difference, changing real peoples lives for the better, its not about the politicians you just see on TV.

Rae spent most of the meeting taking questions and comments (and asking questions back herself) about what Romford people think is important and what we should do to as a Party and her as a candidate to earn the votes of the people at Romford at the next general election.

Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor Jack Straw popped in to say "hello" and give a short speech reminding everyone that, although he represents the Northern consistency of Blackburn, he is really an Essex boy! Born in a LCC Council estate in Harold Hill. Romford and the surrounding area was his old “stomping ground”. His Mum aged 87, still lives in the area and had served as a local Councillor until she was nearly 80.

He describes life in politics at this moment as a “roller coaster”. He is still optimistic of victory at the next election, the maths are with us (we have some 356 seats while the Tories have under 200). He talked about his belief that politics is about improving people’s chances and how we need to defeat the BNP. We must win back the traditional solid Labour LCC estates. The BNP only succeed when we leave a vacuum in local politics for them to move into.

Victory in Romford in 2010 (or before) will be tough to achieve since the sitting Tory MP has an 11,500 majority. However, from 1997 to 2001 it was a Labour seat and the constituency is surrounded by sitting Labour MPs. If anyone can do it, it will be Rae.

Afterwards, some of us went to watch the debates in Parliament, while others managed to have a quick sherbet or two in the “Sports and Social” while putting the world to rights. I’ll leave it to your imagination to guess which option I took.

Assembly Life under Boris

At Wednesday West Ham Labour Party GC, we had two guest speakers. First, was the newly re-elected London Assembly member for City & East, John “Bruiser” Biggs.

This is strictly my interpretation of his remarks and that of his newsletter, which he distributed.

John started by thanking all of us (and the Scottish organisers) for helping to nearly double his majority in the recent election. Something not many other Labour candidates elsewhere in the country experienced on the day I suppose?

What to do with Boris? John thinks Boris may be a “funny fellow”, who has “massive self belief” and a “supreme self confidence”. But he is a traditional right wing "hanger and flogger" Tory who is enjoying his media “honeymoon” and hasn’t quite made up his mind whether to continue to pretend to be a “New Cameron Tory” or return to his roots as a Nasty Party tax cutter.

Boris is far more ruthless than Ken Livingston ever was, as seen by his near instant dismissal of James McGrath the new aide who made a seemingly racist remark and Ken’s desperate loyalty to Lee Jasper. Ken himself is still showing an interest in London politics and has turned up to nearly every Assembly meeting.

John thinks that the Assembly needs to justify its existence by scrutinising Boris effectively. He told us that many years ago, Jack Straw MP, told him that the role of opposition is coming up to a brick wall, finding one loose brick, wriggle and worry it loose, pull it out and then find another. Boris is now full of himself and making promises to everyone, he cannot hope to keep. As well as this, Boris is busy delegating everything he can to his appointees.

The anti-racist Rise festival is under threat as Boris’s new advisor on race, Munira Mirza, (who it appears is a member of a group aligned to the now defunct Revolutionary Communist Party) is trying to ban campaign groups from the festival, which has resulted in UNISON and other unions withdrawing £100k of sponsorship. When interviewed about this Boris claimed to have no knowledge of the decision.

It will be interesting to see what side Boris will jump on when the decision about the need for a new Thames crossing comes up again. East London needs a new bridge and there is a £300 million grant available from the government. But Tory Bexley, who gave him loads of votes is very strongly opposed.

With regard to the BNP, he posed this misquotation that we should be “tough on the BNP and thoughtful on the causes of the BNP”. The Labour Party needs to fight the racism of the BNP and to reach out to white working class voters, many with low skills, who feel left out by change.

John finished off by warning that Boris will have to make cuts in order to pay for his promises and that what Boris wants is to be loved by all Londoners and then to become the next leader of the Conservative Party.

God help us all.....