Go to the Marginals!

Hat tip Andy Diagram for a great map of London marginals. In West Ham we have a Labour majority of 36,754 votes. In 2017 our fantastic Labour candidate, Lyn Brown, got 76.7% of the vote.

While we will be campaigning in West Ham, we need to win in the marginals to form a Labour Government.

West Ham (and Newham) desperately needs a Labour Government. So please check out the list of marginals below and go and support.

We have been tasked in West Ham to support the nearby marginal of Cities & Westminster. While it is good to target all marginals, it makes sense that we concentrate on one marginal, where we can build relationships with the local party and learn what are the important local issues. The more you go to a particular marginal, the more that you will know that particular area and how to get into the difficult to enter blocks (and not get hopelessly lost as I have done many a time in a new area).

I was really pleased to see today that the Labour Party telephone banking software operation is now back on line. So we can arrange tele-canvass sessions targeting marginals from inside Newham (and members can ring from home). Watch this space.

1 Kensington   Lab maj-20   swing-0.03%

2 Thurrock   Con maj-345   swing-0.34%

3 Chipping Barnet   Con maj-353   swing-0.34%

4 Hendon   Con maj-1072   swing-1.03%

5 Finchley   Con maj-1657   swing-1.58%

6 Putney   Con maj-1554   swing-1.66%

7 Harrow East   Con maj-1757   swing-1.73%

8 Battersea   Lab maj-2416   swing-2.19%

9 Chingford   Con maj-2438   swing-2.60%

10 Westminster   Con maj-3148   swing-4.07%

11 Enfield Southgate   Lab maj-4355   swing-4.51%

12 Croydon Central   Lab maj-5652   swing-4.95%

13 Dagenham   Lab maj-4652   swing-5.07%

14 Uxbridge   Con maj-5034   swing-5.39%

15 Wimbledon   Con maj-5622   swing-5.46%

Our day by day campaign grid is here

"On the knocker" in Sloane Square

This afternoon I went to campaign in the Tory held marginal in the Cities and Westminster seat. We met outside Pimlico Station and after a short speech by our impressive Labour candidate, Gordon Nardell, I went off with a canvass team with fellow West Hammer, John Morris and my old GLA Assembly/UNISON comrade, Murad Qureshi.

We were sent to canvass for Labour on the Westminster side of Sloane Square, which as you can imagine was very different from the canvass I went to yesterday in a largely working class part of Thurrock in Essex. The average price of homes for sale in Sloane Square is over £1.3 million. The average price for Thurrock was £361,000.

Westminster also has some of the most deprived areas in London.

This part of Cities and Westminster was not, I freely admit, a particularly "Corbyn or Labour Friendly" part of London but we did identify new Labour supporters and, of course, the purpose of canvassing at this stage is also to identify who are non supporters, so that we do not waste any further resources on contacting them.

I really enjoy going to different areas and being challenged as a Labour supporter and, as usual, nearly everyone we spoke to was polite and not aggressive or confrontational. Even if they do not agree with you, the vast majority of people I have spoken to while canvassing over the years are actually pleased that you have come to their door to seek their views (even if they don't want to actually speak to you).

My best conversation of the session was with an elderly retired senior military officer, who said he didn't normally vote since he has spent most of his life outside this country but the one and only time he did vote, he had voted for Labour.

Afterwards some of us warmed up and had a quick pint at a wonderful pub called the "Fox and Hounds" which was hidden away and you would never know it existed from the high street. 

West Ham plays at home then away at Thurrock and also Westminster #GE2019

This morning I went to a joint West Ham & East Ham Labour stall in Green Street to join our Labour Party Candidates, Lyn Brown and Stephen Timms. This was supposed to be a meeting point for our members to then go off and campaign in our marginal seats. I must admit to have been just a little frustrated at the constant calls for photo after photo rather than going out to the marginals but such is life. But if we don't go out and win our marginal seats in this general election, then we might as well just tell Boris to keep the keys to Number 10.

Happily, many members then went off to campaign in the marginal seats. I went with Lyn (and Cara our Labour attack dog, see picture of her and Lyn in Woolf Street) to Thurrock to support local Labour candidate, John Kent, who is seeking to overturn a 345 Tory majority. While other activists went with our Newham Mayor, Rokhsana Fiaz, to support Gordon Nardell in the Cities & Westminster marginal.

I was very impressed with the Thurrock Labour Party campaign headquarters (Tilbury office, 10 Commonwealth House, Montreal Rd, RM18 7QX, there is nearby parking and they will pick you up from the station if you ring beforehand 07434 446148) they were very well organised, had food and drink and were very welcoming!

We went door knocking with a mostly West Ham team. We had a local Cllr, Lynn Worrall, with us. I was running the board (I had the list of addresses that the team had to call on and recorded the results). I gave both Lyns the difficult addresses, where it was known that these residents were opposed to Labour, It was a really good canvass and John Kent is obviously well respected as a real local candidate.

There was a little fuss and bother over #CaraGate, when one resident objected to Lyn Brown bringing Cara onto her property since they had cats. Cara was on a lead and there was no sign of said cats but Cara did unfortunately decide at that moment to have a little "sprinkle" in the garden, which as you can imagine, did not go down that well.

I should have sent Lynn W to that address since she later said that she went to school with that resident's father.

Apart from that it was a remarkably good canvass with lots of residents being supportive of John Kent who recognised that we need to get him elected as their MP.

Captain SKA - Liar Liar Ge2019

Love it

Hat tip John Wood

Not Just Brexit: Let's put public services first: register to vote

"One month from now, we'll be going to the polls. We'll elect a new parliament and maybe even a government that will be there until May 2025. While we're still going for growth in November to make our voice stronger, we're also starting to gear up for the election.

So we’ve produced an activists' guide to campaigning in the general election, which can be downloaded below. Two printed versions are also being sent to each branch. There’s also a general election poster for members (pdf only) and a postcard for members – 10,000 copies of the postcard are being sent to each region in England and Wales and more can be ordered from shop.unison.site."

Marginals and ultra-marginals

(Hat tip BBC news. My take is we have to win in the marginals or the Tories will win and we will not have Jeremy Corbyn as our Prime Minister)

"A striking aspect of the 2017 general election was that the result in lots of constituencies was very close.

The normal working definition for a marginal seat is one where the majority is under 10%, which usually means under about 5,000 votes - although that does depend on turnout and the size of the constituency.

Then, within that group of seats, there are the ultra-marginals: places where the majority is under 2% - about 1,000 votes.

In 2017 there were 51 of these ultra-marginals - considerably more than in previous elections. In fact there were eight seats with a majority under 50.

All those will be hotly contested. The Conservatives will be hoping to win back some of the seats they lost last time - like Canterbury, Keighley and Kensington - while Labour will try to take seats where it got within a whisker - such as Arfon, Pudsey and Southampton Itchen.

Labour and Capital - A Left Platform

Hat tip post Tom P (I picked image : Capital and labour, by Henry Stacy Marks)

"It's election time. I'll have a look through party manifestos when they're out to pull together policy commitments that are relevant to this blog. In the meantime, here are a few rehashed thoughts about what I'd like to see as a Left platform.

1. Employee representation at board level.

The Conservatives' botched reform in this area has left the door open to further reform. As the failure of most companies to appoint employee directors shows, this is not going to be achieved through 'comply or explain', especially when some asset managers will likely lobby against. So legislate for it. Minimum of two on each board.

2. Redefine directors' duties.

This is straightforward, but important. As I saw someone comment recently, Section 172 as it stands actually made shareholder primacy explicit, even as it was pitched as 'enlightened shareholder value'. Check out the previous version (which put employees on a par with shareholders) to see how it changed. I am comfortable with the idea that the duty it simply to promote the success of the company, taking account of all stakeholder interests. If you don't think the current version is a problem, have a read of some justifications for exec pay and tax avoidance that prey Section 172 in aid.

3. Pre-distribution.

Pretty obvious that the big battle over the future of the firm is about different claims on resources. Pre-distribution got a bad press when Ed Miliband floated the term back in 2010-2015 parliament, but the idea is a sound one. Ensuring that labour gets a fairer share up front, rather than relying heavily on transfers, is likely to be much more politically durable. This suggests enhanced bargaining power (so let's make it easier for workers to form unions, and easier for unions to gain recognition and bargain).

But we also need to look at other mechanisms for ensuring a greater share of wealth goes to working people at the point it is created. Labour's Inclusive Ownership Funds provide one interesting model, and would create a who new class of investors which could have some interesting corpgov outcomes (for example in takeover situations). I see a lot of people speak positively about greater employee ownership in theory, so this idea ought to be popular. Those who criticise it should come up with alternatives. And if an IOF style scheme isn't applicable there should be mandatory profit-sharing.

4. Radical executive pay simplification.

Everyone in corpgov these days says they support pay simplification, but in practice most companies still have several incentive schemes. Nor am I convinced that deferred share awards get us anywhere because I don't think they will have much of a motivational effect (and I'm impressed by Sandy Pepper's work in this area). I'd scrap as much variable pay as possible. If we can't get rid of it all restrict the variable bit to small short-term cash bonuses with clawback and malus provisions. Much easier for all to understand, and hopefully easier to reclaim if something goes wrong.

5. Rebuild democratic control of capital.

Several trends in UK pension provision have served to less or remove democratic control of pension assets. The 'professionalisation' of governance is a good thing in general, but if it serves to cause the link with beneficiary interests to be broken we have a problem. In the ESG world I worry that this has led to priorities being adopted that are more aligned with the interests of those running money than those of whose money it is. So I would like to see reinvigorated member/beneficiary involvement in all types of pension provision.

6. Democratise shareholder voting

I can't see any good reason why asset managers can't find a fintech solution that allows asset owners, or retail investors, to vote in pooled funds. The current situation is ridiculous, especially in a world where more and more money is managed passively. If I'm only employing you to hold the index, not pick stocks, why should I be forced to adopt your views views on corporate governance? It makes no sense.

7. Radical disintermediation.

One for a decade ahead. Will we actually need asset managers in the future as they exist in their current form? Could passive management be a utility? Could we do it ourselves?

Posted by Tom Powdrill at 21:50

Dave Prentis: "This election is the fight of our lives"

Hat tip UNISON General Secretary, Dave Prentis blog: "Election day is less than five weeks away – and this election is the fight of our lives. After a decade of Tory austerity, public service workers know better than anyone the terrible toll that austerity has had on our communities, the services you provide and on your own lives.

That’s why I’ve been getting out on the doorstep and campaigning for public services – and for a Labour government. So far I’ve been supporting Labour candidates, and UNISON members, Bambos Charalambous and Emma Whysall, and I’ll be out campaigning across the country in the weeks ahead. It really is vital that everyone who wants to see a Labour government gets out on the doorstep and campaigns for Labour – and tells their friends, family and colleagues why they’re voting Labour too. Whilst Boris Johnson may have the money and the media on his side, Labour has something stronger – people.

There’s something else Labour has though – common sense ideas that can changes our country – and the lives of UNISON members – for the better. So it was great to see Labour announcing plans to extend maternity leave, offer real help on childcare and rebuild vital sure start centres. The same goes for giving every family the chance to have a warm home and an affordable energy bill. We have the oldest and most poorly insulated houses in Europe and we need practical measures to address this. Again – this is just the sort of change our country needs.

I know that in the days and weeks ahead, Labour can win this election where it counts – both on the streets, and by showing it has the best plans for working people. I promise you our union will be playing our part – and so will I".

Canvass Training: "Persuasive Conversations"

"Thirty percent of people are undecided about who to vote for or do not think that voting is worthwhile.

Having a persuasive conversation with them about Labour Party policies can make all the difference. Marginal seats are often won or lost by just a few votes.

Would you like to join a training session to learn how to canvass or to learn some useful techniques? I attended a training session on Persuasive Conversations and found it really useful. 

I would like to pass on those notes and tips to any interested members and supporters.

Please email tinamjgATicloudDOTcom to register or to find out more".


TRAINING DATES

Thursday 14th November, 7.15pm – 8.15pm
St. Lukes Community Centre, 89 Tarling Rd, E16 1HN
All members and friends welcome"

(Many thanks to Tina our political education officer for organising this)

West Ham Parish Church (All Saints) Remembrance Sunday 10th November 2019

This morning I attended yet another beautiful Remembrance Sunday service at the historic 12th Century West Ham Parish Church. I am a local West Ham Ward Councillor but I was there today to represent Newham Council as Deputy Mayor together with Deputy Cabinet lead for Children Service's, Cllr Carleene Lee-Phakoe (who had brought her delightful 11 year old daughter) and our Council's Chief Legal Officer, Daniel Fenwick.

There was soldiers from our local regiment 7 Rifles present and other voluntary groups with a number of former military veterans proudly wearing their medals including Cllr Winston Vaughan,  who served in the British Army during the Aden Emergency.

The Rev’d Canon Alex Summers conducted the service and gave a moving sermon during which he mentioned how he and his young family had visited the graves of his relatives who died in battle during the first world war. He made an important point that will future generations with the passage of time forget what has happened in these Wars?

We all hope not. If we forget how horrible and wasteful war is then it is more likely to occur again (and again).