London Labour Party Dinner 2010

On Thursday evening I went with UNISON colleagues to the London Labour Party fund raising dinner.  It was packed with people.  The guest speaker was David Miliband MP who gave a simply superb speech.  He was as usual very articulate and thoughtful but he was also I thought far more passionate and expressive than I had ever seen him before.  He gave in fact a tour de force. Even people who don't agree with him politically thought it was excellent and inspiring.

He told a great self deprecating story about being in a husting in Norwich and waving what he thought was his Labour Party membership card at the audience while reading out our aims and values.  Only to realise what he was actually waving was his Premier Inn hotel card. 

Another great story was that he had been approached to speak at this meeting 3 or 4 months ago while he was still of course campaigning to be leader.  After being invited by the London region organiser his office queried whether the invite was only in the event of him being elected Party leader or not? Which he took when he found out as meaning even his own office had its doubts about whether or not he would win!

Without any apparent bitterness or rancour he again and again stressed the importance of helping to get Ed elected as the next Prime Minister.  Only 4 out of the previous 19 Labour Leaders had actually been elected as Prime Minister.  He even swore a little (well, he used the word “bloody”) when describing this ‘orrible coalition government. 

David argued that the much better than average results during the election in London was the base for the renewal of the Party nationally.  Which obviously went down pretty well with the audience.

London Labour Chair and GLA Group leader Len Duvall was the compere and Stephen Pound MP (of course) took charge of the inevitable Labour Party raffle and auction. It was a good night.

(picture above of the London UNISON Labour Link crew)

Labour Party Conference 2010: West Ham CLP delegates report

The Labour movement usually requires all delegates to write reports on the conferences they have been sent to by their unions or the Labour Party.

Ellie Robinson (right) and David Christie (middle) were the West Ham Labour Party delegates to Conference this year.  (Left is Forhad Hussain, who was there as a ex-officio visitor and is also a UNISON member).  All three of them are newly elected Newham Councillors.

This is Ellie and David's delegation report to the West Ham GC.

"We arrived in Manchester on the Friday night and stayed in apartments just over the border in Salford.

Saturday was the day of the leadership conference where they were to announce the new leader of the Labour Party.  The hall in Manchester Central was buzzing with excitement.  Gordon Brown kicked things off with an emotional speech where he celebrated what the last Government had achieved and thanked many people for supporting him and the Labour Party.  Ann Black, chair of the NEC then took the rostrum and led us through the votes.  It took several minutes to get to the result because of the AV system, and the tension and gasps from the audience mounted until in the final round David Miliband received 49.35% of the vote and we knew that Ed would be the next leader of the Labour Party.  There were cheers and Ed gave a short speech where he paid tribute to the other candidates. In the evening we attended the London Region reception where Ed spoke again.

On Sunday a London region welcome was held introducing delegates to the format of conference and Karen Buck, Labour MP for Westminster North launched a new priority campaign in London on housing reflecting the coalition’s attack on housing benefit claimants.  We attended the young councillor network launch and then went into the hall for conference business. 

Neil Kinnock delivered a moving tribute to Michael Foot who died in the year since the last conference. Merit Awards were presented to members from Hammersmith, Hyndburn and Exeter.  In the priority ballot as West Ham delegates we voted for debates on housing, people trafficking, consumer credit and rights at work as we felt these most reflected the particular needs of people in the West Ham constituency and would not all be prioritised by the Trade Union section. We attended a fringe event on the Gaza siege in the evening and a young Labour event. Labour friends of Bangladesh held a reception which several Newham members came up to Manchester to attend and Rushanara Ali spoke passionately about the Bangladeshi community uniting and having transparent elections and decision making in Tower Hamlets. Mary Honeyball MEP for London held a reception and talked about her ongoing focus in the European parliament.  At the end of the evening there was a Newham drink in a bar net to the Manchester Wheel.

On Monday David Miliband gave a speech as Shadow Foreign Secretary for which he received a standing ovation.  Particular focus was on Burma, Kashmir and Pakistan. Ed Balls, Andy Burnham and Dianne Abbott also gave speeches throughout the week that were very well received.

Particular fringe highlights of the rest of the week included the Labour friends of India event hosted by the High Commissioner, again with very good attendance from Newham.   John Gray was on the panel for a fringe on new media and blogging.  Newham Mayor Robin Wales spoke at several fringes, including one on housing where he identified Newham’s plans in that area.

On Tuesday Ed gave his speech, there was tremendous anticipation and he delivered a passionate speech which aimed to draw a line under New Labour. The theme was the ‘New Generation’ and he spoke to the country saying ‘A new generation has taken over Labour- a new generation that understands the call to change’. He called for a mass membership party again with a membership greater than 1997, and talked about winning back votes lost since 1997.  He also promised to work with the coalition when they did the right thing. 

Throughout the rest of the week there was an increasing feeling that David would not run for the shadow cabinet and he announced this on Wednesday.  There was a lot of disappointment at this and generally there were a lot of mixed feelings about Ed’s election. It was inevitable that in so close an election, the losers would feel very disappointed and people did discuss the impact of the union vote on the election and the impression of that in the media.

On the Tuesday night we met our MP Lyn for a drink in the Midland Hotel with other Newham members.

On Wednesday there was a Q and A with our new leader, Ed Miliband, and Eddie Izzard. Two members a minute had joined the Party since Ed was elected leader and a lot of this session focussed on stories from new members.

Harriet Harman, as our Deputy Leader, closed the Conference on Thursday. We came home physically tiered but mentally reenergised to fight for our Party locally and nationally.

An update on rule changes will be provided at the GC".

Ed Miliband in Leadership Lead

 Check out this report that a YouGov poll gives Ed Miliband a small lead over his brother.

Luke's blog breaks the figures down.  The Preference votes are going to be absolutely key.

Ed has a clear lead (57%) over David in the trade union vote (43%).

This news should give Ed further momentum.

It is going to be very close....

I read my emails properly yesterday and found out that my application for tickets to the actual Leadership conference on the 25th September had been successful! :)

West Ham Labour Party National Leadership Hustings

Many thanks to our MP Lyn Brown and her staff for helping to organise Sunday’s Hustings at the East London University lecture theatre in Stratford, Newham London.

There was about 170 Labour Party members and trade union affiliates there - not only from West Ham but also from all over East London. East Ham MP Stephan Timms was also present.

We did not have the usual “Question Time” panel format (admittedly due to candidate availability problems) but instead gave each candidate a 2 minute space for an opening address followed by 20 minute Q&A then a short minutes finishing address.

This seemed to work pretty well. There were a few scares on the way but all the candidates turned up in time to take their place, speak and go.

Since I was helping out with the stewarding I didn’t see all the speeches or Q&A’s but my impression was: - local MP Diane Abbott got the loudest applause for her ideas; David Miliband’s “who do you think will be the leader who will win the next general election for Labour” did hit home; Andy Burnham came over as a passionate contender with genuine working class roots even though I’m not sure that admitting that the he only usually comes to West Ham to watch “Everton win 3 points at Upton Park” was particularly wise (I declare a past youthful and present day interest in this matter); Ed Miliband was of course in my completely and utterly unbiased view - the clear winner (Nuf said) while Ed Balls in his contribution proved once again to be a cracking attack dog on the CON-DEMS.

It was a good night. Many thanks to UNISON Greater London Labour Link and local CWU for help and sponsorship. The Labour Movement family in our part of East London is alive and kicking.

David Miliband speaks to meeting at Stratford Town Hall

This college is from last night's meeting with David Miliband held at the Old Town Hall in Stratford, E15.  This was chaired by Ahmed Noor who I believe is the son of the first Asian shopkeeper in Green Street and my old mucker Terry Paul, who is a local ward member for Stratford and fellow "newbie" Newham Councillor.  Labour MP Keith Vaz introduced everyone to the audience.

David was the guest of the Pakistani Association of Newham.

He gave his usual impressive and polished speech and dealt with pretty well with a wide ranging Q&A.

I managed to ask him a question about what he thought the role of modern trade unions should be if became Prime minister and he was let us say pretty positive without being particularly prescriptive. 

I think he is a very good candidate, but his brother Ed - has the edge - and I think has the better chance of appearing different from the evil twins, Cameron and Clegg, and defeating them at the next election (sorry Steve and Terry)

David Miliband speaks at Stratford Town Hall Monday 28 June 7.30pm

Labour Party leadership contender David Miliband will be speaking to London Labour Party members and trade union affiliates at the historic Old Town Hall in Stratford, Newham London on Monday 28 June. 

This event is being sponsored by the Pakistani Association of Newham and supported by local Labour Party members and affiliate supporters.

Stratford Town Hall is an iconic Labour movement site since Keir Hardy the first ever "Labour Party" MP gave his victory speech from the its balcony overlooking Stratford High Street in 1892 following his election for West Ham South.

Doors open 7pm but RSVP Ahmed Noor (Ahmed218@hotmail.co.uk) or Terry Paul (terence_paul@hotmail.com) if you are planning to attend.

(picture is from the UNISON London regional Labour Link AGM this year at the House of Commons when David was our guest speaker.  I was Chair and I cannot remember for the life of me what we were laughing about at the time of the photo?  Personally I will be supporting his brother Ed for leader (personal capacity) but will be at the meeting to listern.  West Ham CLP is trying to organise an East London husting of all candidates for the leadership elections.  We have agreed sponsorship from UNISON Labour Link and a venue - but it is proving "difficult" to pick a date suitable for everyone.  As they say - watch this space!)