Forest Gate North Labour Party Ward AGM

Last night was my local Labour Party ward AGM in Durning Hall, E7.  It was the best attended ward meeting I have been to and a sign that the Party is growing and that members feel the need to become more active.  The outgoing secretary Cllr Ellie Robinson reported that we now had 85 members.  23 joined in 2010 and we have 16 young members (this figure thanks in part to the excellent work done by Ellie and the rest of Newham Young Labour). 

During Councillor reports we discussed the massive and "savage" cuts being forced upon Newham by this Tory led government.  There was a mature and measured discussion about the harm being done and how to protect Newham residents and staff as best we can against the coming onslaught.

I spoke about how we must unite to oppose this government and support our local campaign "Newham Together" and the TUC March in March against the Cuts, which will take place in London on Saturday 26th March.  We must make sure this will be a well attended and supported event.  But also follow up with helping Party colleagues outside London in the local elections in May.  This year there are no elections in London so we can go out and help Labour Candidates elsewhere.  If we inflict "savage" defeats on local Tories and Lib Dem Councils this will make their local MPs take stock and think about changing their national policies.  We have been given a Tory council to target and have set provisional campaigning dates. 

I doubt that the ConDems will call an election before 2015 since turkeys would not vote for Christmas but I do believe if we campaign properly we can inflict defeats on the government and we may even help bring about a general election early.

Reacting to the Cuts will be really difficult but the Labour Movement family cannot afford to argue and bicker amongst ourselves since this will only benefit the real enemy.

New blood put themselves forward for a number of ward and Party positions.  I was very pleased that Tahmina is now our new secretary. 

Cllr Paul Brickell spoke and led a Q&A about the Olympics development and legacy plans which was well received.  In comparison to the sometimes ill-informed and blatantly untruthful, malicious twaddle we have come across lately.  

Future ward events planned include a tour of the Olympic Park and a Joint Forest Gate Labour Supporters meeting in March with Sir Robin Wales.  Our local MP Lyn Brown and London Assembly member John Biggs have also been invited to attend and speak.

Onwards and forwards.

(this picture from 1905 will be familiar to anyone who has lived in Forest Gate - hat tip Newham Stories)

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".