West Ham CLP AGM 2011

I am just back from this year's West Ham Constituency Labour Party AGM.  Via of course "The Goose" in Stratford (unbranded Pilsner lager still at £1.49 per pint!).

This was the sixth Labour Movement AGM I have attended so far this year.  Hopefully the last!  The meeting tonight was well  attended, well run and pretty good humoured.

In the CLP Officers elections the Chair Conor McAuley was re-elected; Alan Griffiths re-elected unopposed as Secretary; John Saunders elected as Treasurer; Winston Vaughan elected as Ethnic Minorities Officer and Yetunde Muda as Womens's officer.   Due to proportionality rules we were not able to elect some of the posts.  We need more women to be nominated.  This will be send back to wards and affiliates.

In the Functional Officer elections I was re-elected unopposed as Campaign Co-ordinator and Agent; John Whitworth as Political officer; David Christie as IT officer; Gerry Carlisle as Disabilities Officer and Kim Silver as Trade Union Liaison Officer (Kim who is on the UNISON NEC was elected 38:1!); Terry Paul as Assistant Secretary; Mas Patel as Assistant Agent; John Saunders as Premises manager and Fund Raiser (the 100 club - the ever so mysterious local Labour Party monthly tote) and Clive Furness as Social Secretary.

There was a contested election for auditors! We elected 2 delegates to Party Conference, Yetundee and James Beckles (and will hopefully also get a young member to attend). 

The trade union delegates "had a huddle" and we elected delegates to EC (including myself) and Local Government Committee (LGC).  West Ham nominations to LGC will be sorted out at the next GC. 

At the end of the meeting we had an extraordinary meeting about Greater London Assembly election candidates 2012.  Branches and affiliates had voted overwhelmingly to support the renomination of John Biggs, Nicky Gavron and Murad Qureshi as our candidates.

John Biggs: Tower Hamlets Labour Mayor Candidate

 London Assembly member John Biggs is standing to be the Labour Party candidate to run for Tower Hamlets Mayor.

There has been the usual exciting and colourful Tower Hamlets selection process.

Labour Party members (only) will vote on Saturday on who they want to be their candidate in the Mayoral election on 21 October 2010.

I have worked in Tower Hamlets for the past 20 years or so - but I am not of course a local member so I shouldn't really interfere in the selection process.

But - this being Tower Hamlets (my 2nd favourite London borough ever) I can't help mentioning that in a strictly personal capacity - I thought John was an excellent Labour Council leader and London Assembly member.  He is also a stanch trade unionist and a very decent person with good politics who you can rely on. We don't agree all the time but there again - who does!

There are other good candidates standing but if I had the choice (and I don't) then I would definitely be voting for Mr Biggs to be Tower Hamlets Mayor. 

Newham Councillors & Mayor 2010: The Largest Labour Group in the Country

 I thought I would cheer up every one's Bank holiday by posting this picture from the AGM of Newham Council. 

The photo was taken in the historic Old Town Hall in Stratford. 

I hope this isn't seen as political boasting but:-

In the London Borough of Newham 60 out of the possible 60 elected Councillors are Labour Party candidates.

The directly elected Mayor, Sir Robin Wales is Labour. So are both MP's,  Stephen Timms (who has the largest majority in the country) and Lyn Brown.  The local directly elected London Assembly member, John Biggs, is Labour as is the directly elected Member for the European Parliament, Claude Moraes.

Is there something in the Newham - clear red water?