All Fools
Friday 1 April begins with a fine Guardian spoof as New Labour allegedly line up Charles Windsor to be in charge of the Countryside, and ends with a quiz and raffle in Bradford Ward.
Son Patrick is marched to school alongside our two lurchers who continue with me to Alexandra Park, tranferred from Moss Side ward to Whalley Range in 2004's boundary review. Here they have to make do with a single 2km lap - it's busy busy busy.
This same review saw my street and a few others transferred from Whalley Range ward - where I had stood as the left Labour, anti war candidate but nonetheless took a bloody nose for Blair in 2003 - to Chorlton ward, most of which is in neighbouring Manchester Withington. This makes things complicated. I have three different ward parties to commune with because of arcane rulings following boundary changes.
Various day job work follows on my return, interrupted only by a huge array of raffle prizes delivered by young woman raising money for an Operation Raleigh style working holiday, but early afternoon I meet Kathy who has motored in from Newton Heath - team mate in a more successful but narrowly beaten 2004 Labour challenge in the new City Centre ward - turn out trebled, Lib Dem majority halved which is certainly progress. A swing of just 50 from the yellow peril would have seen both of us elected.
We deliver two different leaflets to around 1200 city lofts and new build apartments, exchanging banter with occasional members of the electorate. Kathy never lets a chance to call for a Labour vote or dispute Lib fibs pass.
Asia House, Bombay House, India House, Orient House - Manchester's imperious past as a trading and industrial city so clear for all to see though now home to 1000 living new Elizabethan souls rather than 5000 VicWardian wage slaves.
We break for coffee at Olive - symbol of deli and expresso now - and discuss inter alia the untimely death of Desi Noonan, late gangster, anti-fascist and pal of Kathy's ex. The second of the gang to die, after brother Damien. All the five brothers are Ds. The spin Kathy has is that he was stabbed over a mobile phone dispute. All I know is that he made several calls to friends and relatives before calling 999. D for Doh!
And on we go down Whitworth Street past the Palace Theatre and Cornerhouse to the Ritz. The Hacienda apartments will wait for another day; most there too new, too dozy, or too disengaged to be on the electoral register anyway.
The clock is ticking. Any leaflets for Tony Lloyd MP dropped after the election is called will be counted in his official expenses so it's a case of get them out quickly or very likely see them recycled.
Tea time. Collect partner from work, deliver to Hulme ASDA, hoot for peace and justice as I pass the Whalley Hotel where our vigil has continued rain or shine for more than two years, collect children, return to Hulme (more hooting) and finally back home (still more hooting).
These days only make the vigil ranks myself once every three or four weeks. My Lib Dem nemesis pretty much stopped turning out the week after the war started, though I swear he danced a little war dance of joy on the fateful friday in March 2003 when Bush's shock and awe was underway.
Apart from three old school Liberals who are regulars on this vigil the Lib Dems were and are scarcely seen in Manchester's anti war effort. Now they trade on their fudges.
Quick run on the Mersey banks with the dogs Hooch and Ottey and neighbourly mutt Simpson, grab a quick tea and off towards a pub in Bradford Ward clutching swiftly recycled raffle prizes, three huge Easter Eggs but more notably two whopping great cuddly toy rabbits, carrots and all.
Immediately I'm co-opted onto a team including former councillor Kath Fry, Lucy D - one of the three agents Kathy, Ahmed and I went through in the 2004 election, and a couple of other Bradford ward members. We're not a bad team.
At half time I have a natter over hot pot and red cabbage with Tony Lloyd MP who wants to make sure that the campaign has the spin off of helping us take a Council seat in the city centre in 2006. Quite how we're going to do that is another thing as there are plenty of good ideas but rarely enough time to realise them.
As an early winner in the raffle I resist the cuddly toys and the alcohol and bag the Buena Vista Social Club VHS which one of my team mates has brought along and which Kath immediately wants to borrow. What goes round comes around.
We are a close second in the quiz. Beaten by a team of pub locals with no connection to the party, and according to team mates "with access to the answers" and/or "phoning a friend all night". Still the prize is alcohol to drink on the spot and I'm driving, so it's not a bad one to lose.
Back home via salamander-shaped Boundary Commission fudge ward Ancoats and Clayton, and Ardwick. It's been a long day, and it's about to be a long campaign.
Revision and Foot Notes
Manchester Central constituency is made up of eight wards, currently :
* Ancoats and Clayton - salamander shaped boundary fudge, last LD in North and East Manchester chased from here in 2004 all out
* Ardwick - seat of Lord Mayor Tom O'Callaghan, south of centre towards Gorton, once part of Gorton constituency
* Bradford - last LD chased out in 2003, once the pit head for extensive coal workings extending under city centre to CIS which was a worry, workers returned from factory fortnight to find locked gates
* City Centre - much reduced from old Central ward, LD hold three seats by narrow majority, worst turnout in the city through combination of high turnover of lofties and student apathy (5% voted in 2004 euro and LG elections)
* Hulme - planet hulme, once the engine room of indie and arty Manchester, now with Manchester's one and only green councillor
* Moss Side - one of the safest Labour wards ever, Carnival powerhouse
* Newton Heath and Miles Platting - staged successful coup by persuading boundary review to retain the ward (more or less), had independent (criminal) Labour councillor for two years and BNP candidates in 2003 and 2004, next to Failsworth in Oldham which is also battle line with local fascists
* Whalley Range - home of the longest standing weekly anti-war vigil in the country, and now three LD councillors, though still at heart a socialist republic
Changes afoot
* Moston - will be added to constituency under current review; either Ardwick or Whalley Range are likely to go into Gerald Kaufman's Manchester Gorton
Son Patrick is marched to school alongside our two lurchers who continue with me to Alexandra Park, tranferred from Moss Side ward to Whalley Range in 2004's boundary review. Here they have to make do with a single 2km lap - it's busy busy busy.
This same review saw my street and a few others transferred from Whalley Range ward - where I had stood as the left Labour, anti war candidate but nonetheless took a bloody nose for Blair in 2003 - to Chorlton ward, most of which is in neighbouring Manchester Withington. This makes things complicated. I have three different ward parties to commune with because of arcane rulings following boundary changes.
Various day job work follows on my return, interrupted only by a huge array of raffle prizes delivered by young woman raising money for an Operation Raleigh style working holiday, but early afternoon I meet Kathy who has motored in from Newton Heath - team mate in a more successful but narrowly beaten 2004 Labour challenge in the new City Centre ward - turn out trebled, Lib Dem majority halved which is certainly progress. A swing of just 50 from the yellow peril would have seen both of us elected.
We deliver two different leaflets to around 1200 city lofts and new build apartments, exchanging banter with occasional members of the electorate. Kathy never lets a chance to call for a Labour vote or dispute Lib fibs pass.
Asia House, Bombay House, India House, Orient House - Manchester's imperious past as a trading and industrial city so clear for all to see though now home to 1000 living new Elizabethan souls rather than 5000 VicWardian wage slaves.
We break for coffee at Olive - symbol of deli and expresso now - and discuss inter alia the untimely death of Desi Noonan, late gangster, anti-fascist and pal of Kathy's ex. The second of the gang to die, after brother Damien. All the five brothers are Ds. The spin Kathy has is that he was stabbed over a mobile phone dispute. All I know is that he made several calls to friends and relatives before calling 999. D for Doh!
And on we go down Whitworth Street past the Palace Theatre and Cornerhouse to the Ritz. The Hacienda apartments will wait for another day; most there too new, too dozy, or too disengaged to be on the electoral register anyway.
The clock is ticking. Any leaflets for Tony Lloyd MP dropped after the election is called will be counted in his official expenses so it's a case of get them out quickly or very likely see them recycled.
Tea time. Collect partner from work, deliver to Hulme ASDA, hoot for peace and justice as I pass the Whalley Hotel where our vigil has continued rain or shine for more than two years, collect children, return to Hulme (more hooting) and finally back home (still more hooting).
These days only make the vigil ranks myself once every three or four weeks. My Lib Dem nemesis pretty much stopped turning out the week after the war started, though I swear he danced a little war dance of joy on the fateful friday in March 2003 when Bush's shock and awe was underway.
Apart from three old school Liberals who are regulars on this vigil the Lib Dems were and are scarcely seen in Manchester's anti war effort. Now they trade on their fudges.
Quick run on the Mersey banks with the dogs Hooch and Ottey and neighbourly mutt Simpson, grab a quick tea and off towards a pub in Bradford Ward clutching swiftly recycled raffle prizes, three huge Easter Eggs but more notably two whopping great cuddly toy rabbits, carrots and all.
Immediately I'm co-opted onto a team including former councillor Kath Fry, Lucy D - one of the three agents Kathy, Ahmed and I went through in the 2004 election, and a couple of other Bradford ward members. We're not a bad team.
At half time I have a natter over hot pot and red cabbage with Tony Lloyd MP who wants to make sure that the campaign has the spin off of helping us take a Council seat in the city centre in 2006. Quite how we're going to do that is another thing as there are plenty of good ideas but rarely enough time to realise them.
As an early winner in the raffle I resist the cuddly toys and the alcohol and bag the Buena Vista Social Club VHS which one of my team mates has brought along and which Kath immediately wants to borrow. What goes round comes around.
We are a close second in the quiz. Beaten by a team of pub locals with no connection to the party, and according to team mates "with access to the answers" and/or "phoning a friend all night". Still the prize is alcohol to drink on the spot and I'm driving, so it's not a bad one to lose.
Back home via salamander-shaped Boundary Commission fudge ward Ancoats and Clayton, and Ardwick. It's been a long day, and it's about to be a long campaign.
Revision and Foot Notes
Manchester Central constituency is made up of eight wards, currently :
* Ancoats and Clayton - salamander shaped boundary fudge, last LD in North and East Manchester chased from here in 2004 all out
* Ardwick - seat of Lord Mayor Tom O'Callaghan, south of centre towards Gorton, once part of Gorton constituency
* Bradford - last LD chased out in 2003, once the pit head for extensive coal workings extending under city centre to CIS which was a worry, workers returned from factory fortnight to find locked gates
* City Centre - much reduced from old Central ward, LD hold three seats by narrow majority, worst turnout in the city through combination of high turnover of lofties and student apathy (5% voted in 2004 euro and LG elections)
* Hulme - planet hulme, once the engine room of indie and arty Manchester, now with Manchester's one and only green councillor
* Moss Side - one of the safest Labour wards ever, Carnival powerhouse
* Newton Heath and Miles Platting - staged successful coup by persuading boundary review to retain the ward (more or less), had independent (criminal) Labour councillor for two years and BNP candidates in 2003 and 2004, next to Failsworth in Oldham which is also battle line with local fascists
* Whalley Range - home of the longest standing weekly anti-war vigil in the country, and now three LD councillors, though still at heart a socialist republic
Changes afoot
* Moston - will be added to constituency under current review; either Ardwick or Whalley Range are likely to go into Gerald Kaufman's Manchester Gorton
posted by Chris Paul at 11:45 PM
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