CP's Labour Blog

2006-03-05T03:24:00.000-08:00

Lorna's Doomed and other Loose Ends

In fact Lorna Fitzsimons lost, albeit by a smaller swing that expected. And Keith Bradley lost too in Manchester Withington. A real shocker! And that's just the new MP John Leech.

Lorna's Saved

2005-05-06T12:08:00.000-07:00

Amazing. The illicit texting is saying that Lorna Fitzsimons has actually held her seat in Rochdale with a doubled majority of c 3,000. Her constituency is where Blair became a Stottite. And we had no idea how it would go. Because there wasn't enough information.

Lorna is certainly flamboyant in the way Rochdale expects post-Cyril Smith. But on all the key issues she's Blairite. Not just loyal and disciplined with a heavy heart. Actually gung ho Blairite.

I tell various people this news. They are delighted. I'm just amazed really. Even with backing from Stott ("Councillor Tom") and other local Labour people it seems a miracle if Lorna's pulled off an escape from a majority under 2,000.

Gordon is a Moron

2005-05-06T01:04:00.000-07:00

Not a comment on Gordon's past, present and future. Actually the eponymous Gordon who starred in the Jilted John drama is here in the count. Working for the Greens. Agent for them in Withington. Absolutely fed up with them. "Middle class tossers, always arguing" he may have said. He "should join a proper party" I may have said "But you will not get away from the MCTs, AA".

Meanwhile our mutal friend Tosh - who managed Graham Fellows of Jilted John fame - is recovering after a triple by-pass. No MRSA. And no waiting list really. Five days from need-identified to op. Which chimes with my NHS experience. Pretty good really. Particularly for a low tax economy.

Talking to Lib Dems

2005-05-06T00:58:00.000-07:00

Cllr Peter is by far and away my favourite Lib Dem councillor. He has the same low opinion of some of his party colleagues as I do. And he wants to maintain public respect for political activists by banishing negative attack politics.

He is probably in the wrong party to get his wishes on that one. And it must be said that as incumbents they all seem to get sniffy about being called to account in any way. Though they have generally got to office themselves with the most shameless anti- politics - fibs, exaggeration, taking credit they're not due, incessant whining, and that old fall back scaremongering.

His people have been busy in Withington constituency. They have been sent there from on high. When we first talk I think this will be a hold by 5,000 plus, way down from 11,000 plus. But I say 8,000 which is the figure the Labour agent and all the predictive websites have been saying.

Cllr Peter says he would be disappointed at that.

Later it becomes obvious that Withington will be very close indeed.

But whatever. We're still talking. Why was the Local Income Tax not on their leaflets in Manchester? Basically because the sums don't add up in my view. We're all agreed that Rates, and Poll Tax, and Council Tax are all faulty and regressive. But this LIT is ... not good either.

Agent Jim asks Cllr Peter whether he is first or second up. He is first. As Jim well knows. Cllr Dobbo sneaked by him in the last batch of votes in 2004.

Even Marc their leader in the City Centre ward I fought last time is involved in the conversation now. He asks what were the margins and I say cheerfully that he was way ahead. But that us riff raff were all pretty close.

In fact a 50-vote swing would have won us two seats. And that sort of margin with 1500 voters has to be down to Blair and his damned war.

Poor Fash : Damaged Goods

2005-05-06T00:24:00.000-07:00

Standing next to fascists is sometimes a cue for jostling and unpleasantness.

Perhaps even Jean Marie Le Pen and Nick Griffin's car getting rocked and unfortunately damaged when they came into our area. I know they were scared as I could see their eyes through the smoked glass.

But in this context as 5% of those in a room with 95% dedicated to democratic processes they can surely relax and enjoy the fruits of their brilliant campaign literature. Winning the master race.

But they're not relaxed and they are unsettled. Their candidate hovers over one of the Newton Heath and Miles Platting tables.

"I thought it would be better than this", he says to his accomplice, "This is Newton Heath and I've not seen a single vote for us". He is desperately unhappy in the here and now. And this is probably the way he is all the time.

Anti- reality means unhappy I guess for these fascists. You only have to look at Nick Griffin for a few seconds to realise that this is damaged goods.

I've been watching properly and I have seen a few votes for him. But in the Newton Heath boxes it is running very low. Probably the BNP folk are voting for us or the Tories this time. Depending whether they are proper national socialists (ours?) or just horrible soft racists (theirs?). They aren't going to be so scummy as to vote for the fascists with £50 suits.

They probably got more votes in unexpected places. Where there has been no concerted anti-fascist work. Students and wild individuals spread around the constituency.

But I don't tell the fascist candidate I've seen a couple of votes for him. Just move aside gently as he politely says "excuse me" in his muddle class way. Just hope my Manchester Against Racism pin badge and his lack of electoral support is burning a hole in his sad fascist ideals.

He will lose his deposit. And he's also spent hundreds on unreconstructed fascist fliers to ever household in the constituency.

Around Midnight One

2005-05-06T00:10:00.000-07:00

By the witching hour we Labour tellers are performing our duties beautifully. The other parties are random this time. We are efficient and effective. The one Lib Dem who knows the score is pulled off this count about now as the sudden marginal of Manchester Withington needs her skills.

We do samples of the vote in our various key council seats. Newton Heath - because of the fascists. Hulme - because we have a solitary Green seated there. Whalley Range - because that's home turf for half the team. City Centre - because that too is a marginal three-Lib Dem target.

Once crazy Anne has gone we are the only ones applying ourselves to sampling the vote. And on a very hard night for Labour nationally we are very happy with what we see.

Though the students have not checked Tony's record - Anti-War, Anti-Foundations, Anti-Fees etc etc - and in a small number of polling stations they have voted against willy nilly.

But there are dozens of boxes. And a couple of tough ones are no problem when we can bob over to one of the other tables and watch an Ancoats or a Moss Side voting 7-3 or 10-nil respectively for our man Lloyd.

SNWDWVF : Press Accreditation

2005-05-05T23:42:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday I had gone into the Press Office to apply for accreditation. Chris from there rang me during the day to confirm a pass would be ready to collect.

SNWDWVF (Labour Blog) are now recognised as a bonafide press organisation.

Towards midnight I went to the Press Room and was ushered round the Town Hall until we found my man. What I really wanted was web access so I could blog from the count. But that wasn't going to happen it seemed.

But there was some excitement as ITN and BBC stringers were competing for the hottest coverage. And by now it seemed certain that one of the five "safe" Labour seats was actually going to go to the wire.

The press room had sandwiches, hot and cold drinks, later beer included, but I decided to rise above this and just report the events soberly, as I saw them. Without taking blandishments from any Town Hall.

Dungay's Wager

2005-05-05T23:37:00.000-07:00

But they are not the only strange fish here. The Reverend Peter Dungay is here too. He was a Labour councillor here for some years. Until Turkey Gate. But he has recently popped up again as a Green Party organiser. And in various religious orders.

At the time of the Europeans and All Outs in 2004 he was His Supreme Holiness - a high calibre Buddhist Monk. Topknot, orange robe and all. Now he has defected as he did from Labour. To something called the Church of Universal Ministries. I quiz him about it and will track it down on the web - assuming it has a footprint on the digital superhighway.

He wears a dog collar and traditional priest garb. But his most fetching accoutrement is his Father Brown-style black hat. This never leaves his head. And I'd guess there is a shaven head and topknot beneath. Just in case. Dungay's wager.

He tells me all sorts of things about his Party's plans, and his "church". But when it comes to men in dog collars I can't say I'm necessarily a believer. A two-year stint with Christian Brothers shattered the 5% of remaining illusions.

Our Head, Brother ****, eventually ran off with the school secretary shortly after I left. Which was like Absolute Confirmation in reverse.

Marmelade and Peanut Butter Sandwiches

2005-05-05T22:55:00.000-07:00

The best fillings I can find as I dash though home on the way to the Count.

The marmelade is tinged with Teachers Whisky flavour which reminds me of a Charles Kennedy joke. The peanut butter is non-alcoholic crunchy. I check I have my pass and rosette and leap into our lift. The whiff of marmelade brings positive comments.

We need to be early as we have the fascist National Front standing in our constituency and we need to suss them out and keep them away from Tony Lloyd. They're not welcome here. And they can't be allowed a Mugabe style sneaked handshake or any other stunt.

The first ballot boxes and a last sweep of postboxes for PVs are coming in as we arrive. And we head straight for the Conference Room. Here the counters are being warmed up by re-counting some test bundles of known dimensions. At first with limited precision. But the presiding officer puts them through their paces until they are spot on.

And the serious party tellers are already hovering.

Including a car full of fascists over from Yorkshire where most of the prime seats are taken by the BNP. Thrown out of their own county. Imagine that. The only ones not wearing rosettes. They might as well have swastikas tattooed on their foreheads.

But actually they're like scared rabbits. They are massively outnumbered by the staff and around forty party workers. They are like fish out of water in this democratic process.

Back to Base

2005-05-05T22:15:00.000-07:00

We're tired. But we dutifully finish off and head back. We demand tea and biscuits before going out. Our Lord has had it agrees to stay at HQ. But Tony (this is the council by-election one of the three on our record breaking 2001 Tony Tony Tony campaign) and I head off to the Kings Road estate leaving a 13 year old in command.

Half a dozen willing workers arrive as we head out, and more are back for seconds. We will get the full knock up done. Probably including the lower priority rounds where the Labour houses are far apart and the promises weaker or less trusted.

We two knock off six streets in less than an hour. It is gratifying. They have been, they are just going, they are pleased to see us.

This area will probably take a while to bounce back to pre-war support and big majorities in local elections but the whole exercise has been very encouraging.

"Vote Labour Today, Vote Tony Lloyd, Your Manchester Labour Candidate .. is Tony Lloyd

2005-05-05T22:13:00.000-07:00

The above is what three hours of evolution did to the original statement :

"Vote Labour Today, Vote Tony Lloyd, The Manchester Labour Candidate"

Already good and clear. Gets better and clearer. We begin in Newton Heath, where the BNP often stand, though not this year, winding round half a dozen estates.

It's not landslide weather in the psephological sense. More the sort of constant drizzle that triggers the geomorphological type. And Newton Heath is a tough audience to start with. Mostly hiding in their houses. Some heckling. A few flicking the bird. But probably just as many with thumbs up and smiles.

Our first estate is toughest of the tough though. With a few mud balls coming in at the windscreen and passenger window on the way in. And the same delightful youths adding more on the way out. I'm proud to say the deliberate mantra continues unabated.

And so on and so forth past the dissenters entrance down to the Cemetary. Through Miles Platting, including the close where Tony Lloyd's agent lives. Then back North a bit round the ASDA superstore roundabout twice. On past the Velodrome and Philips Park. To Clayton Vale. Parts of Ancoats where we meet Jim, Jim and Mick who advise us to clear the mud completely before we head for Openshaw.

Quickly done. Past Clayton Hall. Along Clayton Lane. Me directing as the noble Lord has little idea of the geography. Keep left. Left and left again. He wants to head right. That'll be the blue blood. But we get there in the end. Louisa Street, Toxteth Street and so on and so forth.

These estates are much improved and more work is going on. But not as tidy as those in Bury North, or Moss Side for that matter. The terraces in Openshaw include a lot of voids. Ready for selective clearances I guess. There are quite creative PFIs going on around here. But that's a long story.

Back towards the city centre. Ardwick and Hulme get a quick blast and then we check in at Gaye's the Moss Side HQ. We've got half an hour more. Where does she want us? It has to be the Alex Park estate which returns 80 and 90% promises.

We head off and cheer up Claire, Alistair and Ayshan and they us. They demand music or toasting. I stick to the script.

The mobile rings. The sub agent for Halley Range wants reinforcements for the end of the kocking the vote out process.

Radio Manchester Central

2005-05-05T22:02:00.000-07:00

Off I go to collect JP from the City Centre branch to lend a hand out in the 'burbs. Tony Lloyd's agent rings as I drive and I pull over and switch off and take the call. Detailed instructions follow on the route and even the script to use on Radio Central - out and about tannoying the faithful.

JP is delivered to WR HQ and is offered three different jobs in the first two minutes. I walk him to our busiest Polling Station to collect polling numbers for an hour or two and this brings Tony back into HQ to help with the knock up rounds. There is storm in a teacup raging over when these should start. Comrades! Comrades!

My driver, Tannoy owner, and hereditary peer dresses the car with posters and off we head avoiding the worst of the traffic on a cross constituency dash.

More of this will follow. But rest assured that three hours belting out a constant mantra in the back streets of north and east Manchester is not as glamourous as it's cracked up to be.

Next task : Knocking Up WR

Later : Avoiding Mugabe moments

Much later : Party

Dimbleby prediction : Lib Dems up 2 seats, Tories up lots, Lab majority down to 66
(based on MORI/NOP exit polls)

Today is Election Day

2005-05-05T21:02:00.000-07:00

Well, today actually is election day, May 5. This blog entry has been sitting here for days but I'm tweaking it a bit.

BEGIN WITH THE END IN SIGHT
===========================

When you are voting, and in the spirit of So Now Who Do We Vote For? project you will want to make sure :

*A Labour does not lose seats to Tories through your actions

*B Labour has a working majority, not too big, not too small

*C You signal loud and clear in seats where Tories are definitely no threat

And :

*D Labour are nudged left and take notice

You may also want to :

*E Ensure Labour left MPs and Labour anti-war MPs are not dumped by YOU

POINT A
=======

On point A you will be aware that there has been a controversy over the Labour line i.e. that a swing of just over 10% from Labour to any third party will hand between 70 and 80 seats to the Tories WITHOUT THEM IMPROVING THEIR OWN VOTE ONE IOTA.

If the swing is to Lib Dems they will pick up five or six seats. If it is to smaller parties the Tories will gain 80 seats.

Labour HQ are saying this prediction is based on private polls and is accurate. But even on the public polls and The Independent analysis find that about 38 seats go to the Tories with such a swing. And they only have to nick a few back from the Lib Dems and win a few local fights with Labour to make a serious advance.

Perhaps take away Labour's overall majority.

This is incredibly difficult to calibrate for voters. So what are you going to do? Let a Tory in in your area? Risk more Tory power in government? Perhaps a fairly right wing Lib-Con regime as we have in Leeds Town Hall?

Still on point A you will be aware that 10% of habitual Labour voters in these seats going "on strike" and not voting at all could also hand up to 80 seats to the Tories, half without them gaining, half needing active swings to the Blues.

AIn other words if the Tories happen to gain some votes here and there then a smaller swing to a third party or less strikers would let them in through the muddle.

POINT B
=======

On point B there is a school of thought which says a small working majority is good enough and will mean the Labour left, albeit numerically diminished, will have the balance of power in parliament. Nice thought for many readers.

However there are several flies in that particular ointment.

First,it is hard to calibrate and a dashed close run thing may go the wrong way. Waking up on May 6 to find Howard has the decision on committing troops to Iran or Syria instead of a chastened Blair is not progress.

[Blair's party are the only ones to have responded to my request for a sign for Labour blog readers. See Do Not Attack Iran : Response.]

Second, the left will be seriously diminished and in a smaller parliamentary party a higher percentage will be taking the Blair shilling as Ministers and bagcarriers.

Third, Blair may look elsewhere in the centre left-right and team up with elements of the Lib Dems or worse to get his neo-liberal reforms through.

The school of thought which says a larger majority means more shift to the left is gathering force even among those in the party who have most reason to oppose Blair.

POINT C
=======

Following George Monbiot's advice on signalling effectively is reasonably sound. But I think students of SNWDWVF should boost left Labour and anti-war Labour up his list and should be mindful of Point A above. Don't let the Tories slip through the muddle.

POINT D
=======

This is covered in Point B really. I subscribe to the idea that a more comfortable majority makes it easier for Blair to leave earlier. Makes it easier for the successor. Makes a fourth term - hopefully a socialist revival - more likely. Keeps the Labour left, and the Trade Unions, and affiliated socialist societies, and the ordinary members and supporters more not less important.

Yes, of course a Tory win brings forward the chance of a socialist revolution! But in real terms it is just more misery for the poorest and weakest in our society.

POINT E
=======

I posted a link to lists of the most endangered of the left and anti-war Labour species within 48 hours of the PVs going out. See links and quizzes, under Labour Left Briefing. Please don't dump a socialist MP or even a moderate anti-war MP because you want to attack Blair.

There is no point replacing most of these people (our people) with any candidate from any other party. They are unlikely to be to be any improvement. And quite likely to be worse. Online quizzes that put Lib Dems ahead on your issues neglect the fact of absences and abstentions and some other marquee issues for the left. Not least progress on minimum wage and constitutional reform. Lib Dems voted against progress.

HAPPY VOTING
============

Of course I realise that many people will be voting Labour between now and 5 May with a heavy heart, with their fingers over their nose, under protest.

But please do look at the Bar Chart (Read this Bar Chart ...), please consider the minimum wage, Lords reform, boost for schools, boost for pensioners, boost for police, boost for patients and health workers, and even the boost from the G8 led by Brown and Blair on environment and world poverty.

There are still many positive reasons to vote Labour. Not least the vastly improved lives of some of the poorest people in our land. For example in Moss Side, Ardwick, and Ancoats. Don't let them down.

Read This Bar Chart Before Voting (IFS/BBC)

2005-05-05T21:00:00.000-07:00

(NB I have boosted this entry to the top. The latest entries appear below this one)

At last! A bar chart, produced from independent Institute of Fiscal Studies data. RReliable factually, and with real meaning and real resonance for the So Now Who Are We Going To Vote For project.

It is taken from the BBC's website :

http://tinyurl.com/dj2ux *

For those using a text reader this is a ten column bar chart showing the winners and losers under tax and benefit changes from each decile by wealth. 3.9% of the income of the richest tenth of the population is a lot more than 11.25% of the poorest.

Poorest - plus 11.25
2 - plus 11.5
3 - plus 8.1
4 - plus 5.25
5 - plus 2.5
6 - plus 0.5
7 - minus 0.6
8 - minus 2.0
9 - minus 2.8
Richest - minus 3.9

For me this is an important reminder of the power of Labour, even this Labour, to change people's fortunes. And a reminder why it must be forward not back to Tories who rotated the bar chart on its vertical axis - and then some.

So, please, no couldn't-care-less protests of the Tariq Ali "Liberal For A Day" school of "thought". No going to bed with Charlie and waking up with Michael. No Tories getting through the muddle.

Between us, instinctive Labour supporters as we are. In our varying degrees of disatisfaction with Blair and Co. We should really do our best to return Labour with a healthy majority. So the Labour left and the TU link are still important. And footsey in the muddle in the middle with the privatising and opportunistic Lib Dems is not the order of the day.

Print out a copy of the chart and take it with you to the polling station so you don't lose your nerve or keep it in view as the PV is cast. Show your friends. Call radio and TV phone ins. Write to the Postbag of your local papers.

Let's not throw this progress away.

* Full URL

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41061000/gif/_41061315_redistribution_gra203.gif

Telling Tales

2005-05-05T15:05:00.000-07:00

It's always a joy to sit on a polling station shooting the breeze with a Lib Dem opposite number. Except that this year they aren't here. Most I'd guess are in neighbouring Withington trying to get the cancer-scare-candidate elected.

The fact I'm on my own seems to attract more attention from the electorate, some of whom are keen to share their thinking as they leave, if not always their polling number.

One of my first customers is one of the Lib Dems casting his own vote. His view is that I'm wasting my time here. In other words the count here will be a "weigh in" for my man and little change for the rest.

But he's wrong of course. We want the Council seats back sooner rather than later and maintaining our work rate in the ward is important.

I ask him whether he penned the nasty little attacking letter that appeared over his name in the Metro. As I had predicted they responded to my letter suggesting they "get over it" on a Standards Body case that had gone against them with a personal attack. And no substance. It looked like the work of their local leader.

But he was happy to claim it. But he's a proper old school Liberal. Properly anti-war and a regular on the local vigil. I don't mind. As he says it is all part of the rough and tumble. And their habit of attacking members of the public will surely back fire on them as they look like bullies, while my challenges to their councillors are an honourable part of the accountability process.

He's soon followed by a confused ranter who has voted Lib Dem over all kinds of things. The way the housing market's been going for one. The war for another.

Then I'm off to my next posting. Jenny takes over. I warn here that one of the polling station scrutineers told off my predecessor for collecting the polling numbers on the way in rather than the way out. People often volunteer them.

Later I hear the police make a visit.

At the next place I see several of the people I have canvassed. Including the couple who strongly support Tony Lloyd but can't be doing with Tony Blair. He has kept his promise and voted for Lloyd. She has done as expected and protested "but I'll be ringing him to get my drain fixed next week".

Then there is a ranter on the subject of "parking on the pavements, parking in the cycle lanes, parking near the corners" though I think from his body language amongst other voters that he's actually thinking about immigration.

He points out a car across the road with two wheels on the pavement and a Tony Lloyd sticker. I say it's not mine but I'll pass on the message.

One voter tells us he's voted for Marc (the Lib Dem) as he's known him since they were in the SDP together. And another asks me to report a dumped Lib Dem poster stake in his garden. I take the address and will pass it on.

Two hours flashes by. Voting has almost reached the one a minute mark. When that is achieved on average at all five stations there is a turn out of 4500 which is between 45 and 50%.

In fact there will be queues later and the rate can get to six times this. If the weather improves this ward will turn out 60% or more - similar to the national average - though Manchester Central was just 38% last time, and without Whalley Range it would have been in the 20s.

The return slips go back to base to be marked up and I hear that our busiest Polling Station has just one desk rather than the usual two. This one always has big queues at peak times. In 2003 I took Hilary Wainwright of Red Pepper here to help as however the election is going it is good to see so many people being responsible citizens.

When I get home the local paper has arrived. They have printed my letter about the cancer scare mongering. Good.

Even on Election Day

2005-05-05T13:43:00.000-07:00

Dogs need exercise. So early afternoon we head off to the river and run a loop from Chorlton Water Park via Kenworthy Woods, along the river to Sale Water Park and back to Chorlton. This takes in three or four other constituencies! But looks like this may be my only outing of the day as time is flying by.

Motor by one of the Withington constituency committee rooms and see Keith Bradley's team looking industrious. Back for some blogging. And then it's out for a three hour audition as voice over man.

Lib Dems Whineing Here : at St Margarets

2005-05-05T13:33:00.000-07:00

There has been a fuss today at one of our polling stations. Police have interviewed some of our tellers! This is because a Lib Dem supporter and then possibly Lib Dem Apparatniks have made a complaint. That a few voters were asked for or volunteered their polling number on the way in instead of on the way out.

Having sat at this particular polling station and others with Lib Dem tellers over half a dozen elections I can confirm the obvious. We always cooperate with one another so that voters are only asked once, the approach is relaxed and friendly, and yes both parties take numbers either inwards or outwards.

Lib Dems whineing and whingeing here.

Guest Blogger : John Prescott : Breakfast Message

2005-05-05T07:02:00.000-07:00

(not really a guest blogger! - just what Prezza sent the Labour mailing list this morning)

Today is Polling Day - Your chance to make a vital decision about who will stand on the steps of Downing Street tomorrow and who will govern our country for the next
five years.
I've been campaigning all over the country this last four weeks and I've seen for
myself how Labour is changing lives for the better.
From Cornwall to Rochdale I've seen huge investment in our children's education -
brand new schools being built and others refurbished.
In Dartford, Yorkshire and the Peak District, I've seen Labour's Sure Start schemes,
providing essential support for parents and children, bringing communities together
and vastly reducing crime rates.
From Portsmouth to Burton-upon-Trent, I've seen new kitchens, bathrooms and central
heating being fitted - Labour's 'Warmer Homes' grants have already helped over a
million pensioners and vulnerable people.
Massive urban regeneration projects have transformed town centres that used to be
run down ghettos, into vibrant places to live, work and socialise.
In Scotland, Wales and England, I've seen the minimum wage making a real difference.
I've seen how high employment and a strong economy have allowed us to properly
invest in our public services.
Today you must choose between Labour, under Tony Blair, or the Tories under Michael
Howard. A vote for the Lib Dems will effectively be a vote for the Tories.
Don't forget how the Tories, and Michael Howard in particular, hurt the British
people when they were in office. They put 3 million people on the dole. They hurt
homeowners with runaway interest rates. They hurt pensioners by charging for eye
tests and putting VAT on fuel. They hurt hospital patients by under funding the NHS
so waiting lists rose to 18 months. They hurt communities by cutting police and
they hurt the country as a whole with their catastrophic boom and bust economy.
It takes time to design and build new schools, hospitals and town centres and it
takes 8 years to fully train a doctor. Similarly, it takes time to embed a strong
economy and principles of social justice. But it doesn't take long to scrap, cut
and destroy! The Tories could wreck many of Labour's achievements in a few short
months.
Even though the polls show Labour in front, it doesn't mean we'll win. When I was
elected to Parliament in 1970, we were 16 points ahead and everyone assumed Labour
had it in the bag. But we lost.
Your vote is vital. Whatever you do today, vote. And if you want Labour, vote
Labour.
Thank you,
John Prescott

Special Tree Posters

2005-05-05T00:31:00.000-07:00

The former Tory Canyon of Mauldeth Rd has no Tory posters this year. They're pretty much extinct round here. But a few fringe posters have appeared within a short stagger from the Southern Hotel and the Co-op Late Shop.

One type calls for everyone to tear up their ballot and not vote to 'save democracy'. The others are headed with the Tory "Are you thinking ..." slogan and torch, followed by some lines jeering about their oblivion.

Both could be put up by Lib Dems. They are always trying to pull in tactical Tories. So much so that in the last few Generals the Tory vote has tumbled from 15,000 for a close second the first time they lost it, to around 5,000 now. The Libs meanwhile have gone up from a handful (and not in the Lib Dem sense) to almost 8,000.

Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Most of the Tory votes seem on the face of it to have transferred over from the one party to the other.

Protestors of the left who choose the Lib Dems are lining up with hang 'em and flog 'em Tories of the anyone-but-Labour tendancy.

This helps explain the scarcity of visible Lib Dem policy on the groun locally. And probably also Charles Kennedy's original reticence about the anti-war cause.

Pa(xc)man : http://tinyurl.com/bmlbf

2005-05-04T23:54:00.000-07:00

I loved Pacman myself. Had the top score in the students' union. Whereas Woolas and Mann were crap. Aaronwitch too old. Hewlett plotting. And Ben Elton too busy air kissing nearby. And Paxman is OK. So this is diverting.

Howard's Lost It

2005-05-04T22:03:00.000-07:00

Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Whatever else it may have done the Blair project has actually sent the Tories spinning towards oblivion.

Never has this been more obvious than tonight when C4 Jon Snow tackles Michael Howard. The Tory smirk-in-chief is boarish, talks over the questions, and is probably as good an advert for NOT TORY as the now haunted Mr Fox.

All of a sudden the Tory Terrets Syndrome - Lower Tax, Controlled Immigration, £35 Billion Cuts (And That's Just For Starters), More Police, School Discipline, Clean Hospitals and Accountability - gets a new ingredient. Aside that is from the one I've already smuggled in! Did you spot it?

The new one is "No Stalinist Targets" and Howard can't seem to stop himself saying the word 'Stalin' over and over again.

Now to me targets make a lot of sense but if Michael wants to offer anecdote and spin instead of carefully monitored progress towards desired results (ditto those Lib Dems) then so be it.

But it does leave the question of how should we refer to Mr Howard's own targets for the first day in government, first week and so on. Are these also Stalinist? By his own definition? Or do we need to find their own dirigiste regime to slam Tories with?

Planning the Big Day

2005-05-04T20:16:00.000-07:00

Whalley Range has five polling districts. We have decided to run a full Reading system for three of these.

This means having volunteers posted on each taking voter polling numbers for around 13 hours (from 7 am to as late as 8pm) and comparing these with our voter iD records as the day progresses. In a close marginal we would be knocking out the vote all day but here we will start at 5 or 6pm and make sure as many of our "promises" as possible make the trip to the polling station.

In 2003 and 2004 we have found ourselves knocking on the doors of our natural voters, even taking them to the polling station, but knowing full well that many of them will be against over the war.

I'm no Julian Cope fan but one of his lyrics always pops into my head when I think about this. I've no idea what the tune would be :

"Like a pig pulling a cart of sausages
We are drawing our own conclusion"

Errr, something like that anyway. But for 2005 we have to be more hopeful. Tony Lloyd is immensely popular and very well known. He has been a stalwart anti-war rebel. Voters have been coming back to us, particularly as the local Lib Dem councillors are weak. And everyone can see Blair's on the ropes at the moment.

We have agreed that we will go and knock out the vote in other neighbouring wards if they are short staffed but we want to knock on the door of every promise who has yet to vote at least once.

I agree with two different sub agents to specific stints on "their" polling stations and then field a few calls as they each adjust the arranegments. I tell them to put their heads together and call me when it's settled.

I am also offered the job of being Radio Labour for tomorrow afternoon, touring the strongest Labour wards Tannoying out the vote.

Want to do a bit in one of the more marginal constituencies if I get the chance. At the moment there is a slot - but the way these things go I'm beginning to have doubts whether I can fit it in. We'll see.

Reds 1 Blues 0 - Howard says 'Omen'

2005-05-04T17:56:00.000-07:00

How extraordinary. Michael Howard is grasping at straws here. Perhaps the hard working Reds winning through against the asset stripping moneybags Blues is a sign for the Tory leader? The Blues blame the yellow linesman for the result. Howard meanwhile supports the Reds. And Damien was Duff.

Hacienda Revisited

2005-05-02T16:53:00.000-07:00

As part of a sweep with fliers the Post Office wouldn't deliver in the City centre I get to the Hacienda apartments.

Interesting chat with the concierge. I tell him I've not been in since a club stood on the site. He says he's heard it was bad. I say that towards the end there was some gangster stuff. He offers to show me the list of bands. Madonna is on it. I think I was there when she played in a Tube recording. And I tell him I've promoted a few shows here and managed a few bands.

He hands me a copy of City Life. I tell him I was one of the founders.

This is New City Life, not Old City Life as founded in 1983. Way back then we carried news and news features. And a good deal of political gossip. Probably contributing to the onset of successful municipal socialism and the rout of the Tory rump.

Some of the Lib Dems now were dramatis personae then also. With one of the more memorable characters their councillor who seemed quite proud of his track record dropping living animals into wet concrete. Beats pulling the legs off crane flies.

I wonder whether a proper independent news mag in Manchester would help keep some of the clowns (mainly Lib Dem clowns that is) out of the Town Hall.

City Life is now owned by the Guardian / Evening News and carries no hard news.

Stalking Horse, or Donkey

2005-05-01T19:16:00.000-07:00

Various conversations and email exchanges now about the Blair succession. Will it be sooner rather than later? I think yes. Would Blair have resigned if advice had been leaked or published earlier? I think no. Can this be done within 100 days as my spread betting comrade believes? I think possibly.

What's needed is a stalking horse.

There is a certain amount of speculation about who may stand in the real selection. Cook perhaps? Probably too senior for a stalking horse. Some say too annoying for a real candidate. Peter Hain maybe? He is certainly after advancement.

It really is hard to see where a hard left candidate would come from.

It may be down to one of the more reasonable rebels to step forward and do the deed.

But then I do think we are going to get Brown, barring adverse events.

Does this Mean Stott is a Blairite?

2005-05-01T18:30:00.000-07:00

Speaking of close marginals in Greater Manchester there is a picture on the wall in the Unison HQ where we are stuffing of one Mr Stott in the same picture as one Tony Blair.

Speech bubbles have been added. Blair is asking the crowd "So does this mean Stott is a Blairite?" while Stott retorts sotto voce "No, it means Blair is a Stottite!" A bystander refers to the scene and asks "Who is that standing next to Councillor Tom?. Labour candidate the big haired Lorna Fitzsimons stands by, lost for words.

This is the scene as Blair presents a rally to promise the £520 million plus needed for Metrolink services to Rochdale, Oldham and through my patch too.

The captioned picture look down on us stuffers alongside the flag of Cuba and other labour movement paraphrenalia. But there's many a true word spoken in jest.

Our 'phone volunteers have found people in Rochdale, asked if they are voting for Ms Fitzsimons, saying "No, we vote for Tom Stott round here".

Lorna faces a strong challenge from Lib Dem council leader Mike Rowan.

A Good Stuffing

2005-05-01T17:37:00.000-07:00

It turns out that there are far more than 12,000 letters and envelopes to deal with. Some have been sent out to wards. But when I arrive there are about 20 people and hurrah a folding machine working hard and hitting targets.

Although it is something of a farewell symphony and we get down to single figures as we reach the third tranche of leaflets - letters to promises in one ward where members are planning to hand deliver not post them - we do get through the work cheerfully.

Anecdotes abound. A certain activist who produced a torrent of complaints by working delivering leaflets into the wee small hours. The 'turkey gate' which saw off one ex Councillor, now a buddhist holiness and Greens organiser. And also tales from our local marginals. With a certain amount of gallows humour on a seat or two where our candidate may be doomed. Deservedly or otherwise.

Deserved where the detailed politics of the individual, their hollowing out of their local party through crap politics and also personality clashes, and where as far as anyone can tell this is compounded by a failure to gather information or campaign effectively.

Catch Up : Fox Haunting : A Poster Boy Moment

2005-05-01T17:03:00.000-07:00

Liam Fox is the poster boy for NOT TORY. He is involved with a beaming George wotsit, the wet almost-reasonable liberal one, in unveiling a poster suggesting that Tony Blair has told a fib or two in his career.

This is one of those posters that is mostly seen on websites, press launches, and of course in acres of newsprint and rakes of radio and TV coverage; rarely actually on a street near you.

But I reckon that this one is going to haunt Fox for the rest of his career.

That is because a journalist asks Fox whether he has ever told a lie in politics himself. He is caught like a fox in the lampers' headlights. Avoiding eye contact. Blinking and looking away. Wondering when the dogs or the bullets or the brickbats are coming.

He changes the subject shiftily. This is priceless.

Vote-OK and Countryside Alliance : Tally Ho!

2005-04-30T00:51:00.000-07:00

The Guardian lead with a story about how hunt supporters are organising to take out a few anti-hunting Lab and Lib Dem seats and install pro-hunt Tories.

I know a thing or two about this campaign in Manchester and will come back to it later. Just as soon as I've helped fold 12,000 letters and stuff 12,000 envelopes in our bid to get Tony Lloyd re-elected. And I'll need to track down Kevin from the Wythenshawe lurcher and terrier crew for the latest.

***

I'm back though I haven't cuaght up with Kevin just yet. The deal being offered to opponents of the loyalist and pro-ban Paul Goggins and the ultra-loyalist and rabid anti-hunt Sir Gerald Kaufman is that up to 150 rabbiters per constituency will turn out and work on the doorstep or dropping leaflets for any candidate who will agree to back repeal of the Hunting With Dogs Act.

My belief is that they're all rabbit here. Though they may unseat a few anti-hunt candidates in the shires this lobby are unlikely to get a kill in Manchester seats.

100 Days : Will That Be Blair's Quota?

2005-04-30T00:46:00.000-07:00

Today marks 100 days since GW Bush got himself re-elected by fair means or foul. And it also marks the day when John, the spread betting guru of the "What Now For Labour" discussion list on Topica, made his prediction that Blair would last just 100 days. He is expecting the bookies to be laying odds on this only after 6 May but appears confident that they'll be plumping for two to three years and that he will make a small fortune for his pension fund.

More on the direct betting and spread betting markets later today. And also on that leadership contest.

Independent Exposé : Labour Blogger Apologises!

2005-04-30T00:27:00.000-07:00

Today's Independent leads with a cover featuring four swingometers and their view that voting Lib Dem is unlikely to let Michael Howard into government.

For some reason they use swings of 3%, 6% and 9% rather than the something over 11% where Labour loses overall control.

It would be at that point where the Lib Dems could start dabbling with both of the other parties. With Tories as in Leeds and other Councils. With the Labour right as in Scotland. In both cases the Labour left would probably be out of the loop.

At every single step in the process there appear to be MORE Tory than Lib Dem gains as a result of the swing.

However it does seem that some of the figures given out by Labour HQ have overstated the effect - if that is these were on the same basis as The Independent.

As I have repeated these claims in this blog I must apologise without reservation.

I will say this. The study is based on the same turnout, and no change whatsoever or a 3% uplift in the Tory vote. If the turn out is well down as many expect and if there is a greater Tory improvement vs Labour, and versus Lib Dems in their key marginals too ... Well then the predicted global effect of 80 seats changing and only 5 or so going to the Libs, and even a Tory government, well I think that may still be possible.

I'm off to find a two way swingometer that works to have a play with the numbers.

100,000 Kisses for Tony Blair

2005-04-29T14:09:00.000-07:00

(Press Release)

In an extraordinary art performance artist Mark
McGowan will attempt to kiss a 8 inch colour laminated
photograph of Tony Blair 100,000 times. This marathon
event is to take place outside the gates of number 10
Downing Street from 10 am on Thursday 5th of May,
election day. Mark estimates the event to last for 8
hours. The kisses for Tony Blair are in support for
his re election. A counter/timer will be employed and
Mark believes his biggest obstacles to be his facial
muscles spasming and dry lips.

For images and more info
07956084780
chunkymark1964@yahoo.com
http://clublet.com/c/c/house?page=MarkMcGowan

John O'Farrell

2005-04-29T12:34:00.000-07:00

Better than usual so thought I'd share it :

Dear All,

At this stage in the campaign I think it is very important that we avoid sinking to
personal insults and name calling of the sort that we've been getting from those
unprincipled scumbags in the Tory Party. We have to stick to the issues. And for me,
one of the biggest issues is that we can't have Michael Howard as Prime Minister.

It is terrifying to think that in a week's time we could actually have a Tory
government. And if you just read that and thought 'nah, it couldn't happen' imagine
exactly the same presumption in millions of other voters; all thinking that it's
safe to abstain or vote against Labour this time.

There should, of course, be more to an election campaign than just being negative
about the Tories.

That Charles Kennedy is a waste of space as well.

But here are some important facts about the Conservative Party;
* Today's blame culture is all their fault.
* When they abolish the Winter Fuel Allowance and free TV licenses, pensioners will
be expected to burn their tellies to keep warm.
* Crime went up when under the Tories ( not surprising when you look at all the
senior Tories like Archer and Aitken who ended up in prison).
* When Michael Howard last faced a leadership election he came fifth. There were
five candidates. Yes when they last had the chance to vote for him, the people who
know him best decided that he was:

* less appealing than John Redwood
* less of a fresh face than Kenneth Clarke
* less moderate than Peter Lilley
* and less likely to win an election than William Hague. So don't stand back and let
the Tories win by accident. If it hadn't been for people who cared taking the
trouble to vote, we would never have had the minimum wage, would never have had the
NHS and John McCrirrick might have won Celebrity Big Brother.

So please, if everyone who received this email was able to persuade one wavering
voter to back Labour, we could avoid another 18 years of Tory government starting on
Thursday.

Pick one person you know and work on them non-stop from now until 5 May. The bloke
I've chosen is still really angry with this Government but I've told him he has to
move on and see the bigger picture. After all it was four years ago now and John
Prescott didn't mean to punch him that hard...

John O'Farrell
Author and Broadcaster

There are Two Elephants in my Sitting Room

2005-04-29T11:59:00.000-07:00

There are two elephants in my sitting room. One is a noisy and sleepless little blighter, scarcely two years old. The other - a huge and venerable beast - snoozes quietly.

The first persistently reminds me of my family's big day out of 15 February 2003. The second of 18 long years of Tory mismanagement and greed.

The way things were under Howard and Thatcher.

Sleeping now, but the broken tusks and raw scars remind me that the great beast is more of a war elephant than his little room mate.

As you will know by now, I am convinced. We need to re-elect Labour for the sake of pensioners, patients, children and those facing poverty or recently rescued from it.

We were right about the war. We don't need to help a Tory government in through the muddle to prove that.

Lib Dem Lord opposes war - because North Korea should have been tackled first! (Link to Spiked)

2005-04-29T02:23:00.000-07:00

Particularly interesting to me is the news that at a Lib Dem organised meeting Lib Dem Lord and ex-forces Tim Garden is gagging to sort out the Balkans, Palestine-Israel and North Korea - they should have been prioritised ahead of Iraq he says.

>>>>>>

Iraq still isn't an election issue

Debating the legality of the war is not the same thing as debating the war.
by Brendan O'Neill

Anyone who still buys the idea that challenging Tony Blair over the legality of the Iraq war is the same thing as challenging him over the war itself should have been at Hampstead Old Town Hall, north London, on Tuesday night.

http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CAAD1.htm

Catch Up : Mr Lloyd on the Knocker

2005-04-28T17:11:00.000-07:00

Tony Lloyd is one of three main party candidates picked out by the Manchester Evening News for a campaign trail piece.

This is a comfortable win for our side. The wonderful voters of Moss Side glow with love for and pride in their MP of the last 22 years.

Link here soon.

Because we have NF standing here there will be no hustings whatsoever.

Bearding Blair In His Lair

2005-04-28T12:35:00.000-07:00

I have been meaning to write something about the happenings in Sedgefield. And will get on to this if I get a chance.

The link to the Reg Keys campaign website is in the Links and Quizes post.

Labour Left Marginals

2005-04-28T12:07:00.000-07:00

Some opportunities to help Labour Left candidates under threat :

If people are mobile and wish to aid some of the most vulnerable Labour left
candidates, please make contact with the appropriate campaign office:

Ann Cryer MP – Campaign Group member
Keighley, West Yorkshire
Majority: 4,001
BNP leader Nick Griffin also contesting seat
* Address: 35 Devonshire Street, Keighley, Yorkshire, BD21 2BH
* Phone: 01535 602579
* Email: a_cryer@hotmail.com

John Cryer MP – Campaign Group member
Hornchurch, Essex (District Line tube)
Majority: 1,482
* Address: Labour Hall, 11 Park Lane, Hornchurch, Essex, RM11 1BB
* Phone: 01708 742674 or 01708 722918

David Drew – LRC member
Stroud, Gloucestershire
Majority: 5,039
* Phone: 01453 764 355
* Email: drew4stroud@hotmail.co.uk

Ian Gibson – Campaign Group member
Norwich North, Norfolk
Majority: 5,863
*Address: Norwich Labour Centre, 59 Bethel Street, Norwich, NR2 1NL
*Phone: 01603 661144
*Fax: 01603 663502

Bob Marshall-Andrews – Campaign Group member
Medway, Kent
Majority: 3,780
* Address: 73 Maidstone Road, Rochester, Kent
* Phone: 01634 814687
* Fax: 01634 831294
* Email: marshallandrewsr@tiscali.co.uk
* Website: http://www.epolitix.com/bob-marshall-andrews

Christine McCafferty
Calder Valley, West Yorkshire
Majority: 3,094
* Address: Trade Club, Holme Street, Hebdon Bridge, HX7 8EE (Upper
Valley) or GMB Offices, Clifton Road, Brighouse, HD6 1SL (Brighouse)
* Phone: 01422 845159 (Upper Valley) or 01484 716018 (Brighouse)

Linda Riordan
Halifax, West Yorkshire (seat of retiring Alice Mahon)
Majority: 6,129
* Address: Halifax Labour Party, 2 West Parade, Halifax HX1 2TE
* Phone: 01422 251 800

Phil Sawford – Campaign Group member
Kettering, Northamptonshire
Majority: 665
* Address: 16-18 Station Road, Kettering, Northants NN15 7HH
* Phone: 01536 412724
* Email: philsawford@computersuk.co.uk

Mike Wood – Campaign Group member
Batley & Spen, West Yorkshire
Majority: 5,064
* Address: 9 Cross Crown Street, Cleckheaton, BD19 3HW
* Phone: 01274 335233
* Fax: 01274 335235
* Email: reelectmikewood@aol.com

Under Advisement

2005-04-28T10:12:00.000-07:00

This exchange appeared on the Labour Left Briefing discussion list. As you will see opinions are divided on whether this will do for Blair or help him. I think it will (unfairly) help him as you will see from my response. As I don't want Tories to make gains through the muddle I will accept this windfall if it comes along.

>>>>

> Channel 4 broke an exclusive tonight:
> Tony Blair was told by the government's most senior law officer in a confidential minute less than two weeks before the war that British participation in the American-led invasion of Iraq could be declared illegal.
> Lord Goldsmith, the attorney general, spelt out to Mr Blair the dangers of Britain going to war without a second resolution. It is understood that he then went on to warn that British soldiers could be hauled before the International Criminal Court.

Where's the story here? Never mind exclusive.

Surely everyone has known for a very long time that there were legal arguments for and against military action? All this was rehearsed in minute detail at the time wasn't it? And everyone knew surely that the pros and cons were finely balanced? That a UN resolution was legally stronger?

Most if not all of us favoured those legal arguments against and/or thought that even if it was lawful it was unnecessary and would be a bad judgement.

Personally I thought that a second resolution wouldn't make the case for war any better at all. As France and Russia showed, and as US and UK have shown before, the UN, though the best we've got just now, is bankrupt.

Anyone who has ever sought an opinion from a lawyer, or indeed most professional advisers, will know the form.

First, provide instructions.

Second, receive very likely exhaustive advice i.e. on the one hand x on the other hand y, if a and b then c, but if b not a then c2 etc etc.

Third, interrogate that advice, check nuance, question key points.

Fourth, receive amended advice.

(Third and fourth may be repeated as nauseum)

Fifth, choose action to take leaning on the parts of the advice which suit your chosen course of action.

Sixth, in the event of a dispute see the advice tested in a court.

Step six being the only one that really tells anyone whether something was lawful, unlawful, or mu. And then there are appeals and counter appeals.

There is no exclusive. There is nothing new here.

This whole thing may tip the balance in some of those Lib-Lab marginals, particularly with pro-war Lab incumbents but on the whole I think this is probably playing pretty well for New Labour's adherents in middle England.

I met a sample yesterday. Switched from Tory to NL. Likes Blair. Thinks war was maybe a mistake but no worse than that. BUT will not vote for Blair's candidate - not because of war - but because of position on Palestine. This guy is voting UKIP instead of Kaufman. In probable boundary change for next general he will vote happily for Lloyd if still living here, though his positions on Palestine-Israel are not what this voter believes.

The Tories are looking like clowns on this. And the Lib Dems arguably looking too weak to make a decision over anything important.(Paradoxically though the decision they wouldn't have made in this case would have been the right one if you see what I mean).

Blair, cabinet and parliament were wrong IMO but my opinion at the moment post-Straw doing rather well considering vs Paxman, post-R5 phone in, post Brown-Blair press conference is that this could actually play rather well for Blair.

Which in some ways would not be fair. But if it blocks off any Tory revival or too much Lib-Dem rightwards leverage on Blair's successor then I'll take that.

<<<<<

"To the Right was Death, to the Left was Life"

2005-04-28T09:18:00.000-07:00

Quote from survivor on arriving on train at Auschwitz. BBC2 last night.

Doctor This Picture Please

2005-04-27T16:07:00.000-07:00

SNWDWVF readers will remember the fuss from Lib Dem Deputy Leader when Tories amended placards. He should have a word with his Leader. He appears to have had his picture taken with candidates and a blank placard! So that whatever they want can be stripped in at their convenience! The unreal alternative.

"Save Christie Hospital"

2005-04-27T14:06:00.000-07:00

The Lib Dems in Manchester Withington have already issued one Cancer Scare during this campaign. That took the form of a targeted leaflet on Ovarian Cancer which provided scary statistics but omitted most of the key information. It also omitted to praise the leading Cancer Hospital and University Reserch Units that operate in the consituency.

They have now addressed this omission by launching a scare story. They say that the Christie Hospital is under threat.

Testicular cancer patients may wish to turn away at this point. This is absolute bollocks. The Christie has seen increasing investment, more doctors, more nurses under Labour. The Head of the Hospital Trust is adamant that this Lib Dem campaign is based on a damn lie. There is no threat to his hospital whatsoever.

Apart that is from Tories. And, according to the Orange Book schism, from the Lib Dems too.

This morning I met with North West Development Agency to trouble shoot IDEA Centre matters. My friend John who runs various managed workslaces was involved. He is also a patient at Christies. After the meeting he showed me the Lib Dem leaflet. A3, full colour, full of fibs.

Staff at the Hospital, where this nonsense was displayed in reception areas for vulnerable patients, binned this rubbish immediately.

The Lib Dem candidate for Cheadle, Patsy Calton is a patient at the hospital living with a very serious condition. Will these Lib Dems stop at nothing to trick their way into positions of power?

Two cancer scares in one campaign. That really is low.

We pop into Keith Bradley's campaign HQ. They have seen the leaflet but are shocked that it is being foisted directly on vulnerable cancer patients. After lunch I dash off some letters to the papers.

The Battle of Sedgemore

2005-04-27T10:42:00.000-07:00

Boggy ground in Somerset or foggy thinking in Brian's brain. Brian Sedgemore was never one of the Labour Party's finest thinkers. But he was our fool. Not anyone's fool. He has voted consistently along left lines. He may or may not be a blindingly good constituency MP. I don't know. He has failed to set the house alight with his wit, repartee or persuasion. In fact according to yesterday's Guardian Diary he spoke there only once in the last year.

He has become a defector to the Lib Dems.

What was he thinking? Surely not that their take on neo-liberalism is better? With more health and post and school privatisation than New Labour by a long streak and, in some commentators' view, more than the Tories? Surely not their persistent opposition to Minimum Wage and other measures to assist the working poor? Probably not.

Purely and simply Brian Sedgemore wanted his place in history. He wanted to stand up and be counted. By calling for Blair's nose to be bloodied.

Writing as someone who has personally taken a bloody nose for Blair in 2003 local elections, and who is fearful that it could be the British people - particularly working poor, pensioners, children and patients who take this one for him - I share the extreme annoyance with Brian of his former Campaign Group and LRC colleagues.

Will they now all be regarded as putative turncoats? Will some of them fighting on, unlike Brian, lose their seats as voters follow Brian's courageous lead?

Mr Sedgemore retires to a seven-acre country pad in Wales. The lake is 1 acre of this. Well done Brian!

Lib Dems fighting Tories in marginals must be wondering what's going on here too.

Accepting a lefty from the Labour fringes isn't going to comfort the Tory voter preparing to have a dabble with the third party much now is it? Even though Charles Kennedy has been resolute in denying false media claims that his party is solidly to the left of Labour or "socialist". He has run a mile from the very suggestion.

He knows his Lib Dem history. The routine is sniff of power - shift to the right. This was also Blair's problem. Though I suspect that underneath the guff most Lib Dems politicians are already solidly to the right of New Labour at very least on their economic policy.

Catch Up : Blair is No Tory

2005-04-26T23:33:00.000-07:00

One week after Ardwick's 'Boost' I skip the equivalent for Bradford Ward and drag the family on a road trip. This time we are off to see Mr Blair address a rally in Liverpool.

I guess our last medium or long haul political road trip en famille was on 15 February 2003. And now we are walking past protestors into St George's Hall to hear him speak.

This is my third audience with Blair over the last few years. And I must say this one turns out to be far more comfortable than the first at least.

Warm up comes from various scouse celebs. Liz Dawn from Corrie is also on hand but stays schtum. Liverpool and Scotland soccer star Phil Thompson is probably the star turn. But Ian McCartney - the Party "Chair" - is close.

Manchester Central has been a pretty prolific and successful generator of conference resolutions and rule change proposals down the years. The latest proposed a properly elected Chair and Deputies. McCartney, though hugely popular with the grass roots, - loyal and disciplined yet willing to admit mistakes - is appointed by Blair, not elected or selected by the party.

In fact his role is more like a PM's Ambassador than a Chair. But this one, unlike say Alan Milburn, would have every chance of being elected anyway.

Before this proposal we successfully got through a rule change allowing constituencies and unions a fair crack of the whip when it comes to prioritising contemporary debates at conference.

Before that we faced down the control freakery, alongside Rodney Bickerstaffe and Barbara Castle, to push through policy to restore the earnings link for pensions.

Though we're still waiting for the legislation!

I digress. Cherie and Tony arrive. And Tony is actually very good indeed. It seems that he does understand Labour values pretty well. The charge that the parties have completely converged is ripped to shreds. Positive differences are apparent.

Labour left and centre are uncomfortable of course with the commodification of public services and the consumerisation of "customers" and "clients". The creeping private good, public bad shibboleths.

Yet there is clear red water. Blair obviously has the invited audience on side. But I am amazed at the extent to which he hits the Labour Values buttons. He didn't trouble these in Bolton a few years ago. Or in a Big Conversation event a year back.

On the way in I spot Ciaran who is a leading Labour Student at UMSU, currently doing a stint in the election press office in London; he says sorry he isn't helping in Central. I say that if Tony loses there will only be 10 Labour MPs left so we'll probably manage. On the way out I see a regional office worker who is also a member in our constituency.

He says he is doing Pendle, and Oldham East, but Rochdale needs some help too. I say I'm probably not going there. And he says 'fair enough'.

Not going there Rochdale-wise may become a bit of a theme. And the word is that Rochdale members are grudging workers too. Though none of them want to lose a Labour MP and they are doing their bit.

The kids get a rare McDonalds as a reward for their patience.

Links and Quizes

2005-04-26T14:33:00.000-07:00

International gambler and philanthropist George Soros famously said "Networking is not working" and whether it is true or not in business there *are* some problems with the web based resources of election briefings.

There are dozens of interesting sites. Some produce figures in black and white indicating your representative's variance from your own views and allows you to compare that with the colective variance of the parties pretending to each seat.

Some remarkable results can arise. There is no careful nuancing. It can be a case of garbage in garbage out. So if it seems wrong work out why that is.

We can even submit to a quiz taking just a few minutes and have our personal politics analysed and compared on two axes - one conventional left-right, the other apparently the trainspotters' scale where the issues may signify a little less.

Here, in no particular order, are some to play with :

www.notapathetic.com

Where you can share your innermost feelings as a not apathetic non voter.

www.publicwhip.com
www.theyworkforyou.com
www.writetothem.com

Some of the standard resources on who voted what when. Hansard is more informative. And a Hansard-digest which pulled out the divisions would be a real boon. Is there such a thing?

www.publicwhip.com/election.php

Is a little game where your rep's record on some cherry picked issues is compared with your views. There are a couple of drawbacks. Constant oppositionists in other parties can come out too well based on their 'say anything, do anything' opposition status. And it is not smart enough to excuse absences or to nuance which vote on a particular issue is the best signifier. Finally it doesn't include lots of lower profile matters, not controversial for Labour supporters, but which the opposition also opposed. Like Minimum Wage, secretly redistributive budget bills, that sort of thing.

www.politicalsurvey2005.com

Fun. Where do you lie on the political spectrum as a whole? I had 0.0% significantly to the left of me and about 1.2% as left on the main political scale. A few percent on the other scale. Sometimes you'd want the questions to be different. Should Britain be more like America or Germany/France? Answer : Finland. The Guardian still came out as far and away the newspaper on the left for people like me.

www.labouragainstthewar.org.uk

An important and 9/2001 established group for Labour and TU lefties. Too low profile. Arguably has not spread net widely enough from the Campaign Group core. Wonder in the colouring of the upgraded logo. My contribution to the cause.

www.labourleftbriefing.org.uk/links.html
www.labourleftbriefing.org.uk/special.html

First is a good links page for TUs, Labour left and independent socialist organisations, and a spectrum Labour ginger groups from Catalyst to LRC.
Second is a run down of LLB's list of star Labour MPs who've got things right all of the time (by the time of writing at least). Good to see Tony Lloyd in the 30 or so. Also a list of the most threatened anti-war Labour MPs.

www.redpepper.org.uk

Daily election blog. Questions about Respect. And Tariq Ali's Tory-helping nonsense.

www.pledgebank.com

Think this is vote swapping swingers site.

www.backingblair.com

Looks like a Tory front with a ruthless anyone-but-Labour streak, often calling for votes for right wing Tories over left wing, anti-war Labour. Tossers.

home.freeuk.net/clpd

Possibly the Sedgefield Blair Must Go portal. Will find the real front door.

http://www.keysforsedgefield.org.uk

This is the Reg Keys site anyway.

www.tactical-voting.co.uk
www.tacticalvoter.net
www.keepthetoriesout.co.uk
www.stophague.com
www.torywatch.org.uk
www.votedorset.org

These do what it says on the tin. Last is Billy Bragg's. I interviewed Billy c 1984 for City Life and remember standing on the roof of GO! Mansions or whatever it was with Kevin Cummins trying to capture the de Niro within. Possibly BB's first magazine cover? A couple of years later it was a pinky and perky style interview as the batteries let us down easily, without packing up, on Red Wedge I. And finally a great Red Wedge II tour with Luis Melia Godoy and Billy. Sold Out in a good way.

www.ICMresearch.co.uk
www.nop.co.uk
www.mori.co.uk
www.gallup.com
www.ukelect.co.uk
www.fuzzymath.co.uk

Pollsters and the like ...

Will try and switch these to click through links later on.

Broken ones can be reported to me at idea@easy.com.

Seven Up In Manchester Withington

2005-04-26T11:22:00.000-07:00

In the neighbouring constituency there are seven candidates. Five live within the constituency boundaries. Two do not.

INSIDERS
========

The insiders are Keith Bradley (Labour), an independent on NHS ticket (New Labour supporter!), Brian the Green, an emigre standing for UKIP, and wild card Yasmin (Independent). This last is by far the most interesting of the smaller parties and in dependents.

In 1997 she took the Lib Dems into second place I think. And she certainly managed one of the largest swings in the country in 2001. But she has been passed over for her agent (see Outsiders below).

Yasmin was a refugee from Saddam's Iraq. She states in her election material that she is grateful to Britain for providing refuge. She does not go as far as stating support for the war. I don't know where she stands on that.

But everyone who reads the local press knows how she came to be passed over. At the selection meeting it is alleged that elements supporting her rival stated openly that she was a liability because of her race, creed and gender.

That seems ridiculous. She has built their vote up nicely. And in Withington of all places she has the credentials to do pretty well I'd have thought.

Yasmin appealled to the Lib dem hierachy but they closed ranks and even issued press statements villifying her. She complained to the Standards Body for England but they believed that none of the individuals concerned were acting in their elected offices and that it was a private matter.

The CRE position at the moment is that they don't do political party matters. I know Yasmin remains furious at the Lib Dems and is still taking legal advice and making clear statements about them being bullies and so on.

She wears a head scarf on her leaflets and has stood repeatedly in one local ward giving her a base there. Lib Dems are writing her off and saying she will get only a handful of votes. I'm wonder if that is the same "handful of votes" i.e. many thousands that they are claiming will decide the election.

THE OUTSIDERS
=============

The Tory KAREN Bradley is from Buxton and may cause a little confusion on the ballot and do better than expected. In 1992 the Tories polled more than 14,000 votes here. They may make some ground back on the Lib Dems and at a big stretch could even win through the muddle if they could regain their form. From third to first.

The Lib Dem John Leech has a chequered career. At the start of the football season he told fibs about some offensive grafitti at the City of Manchester stadium. He claimed he had reported it three months earlier. He had not. He claimed that Council workers should have cleared it anyway. There were none on the site. He never retracted.

Earlier he had been part of a Lib Dem big lie when they continued distributing claims that Manchester had underspent passported schools money a full month or so after this was proven totally wrong. They didn't retract that either.

During the campaign he has been telling fibs about how Keith Bradley voted. Splitting hairs. But he has also been fibbing about where he actually lives.

He says Chorlton. The ward is Whalley Range and he's in the M16 part. Even the postman wouldn't say Chorlton (M21) for that part of the ward. It's a small thing. Not worth fibbing about you'd have thought. Half a mile outside the consituency would be close enough for most people.

It is Leech who put out the Cancer scare "Focus Special".

Election Day The First

2005-04-26T10:22:00.000-07:00

We're in play. Back from the school run with the dogs. The postman has snuck in while the coast is clear and popped the Lib Dems' second election address instalment and also my postal vote package through the door.

The Lib Dem candidate is a terrible liar. His standards are double. He is reliably maverick. And not a little snide. But that three eared picture has not made a reappearance.

Here he lies : "There's just a handful of votes in it".

This is just above the usual barmy bar chart. It shows 39:35:12 (percent). The real figures are 18:4:3 (thousand) or thereabouts. He would have to have a huge hand to hold 10,000 or more votes!

Hopefully this blatant lie will not fool the Tories. They will revert to type for the General and stop propping up the Lib Dems as they do in local elections. And who knows, perhaps it will stir some reluctant voters into action, and appeal to the personal loyalty of Tony Lloyd's constituents in the anti-war asian communities. They will not want to lose him.

******

Yesterday evening I did some canvasing in the terraced 'Dukeries' at the heart of Whalley Range ward. Where the main asian groceries and halal butchers are for this part of Manchester. The name recognition is phenomenal. There is not a single Lib Dem poster up. A few of ours. Voters here are coming back to Labour. Not all of them. But there is movement.

There are some people who do not even realise they don't have Labour councillors any more. They cannot have had a problem needing help just yet. Three of the four Labour candidates they have rejected in 2003 and 2004 are actually involved in the work tonight. The fourth is organising in another ward. One of them is Chair of the Resident's Association for this patch. Still the one doing the work round here. Most residents have not seen a Lib Dem councillor since they were elected. They are clearly not working the patch.

Tony Lloyd's four-out-of-four as rebel teller on all the anti war votes reflects the views of most local people. But Aftab, who is working alternative avenues to me, tells us later that there is a fear of attacks on Iran, then Syria, then incredibly Pakistan in some households.

I have yet to get a reply to my request for policy clarification from the party leaders on this issue.

In contrast to this I spoke with a West African household. They think people round here, particularly the muslims, have been confused. It is clearly in their interest to vote Labour they think. The mother has had regular contact with Tony Lloyd through work and also with ex-Councillor Nilofar. Her discussion with N has been along the lines that any government would have done the same thing. She's OK with that she says. I'm not particularly, but it's three firm votes.

A few streets away I see a family that Tony Lloyd and I helped solve a long running farce with Croydon (Immigration and Nationality Directorate) back in 2002 and 2003. Though we got the result it was no great win really. We were Labour, but so now was the Michael Howard mangled bureacracy they were tangling with.

I'm delighted they are firmly back with us. The greatest issue is about local primary schools not Iraq. The older child is at school with Patrick. I tell mum about the superb OFSTED last time. Also that what I like about the school is the way the children smile as they go in and they're still smiling on the way home. I make a note that she would be an excellent school governor. Perhaps a community activist.

******

Back to this morning. I ignore the Lib Dem man's guarantees. I don't worry that I haven't received Election Addresses from National Front, UKIP or Tories. The UKIP man is standing in eight different constituencies. If he wins several (!) he'll have to let all but one down gently.

I have read the Socialist Labour (Arthur Scargill) one, and 'Damo' O'Connor's 'Independent Progressive Labour' (Benefit Criminal) effort. And Tony Lloyd's first arrived yesterday too. Three "Labour" candidates in one post. Eight candidates in all. This is probably far better for us than just three or four.

I make my mark and get the declaration of identity signed by neighbour Sue. She agrees that subject to family negotiations she will display a Tony Lloyd poster. Brooky down the street stopped me to ask for one too this morning.

Remembering the angst of last year, when I worried about whether I'd posted the damn thing for days, I walk straight to the nearest post box. The vote is cast.

I hope that Tony Lloyd's second leaflet and his targeted letters to asian and first time voters have arrived already or will hit the mats in the morning. The election clock is ticking.

Catch Up : Smash the Nazi BNP

2005-04-25T17:24:00.000-07:00

Though my Royton mission failed I did make it to Bury North and spent two hours with a variety of independent left comrades leafleting a large proportion of Totterington Ward. The home turf of the BNP candidate.

If the willingness and spirit of the volunteers were combined with the organisation Labour have developed over the last 100 years more could have been done - as it is in say Oldham or Manchester - but as it is we manage to instil some system and urgency and cover several estates and roadside ribbons.

It is hard to imagine people in these neat ex-Council and new-build semis voting for the fascist filth.

It is also hard to work out quite why these independent left volunteers will support a Scargill candidate here and risk getting a Tory. I would not hesitate to work to get David Chaytor re-elected in this seat. He is a thoughtful and principled rebel. Including on the war and about 40 other recent divisions.

In Bury South they will take the same risk backing a one-issue independent. Though Ivan Lewis has not been rebellious my sense is that he will be loyal to a programme to the left of him as well as this programme to the right of him.

Doctoring The Tardis

2005-04-24T16:53:00.000-07:00

Doctor Who's recent struggle against "the Slitheens" has been wonderful satire. This alien family have taken over key figures in society, with a vile purpose.

The too skinny Prime Minister has been killed and his body rejected by a corpulent intergalactic gangster family. Like old school Levis they can shrink to fit. But that can only go so far. They find a more corpulent substitute, kill him too and make his skin the home for their top dog.

Here we have this acting prime minister (an alien) taking charge as a flying saucer clips Big Ben and ditches in the Thames. They are asking the United Nations for sanction to use nukes to destroy the threat.

There is a big lie. An alien mother ship hovers above London. They have "Massive Weapons of Destruction" - MWDs presuamably. These can be fired within 45 seconds. The UN is asked for sanction to nuke 'em. Not having permission "Hasn't stopped us in the past!" chirps Rose, played by the enchanting Billy Piper, but this time the UN agree anyway.

All the defence staffs are in on the game. This alien family is planning to turn the nukes on the neighbours and kick off Armageddon so that they can loot the earth's resources and sell radioactive england (and the rest) by the pound.

These usurpers in Number 10 are defeated by East End blitz spirit, malt vinegar, Doctor Who directing a hard working family, and conventional weapons of destruction.

New Labour, oh no, I'm sorry, the alien usurpers, are destroyed.

Bring on that hovering Dalek!

Bethnal Green and Bow redux (Galloway, King, Trade Unions, Iraq)

2005-04-24T14:18:00.000-07:00

Today's Observer carries a flurry of letters about Nick Cohen's uncomradely attack on George Galloway and his people. 'Respect is due' say all but one of the selection. This last one revels in Cohen's insight as strict muslims are expected to automatically back the political ambitions and machinations of godless revolutionary communists.

But one GG supporter insists that Respect's electioneering about Spearmint Rhino (apparently a 'lap dancing' establishment) stems not from pandering to muslim fundamentalists but from high principled feminism.

That'll be the same high-principled feminism which is striking a blow against the murderous patriarchy of the "Honour" code. That'll be the same feminism and high principles which sees Respect struggle for rights for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transexuals. They are silent on this too. Except possibly to say it's worth leaving it off the agenda.

While some Labour people are on a strict "don't mention the war" diet Respect are on a don't mention lots of socialist principles or your godless revolutionary communism diet. Huh, compromises!

And George has been in big trouble for cheer leading for nationalist insurgents who are attacking, killing or torturing the relatives of Iraqi refugees in Bethnal Green and Bow, fellow socialists, communists and trade unionists, westernised women and homosexuals, not to mention the workers in uniform of our own armed forces.

Having said all that ... if George was the properly selected Labour candidate in my constituency I'd be out working for him to be elected. If George was up against Oona in a two-way selection I'd pick George.

If Oona were picked though I would vote for her. Really for the interests of people and party members of Bethnal Green and Bow who I believe are better off with Labour representatives at all levels. I might even drop some leaflets and do some canvassing.

Though it must be said that aside from allowing a flock of Vote Labour posters to gather on our building in Salford I have not done any work for candidates who did not oppose the war.

*********

So how did Oona get selected? The facts are coming in nicely. She is of course a charming woman and of the eleven branch parties in the constituency five rubber stamped her being re-selected without a contest and five did not.

The eleventh branch is a bit short of active members and met alongside one of the others. On their own they voted for a contest. Making it 6:5 in favour of a contest. But regional office decided (after all) that they would be counted in with the other branch returning the running total to all square 5:5.

In Manchester Central none of our affiliated unions or socialist societies voted at all on the question of the Tony Lloyd candidacy. Their quarterly or occasional meetings rarely coincide. And besides they were very happy with Tony's record. He headed up the Labour-TU group in Parliament.

In BGB the Union votes came in steadily. Region suggested at least one of them (which voted for a contest) ought to have an all members vote instead of the exec deciding. But then enough "no contest" votes came in and that ruling evaporated.

Oona King was re-chosen without a contest by an even split 5:5 of local party groups, supplemented by a clear majority of trade union decisions against a contest.

Despite all this intrigue it must be said that having active units of residents and workers in each local area, and these having a say in picking candidates, well this is way ahead of other parties. This is perhaps the best way for SNWDWVF readers to make a difference in the medium to long term.

Become an activist. Join or rejoin. Get a vote on candidates great and small, on the constituency party representatives on the NEC (there are currently four Grass Roots Alliance reps), and before too long I hope on the Great Leader and Deputy Great Leader question. Don't give up. Take part and make a difference.

The Unions riding to New Labour's rescue, ignoring or not seeking members' views, does remind me of the last Labour conference.

Asked to agree a timed withdrawal from Iraq. Local party representatives voted for a timed withdrawal. I think so, or at least it was very close. But the unions whose official policies tended to range from "Troops Out" to timetabled withdrawal waded in to reject that by going 100% behind New Labour. Our constituency representative voted for withdrawal.

It seems as if good people should not only consider joining or rejoining Labour and get active but also participating in Trade Union activities and holding elected officials there to account.

During the course of this process the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions spoke up for continued troops in Iraq. But George Galloway and others renounced them as quislings. Soon enough some were murdered. And this has been another part of the hollowing out of the Stop the War Coalition.

I don't want to be sectarian. But I will say this. Every step I took marching against the war. Every hour I spent on vigils. Every bit of this does not mean I stick with the first thought that came into my head about the war. Once this war happened there are responsibilities to our forces and to Iraq.

It sometimes seems to me that persistently offering the "Troops Out Now" advice is rather like being asked for directions and replying "Well, I wouldn't start from here if I were you." There is no magic wand. No Tardis or de Lorean to go back and change the decisions.

We surely cannot just leave immediately. We surely cannot be cheerleaders for people killing our forces, ordinary citizens, co-religionists from differnt schisms, Iraqi trade unionists, feminists, gays and communists.

There are consequences of the March 2003 decision and just because we disagreed we cannot walk away. Continued support for the Iraqi people as a whole is now a requirement. The weak and floppy Lib Dems and the robust Respect have now got this wrong in my humble opinion.

Green Finger George

2005-04-23T23:06:00.000-07:00

Hot on the heels of Observer Galloway coverage we have George Monbiot in the Guardian making a reasonable case or his ideas on how best to really signal displeasure with the government.

I don't agree with all his choices. But there's no surprise in that. Under his scheme ther is just the same potential as under the "Liberal for a Day" nonsense from wrecker Tariq Ali for the Tories to waltz in through the middle if too many voters take the risk where things are reasonably close.

Remember that just over 10% swing away from Labour to the Lib Dems causes about 80 seats to change hands. But the Tories get all but six or seven WITHOUT GETTING A SINGLE EXTRA VOTE THEMSELVES.

In the case of a 10% swing to Greens, SSP, Respect or Plaid, who form Monbiot's equal first pick, the Tories would probably get the same 73 seats, and Labour would hang on to the others.

The table in full goes :

1= Green
1= SSP
1= Respect
1= Plaid
5 Interesting independents e.g. Reg Keys in Sedgefield
6 139 Anti-War Labour candidates (though a few retire)
7 What he calls "a faintly credible micro party"
8 The Lib Dems

Monbiot's logic on the Lib Dems is sound. On their intrinsic merits. And on where their success could move things - which is not leftwards.

The full article is here :

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1462946,00.html

A letters about Reg Keys in Sedgefield is here :

http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,,1464420,00.html

And this is a letter I submitted on the subject to the Guardian :

>>>>>

George Monbiot (Signal your opposition, April 19) is right. Lib Dems are rock bottom of any left-wing tactical voter's list. Even then best avoided if so voting let's a Tory in through the muddle.

But why should Greens or others take preference over 139 anti-war Labour people? Particularly over 30 or so candidates for re-election who "got it right" on all marquee left issues - as recognised by Labour Left Briefing?

In Manchester we have blue-green as well as red-green Greens. One in my area called for medieval-style corporal punishment. One of three BNP pledges this time. Another criticised the cost of town hall tea and biscuits - ignoring labour value. Expect redundancies. Others are Labour-right defectors. Leeds Greens govern with Tories.

Of course some Greens are "solidly to the left" of Mr Blair. But not George to the left of _my_ red-green Labour party.

Chris Paul
Manchester

George Galloway and the communal -ism

2005-04-23T22:46:00.000-07:00

Nick Cohen made a strong attack on GG in last Sunday's Observer. This included the parallel life of Sir Oswald Mosley and their East End careers.

http://tinyurl.com/9faux *

In the inky version there was a picture of Mosley in full flow.

I have heard GG speak on a good number of occasions. Before, during and 'after' the war. Four times I think during 2003. The delivery is legendary. But I was not particularly impressed with the content and this feeling increased with each event. More about George and less about Iraq or whatever. And this increasing cheerleading for the killing in Iraq.

Perhaps GG will beat Oona King. Perhaps not. But either way I think the style of his campaign and the reported hothead incidents around it appear lamentable.

Communalism is a dangerous -ism. But GG is not the only one who has been using this approach. If George is really saying if you're asian vote Respect, if you're muslim vote Respect he is only doing the same thing which we saw from two parties in Manchester during the Euro and Local elections in 2004.

Obviously the BNP were saying "Protect your identity, vote BNP" to white voters disaffected with the way things are and will continue to be.

When Respect managed to get an imam in Preston to endorse a council candidate in 2003 the Lib Dems protested vehemently. Even though they had imams calling for Lib Dem votes left, right and centre. But Respect are not the other party I meant.

The Liberal Democrats were saying it too. In the euro election campaign a targeted leaflet essentially called for a vote for the Lib Dems to get an asian elected. The individual concerned has family in the Tory party and seems unlikely to share the Lib Dem agenda of social liberalism. This agenda was not part of the pitch.

At least when Muslims For Labour put out a leaflet it rehearses the benefits of Labour policy and the actual achievements on representation and so on.

Cllr Faraz Bhatti actually used almost the same phrase as the BNP in an advert in an Urdu paper "Aatish" soon after he was first elected. As well as telling fibs about Council Tax rises, suggesting a rise of 11% was on the cards, he called on readers to "Retain your identity, join the Lib Dems".

Alongside this we had a Lib Dem MEP refusing to take an interest in controlling the threatening content of the Combat 18 Redwatch site. A site which gives photos, names and addresses of people spotted on anti-racist marches and so on.

And a Lib Dem council candidate, now councillor, telling voters living opposite a school with 90% muslim students that :
"I wouldn't mind if the BNP had councillors in Manchester. We could debate the issues in the Council chamber."

This last party may be confused and naive in this matter. But George Galloway is an experienced and able politician and he surely knows exactly what he has been doing in Bethnal Green and Bow.

Incidentally, though I have been assured by someone that should know that no ward party in Bethnal Green and Bow wanted the super-loyalist Oona King to be selected or re-selected, I have been unable to find out how she managed to secure that selection.

* Full URL http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,6903,1461621,00.html

Don't Attack Iran

2005-04-23T21:22:00.000-07:00

Readers may like to send messages to the major party leaders on the above subject. Details below.

I have added a message to mine explaining what we are doing with these blogs and offering the leaders the chance to share their thoughts on this subject and in general with SNWDWVF? readers.

>>>

----- Original Message -----
Subject: Fwd: Election campaign: Send an instant message to the party leaders on a
key peace issue

Dear favourite thinking people,

You may have heard this already, but if our beloved leader is still willing to support Bush in the possible June Iran conquest then we might like to register our views before the election - this is how to quiz the party leaders, and very quick to do.

Go to http://www.owos.info/no_iran_attack/ to send your message now, which will be
delivered to each party leader.

love
geoff

Begin forwarded message:

“And finally, this notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran
is simply ridiculous. And having said that, all options are on the table.
(Laughter).”
George W Bush, February 2005

Dear Friend

This is an invitation from Our World Our Say to send a message to all the leaders
of the main parties now. The question that we are seeking an answer to is what
will the parties do if the US attacks Iran after the election.

Go to http://www.owos.info/no_iran_attack/ to send your message now, which will be
delivered to each party leader.

The evidence is mounting that firm US plans are in place to attack Iran – and that
the attack could take place as early as June.

It would be really appalling if we were to vote in May and then find Britain
supporting an attack against Iran this summer. Please take a moment now to send a
message to the party leaders – asking each one to make a pledge not to support
such an attack and to actively dissuade the US from taking such action.

Please do that now. With thousands of messages going to the leaders this will be
an issue they have to face up to. We’ll also be placing more adverts and
distributing tens of thousands of leaflets pressing the party leaders on this
question.

In his recent article 'Sleepwalking to Disaster in Iran' ex UNISCOM weapons
inspector Scott Ritter stated: ‘Late last year, in the aftermath of the 2004
Presidential election, I was contacted by someone close to the Bush administration
about the situation in Iraq. There was a growing concern inside the Bush
administration, this source said, about the direction the occupation was going.
The Bush administration was keen on achieving some semblance of stability in Iraq
before June 2005, I was told.

'When I asked why that date, the source dropped the bombshell: because that was
when the Pentagon was told to be prepared to launch a massive aerial attack
against Iran, Iraq's neighbour to the east....'

It would be inconceivable for Tony Blair not to know of such plans. Perhaps this
is why he wants the elections held before June?

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh has uncovered the full extent of
US government plans. Details are available at
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?050124fa_fact.

We all remember how Tony Blair ignored our concerns in the build-up to the attack
on Iraq. The fact is, once the elections are out of the way, we may once again
find ourselves bounced into another war. That’s why we need to pressure the party
leaders now – before the UK elections – at http://www.owos.info/no_iran_attack

It’s vital that the party leaders answer the questions. Thanks to the generosity
of our campaigners and supporters we have already been able to place three
advertisements in the national press. Word of mouth is vital to help us build
momentum. Please send an instant message now to the Party Leaders and let your
friends know about this campaign at http://www.owos.info/no_iran_attack

All the very best

Simone La Corbinière – for the OWOS team

“The neocons say negotiations are a bad deal. And the only thing the Iranians
understand is pressure. And that they also need to be whacked.”
Senior Official of the International Atomic Energy Agency speaking to Seymour Hersch

Desi's In The Cold, Cold Ground

2005-04-22T17:55:00.000-07:00

This afternoon Desi Noonan, gang boss, drug dealer, and fully accredited security operative, late of Chorlton Park, followed his brother Damien into the cold, cold ground. They didn't see eye to eye of late and while Damien is resting in Blackley Cemetery and Crematorium up North, Desi not far from Morrissey's famous Gates in Southern Cemetery.

Both progressed to their graves in full gangster pomp. "THE BOSS" in flowers by their sides. Four black chargers. And a couple of thousand central casting extras from gangsterland looked on. Some no doubt to make sure he was nailed in well and that their IOUs and grievances were buried with him.

Desi was the second of the gang to die. And third brother Dominyk (sic) looked sick as he took over the mantle of family boss walking at 3 mph ahead of the hearse on its last journey, from Northenden to Chorlton Park.

Desi was sometimes generous in life. And in death he bequeathed an unexpected last minute day off to 2000 High School students from two establishments. An unexpected hassle to the parents of same. And a post mortem to follow for Police, Head Teachers and Local Authority on who actually cancelled lessons and why.

Why was the man taken to his grave on a schoolday anyway? Word in the local schools outfitter is that this was because Desi's family has more guns than the police and they wouldn't dare suggest he was buried on a Sunday. Our informant may have got this from the Channel 4 hagiography published (just) posthumously. The Heads say It Woz the Police Wot Did It. The Police say It Never Woz.

Desi made all Friday's local and national TV and many of Saturday's papers. His mother would have been proud of him. Publicity for the right reason at last.

Trompe D'Oreille : The Ears Have It

2005-04-22T11:17:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I forgot to tell readers yesterday about what must either be photo trickery or a hitherto unaired physical gift of the Lib Dem PPC in Manchester Central.

The Mighty Ming Campbell was quick to call for sackings when Tories doctored photographs. So let's hope it is the latter.

In one picture our hero Marc has THREE EARS. He has been superimposed on a picture of a police car. Either another candidate was actually in the photo, or had been superimposed earlier and not removed, or Marc himself has had several incarnations as the image doctors did their best.

Actually it doesn't look bad and he should consider adopting this talking point for real.

Royton and Chorlton

2005-04-21T23:58:00.000-07:00

Off I go to Royton near Oldham to help distribute anti BNP materials. The meeting point is half a mile from the Vets where I took Hooch recently to see a working dogs specialist.

A couple of hours then amidst Countryside Alliance booklets and the trappings of rabbiting is revealling. There is underlying anti-gypsy feeling, founded on occasional cases of dog-napping and what people believe is an incident of malicious greyhound poisoning in the vicinity. Two dogs dead in 48 hours. Here and elsewhere in the area it's feelings about travellers and other groups that the BNP play to.

The fascists are standing in a whole swathe of urban and semi-urban seats straddling the pennines. Bury North, Rochdale, two Oldhams, Denton and Reddish, Ashton and onwards into Yorkshire. They are also standing in leafy Cheadle.

They have little or no great chance of a breakthrough MP wise but they are going in the mayoral in Stoke, and in various County Council seats. But the main purpose almost everywhere is to soften up target wards for 2006 and 2007 and build support round some of their vile ideas or at least a cleaned up public version.

Newsnight later carries a story of a BNP councillor and sometime seller of nazi memorabilia who is doing the community politics thing on local estates and reaching out to Black Britons, Sikhs and Hindus. His lapel carries a badge : "Don't Unpack, You're Going Back". Invidious.

Having good councillors doing that community politics in the first place and dealing with fears and feelings too is the only real insurance policy against the nazis. Poor councillors, weak councils, party fall outs and schisms generating independent vote-splitting candidates. Well these are the building blocks of BNP success.

From 2001 to 2003 Oldham had a Lib Dem council. They lost it against the trend in 2003 and the erstwhile leader admitted that they were not up to the job. They could, he said in so many words, say anything and do nothing in opposition when they had power they had to make hard decisions.

One of my fears from a General Election with any level of couldn't-care-less tactical voting is that Tories (and one or two Lib Dems) will win seats. And that the trickle down from that to future local government elections will weaken councils and leave room for fascists to work their tricks.

Here in Oldham West the BNP have targeted the two Royton wards as well as Glodwick and others.

Although I know exactly where I'm going there is a lot of traffic and I miss the group. My phonebook has none of the right people in it and wards cover quite large areas and kerb crawling round to find them is not an option. So it has to be Plan B.

This is stuffing envelopes in Chorlton Co-op Rooms for Keith Bradley. I make it back for the second half of the action and am amazed to find almost 40 industrious souls folding, stuffing and stamping 11,000 plus envelopes like a well-oiled election machine.

The main run is a friendly call to vote to those with PVs. The second run targeted letters to Asian voters. Both include a summary of the general benefits of having a Labour government for working people, pensioners, patients and schools.

The second talks about going forward with tolerance and respect with three specific calls for a Labour vote :

>>>

* Labour is committed to toughen the laws on incitement to religious hatred. These moves are opposed by both the Lib Dems and the Tories.

* I did NOT support military action in Iraq. It is simply misleading of other candidates to suggest otherwise. Parliamentary Hansard 18.03.03 shows that with Tony Lloyd and Graham Stringer I voted against the war.

* Labour has a commitment to state-funding Muslim faith schools.

<<<

The second point is vital. The Lib Dem PPC has been putting out cheeky lies which say that Keith voted for the war. It is a matter of public record that he did not.

It was of course useful to have some 50 Lib Dem MPs and a few Tories and Nationalists supporting the Labour-led (139 MPs) rebellion on the war. But it galling for a man who has taken no visible part in any anti-war activity to be telling fibs like this. After a full rebuttal and a lull he has picked it up again.

Keith has also included a paragraph in his election address pointing out the duplicity of the Lib Dem pretender.

We're all done and some are off to the pub while others like myself finally go home to get our tea. A big topic of discussion on the way out is the funeral of gangster Desi Noonan. the second of the gang to die. His funeral will be nearby. One police estimate predicts there will be 11,000 mourners. And Kate's school is being closed for the day as the wake is 100 metres away from the gates.

The last gangland funeral this side of town saw a drive-by shooting at the wake. Keep well clear is the advice.

Is "Real' the new "New"? "

2005-04-21T21:20:00.000-07:00

The Lib Dems are "The REAL alternative" and Greens offer "Real Progress" and fliers from the Labour Representation Committee offer "Real Labour". Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Is 'Real' the new 'New'? And will the Greens' address be any better than the yellow one?

We like :

- printed on 100% recycled and a quarter the size of the Lib propaganda with less fibs and no bar charts

We wonder :

- why our Green blogger is bragging about local printers when this one is done in York; Labour's Manchester leaflets are all printed by a small firm in Manchester

We like :

- the main slogan (there are plenty) "For people, planet and peace"; it's very grand

- some of the policies too

We don't like :

- unsupported assertions like "Labour's done nothing"

In this city that just isn't the case and our local government 2005 manifesto aspires to make Manchester the Greenest City in Britain and 2006 will see more aspiration, progress reports and detailed action plan; recycling has already increased eight fold in two years, we have a composting plant, talk of incinerators has been replaced by much better alternatives, there's Metrolink and the most used public transport outside London, all streetlights here are powered by renewables, all council buildings including schools and local units too, and a process of eco audits is underway with school dinner food miles looking the biggest remaining culprit; Fair Trade status of course, and so on and so forth.

Manchester Labour is making a conscious effort to recruit energetic red-green believers and, yes, Manchester is doing the business for people, planet and peace.

We also don't like :

- scaremongering from the Lib Dem school

The cover graphic is a rural type signpost with six directions shown. These are :

Dentist 18
Corner Shop 3
Post Office 5
School 12
Station 23
Hospital 8

Total 69 somethings

These figures whether in miles, kilometres or star years have got to be bogus in most of the seats where they are standing.

My sister in law lives under the Black Mountain in Pontardawe and my parents at the edge of Ballycastle in Glen Shesk and their figures are actually not dissimilar to mine perhaps 150% in Gower and 250% in Antrim. Mine are (in kilometres) :

Dentist 2.5 (the ex NHS one is 0.2)
Corner Shop 0.3
Post Office 0.6
School 1.0
Station 4.0 (1.0 when Metrolink is delivered)
Hospitals 1.2, 3.0, 3.5

Total 11.9 kilometres (using longest alternatives)

The Greens do have a good point underneath the exaggeration. We are lucky to be so handy for everything. Others, especially in rural areas, are not. But scaremongering by a factor of SIX is loopy stuff when Greens are mainly standing in Manchester, Leeds, Lancaster, Oxford, Brighton and the like. And by TWO or THREE times for some typical country towns. It's nonsense.

Green voters and activists out there should seriously consider getting stuck in and greening Labour instead. Watch from the sidelines, or roll up your sleeves and make things happen with us.

The problem for socialist-leaning greens and green-leaning socialists must be that the Green Party may be clear on a couple of things, possibly, but beyond that there is policy chaos and all stripes politically. Are we going to get Blue-Green or Red-Green today?

In Chorlton the council candidate advocated medieval punishment stocks on her website. Startingly similar to the BNP pledge number two : corporal punishment for petty criminals and vandals.

One of their national spokespeople gave the papers an exclusive story. That Manchester town hall brews and bickies were startingly overpriced. As I recall the cost was about £2.50 for unlimited refills and a couple of biscuits. A fraction of Starbucks or any conference centre. The Green sums were nonsense. Neglecting all the Labour value in buying, brewing, serving, clearing and pot washing. Expect redundancies.

Some of their candidates here are Labour right defectors. And of course in Leeds they are in a coalition with Tories and Libs. Well I suppose if you mix true blue with cheesy yellow you do get a shade of green! Perhaps that's it? Or the bicky-gate redundancy agenda and the medieval punishment?

(PS To check the real liberal democratic environmental challenge google for the excellent "Too Yellow To Be Green".)

Electoral Addresses Start Arriving

2005-04-21T17:09:00.000-07:00

The Lib Dem's postal offering arrived yesterday. Predictable enough. In this "positive only" Lib Dem campaign this inevitably is largely full-on attack politics.

Post Office closures - it says our man Tony Lloyd voted for the closures. Of course he only voted for "reinvention" after assurances that city branches, esp in deprived wards would be properly looked after. And he has ruthlessly attacked Post Office manager's cheating on closures and reneging on these promises.

Metrolink is attacked - a Labour success. With a Labour national manifesto commitment at £520 million. Which the Lib Dem's have been weak on. Which the LD candidate has done nothing visible on. Which our man Tony Lloyd has played a blinder on. Including collecting signatures at the blue City of Manchester stadium - though he is a well known Red!

The third attack is a mystery. "Labour is failing on the police". There's lots more to be done but that is just a dirty fib. 800 more officers for GMP - thanks to Labour leadership, despite Lib Dem feet dragging - and crime going down on both recorded incidents and British Crime Survey results.

As a regular at various police partnership bodies I know that it's true that the rise in violent crime is really and truly because of changes in reporting practice. And as one frontline policeman said on the telly today: With more police more volume crime gets recorded. The serious assaults (and there usually needs to be open wounds or broken bones) are going down here, except in isolated hotspots.

Lib Dems really do have a cheek to whinge about crime or police. They vote against all legislation to give police even basic tools to deal with problems. And in Manchester this particular candidate was carpeted by police only last summer for leaking and scaremongering unhelpfully to the papers.

Still there's not much damage there.

Then there is the Blair/Bush photo. Much as I opposed the war I don't think there's that much damage there either. Perhaps in one ward and in small parts of two others. But we have Tony Lloyd’s exemplary record with four out of four as rebel teller/whip. And we also have a high proportion of the electorate who are not exercised by this issue or support the government.

The B side includes a number of extravagant promises. Some are on how this pretender will vote. But one stands out. There are two picture stories with it. That is that Marc will *get rid* of Top Up Fees, not just vote against mind, actually get rid of.

THERE IS NO MENTION WHATSOEVER OF LOCAL INCOME TAX!! Perhaps they'll do a second leaflet. Perhaps they realise that for Manchester at least the sums just don't add up.

Marc's usual cronies - giving the look of three granny mugging musketeers - are nowhere to be seen.

There are those two pics with the woman President of the SU where Marc works as the Manager. Another with the stern woman ward candidate in target Ancoats. And a fourth with one of my Lib Dem comrades from the Whalley Range vigil, mother of a SWP activist, and reportedly wondering what she as an old school left Liberal is doing mixed up with these slippery-pole by-all-means-necessary chancers!

Marc has reinvented himself from "casual boy with pals" for town to "James Bond with ladies" for parliament. This is his third parliamentary challenge. He must know what he is doing. But despite Charles Kennedy's call for an honest and positive campaign it does seem that belonging to the Lib Dems in Manchester means having a fibber's charter.

In case there was any doubt about that we get a picture of Michael Howard and the usual deceitful slogans and bar charts. "It's a two horse race", "Tories cannot win here", "It's neck and neck" all the usual guff. And the barmy bar chart is based on a recent local government election and includes five constituencies. It shows 39:35:12 per cent for Lab:Lib:Tory. The actual figures in the last general election were around 17:4:3. They are shameless.

This blog entry has been typed four times as the server keeps rejecting it and the 'recover post' feature is half hearted. Further analysis on the Green effort and on deliberately misleading Lib Dem attacks in neighbouring Withington.

BBC : Thank you for your email

2005-04-21T14:40:00.000-07:00

This is standard reply 279a generated by the BBC's hard working staff in the complaints department or possibly their clever Turing Machine.

You will get probably get the same if you complain. But please do complain. Numbers are logged even if detailed arguments are not.

And do complain to OFCOM if and when the BNP content is offensive. (Link in Urgent etc earlier today).

>>>>>>

Thank you for your e-mail.

The BBC and other relevant broadcasters transmit Party Election Broadcasts where registered and lawfully constituted political parties qualify under rules which are agreed by and common to all broadcasters and which are scrutinised by the Electoral Commission. It is the legal responsibility of each broadcaster to transmit Party Election Broadcasts. The BBC's Board of Governors agree the eligibility criteria for Party Election Broadcasts transmitted by the BBC. The minimum qualification for a single broadcast in the General Election in any nation in the UK is to stand in one sixth of seats in the nation in question. To qualify for a broadcast in Great Britain a party must stand in one sixth of seats anywhere in GB. The BNP qualify for a single Party Election Broadcast because they are standing in sufficient numbers of seats in these elections. The BBC plays no part in the editorial content of the broadcasts, but these must comply with the law and with some other broadcasting regulations.

As a public service broadcaster the BBC is committed to impartiality in its reporting of political issues. Freedom of expression is a very important democratic right, especially within an election period. The inclusion of such Party Election Broadcasts within our output under these rules is in no way an endorsement by the BBC of the views of the parties concerned.

Thank you again for contacting us.

BBC Complaints Unit

http://www.bbc.co.uk/

Dear BBC

2005-04-21T12:24:00.000-07:00

Dear BBC

Apart from the atrocious technical quality of materials provided by the fascist BNP for transmission on BBC TV and Radio there is a much more serious issue. The material and this pernicious party's underlying programme completely fails the quality threshhold for decent political activity in a decent democracy.

The BBC should use every available scrap of discretion and legal power to avoid transmitting any such material whatsoever. Today April 21 or any day. Wherever BNP gets more profile attacks on BNP target groups increase. This is not scare mongering this is the real life pattern on the ground where I live in Greater Manchester.

The BBC should also issue instructions to journalists and producers that if they should afford the BNP any coverage whatsoever this should be (a) hostile because of the BNP's criminality and not-so-hidden agenda of hate and (b) certainly be no more than afforded to other parties with less than 1% support across Britain.

Most such parties will get next to no coverage. The BNP deserve none.

In particular, should the BBC allow journalists and producers to include interviews or coverage of the BNP this should only be handled by the most experienced and savvy staff. I listened in horror last year when Nick Griffin ran rings round an experienced Five Live reporter in Burnley. What they can do with the inexperienced is appalling.

And finally, no journalist or technician or BBC staff or freelance worker whatsoever should be required to assist in transmitting BNP propaganda against their will. This is a matter of conscience and should be respected.

Free speech rights need to be balanced with other rights. This is clear in slander and libel, incitement, verbal assault, right to quiet enjoyment, right to operate a business and many other rights enshrined in the various declarations of human rights.

The BNP lose their right to free speech when they offend the rights of so many other people in most if not all these matters.

As I live and work in areas which enjoy fantastic diversity with a current situation of peace and harmony - community unity - the last thing I want to hear or see is BNP propaganda on the most famous and high quality broadcaster in the world.

This gives these terrible people - including many criminals - more credibility. And it encourages fascist thugs to go out and "rule the streets" with fear and loathing and hard core violence and intimidation. In the manner of the supporters of all fascist parties and organisations through history.

Please DO NOT help these pernicious criminals and hate politicians in any way. Pull the plug on the BNP.

Yours Faithfully

Chris Paul

Residents Labour Party, Manchester

Urgent : Anti Fascists : Pull The Plug, But Get Dialling

2005-04-21T11:44:00.000-07:00

Have a couple of days catching up to do. But in the meantime here's something you can and should all take part in.

The BNP's proposed election broadcast has been failing the technical quality threshhold for broadcast with a folky soundtrack of a song composed by Nick Griffin proving particularly ropey. They are trying to fix that and intend to have something ready for transmission TODAY.

But many people will feel that whatever the technical quality the BNP's material fails the quality threshhold for decent political life in a decent democracy.

Previous examples have seemed to incite race hatred, incite religious hatred, contain bogus facts and figures, feature convicted criminals not least Griffin himself, and of course included the disgraceful call "to vote BNP to preserve your identity".

Other parties which should know better are also flirting with this communalism. Not least Respect through George Galloway - according to Nick Cohen in the Observer last Sunday - and also the Lib Dems here in parts of the North West. Michael Howard is of course appealling to the same sort of base instincts.

Whether there is a call to vote for a party of whites and christians or vote for a party of asians and muslims this seems to me to be dangerous stuff.

Here is what you can do about the BNP. Complain to the BBC right now. Adapt the BECTU letter at the foot of this blog entry or use your own words.

UAF and BECTU Press Releases :

* Pull the Plug campaign
http://www.uaf.org.uk/
Protest against the BNP's party political broadcast and call on the BBC to pull the
plug on race hatred.

BBC1 and BBC2 are set to transmit the first party political broadcast by the BNP in
the general election campaign on Thursday 21st April.

The BBC is not obliged under the law to transmit the broadcast. There are precedents
for restrictions being put on the fascist and racist BNP - its previous broadcasts
were either stopped entirely or subject to severe restriction due to their offensive
content.

Wherever the BNP have a presence, racist attacks increase. Prominent members of the
BNP including its leader Nick Griffin have recently been charged under the section
18 of the Public Order Act which outlaws incitement to racial hatred.

A letter will be handed in, calling on the BBC to not to broadcast the BNP's message
of race hate.

You can make a complaint...
By phoning the BBC: 08700 100 222
or Textphone: 08700 100 212
or by email: Go to the BBC website complaints page http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/
and click on 'email: send your complaint'

You can also write to the BBC:
BBC Complaints, PO Box 1922, Glasgow G2 3WT

You can complain to OFCOM on the content of the broadcast by emailing:
contact@ofcom.org.uk

* BNP objectors backed by union http://www.bectu.org.uk/news/gen/ng0219.html

BECTU has confirmed that members will have union support if they refuse to service a
planned right-wing election broadcast.
In a letter to all major UK broadcasters, BECTU has promised to back members who
decline, on grounds of conscience, to help transmit a party political broadcast
(PPB) by the far-right British National Party.

The letter, sent to BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, ITN, S4C, Ulster TV, and BSkyB,
reminded broadcasters that they were under no legal obligation to transmit the PPB,
and would be accused of increasing racial tension by giving the BNP airtime.

Anti-racist campaigners, and trade unionists supporting Unite Against Fascism, plan
a demonstration outside BBC Broadcasting House in Central London from 4.30 pm on
April 21, to coincide with the scheduled transmission times of 5.55pm on BBC2, and
6.30pm on BBC1.

Other broadcasters are likely to put the BNP broadcast into their schedules, and any
members seeking advice should call BECTU Head Office on 020 7346 0900.

Letter sent by BECTU to:
BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, ITN, S4C, Ulster TV, and BSkyB
20 April 2005
BRITISH NATIONAL PARTY AND THE GENERAL ELECTION
As I am sure you are aware in past General Elections the British National Party were
granted a free election broadcast which was transmitted by most of the broadcasters.

BECTU is of the view that the only reason the BNP wish to broadcast is to increase
racial tension. The BNP is also a party whose manifesto calls for the forced
repatriation of all black people. The carrying of broadcasts for parties like the
BNP is discretionary and not a formal legal requirement placed upon the
broadcasters.
The purpose of this letter is to seek an immediate assurance from you that if you do decide to grant the BNP a free election broadcast that you will not require BECTU
members to work on this broadcast if they, as a matter of conscience, do not wish to do so. We will support any of our members who refuse to work on such broadcasts as a matter of conscience to the maximum extent within the limits of the law.
Yours
Gerry Morrissey
BECTU Assistant General Secretary

Catch Up : Ardwick, Rampant Lion, Beech Inn

2005-04-19T16:18:00.000-07:00

Tuesday boost. Ardwick's turn. Reasonably solid Labour here though the area we tackle has a much higher turnover of residents than Moss Side.

The ward looks likely to be one of two the Lib Dems will be attacking. Their candidate has been busy. But it seems he is promising the earth to individuals. Not just "more fines for poopy dog owners", "new gate on the way", "smoother pavements". This man is offering cuts in council house rent.

We visit the Rampant Lion pub in neighbouring Manchester Gorton constituency and I arrange to see Tony Lloyd later for some beers in The Beech Inn in Chorlton.

Great little pub. Though a shame that they've changed their dogs policy. So the hounds must be left at home.

I tell Tony that the publicwhip quiz is showing the Lib Dems closer to my views than even a Labour MP who has voted against Fees, Foundations, War, Hunting, and on most of the PTA divisions too.

We work out that this (he is 24% from my picks on seven questions, the Lib Dems 14%) is largely because he was away for the iD card debates. Public whip seems to miss the nuance of absence versus abstinence or support for a government bill.

Clearly the opposition get to vote against ad nauseum. They can say anything and duck hard choices.

On the way home I also realise that the quiz doesn't factor in dozens of votes which support Labour values where the Lib Dems voted against with their Tory chums.

Things like the Minimum Wage.

Red Letter Days (blog in progress)

2005-04-19T14:53:00.000-07:00

Had letter in Manchester Metro at the weekend. Severely edited thus :

(Text to follow)

So will send follow up thus, waiting to see what response the above gets. In private correspondence with the letters' editor at the Metro I have predicted that there will be a personalised attack from the Lib Dems and no answers :

(Text to follow)

My letter did not get into the South Manchester Reporter last week though Keith Bradley's team are reasonably happy with the balance of coverage now. The editor has finally put in more of a round up and over recent weeks has printed a picture of the Tory, UKIP, and Green pretenders. Though the Lib Dem's auto-hagiography of three weeks ago was pretty much a free and unmediated election address. Perhaps this letter will be in next week so I'll not post it here for now.

There was an excellent letter in the MEN Postbag last night attacking Lib Dem bar-charts and calling for a vote for either Labour or Tories. Keep it simple was the message! If you vote Lib-Dem you don't know who you'll get.

This should be available on the website, link to follow.

There was also a letter rehearsing the BNP platform without identifying that. The author signs "Phill" and is almost certainly the man who calls himself "Phill Edwards" (not his real name) the BNP's National Press Officer.

Perhaps worth a response.

I'll also post up a couple of recent letters I've submitted to the Guardian.

I've finally had a chance to read Nick Cohen's Observer piece about George Galloway and I will aim to post a blog entry about that here soon. In a nutshell I feel that Respect are guilty of a degree of communalism. Clearly the BNP are. But a third party is up to the same dangerous trick too. And it's not Labour.

Also something on the performances of Howard and Kennedy with respectively J Dimbleby plus audience, and Paxman.

I'm also hoping to find out the confirmed runners and riders in Manchester's five seats; and the final formation of the BNP threat.

Canvassing tonight will be in what should be another reasonably strong Labour ward in inner city Manchester.

News from the Northern Hills

2005-04-18T17:22:00.000-07:00

Later on I called into see Kathy who had been part of the nearly successful real Labour slate in the City Centre in the 2004 all outs.

We had trebled the turnout with an energetic campaign. The Lib Dem majority, which ought to have increased proportionally from about 100 votes (of only 550 cast that time) to 300 but was down to just 90. And the Tories were up from just over 100 to 250 plus. Many who had lent their vote to the Lib Dems had flown home to Maggie's party. Though strictly speaking these figures are all approximations as the ward boundary was quite different and the electorate smaller in the second case.

Best of all though poll tax rebel and disgraced ex-councillor Dobbo had bounced back to overtake Barrister Peter. Serial maverick Marc had a comfortable lead overall. He is the Lib Dem PPC in Manchester Central, his third campaign so far and in his third different constituency.

First we catch up on each other's campaigns. From starting together with pre-election leafleting in the Centre these had diverged and while I had been out and about most days canvassing, leafleting, blogging and postering Kathy had just done her first bit of real campaigning, joining Kath Fry in going up to Ramsbottom in the hills North of Bury to help David Chaytor's team.

Kathy is utterly dismissive of activists going and working in 'loyalist' marginals. We have to lose a few seats over this war she thinks, and better that is these people, Fitzsimons and Woolas for example, than Chaytor. He rebelled on three Iraq votes and has a total rebellion tally greater even than Tony Lloyd. Around 45 instances in all. But famously not including Top Up Fees. Something which I will cover in this blog before long.

Bury North includes urban-rural fringes and small and rather isolated small towns and villages. They are told that the hot issue is youth and community resources.

So what has been done since the last General on this ask Kathy and Kath. Actually plenty with 5-a-side courts and other diversions including voluntary youth organisations in each and every township. But still 60% of the youth don't engage and drink and create low level nuisance instead. It may be that ASBO talk hasn't helped much on this, though actual Orders have been pretty rare.

They are using the 'phone bank. And contrary to the Lib Dem blogger's scurrilous charge last week they aren't finding anyone who has opted out under TPS. The response is OK to good overall. They use new Labour "Voter iD" methods, not the old ways.

Then we talk about Horwich near the Reebok Stadium and Westhoughton. Kathy has recently moved up there to work for Bolton College and Kath works for that college part time too. The staff include a good few socialists. There is even a friday night socialist club in Bolton. The MP until dissolution was Ruth Kelly. I'm not sure whether Kathy is serious but she says workmates are saying they won't vote for her "because she talks like a man".

The BNP are standing in most of these constituencies. But there is action from them closer to home. Kathy shows me about 20 fascist leaflets. She has just been down her street collecting back this unwelcome material from her neighbours. I'm impressed.

There is a cartoon of a criminal with swagbag. Presumably to help voters recognise the candidates! And a torched car on the reverse. The BNP claim to be the only party of law and order. Platform is a crack down on crime and "politically correct interference" with the police; corporal punishment for petty criminals and vandals; death sentence for paedophiles, terrorists and premeditated murders with DNA evidence.

BNP hotline if you are interested (at £1 a minute) is 0906 553 2245. And you can send off for information, delivered in a plain envelope, on the campaign against the "Islamification of Britain".

Giving Kathy this Blog address she says she'll take a look and also feed through information and ideas.

She is not alone in thinking that Ming Campbell could find a place in our party. But when I say "but not Simon Hughes" she disagrees. But for me he is one of the leading dirty tricks people, securing his own election in Bermondsey with leaflets including one which asked voters "so which queen are you going to vote for?" under pictures of HRH and Peter Tatchell.

Kathy thinks some of ours are just as bad. But the example she gives, involving a personal enemy, seems pretty tame to me. It's pointing out the weakness of Lib Dem policies on crime and disorder with the messenger letting people think they were themselves a social worker.

"Blair Must Go" or this Woman's not for Turning

2005-04-18T11:52:00.000-07:00

Louise is a more or less contemporary of mine. Part of the MU student union paper Mancunion crew in the award-winning early 80s. And also I now remember the 'collector' for my part of Hulme when I first joined Labour in 1983.

That was in the days when the branches took in subs monthly and sent a small slice to London, instead of the opposite effect. The days before the allegedly witty writer John O'Farrell was sending out begging emails to the rank and file. The days when there were millions paying the tiny subventions within their union dues. A grounding for the original mass Workers' Party.

Lou is a solicitor, mainly defending petty criminals, and a single mum, originally from the East Midlands. There both her parents had been party activists. Dad canvassing for the Liberals of Grimond and Thorpe. Mum for Wilson and Castle.

This she remembers was confusing for the neighbours who saw her helping out. In different rosettes on alternate days.

Post Iraq II she will not vote Labour until Blair is gone. She may even be lost for a generation as in wilder moments she needs all the front bench to be gone.

Her MP in the leafy Heatons in Stockport is Ann Coffey. A representative who has not given either anti-war protestors or socialist leaners much comfort in her voting record this last parliament.

Stockport's Council has been hung (usually Lib-Lab) or close (currently Lib) these last 20 years. Not sure what the Audit Commission ruled last time but Lou is satisfied with their performance even though I know that on all the classic Focus issues - bins, street cleaning, pavements, potholes - they are actually trailing well in socialist Manchester's wake.

When it comes to non-statutory quality of life services like Libraries, Theatres and the Arts, Parks and Recreation their spend is probably not half Manchester's even though a good few of Manchester's national and regional arts organisations receive little or no money from the Town Hall.

But Lou is satisfied. She earns enough to run a car and travel across the border for entertainment, shopping and civilisation. There are people elsewhere in Stockport, for example Reddish, who are not so fortunate and like residents in Moss Side and Ardwick they rely far more on the return of a Labour government than any left-wing solicitor.

It matters not that the Lib Dems round here are mixed-up mavericks. Relying on what must be a pretty fragile coalition of the disaffected. Tories, socialists, muslims and of course a tiny kernel of old school libertarians.

We were at college when the Gang of Four carried out their treachery. Arguably Blair's advance guard. Bill Rodgers' daughter was another contemporary as were Labour loyalists like Phil Woolas and John Mann.

The mystery of what ther Lib Dems really believe in does not blunt Lou's purpose noir even the prospect of a Tory win locally or nationally.

This vote is lost until Blair gets lost.

Radio Waves

2005-04-17T17:20:00.000-07:00

Have been picking up snippets on Radio 5 all week. Despite claims in some quarters that the election hasn't caught fire yet most items, even football, are throwing up politics. Three examples :

Health : Flash The Ash

One day I listen aghast as a strange woman rants and raves about MRSA. I have missed the first section and don't know who this is but she is apparently speaking for the Patients' Association. I'm surprised they have sent someone so emotional and unreasonable to make their case on MRSA. Then she says the PA doesn't do party politics ... Though Labour inherited a mess from the Tories they could've done more in eight years. Much has been done but much remains to be done to coin a phrase.

Presenter Victoria is pretty clear that following a climb the MRSA and MSSA figures are going down. The strange, still anonymous, woman says she doesn't believe it for a minute. Victoria says "oh, really why's that?". This is not because she has counter statistics. Not one bit. It is because she has met ONE person who has just got MRSA.

This is the huge weakness in the Lib Dem line WE OPPOSE TARGETS etc. If you don't have targets and statistics and monitoring you are left simply with anecdotes. This is the politics of Jennifer's ear and Margaret's shoulder.

This is one of the ten so called positive pledges which is just glib and negative sophistry. Most of them are. And though the media were onto this immediately all the evidence is that the Lib Dems are now and will continue to be treated less seriously by pundits. They get away with it.

The ranting woman by the way turns out to be esteemed political and health services commentator Lesley Ash.

Race, Asylum, Immigration and Terror : Silly Fash

There is a 'phone in on the Bourgass case. One caller comes out with what comes very close to BNP/NF lines. He demands a five year freeze on immigration including asylum. Dribbling on and on with weasley fascist nonsense. Another caller slams into him. "What I have just heard is racist pure and simple. They dance around this but basically they are racist and don't want black people in Britain." Brilliant.

Future of Football : Chelsea Backlash

Matthews and Mortenson were real gents says the caller who is from Blackpool where she used to wait on tables at a cafe they frequented.

Pretty picture postcards of seasides of yesteryear and cup final goals at 50 don't come to mind though. Because this woman has just given a beautifully coherent analysis of the capitalist exploitation involved in Abramovitch's accumulation of billions of previously collectively owned resources. Only to blue the people's money away on football.

And there's more. Lovely that there's democracy in East and Central Europe. They're now saying they'll do the same for the Middle East. So with this example Oligarchs from Iraq will be asset stripping the people's resources and buying football clubs in far-flung lands - thanks don't forget to the onslaught of freedom and democracy.

In Hollywood the waiting staff may soon be movie stars. In Blackpool, possibly with a little help from the Open University, they may be seeing through Chelsea's new clothes, not to mention that whole freedom-loving-peoples schtick.

Bog Standards and Fiscal Discipline

2005-04-17T15:46:00.000-07:00

Off to buy trainers with Patrick. I have shown him the cost of BNIB Nike Shox on ebay. Way over my budget even there. Next I take him to Tesco. And show him the £5 a pair item that would do the job. But admittedly even I would not impose those. JJB Sports, Shox are £38.99 and Umbro Owens £24.99, and Decathlon have their own £5 model.

Back to JJB. He can hear other kids pushing for ridiculous label models too. Most fotunately being rebutted by sensible parents. He will not buy into his sister's marvellous "no logo" stance. She evn has a pair of Decathlon's finest budget trainers. But I reckon he is open to persuasion.

My budget £20. No, he cannot come back with his mum another day. But, for every pound he gets under that I will give him a 50p boost to his economy. He quickly chooses eponymous Patrick's at £9.99 and pockets £5 there and then.

Off to Borders and I offer him a 50% uplift in his bonus to buy a book. He gets it anyway for a new deck of Pokemon cards. But I'm still £2 ahead and £21 ahead of the Shox position. Bog standard Trainers cool enough after all.

Five Live is playing sport so I tune in to Four instead. A Business flavoured The World This Weekend. Digby Jones has just buried the good news of unprecedented economic numbers and stability, and Britain being the best place in the whole of Europe to do business mentioned en passant with a whinge about regulations. Of course there is a case to answer here.

But BBC Four's case is weakened as the Toy Shop in York they visit to make their case only really has extra forms to get benefit of generous training money and wage subsidies.

Next, the presenter whinges that Mr Blair is not joining them as the other party leaders will but that we have to make do with Mr Prescott.

I think I would send Johnno rather than Bleugh in to bat against this rather pompous presenter myself. And before long a rather agricultural style and those famous punchy forearms are creaming the long hops and full tosses and even the tougher googlies and yorkers round the ground for fours and sixes.

Presenter bowls a loosener. He jeers at Bleugh's intro to the manifesto which as well as praising the economic successes gives an example of where fiscal discipline has got us in eight years. Our schoolchildren no longer have to use outside toilets in any school in the land. Presenter says if Rory Bremner came out with this it would be A1 satire.

Johnno goes forward not back and crashes it back over his head into the stands. "That's outrageous" he says "In 1997 school buildings were falling down around children's ears after 18 years of Tory neglect. Investment in schools and hospitals has been terrific. Do you want to go back to outside toilets and leaky roofs?"

I remember Bog Alley at my own school and I'm with John 100% on this. The knockabout continues with Tory plans to slash Billions, and to remove minimum wage protection from agriculture. Not to mention Labour's success in cutting the overall business tax burden and a huge simplification in VAT with bargain fiscal deals for small businesses and organisations in many sectors.

Bog standards and fiscal discipline win the day. Prescott carries his bat proudly aloft as the crowd rise to their feet.

Leader, sounds nasty (6)

2005-04-17T14:23:00.000-07:00

Day starts attempting to finish Guardian crossword of yesterday. By synchronicity or on purpose there are very often political messages in these and this one from Bunthorne has "Sing From The Same Song Sheet" within it.

This is not happening too much during this election. Though there is a certain amount of "Don't Mention The War" (DMTW) going on, Tony Lloyd's pre-election leaflet had led with a clear statement on his opposition to the war. At least one ward party and some individuals would not distribute it at all because of their DMTW belief.

Helena Kennedy QC had a good letter in the paper reiterating some of the issues she has with the government but concluding that "Labour, my party" would be having this out within the party, after she hoped winning the election.

Kennedy made representations for us over Farhat Khan's campaign, and I felt that her letter was a suitable rebuff to a rather silly Sarah Teather letter criticising her closest rival in Brent East, Yasmin Qureshi, for being part of Blair's party at all. Yasmin, Helena and myself hold Labour as OUR Party, not Blair's. Many members regard him as a cuckoo in the nest. Someone who took Labour way to far rightwards in trying to put the last nails in the Tory coffin.

All parties are coalitions, being in government means hard choices that not all members will agree with, taking decisions almost always means making some mistakes. I see no future outside Labour and I'm not quitting; and I'm glad Helena Kennedy QC is not. Blair was absolutely wrong on Iraq - in my opinion - but our party are the best one for Britain's prosperity, alleviation of absolute if not immediately relative poverty, and of the main parties the one for real action on environment and on global poverty.

The puzzle is done, though Bunthorne's thinking is not entirely clear even when all answers are in place.

The above title, "Leader, sounds nasty (6)" or clue very like it, was in the Guardian Crossword of 15 February 2003.

The answer, entered in triumph as one of 60 Manchester coaches reached Tottenham Court Rd?

BLEUGH!

BNP Candidates, declared by Friday

2005-04-17T10:23:00.000-07:00

Final date for declarations is Tuesday 19th. There are already far too many of these nasty fascists standing. More perhaps than some of the left parties like Greens
and Respect.

They are standing in a good number of the Lab-Tory, Lab-Lib, Lib-Tory and three-way marginals.

Particularly in the North West, Yorks and Humberside which is their largest contingent, and the West Midlands.

There are several criminals among them, and a number with court cases pending. Also a number who have been "disciplined" for their outrageous comments to press or on hidden camera shows - well they are back and on this "mainstream party" list.

More comment later.

Total - 114
North West – 17
Yorkshire – 35
North East – 9
West Midlands – 22
East Midlands - 5
Eastern - 5
London - 10
South East - 4
South West - 3
Wales - 2
Scotland - 2

North West - 17

Ashton under Lyme - Anthony Jones
Blackburn - Nicholas Holt
Blackpool South - Roy Goodwin
Burnley - Len Starr
Bury North - Stewart Clough
Cheadle - Richard Chadfield
Denton and Reddish - John Edgar
Heywood and Middleton - Gary Aronson
Hyndburn - Chris Jackson
Knowsley North and Sefton East - Mike McDermot
Makerfield - Denis Shambley
Pendle - Tom Boocock
Oldham East and Saddleworth - Mick Treacy
Oldham West and Royton - Anita Corbett
Rochdale - Derek Adams
Rossendale and Darwen - Tony Wentworth
Stalybridge and Hyde - Nigel Byrne

Yorkshire – 35 out of 56 constituencies

Barnsley Central - Geoff Broadley
Bradford - 5
Keighley – Nick Griffin
Bradford South - Cllr James Lewthwaite
Bradford North - Linda Cromie
Bradford West - Paul Cromie
Shipley – Tom Linden
Calderdale
Calder Valley - John Gregory
Halifax - Geoff Wallace
Doncaster
Doncaster Central - Trevor Agnew
Doncaster North - Lee Hagan
Great Grimsby - Stephen Fyfe
Harrogate and Knaresborough - Colin Banner
Hull
Hull East - Alan Siddle
Hull North - Brian Wainwright
Haltemprice and Howden - Edward Scott
Kirklees
Huddersfield - Karl Hanson
Colne Valley - Barry Fowler
Dewsbury - David Exley
Batley and Spen - Colin Auty
Leeds
Central - Mark Collett
Elmet - Tracey Andrews
Leeds East - Marcus Charlton
Leeds West - Julie Day
Morley - Chris Beverely
Rotherham
Rotherham Central - Marlene Guest
Rother Valley - Nick Cass
Wentworth - Jon Pygott
Sheffield
Sheffield Attercliffe - Beverley Jones
Sheffield Brightside – no candidate yet - deadline for nominations 19th April
Sheffield Central - Mark Payne
Sheffield Hallam - Ian Senior
Sheffield Heeley - John Beatson
Sheffield Hillsborough - David Wright
Wakefield
Castleford & Pontefract - Susie Cass
Normanton - John Aveyard
Wakefield Central - Grant Rowe

North East - 9

Easington - Ian McDonald
Houghton & Washington East - John Richardson
Middlesborough - Ron Armes
Middlesbrough South & Cleveland East - Geoffrey Groves
Redcar - Andrew Harris
Stockton North - Kevin Hughes
Sunderland North - Debi Hiles
Sunderland South - David Guynan
Tyne Bridge - Kevin Scott

West Midlands - 22

Aldridge & Brownhills - WilliamVaughan
Birmingham Erdington - Sharon Ebanks
Birmingham Hodge Hill - Denis Adams
Birmingham Northfield - Mark Cattell
Birmingham Yardley - Robert Purcell
Burton - Julie Russell
Coventry North-West - David Clarke
Dudley South - John Salvage
Dudley North - Simon Darby
Newcastle under Lyme - John Dawson
Solihull - Dianne Carr
Stoke Central – Michael Coleman
Stoke North - Spencer Cartlidge
Stoke South - Cllr Mark Leat
Walsall North - William Locke
Walsall South - Kevin Smith
Warley - Simon Smith
Warwickshire North - Michaela Mackenzie
West Bromwich East - Carl Butler
West Bromwich West - Coun Jamie Lloyd
Wolverhampton South-West - Peter Mullins
Worcester - Martin Roberts

East Midlands - 5

Amber Valley - Paul Snell
Blaby - Mike Robinson
Boston and Skegness – Wendy Russell
Charnwood - Peter Francis
Erewash – no candidate as yet – deadline 19th April
North West Leicestershire - Clive Potter

Eastern - 5

Basildon - Emma Colgate
Billericay - Bryn Robinson
Broxbourne - AndrewEmerson
Epping Forest - Julian Leppert (Sadie Graham?)
Thurrock - Nick Geri

London - 10

Barking - Richard Barnbrook
Bexleyheath & Crayford - Jay Lee
Dagenham - Lawrence Rustem
Eltham - Barry Roberts
Enfield North - Cllr Terry Farr
Erith & Thamesmead – no candidate as yet – deadline 19th April
Hayes & Harlington - Tony Hazel
Hornchurch - Ian Moor
Romford - John McCaffrey
Upminster - Chris Roberts
Uxbridge - Cliff Le May

South East - 4

Basingstoke - Roger Robertson
Crawley - Richard Trower
Havant - Dr Ian Johnson
Maidenhead - Tim Rait

South West - 3

Poole - Peter Pirnie
Weston-super-Mare - Clive Courtney
Woodspring (Portishead) - Michael Howson

Wales - 2

Swansea East - Kevin Holloway
Wrexham – John Walker

Scotland - 2

Glasgow Central – Walter Hamilton
Glasgow North East – Scott McLean

Hounds and Bounds

2005-04-16T18:39:00.000-07:00

Off with the dogs to Lyme Park, first dropping Patrick to his childmind friend Thomas's party. I forget Hooch's lead so he is running loose with the others. There is no great reaction from his knee visible during the run, but I do worry that it might flare up later.

We have descended through the wooded path from the second car park. We have climbed back up to the clough. We have contoured round the narrow path with wall to left and deep gully to right. Through another wooded section. Across open moors steeply to the radio relay. Up to the trig point and round and down to a lowered section of the wall, specially designed for dog or stock crossing. Through this past the real Folly and out again to the field which often has rare cattle breeds lurking.

Count the dogs. One-Two-Three. Jim has done one for a while and I try both Jim and Tig to get him back. We retrace our steps and find him looking like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth. Next as we head towards what most people call The Folly but is actually The Cage - a moortop prison - Hooch finds himself in a stand off with a herd of young stags.

He's very nearly 30 inches at the shoulder. Very few greyhounds or lurchers, that's any 'sighthound' crossed with a variety of working breeds for different purposes, even 'longdogs' which are lurchers bred completely from sighthound breeds, are that big. Sighthounds - greyhounds, saluki, deerhound (the three ingredients in mine), wolfhound, afghan, whippet and a few local varieties.

My view is that their DNA is 99.9% the same across this whole range. They're all basically "greathounds" or "gazehounds" and the kennel club are clowns.

When we were at Cofton Park a few weeks ago for the National Cross Country we met a deerhound who was two or three inches bigger still. But that's unusual. Cofton Park is an important connection at the moment with the story SNWDWVF is telling as it backs onto the MG Rover Longbridge Plant. Back to that maybe in s day or two.

Hooch is a giant. Jim to is big, around 28 inches. Ottey a mere 25 inches. But despite having the physical credentials to chase these magnificent deer Hooch is getting pretty mature and walks away immediately he's called.

You get moments sometimes on runs like this. Keeping all the dogs on leads all the time would be ridiculous. But the terrain means surprise encounters are possible if rare. I praise him highly and whisper to him "but don't tell the others". Sister Ottey would scatter this lot as soon as look at them.

I've no proof but I believe that Ottey is a more instinctive and eager hunter because as the runt she got the most input from her mum. Hooch in contrast was taken away from mum too young. But none of them really know what they're doing. They would need a lot of training up to make hard working dogs.

Back to base picking up Patrick on the way.

Now I can set our Lib Dem blogger's mind to rest. Andrew Stunnell has dozens of posters up in the Hazel Grove vicinity. He may have seen the "Baby On Board" comparison himself as those "Whining Here" diamonds are out and it's orange rectangles stating he is "the local choice". Doesn't pay to pre-empt the result in such a tight marginal.

Never been sure about tree posters and the like myself. Mauldeth Rd near where I live used to be dubbed Tory Canyon (reference to famous oil tanker disaster of 60s) and to be honest it didn't do them any good. They went down with all hands. Not a council seat left in Manchester and excepting the now un-gerrymandered blip of Trafford precious few really in Greater Manchester.

In fact I went down the traditional canyon and saw no posters at all today. Though Labour has a good show in the same road - the Old Moat other side of Princess Road.

Do tree and garden and house posters work? Do they make supporters feel over confident if they are dominant in an area? Do they make opponents increase turn out?

More Admin, plus Sizing Up The Competition

2005-04-16T16:04:00.000-07:00

Setting up the web giving page for my sponsored run for QueerUpNorth Festival is not too difficult, achieved thanks to a request for sponsorship from another runner, and blog readers who consider the world's leading Queer arts festival worth supporting will be very welcome to inaugurate the page with your pledges. I have added in the gimmick of a 'guess the finishing time' contest for bubbly and chocs.

The page, with full explanation and link back to SNWDWVF is at :

http://www.justgiving.com/sponsorCP

The other thing I do this morning is to have a quick read of the other SNWDWVF blogs. Which is an eye opener.

I am writing way more than anyone else.

Our Green is worrying about calling human beings canines. I have already done it do our own Alan Milburn!

Our Lib Dem is very exercised about tree posters and the like. I will be able to provide some good news and some bad news in my next post.

Plaid have found a good reception at a mosque. This is to be expected. Even at the a terrible point in the war in late April 2003 Tony Lloyd and I were afforded a very polite and warm welcome. As we sat in the room behind the Imam's chair we were surrounded by coffins. Not a protest. The mosque is also the Funeral Directors!

There was heated preaching as we talked with Tony's friend, the chair. Next we were brought in and Tony recited a fulsome greeting in Arabic and explained carefully what his own position was and the messages he was taking to Blair. AS even the first question seemed edgy the Imam expertly asked for a show of hands. "Who says Tony Lloyd should tell Blair this war is bad?" 1500 hands in the air.

The good reception is a given. The votes may be another matter.

And the SNWDWVF blog itself makes much of some of the neo-liberal content of the manifesto launch and Mr Brown's part in that. I think there is a difficulty here. There are several difficulties.

1. Labour have already announced an increased participation by privateers in health and education. Sometimes they suggest this is de minimis and always will be.

2. Labour as other governments often announce things over and over. I just don't think this is a new idea or a new commitment. Some increase in privateers is on the cards, perhaps some quantum can be put on the ceiling for this, but the increasing is already going on. From 1% to 2% is an increase. Purists and leftists don't like it one little bit but it is no great shift in the Labour 'offer' since 2001.

3. What is more no-one expects Tories NOT to carry on NHS and schools privatisation and many expect more of a rabid dismantling effort. We certainly know there is a fast track with 50% refunds for immediate private work in their scheme of things.

4. Despite 3. above many of the commentators at the time of the Lib Dem conference believed that Orange Book or no Orange Book the Lib Dem party looked like they were prepared to go beyond even the Tories in these matters. As if to prove this they passed a resolution to completely privatise the Post Office - Counters, Royal Mail and Parcelforce. In the Warwick Agreement the Labour Party reject that.

And finally. Let's consider the overall position. What the parties are doing is trying to optimise the support not of an electorate of 40 million or whatever. Oh no. There are focused on just three-quarters to one million people. The ones most likely to cause seats to change hands. If demographics experts tell them the key issues for that group they are absolutely honour bound to woo those people.

At this moment they are not even really MPs these people. They are PPCs and the task in hand is to win the next election, and if possible lay the foundations for the one after that.

As I've said before I think real Gordon is the one who is passionate about defeating poverty here and worldwide. And the one who has an absolutely remarkable record of economic success and prosperity for the country.

PS : Where is the Respect blog? I think we should be told! I will put feelers out.

Admin Saturday

2005-04-16T11:48:00.000-07:00

Today is mostly about catching up with administration. I am on dozens of discussion lists. And lots of news feeds. I read a pretty high proportion of what comes through, most days. I contribute regularly to a fair few of them.

Labour Left Briefing, Red Pepper Debate, UK Left Network, JustPeaceUK, Anti-Racism, What Now For Labour?. I get the Labour Party stuff, all the TUC newsfeeds, Labour Against The War, The Link, STWC, ANSWERManchester and more.

A variety of discussion lists based in the States too, with one in particular "Cybermind" becoming hotter than hot after 9/11, and I get Alternet, Sojourners, TomPaine, CTheory, Nettime and a good few more.

Inevitably some of the lists get lost at times. A couple of mails bounce when the ISP has fallen over for an hour and a machine somewhere turns the feed off.

I am particularly missing the one called "Anti-Racism" as I want to check on the activity in the constituencies in the region most likely to see a BNP threat.

First I email Colin Barker who lives a few streets away and is one of the venerable grandees of the SWP, Socialist Alliance and many of the related campaigns and vehicles. We get on well. I went to his joint 130th birthday party (I forget the number to be honest) with another old trot. And when I occasionally buy the paper I check for his expositions. And we of course collaborate from time to time on anti-war, anti-fascism and other matters.

Hilary Wainwright of Red Pepper even got him to endorse Labour at the time of the Euro elections. I think it was an off the record comment! Well done Hilary!

The email I respond to is by chance about the decision of the University of Manchester SU back in November to do a complete no platform thing on the BNP. In fact they go a good deal further withdrawing all facilities and services from known members.

There are in fact open BNP members now in all Manchester and Salford's colleges. Salford University TV even allowed one of them to feature in a Channel M debate. He assaulted several protestors on the way in to the studio, though the case has not got to court yet as far as I know.

Salford's Vice Chancellor sent me a standard reply to my protest, enclosing some naive lecturer's naive justification and promising more to follow. But this never did arrive. Very experienced journalists have been skewered by clever fascists. I particularly remember Nick Griffin running rings round a Radio 5 effort by a very experienced broadcaster.

That was when "not racist" Michael Howard went to Blackburn to do a press conference on asylum seekers. Not even on the radar in Blackburn. Howard provided a platform for Griffin through his clumsiness. Setting students up to do it is crazy and the multiple assaults prove this beyond argument.

He got 17 votes in the sabbatical election to be editor of Student Direct. But he did get a couple of hundred votes in the 2004 all out elections to the City of Salford.

In a hugely embarrassing turn up for the books the Treasurer of NW Respect and a key activist in Manchester Against Racism (now renamed Manchester Unite Against Fascism) turned out to be a BNP mole. Respect ended that Euro election with finances in tatters. And then this guy and his girlfriend out themselves as raving BNP supporters. This is the trigger for the no platform motion and UMSU.

I went to the debate and the fascist spoke up for himself. My first SU GM here for 20 years plus, although I am a life member. My feeling was that another speaker wanted to oppose the motion, probably from a libertarian Lib Dem kind of perspective. That would have upped the ante, but the procedure prevented it. No platform was passed by around 315 to 7. I was incredibly disappointed by the standard of most of the debate on both this and on Top Up Fees. This is something I may return to.

To cut a long story short I ask Colin for news and for help getting back on the list if I need it. Then I contact Dick Withecombe responding to an email with a BBC letter to Nick Griffin about the upcoming programme - the one which charges against Griffin, Tyndall and others arose from. Same requests to him.

Then I do what I should have done already and go to "smartgroups" and deal with it myself. the list is still there and I switch to full email membership. But there have been no messages at all since November. I guess that fascism has not been beaten but that the network has switched to a different means of communication.

This is one example. I also reactivate some other contacts. I would like this blog to reflect all sorts of activity. And to give anyone considering a vote that really may lose Labour a seat what that may mean for local people and nationally, even if Lib Dems are the ones who take the seat.

Good Friday

2005-04-15T23:34:00.000-07:00

All kinds of things got done today. But before I forget I must say that the 'Way We Were" Labour Election Broadcast is head and shoulders above the opposition ones seen so far. The lyric is great. The smirking pictures are great. And they have had the nous not to pour oil on Howard's "it's not racist", "same rules for gypos on planning" lines by even mentioning his - is this right Jack? - 'horlicks' on that.

Blog-wise this is a holding post. I have spent my limited blog time today repairing some of the lost posts of the past fortnight. Most posts have been revised since I first posted them. There are still plenty of typos and grimmatical errors. Never mind.

But in particular I have finally re-entered the story of Sunday 3 April. When our most excellent chancellor and de facto "Home PM" Gordon Brown came to town.

Please take a look at this. Particularly 'Untying the Gordian Knot'.

Mr Brown has taken some flack in the papers for his supposedly craven New Labour performance on the manifesto launch. Not sure that criticism is quite on the money.

But on Sunday 3 April he broke clear from all that and instead of appealling to some key demographic to Blair's orders he just spilled his guts about world poverty. And more than that what he wants to do about it. And when can we start.

Which we liked. And which we think is true Gordon.

Posts exceed 30 and wordcount reaches 'already utterly ridiculous'.

Other happenings today were :

First thing - collect parcel (beautiful United Nations art print from USA via eBay) from GPO and meet Tony Lloyd there by chance. He will join in locally if anything comes up but otherwise will go and campaign in marginals like Oldham and Saddleworth.

Our constituency is twinned in fact with Rochdale (Lorna Fitzsimmons) but I believe more members will be more interested in helping in Oldham area or Ashton where BNP are most likely to compete, or Bury North where David Chaytor seems to be recognised as mostly-loyal-pragmatist-but-socialist-really.

Next - start long day producing reports for bank and government to secure monthly salary run at IDEA and increase momentum of our regeneration project.

Lunch - discuss politics with my 100% Labour accountant who is nonetheless overly impressed with some Lib Dem proposals. Cast doubts on all these one way or another. They can say anything and do nothing.

Afternoon - finish submission to boundary commission to keep Whalley Range in Manchester Central (with Tony Lloyd) and avoid transfer to Gorton (Rt Hon Sir Gerald Kaufman OBE). Important stuff.

Later - 45 minute speaker phone call with the bank. We two doing a double act to persuade this brand new bank manager to vote us in. We will go and meet him next week. He has transferred in from Nat West and so far is finding that things at the Co-op move at a rather more leisurely pace.

Later still - hooting for peace and justice x 3, ASDA being sure to buy celery from Spain rather than Israel - better for food miles if nothing else, and drop keys to Salford team so they can add another ten uber-posters to the display on IDEA's building.

They're going to the pub and again invite me to their fundraiser tomorrow night. But I think I've probably put enough cash in the coffers for now. I have to regretfully decline that. And all the offers from HQ to back them centrally while we have Blair at the helm.

I still haven't got round to checking the party manifesto for the commitment to renationalise the rail as agreed by conference. Or the commitment to restore the earnings link on pensions. They have been boosted at a far greater rate than an earnings link would have provide since 1997 but we would still like the earnings link. We can assure the Chancellor that this would not prevent bonuses and boosts when the robust economy allowed.

Manchester Central had played an important part in that debate. Joining with Rodney Bickerstaffe in refusing to be faced down by the control freaks. With our delegate making the seconding speech, after Rodney, with Barbara Castle putting the icing on.

Until conference decisions like these are acted on the powers that be cannot expect ordinary members to send fat cheques to them. Until there's no manipulation of Trade Union block votes to spike even the timetabled withdrawal from Iraq idea. But many people divert the money to local wards, constituencies and area parties. And some of us make it to all sorts of fundraisers. Sometimes averaging more than one a week.

I take the dogs for a run on the fields just down the Crescent from the campaign HQ and then back for blogging and TV.

Newsnight review guests include Mark Kermode and James Brown. Both of whom got a boost from our City Life Magazine in the 80s.

Yesterday and all day - collecting snippets from Radio 5. And researching the Lib dems vile cancer scare in the neighbouring constituency.

Reports soon.

More Slumping

2005-04-14T23:32:00.000-07:00

Question Time is telling tonight. Liam Fox is and will always remain a nasty piece of work. Fox is nasty. Even by Tory standards.

My participation in this project is based on the premise that that So Now Who Should We Vote For people have a shared vision that Liam Fox should not be any closer to State Power than he already is.

Aaaaaaaargh! Liam Fox is the poster boy for NOT TORY! And not anything that helps them in.

Tonight he has an accomplice. Her name is not important. She is a small-stateist. She is out of step with the people of our isles.

No-one is saying reduce the tax take from 40% to 15% of GDP as this woman might want. It's 42, 40 or 38. Or whatever. I'm no Institute of Fiscal Studies. Point is, the tax take proposal is pretty close in percentage terms. The fact that a couple of percentage points may mean £35 Billion pretty quickly. It's still fairly close. For now. At this election. Though really, despite current positions both Tories and Libs would eventually reduce tax to help the better off they rely on, while 'just Labour'® will continue to run up the take in a pretty painless way and might yet run up the rates a shade.

This is what I want. More tax take from top people is popular with me. But promises on super tax from the unelectable are not.

If you did raise £8 or £10 Billion from super tax would you really spend it on the things these Lib Dems propose? This pays for a few of the things in your manifesto CK
- though there are plenty more that aren't funded - but if more and more young people do want to continue in Education how will you afford that?

In Finland 98% stay on after 16 in equally regarded vocational and academic routes. At 18 there is still a 70% opt in.

Fairer local tax is my by-word. But it must surely be based on a combination of wealth and proven income. Not just declared income.

Over and over again the Libs are saying 'progressive' and being regressive. Their Local Income Tax (LIT) sums are appalling. Today at least CK, albeit deranged from Donald's arrival, can't understand it himself.

Ed Davey (architect of the scheme) has proposed - on the record - that Manchester people find 50% of the Council's revenue budget from LIT under his cleverly redistributive regime.

At the moment the local tax take is 17% of that revenue budget. And the tax base is incredibly poor. Poor despite the huge improvements in fortunes these last eight years, and even before that with a Labour council properly resisting Thatcher.

So, let's face it, as CK would say, Ed Davey is proposing a TRIPLING of local tax in Manchester. And by taking out all the property rich but electively low income folk from the equation he is suggesting quadrupling many household bills for middle earners.

Quite different from the numbers they're giving out today. Somewhere along the line their sums are very wrong.

They are now saying that £40,000 annual income per household is the threshold where you are or are not better off in terms of LIT. But this is hopeful. Their own ready reckoners show people being worse off at not much more than half this.

In Melbourne/Victoria/Australia all three levels of taxes are taken out of the wage packet. Allowances are low. And as I recall the tax thereafter is 60%. That's under Tories! Their economy is on the ropes. And in my view this is partly because the home market is small and they won't let more folk in to their wide open spaces.

The situation of the shared house of young professionals, of the pair of key workers, or the extended family unit is clear. Huge tax increases. While millionaires with no direct UK income no longer pay local tax at all under the CK proposals.

In my area Lib Dems *refuse* to engage with questions about local tax. There is no mystery on why this should be.

Clearly progressive tax is sound. But why let off the super rich? Or introduce more constipation in housing, with no-one having to ever leave outsized houses? In fact a single rich person in a 4-bed could cash in a pension that would otherwise arrive as income and then trade up to an out-of-town 7-bed!

Hankering after the old Russian system of virtually no inheritance of accumulated wealth is pointless. But as it stands the Lib LIT may be a factor in increasing inequality when it is being presented as doing just the opposite. These things are complex but it could be that this proposal has all sorts of bad effects.

Council Tax is a highly regressive Tory Tax. Various Labour benefits compensate. But the Lib Dem idea - by taking wealth or land out of the equation and encouraging contrived accountancy on income - well, it is pants.

I'm happy to wait for the Lyons Report and the Brown Government's response. Meanwhile I really do think the vague Lib Dem scaremongering about the revaluation process in Wales needs to me met with three questions :

1. You say that the theory of your scheme makes 50% better off, 25% the same, and the current-income-richest 25% worse off. Fine. In Wales after actual revaluation about 50% are better off, 25% the same and the 25% housing-value-richest worse off. So why are you pretending there's a great difference?

2. Ed Davey said recently that there was no intention to subsidise local authorities more from the centre, and that cities like Manchester would be asked to find 50% of local revenue budget from LIT. Their manifesto does say that £2 Billion of the top rate tax will subsidise local councils. And in this fantasy Lib Dem world where just about everyone is to be better off with LIT isn't there a problem with asking Manchester to treble the tax take?

3. My household is (delete as applicable) five young workers sharing/an extended family with four bread winners/a couple of two key workers earning £45,000 between us and aiming to grow this to £55,000 in five years; we are going to be four/three/two times worse off under your proposals. What's fairer or more sensible about that?

*****

Ming the Lib Democrat is pretty reasonable. David Badiel is witty-ish. Ruth Kelly is not only sharp when she's speaking. But also a very expressive listener and aside mutterer. Though of course I do worry about her. Quite a bit. Opus Dei and all. But she is impressive.

*****

The Politics Show allow Andrew Neill to do a pastiche of the Peter Kay/Tony Christie Amarillo thing in the opening credits. It can only be uphill from here. David Yelland, though Bliar (sic.) fan, is good. Rosie Boycott is an able replacement for Diane Abbott. And Armando Iannuccio has hard questions with no answers.

Sleep beckons.

Vote Labour at Trinity Cross, and back on the knocker

2005-04-14T21:59:00.000-07:00

Collect Sarah from Cheetham Hill. On the way back home we pass Brown Brothers Building. Our Vote Labour display at Trinity Cross looks grand and will be seen by tens of thousands of people daily.

I'm back out of the house again too soon. Back to check those Outs on the Egerton estate and another street nearby to cover.

Several of last nights outs and in. Generally the response is good for us. I promise to source two postal voting applications for one household and hey presto I deliver before the night is over.

This time I catch another old familiar at number 18. Furious about the war. More contained now than in 03 and 04. But throughout very happy about Tony Lloyd's record and support. Several letters by the door from TL in fact. Thinking aloud. Blair will think it's a vote for him. I don't think so and say. If votes in 139 anti-war constituencies hold up better than elsewhere that will in fact be a clear message. A protest with no chance of it backfiring on the people of Moss Side, Ancoats and Ardwick or equivalents nationwide.

We'll never know how number 18 answers the SNWDWVF question. But he suggests that he may vote Tony Lloyd early and then go and hassle Gerald Kaufman.

I've seen him at many of the anti war and other left events these last few years. He may even have been at The Friends Meeting House when Sir Gerald spoke about Palestine, condemning Sharon and sticking his neck out big style as The Jewsih Telegraph and the Chronicle had called on readers to go and heckle.

He supports the efforts of the local party to develop new links with Palestine. He has a fine record of speaking out on Jammu Kashmir. And though he has very rarely rebelled on *anything* he has indicated that once he's started he may find it habit forming.

As Roy Hattersley, quoted on SNWDWVF-web, says many back-benchers are craven and will in fact loyally support Labour leaders if and when they are 'just Labour' or 'left Labour' rather than 'new improved' (sic.).

Onwards to the new territory. This is pretty good too. I am following my rule of not disturbing those recorded already as Against or Tory. They may come round or they may not vote. I do generally knock on the doors where Lib Dem is recorded. The councillors here are generally perceived as very weak compared to their Labour predecessors. People have been let down. And may switch back to their home party.

Not yet seen opposition posters. In this voter iD exercise I will be knocking on for Lib Dem ones. Residents report that the LD team sometimes foists garden and tree posters on what are non-supporters : "We always have a poster on this tree", that kind of thing. Or get a poster in a window on the basis of some trivial piece of support. Things which councillors of any party ought to be pulled up for if they do *not* deliver. Nothing beyond the call of duty.

To cut a long story short many residents are happy to be rid of the orange diamonds which remind of nothing more than those 'baby on board' flags in the odd car.

Gathering Intelligence

2005-04-14T13:41:00.000-07:00

Everywhere I go I am collecting snippets of information, opposition leaflets and targeted letters. Early this afternoon I get a good haul.

Now I have a copy of "Cancer Scare Focus". Of the "Please apply for a postal vote" letter picturing CK and issued by Lib Dems at the very time their leader was condemning this means of election. And a sheaf of nationally produced attack material, probably emanating from attack dog numero uno Mr Alan Milburn and his FCUK lackey.

Also various information.

Nominations close on Tuesday next. This is a hugely important moment in some constituencies.

Postal votes ought to be on people's mats by the following Tuesday at the latest. Today those voting postally received a test letter. This says that this time we cannot vote on the day at polling stations if we have one of these. Designed also to give Sir Howard an early warning of any shenanigans.

Manchester had a good set of measures in place last June to prevent fraud. Much of this adopted and built on nationally this time. What Manchester does today, the world does tomorrow.

The Greater Manchester cases of attempted manipulation reported in the local paper were by Lib Dem candiidates and activists. I don't know whether these are going to court but no-one should think that any major party has not had the odd cheating chancer or six.

There are some worries though.

On my travels I have seen dozens of invitations to apply for a postal vote lying in porches or accessible in letterboxes. But the test letters should catch any personation with stolen applications.

In the city centre I know that some blocks simply have not had these forms delivered and so I am writing to the Returning Officer to ask that post is used immediately for these.

And finally on my travels I am finding a degree of confusion between these application forms, our outcards, actual polling cards, and actual postal voting forms. I will ask the Returning Officer to enlist the help of all the media in clarifying the paperwork and process as they did last time.

There were an incredibly small proportion of spoilt or faulty ballots in the all-postal election here last year. A small fraction of a percent - including the deliberate spoilers.

The nicest spoiled ballot I've glimpsed was I think the one one a five candidate ballot with a lovely cartoon cat marching across and the word 'MIAOW' filling the boxes. Was that you? Or have you a tale of enjoyable or creative writing on a ballot you spoiled? And spoiling your ballot "by voting UKIP" as one resident offered yesterday does not count!

Email spoiltvotes@easy.com with contributions.

The Curious Incident of the Pope's Tree in the Daytime

2005-04-14T13:14:00.000-07:00

Drive Patrick to school. Pick up The Guardian and the mornign edition of the Manchester Evening News - with the first 11 pages dedicated to the Bourgass case. This has certainly kept the certainty of £520 million for Metrolink if Labour win this election off the early pages.

Drive Sarah to Cheetham Hill for a Management committee away day. And we four runners take the chance to head to nearby Heaton Park for manouvres.

Hooch on a lead as he is recovering from a mashed knee. But Ottey and Jim are off calibrating their speed and acceleration against one another. Heaton Park has received a huge input of Lottery cash. And much of the Heritage is in the best state it has been - possibly for a century.

We run up the hill from the car park. Look out over the golf course. And head off for a lap of the rabbity meadows under the telecomms tower where the horses are. The rabbits provide a bit of excitement though none are caught and none are meant to be. And off we head around the park proper past the resevoirs down through wooded paths and eventually back up to the Pope's monument.

There are far less tributes than I was expecting. Hooch who cannot read and has no sense of decorum adds his own. I think of Polly Toynbee more substantial offering in the Guardian.

And I look at the trees. There has been a good deal of speculation in the local papers that the trees planted on the day, one by Il Papa's own hand, have been stolen or destroyed long ago. Possibly battered to death with a garden fork.

But although there are two roughly hewn stumps in the vicinity the smart money is on the tree still being in one piece.

I concentrate, I really do, but I cannot decide which one it is. Next time I come up here, possibly on Saturday I'll bring the helpful letter from the MEN's Famous Postbag from Knacker of the Yard (retired) who, presumably anxious that local villains nail the right tree, wrote in with a detailed triangulation exercise.

Not the one you would think he says. It's that one over there.

Slump In Front of the Television

2005-04-13T23:45:00.000-07:00

Well. I catch the Lib Dem broadcast. I feel that most of the people in the "vox pop" are card carrying "vox lib". One commenting on a Council gain and what's good about it looks like a leading councillor.

Charlie on the map looks like a right Charlie. And sorry, but the whole of Great Britain going custard coloured in the last sequence is just nauseating.

Are all the parties going for "yeuch!" in their Party Election Broadcasts?

I suppose I might add : "As usual".

Top story on Newsnight - which with BBC Radio 5 in the car is my main newsfeed just at the moment - is the trial and judgement on Kamel Bourgass.

This is the man who gave our Chief Constable his worst day in the job when he fatally stabbed DC Stephen Oake in 2003.

This secret Al Qaida trial was clear bobbling along in the background while Blunkett, Clarke and Blears were defending government proposals for internment and so on.

What will the media and the Great British Public make of this tomorrow? Will it swamp Labour's manifesto?

For the Labour left trying to hold our vote together well enough to keep Tories from power on the basis of a good few genuine and important Labour achievements would the manifesto being swamped - by a terror trial story - be a good thing or a bad thing?

Home, Home on the Range

2005-04-13T19:47:00.000-07:00

Moss Side last night was a Labour fortress, but neighbouring Whalley Range is far from it. Not long ago it was almost as safe. In 2001 I was agent and we polled record figures in a by-election alongside the General Election. But in 2003 a couple of months after the war had begun there were signs of meltdown seeping from every pore.

Before Labour started making inroads around 20 years before this had been a pretty strong Tory seat. But as with so many wards in Manchester the Tories were bundled out in pretty quick order just as Maggie Thatcher took the country by storm.

For a long time the remaining Tory voters kept the faith but once the new style Lib Dems began to build on the minimal old Liberal vote, about six or so years back, the Tories twitched and many switched on an anything-but-Labour wave.

All the classic Lib Dem tricks and gimmicks came into play. Calling it a two-horse race when still very much the third party. Barmy bar charts based on who knows what statistics. And all the usual "Effective Opposition" wheezes. You know. Being shameless, exaggerating mercilessly, taking credit, and telling porkies. I think this last is technically known as 'flirting with the truth'.

But there are some down right lies. In some cases "Focus" hardly has a single item in it which isn't false in some way. Even the name of their party begins to seem a bit of a stretch. And clearly if you are building an oppositional alliance there really is no scope for revealling any kind of political position.

Just a counsel of perfection. "Forth Bridge Needs Repainting Shock". "There's a Pothole Outside Number 10". "Leaves Fall From Trees Again This Autumn". All subtitled 'what is Labour doing about this?'.

Classic Labour response doesn't even involve much rebuttal. And as the drip, drip, drip continues residents start to think there must be some truth in their Focus. Even the bar charts and the two horse race clip art starts to look credible.

Having said all that. This was still a very safe ward for Labour nowithstanding some pockets of Tories and Libs.

The war changed everything. Even what was probably one of the most socialist and anti-war local parties in the country, in ditto constituency, was not safe. In fact a cushion of 700 votes turned into a 500 crash mat.

So here we are. On the Egerton Estate. As far as the postcode and the AtoZ and the residents are concerned this is Chorlton and that in itself is a source of opposition. This estate is the one place in the ward where Tory house posters, even garden posters appear in any number. And pre-war it was probably the first foothold for the Tory-lite Lib Dems.

But there are Labour supporters. Quite a few members and activists too. But it must be said this is in at the deep end when it comes to canvassing.

I take one avenue in the heart of this private 1930s semi-detached estate. Out. Non-voter but wants to chat. Might spoil ballot or vote for UKIP. Out. Member, still firm Labour. Asks about Tony's vote on Top Up Fees. Reassurance both ways. Out, out, undecided, rock solid Labour, students x 4 (out), just moving in from Stretford (will get registration form for next time, she will vote at other home), non-voter. Then young Asian family. Man says undecided, normally Labour, undecided. Feisty woman says definitely not Labour. Over war. Tony having voted against war on all four ballots is much appreciated but irrelevant. They are cheerful and friendly.

Cross the street. First house I remember well from 2003 and 2004. But there's no answer. So I move on. Next house another Asian family. Feel strong Labour affinity but troubled by war. Appreciate our activism in the area. This has been on war. On Post Offices. On Metrolink. I remind them of Tony's record and hope they will be able to continue to support their MP, given his record.

The first house has now answered. I go back. I haven't left a catalogue 'cos I'm not the Betterware man. No such luck. These lifelong Labour supporters are furious with Blair. The wife hates him with a vengeance. She is shaking. Almost crying. She says Mr Howard is a nicer person. Last year she had said Margaret Thatcher so there is some movement. They know Tony Lloyd well. They know he is a serious, thoughtful, helpful representative. The husband promises his vote. The wife may vote Blair hoping for Brown. There are deep feelings here which would be recognised by many party members.

Out. Next comes a wobbly streak. Man comes to door muttering "no thank you" shaking his head and muttering some more. He says no-one in this house is voting. I don't know his name but he is certainly not on the register here. There are two women and a teenage boy registered. He agrees he is not. He doesn't live in the ward or the constituency. Can I speak to the others? They're here but, no I cannot. They are not voting. How does he know? Because they've discussed it. I move on. He follows me soon after and let's himself in to the neighbouring house. They're not in.

This is bizarre. All kinds of ideas buzz through my head. Family bound and gagged in back room? Religious sect? Best not to dwell.

Next house. No knocker. No bell. Locked porch. Attempt knock and kitchen door opens. Tory in 1997. Labour in 2001. Would vote BNP if they stood. Otherwise he's one of ours. Or possibly back to Tories. He says he is watching himself on the TV. Seems there are confused floating voters being interviewed.

His issues are Law and Order, Immigration, and distant third Hospitals. I say that Labour are strong on law and order and second party here are very weak. I don't want to discuss immigration with him. I have five minutes left. And though I could start bragging about Labour's toughness on the subject, that's not going to happen. I try a quick appeal on the third issue. It's distant but this will be the one. He mostly goes private but realises that some day he may not be able to, that his family and friends need free hospitals, that Tories may dismantle them.

Onwards. Non-voter, undecided with dinner in the oven (Lib Dem), out, out, out. The outs have it as usual. But we have a very slight edge on the voters who expressed a firm or probable preference. And better still on underlying affinity.

I can't wait to go back tomorrow to tackle the outs.

White Teeth

2005-04-13T18:44:00.000-07:00

Kate not only has well brushed and healthy teeth but they are also worthy of great praise because of their lovely shape.

Patrick meanwhile needs to have someone standing over him with a big stick to improve his brushing and there are remnants of baby teeth lurking in a couple of places.

They'll have to stay until they work loose themselves.

Dad's teeth are gritted to prevent grinding and gnashing.

As I stand chatting to the new dentist I multitask and text my mate Kathy who is on one of the local Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) to check the SP on dentists sending their patients away. Particularly children. Sounds like the reasons they have given are not good enough but that they'll get away with it.

They can of course come back on private at £10 or £15 a check up and escalating treatment charges.

Meanwhile Kathy recommends everyone emailing, 'phoning and lettering their PCT with demands for more NHS dentists. Get to it.

Today we had classic FM. Vivaldi I fancy. The new partner is installed in the garden suite. And the venetians are down so either our man is saving up for a new motor to replace some tatty wreck or group 4 are now handling security as these NHS trained clinicians cast themselves adrift.

Teeth Matter

2005-04-13T15:09:00.000-07:00

There is a courtesy reminder call with bells on from our family dentist. That should be our erstwhile family dentist. This may be our children's last trip there.

Although we have moved twice since we first joined this practice it is now closer than it has ever been. Virtually at the end of the street.

The practice is the strangest I've ever been indentured to. The leader of this merry crew has the "garden suite" at the back of this converted house. Mozart plays on his stereo. There is greenery. And he is able to watch his fancy sports car like a hawk throughout every consultation.

He is a proficient and genial dentist and an early adopter of state of the art technologies with bijou xray-gun in the room long before this was commonplace.

But our friend has been gradually dismantling his NHS lists for years and years on end. Various ruses have been used. His own list was weeded for anyone who has insufficient check ups, ever missed an appointment, shows no signs of trading up to private.

The most junior of his accomplices are pretty hit and miss. Few stay more than a matter of months. Some are not very good at all. In my case the tooth that broke the camel's back was one which did actually shear under the ravages of a fixed brace. The assistant dentist quoted in writing for a particular treatment. Then he changed this trebling the cost. And fiddling the computer record of the earlier visit to boot.

I asked for a second opinion as he had inexpliquably escalated from a simple filling to a root canal and precious metal crown in less than 24 hours. From one visit to three spread over a month. He even had me ringing my hospital registrar and did so himself to get advice on what was needed. He eventually said 'fine' I could have a second opinion and asked me to ring tomorrow.

When I rang back I was told I was sacked. And they had the cheek to send a pre-emptive letter to the Primary Care Trust saying that we had parted company through a breakdown in communications.

Not then because a surgeon was dithering. Cost of treatment was escalating. And trust was waning. Would you want a root canal done whether on a healthy tooth or not by a man who rang other clinicians for advice repeatedly?

Or (hidden agenda) a greedy businessman was clearing out his NHS customers by hook or by crook. And I can tell you offering clumsy and dithery junior dentists is a top tactic in this war on public service.

The local PDS (Public Dental Service) dentist saw me the next day and charged me £8 not £238 to fix the tooth to everyone's satisfaction. Two years on another £71 has been necessary. But there is still no unneeded crown. The new man is quick, only conservative when it comes to teeth, and I have never once seen him lift his eyes off his instruments to check his car is still new and shiny outside.

Anyway. I was the first to bite the dust dentist-wise. Next came my partner who had become increasingly irritated by the increasingly irritating practices of this practice. She took half day off work as a solicitor managing a case load of Gulf War PTSD cases only to be knocked back for being a couple of minutes late. They made her cry. In front of our children. They did manage some sort of apology and even a grovelling letter but the rot had set in.

When was the last time your dentist gave you £40 compensation when they were running 20 minutes late? The things unfair. But what are you going to do? Leave in protest? Excellent!

That left the kids. Booked in six months ago their mum got a call yesterday to say they couldn't come in if neither of their parents where PRIVATE patients with the practice. We have insisted they honour the appointments. I want to hear the explanation about private patients subsidising my cheapskate NHS children face to face. I will then see the young receptionist reading from the redundancy script instead of hearing it over the 'phone.

Keeping the NHS running well never mind improving is quite a challenge. I've no doubt promises are being made even as I speak by various of the political leaders on free this and free that and more this and more that in the NHS.

What they will probably not dare say is that some dentists are incredibly greedy individuals. They have generally been trained entirely at the nations expense and even in coming days of higher fees there are huge subsidies. They build up valuable practices and huge pensions and frightened private lists. With none of the risk most entrepreneurs face. They do this on the back of NHS work. Then they turn their backs on it saying they can't afford to 'subsidise' it.

At 4.10pm we will face the music for the last time.

Writing on the Wall

2005-04-13T12:53:00.000-07:00

This morning will be spent on letters to papers, blogging catch-up, and sorting out the case work from last night's rounds.

But first I walk the school run. There really is less traffic around at the moment. The main highways in Chorlton nearby are being dramatically improved for pedestrians, public transport and for local users.

This has reduced the through traffic while the work is in progress. And this in turn seems to have reduced the no-time-to-lose through traffic rat running down our way. Road works are great. Less and narrower roads means less traffic. Discuss.

No time. Pick up Guardian and morning edition of MEN. I have the three dogs. the pedigree racer formerly known as Tigger is in a splendid palatine coat. He is also being gently broken in to the name Jim. Jimmy and Jimbo will probably follow. Just now he is not particularly responsive to any of his names. But I estimate it will take approximately 10 cocktail sausages to get him the gist and 20 for him to think he's been called Jim all his life. That's a treat for later.

First letter is to Guardian. Again pointing out the folly of "voting Lib Dem in almost every case". This is just plain stupid. It's a recipe for Tory government.
I also announce that the Labour blog is now linked from the SNWDWVF site.

Second letter is to the Manchester Evening News. Mike Amesbury wrote in a couple of days ago rightly pointing out that Charles Kennedy's pretence of being positive is rather undermined by starting every pledge with "We oppose ...".

I support this and give the case of Opik and Hughes for the party Presidency where Opik spoke up for being positive and was roundly beaten. And of course the Hughes Bermondsey by-election came in as a useful illustration also.

Third letter is to the local Reporter following up the mauled letter of last week and adding more to the mix.

The letters will be linked here if they are published or reproduced here in a day or two if they are not.

I will reproduce the l

Harlem Spirit

2005-04-12T23:58:00.000-07:00

Moss Side is Labour heartland. The last canvass here returned 81%. Though turn out in the last general was just 21%. Factoring in a good number of people who are always 'out' to callers and are pretty unlikely to ever vote we could conceivably still double the turn out of our promises here.

With one of our eight wards always a marginal and another going bright yellow in the anti-war backlash of 2003 and 2004 we need to maximise our return from our six best wards as well as continuing the fightback in the tough ones.

Tony Lloyd MP has the 11th safest Labour seat in the land. He wonders aloud where the other ten actually are as standing in Moss Side it is harder to imagine a safer place for those who champion workers and the vulnerable.

But the people of Moss Side don't only need to retain their MP of 22 years standing. They need the conscious solidarity of the rest of the country to ensure no return to Tory government. Even the Tory-lite economic tendancies of the Orange Book need to be kept well away from power.

The physical environment has improved so very much here in the last eight years. It is in some senses unrecognisable and certainly the path to crime is much less well travelled. The houses on the estates are almost universally neat, clean and in a fantastic state of repair, fences, gates, gardens and all. The former Pepperhill Pub, once hub for one of two local gangs (the other being the Gooch), is a youth and community resource.

I spent time in there in the 80s organising poster printing and sound systems and liaising with my A&R man Larry Benji on which bands I was being offered to promote were the bankers. I should have quickly worked out that the answer was 'on average none of them' as promoting reggae shows and indeed most music shows the national promoters don't want is as profitable as virtual roulette down the bookies and very probably as addictive.

The baddest of the bad boys are now locked up most of the time. Or dead. Life has improved by leaps and bounds.

We report for duty at HQ. I recognise people from Ancoats, Hulme, City Centre, Whalley Range and of course Moss Side. This is something of a Tuesday awayday when one key ward gets some extra support to help complete the canvass in a polling district or two.

We will pick up case work, administrivia, comments and ideas as we go.

Even by Moss Side standards the area we are covering tonight is hugely supportive. We are told of the one local issue which might come up. After a freeze on heating bills over the past five years or so there is to be a 30% rise for those on area heating schemes. This has come from the Utilities people themselves who are probably overcharging. But it is clearly not fair for other tenants to be overcharged by the Council, only the Lib Dems could promise to throw a chunk of the Council's hard earned reserves at the problem, and in fact the Labour Group is pursuing both the Utilities and the Energy Saving routes to mitigate the rise.

In fact this does not come up even once. I reorganise the boxes of leaflets in my car so that Cllr Mrs Brandy and Ahsan can fit in and we head off across Princess Road to Bold Street. This is opposite the former site of the Little Alex pub where the 2004 election saw a huge Green Is Good hoarding for the duration. The value of that in commercial terms would run to thousands of pounds - though I'm sure it was not in the election return. What's more Manchester's Greens, expecting gains, made none.

Ahsan tries to pull himself out of the rear seat using the door pillar, Mrs Brandy shuts the car door and for a second or two three fingers are somehow secured between tightly closed door and frame. Ouch. There is blood. We make sure he is OK and head off to work.

Of my first 15 homes I get an almost unprecedented 14 people coming to the door with several inviting me in. Two of the first three include voters who may need proxy votes arranged. We have until 24 April to get new postal or proxy votes organised.

Most know Tony Lloyd personally through some help or other. And there are ideas or issues to feed back to him from several more.

One is very concerned about the changes in pension books, post offices and the way banks seem to treat older customers. A particular concern is for those who can no longer sign at all, or whose signatures change as their hands lose function.

Banks are a suspicious lot and the new money laundering rules are aimed at organised crime without the law or the banks' implementation being sensitive to such problems.

I tell her that Tony Lloyd has a great record of speaking up on such matters, including in Parliament (e.g. Feb 2003) on local Post Office closures and management cheating in this very area. Long before this became a hot issue for the opposition.

I don't need to tell her that the Lib Dems have policy to privatise the lot if they get their chance. She will clearly vote Labour. I think Tony will be very interested in these questions of power of attorney, changing signatures, banks vs post office service and so on. I thank her very much for raising the issue.

Meanwhile the childminder in the house I have just passed has come out. I collect casework here too. The street behind her house has had speed reduction measures but is still a hazard for children. Many of the formal play areas in this part of Manchester have been lost at least for the moment. She also wants to move her business and perhaps set up a larger nursery. Perhaps we can point her at some guidance? Or suitable premises?

At the very next house I meet a voter from neighbouring Whalley Range who is anxious to check she is still on the register there. She is looking after her very elderly mum who has a postal vote lined up. She is a huge fan of Tony Lloyd's and says she'd like to see more of him. It must be pretty hard to keep a network of 80,000 people happy with frequent sightings. Tony does a regular advice session nearby.

And so it goes on. I link up with Mrs Brandy, one time doyen of caribbean catering in the area, enjoying being a councillor these past couple of years, with a career in community development to boot and a tremendous rapport on the estate. We work round a couple of side streets together generally taking different houses though she is quick to rush over to see an old friend Myrtle and even quicker to hand back the house with the barking dog AND next door.

The barking dog is soft as they come. He can smell my three dogs on my hand. His venerable Irish owner is another with an open door policy and turns the volume right down on the telly in my honour, both are mourning the loss of the dog's mum, and she promises me her boyfriend's vote also. "My boyfriend mind, not me man." I know Tony Lloyd will be getting offered tea at every other door but this open door welcome is a real breath of fresh air. Something not found in the wards I have done most of my campaigning in these last few years.

Her neighbour across the street is 'not in' says the young man who answers the door. But it's someone else she's avoiding and she proves to be an enthusiastic Labour supporter once she knows the coast is clear.

Chelsea-Bayern has kicked off now and we hustle round the last few houses with diminishing returns. Between Mrs Brandy and myself we have about 80 contacts and 50 outs which is not bad. Particularly as we have only found three or four "against" altogether. We check in on Ahsan, who has made a good recovery from his finger mash, and as we walk back to the car Mrs Brandy points out this open space and that, what she'd like to see there. And children's play areas is happily a regular.

As we drive back this time going close to the cleared Maine Road she points out some houses that will go, the housing improvements to those that will stay, and also the new Somali community setting up shop. There has been a Somali community in this part of Manchester for at least 30 years - including the famous Plaza and Palace cafes where the menus included killer, suicide and kamikaze as well as mild, medium, hot - but all has not been plain sailing with the newest arrivals. There is a job to be done there too, especially with and for the young people.

Back at base we see some of the others. Roy, Manchester's first Jamaican major a few years back - for the Commonwealth Games in fact. Gerry, who has past lives as Tractor Engineer and hereditary peer. He has contested two Lords by-elections and would be back in ermine like a shot. We differ on that and quite a lot besides!

Sarah and Drew then return and tell me the hot news of my own nemesis in Whalley Range.

This Councillor, the war dancer, is hailed as a buffoon even by some members of his own local party. He is in a right tiswas over the upcoming boundary changes (see 1 April footnotes). He is not only backing the move to Gorton constituency which is hugely unpopular in the area. Most people of all parties and none want to stay in Manchester Central. His petition is way out of step. He is also throwing out false deadlines and misinformation. Did it over Post Offices too. Issuing consultations leaflets weeks and months after the real deadline. He's doing most of this out in the open on public email forums. I'm promised copies of the emails.

On the way out Tony seems to catch his leather coat on the door furniture. There is a momentary fashion worry. There is a little snag. But that I'm assured is from by-election duties in Leicester.

He has a special email address for the duration of the campaign - votetonylloyd@hotmail.co.uk - and I will be using this to send through casework and other news.

I finish my notes, slurp down my cuppa, and head home for a late but most excellent tea of curried lamb, sweet rice and salad.

Prometheus - Life of a thousand cuts

2005-04-12T21:25:00.000-07:00

This morning Kate practices her flute at 7:30 in the morning. Quietly enough. I give her Patrick's packed lunch as she's off first. And I make another to Patrick's preciuse specifications. Not the grated cheese his mum had left him. Slices! Not those processed slices! Real slices. Cut from a chunk! And shouldn't that be in a food bag?

Patrick and dad talk about school work on the walk to school. Literacy and numeracy are daily fixtures. How about Craft Design Technology? I ask.

Not today! comes the reply. Swiftly followed by the news that he and his arch rival Tahir are the only ones who completed their pop up book project.

Their theme is Prometheus. The young god who dared save man by giving back the life giving fire that Zeus had confiscated. Punishment? His liver pecked to bits on a daily basis only to regenerate overnight. A painful life by a thousand cuts.

Patrick tells me his pop up has a bird sliding up and down to jab Prometheus where it hurts but cannot kill. I'm away in a sea of thoughts trying to map the travails of New Labour onto the story.

Zeus, the all-powerful Blair perhaps? Life-giving fire the quietly redistributive policies from the socialist hearth, rising from the embers through Brown's care and commitment? His only reward that painful life by a thousand cuts?

Pandora's Box waits in the wings as Man's comeuppance. That might well be Thatcher's hatchet man Michael Howard. But what's this? Pre-Labours' Hercules to the rescue. Freeing Brown, and perhaps nurturing the Hope which alone remains in the Box. It's thirty something consecutive quarters of growth and stability rather than the full thirty years ... and it's a little bit of a stretch all round. But hey. It's early in the morning.

Gordon Brown is far from perfect. He's taken the neo-liberal shilling. He's signed the Faustian pact of loyalty as number two in a long-running double act. But despite all this most of the party would most likely back a Brown succession.

And the party's who are pretenders to Labour's throne will not be chanting "Elect Blair, Get Brown". They know full well that this is a message the electorate actually like.

On the other hand that "Go to bed with Charlie, wake up with Michael" jingle is at the crux of this election. Recognised by SNWDWVF. Not unfortunately by the immature and impractical BackingBlair project ... foolishly calling us all to vote Tory in hundreds of seats. I don't think they're tramping the streets I'm tramping.

Marking the Turf

2005-04-12T18:19:00.000-07:00

Stopping at DADI only to collect the keys for Brown Brothers Building or B3 I drive to the campaign HQ for Salford Labour. On a mission to physically mark out one corner of Manchester and Salford's Labour credentials.

We collect seven enormous Vote Labour boards from the meeting room at the back of Edmund and Ruth Frow's Working Class Movement Library on the Crescent and drive in convoy to Brown Brothers. Perhaps I'll have time to fill in the full history before long. But for now it's good enough to know that this started life as a Brewery in a Chapel Street, Trinity and Irwell Bank Brewery Land which included a cluster of others including Threlfalls, later Chesters, and Boddingtons itself.

"Brewer" rubbed shoulders with "Lawyer" and "Churchman" in the dominant historic professions of Chapel Street. Beer was later replaced with Jam, and later the Brown Brothers car parts business. Plans for a rag trade department store stalled and I bought the building for IDEA late in 1999 - sure a goodly grant would be along soon.

More than five years on the financial package is all but complete. There will be 21 luxury apartments in the tower and rising above the main roof. But inside will be a hive of Creativity and Technology as IDEAs become reality. Creche, gallery, cafe, and training space. But most of all a much needed jump start for creative businesses and training and work for local people.

We go in. Smell the sweet smell of a sequence of small fires. Kids torching artworks belonging to the Mekons' OOOH show (that's Out Of Our Heads), waves of rough sleepers keeping warm, and so on and so forth. A history of burning layered in the air.

Up to the roof. I take the white collar role of ideas and facilitation as Peter and Steve in blue collar clamber over the scaffolding and a particularly hairy fire escape to hang the Labour markers at one of the main junctions in the regional centre.

Six on the front in three columns and two neat rows - Peter is a painter and decorator as well as being a Labour NEC member and Amicus Official. Steve is usefully a Health and Safety expert.

The job done we head off in different directions for an evening on the knocker, finalising leaflet copy, rounding up volunteers.

A Big Hand for IDEA

2005-04-12T16:23:00.000-07:00

After founding City Life straight out of college in 1983, and various adventures in concert promotion, advertising and marketing, I found myself raising money and producing events for arts charities in Manchester and beyond.

One of these, Basement Video - run by the founder of Rabid Records and Absurd, one Tosh Ryan - was the foundation for IDEA. This stands for Innovation in Digital and Electronic Arts, founded in 1996.

Like many arts and media charities we lurch from crisis to crisis. Most of them major. But none fatal. We have two buildings. One is a grade II listed victorian gothic building in the midst of the University of Manchester and Metrolitan University campus. On the same stretch as the Art College and close to the RNCM.

This was founded in 1868 as the Adult Deaf and Dumb Institute and was a philanthropist-backed resource with reading room, gymnasium and what seems like a cross between a lecture theatre and a chapel upstairs.

Above the door is a big hand symbolising the lingua franca within. And a madonna and child adding to the churchy look and signalling the christian charity behind the foundation. The building was used for its original purpose for 100 years. This was followed by dereliction for some years, during which I did tinker with the idea of creating a venue here, a few short years as a sorry low rent curry house, and five years or so ago a rescue through IDEA.

We have run various exhibitions, production projects including many international visits and collaborations, and much arts and media training too.

However our resources are tied up in our other building - more of which later - and for the past couple of months we have been pro-actively looking for a partner to invest, expertly manage the catering, and leave us with some space to play in.

All the hard work on planning and listed building consent, all the design and even costing work has been carried out years ago.

We have found some soul mates. The proprietors of Big Hands and The Temple of Convenience. And today we're agreeing the shape of our deal in a quick meeting.

They will pay a small premium for the designs, they will bankroll the whole development cost, barring perhaps the mobility access costs for which we are looking for grants, they will guarantee the basic running costs, and once we have recouped the costs we will share and share alike. IDEA running the upstairs and Big Hands running the two lower floors.

It really is a pleasure doing business with Peter and Scott. There is a somethingly socialist undercurrent. A collective agenda. And a cooperative spirit. It takes us less than 10 minutes to agree all the terms. Apart from the eventual profit share. Both Tosh and I have been involved in Co-ops and the like for years. Both Basement and IDEA were originally Workers' Cooperatives. And old school musicians' collectives and that old Rabid spirit taught Anthony H Wilson all he needed to know to whisk away Martin Hannett and start and finish Factory.

Planning Matters Too

2005-04-12T12:08:00.000-07:00

Onwards. I leave the building chatting with the Residents' rep on the LAP. He is very happy and positive with his choice to relocate into the heart of things three years ago. And his partner has an eight-minute commute against the main flow.

I go back into the Town Hall planning section and do a careful search on a particular site in South Manchester. Stories have been emerging of a planned demolition of a century old landmark. Not listed or protected. Not in a conservation area. And as part of the Tory legacy which New Labour have neglected to repeal or amend demolition can proceed without any sort of permission.

Eventually, hiding among more than a dozen decisions on the computer stretching back for more than 20 years, I find an outline permission which still has some six months to run in its five year term. Close enough to what's now planned to be revived.

There's not long. I ask for the drawings to be pulled out of the archive which may take a few days. And I take the details of the Conservation Officers. I will also involve the Victorian Society and the local paper.

Councillor Neil Swannick from Bradford ward passes through with a greeting as I rattle through the papers for this week's planning meeting. Two controversies in the minutes. Co-op Gate where various Co-op Party and United Co-op members have been barred from voting on a Co-op Funeral related matter. And plans to build in the flood plain in Didsbury. Not much on in the new cycle. More residential developments just North of the City Centre in Ancoats being the highlight.

Onwards to Manchester Fayre to check prices for banquets and functions. Then off to Eighth Day to collect lunch and grab an 86 bus home.

In an hour I'm off for a meeting with the Big Hands team.

Policing Matters

2005-04-12T11:51:00.000-07:00

At 10.05 a.m. I arrive at the Central LAP meeting in Committee Room 2 in our glorious Town Hall. LAP is Local Action Partnership. They've kicked off dead on time at 10. I'm late. But looking around those three Lib Dem 'representatives' are not represented.

Perhaps cycling the wrong way up a one way street somewhere? Or perhaps (apart from Dobbo) they are out of our face because they're busy communing with Charles Kennedy or trying to rustle up the votes to unseat Phil Woolas, Lorna Fitzsimmons or David Chaytor in some of our closer seats.

Woolas signed my Life Membership card as General Secretary of the MUSU many years ago, Fitzsimmons carries quite a reputation, while Chaytor has the nearest thing to a good argument for Top Up Fees, even Variable Top Up Fees that I've ever heard. If we have a good case to make it is these high calibre arguments that we have to face and win. Just as we have to take on the brains trust of Nick Cohen, Johann Hari and David Aaronivitch on the war.

LAPs exist to plan action between the Police, the Council plus in the case of the Centre's FOUR different LAPs (other wards have just one) the Management Company, and various representatives of business and residents.

The Central LAP is far and away the most commercial orientated of the four. Few residents still in this area which covers the 'Central Business District' and the high value heart of 'Manchester's Shopping Offer'.

As I arrive a Police Superintendent is reeling off the crime stats. Mostly they're pretty good versus the central government targets. And month on month in January most of the figures are on the way down.

This has been the general pattern ever since Chief Constable Michael Todd took over a couple of years ago. Well before the extra 800 or so police officers were trained up. And long before the Community Support Officers found their feet on the beat.

Not surprisingly the progress has continued as these extra forces are applied. In 2004 I missed the Annual General Meeting of the Manchester Local Government Committee aka City Party. This had the attractive by-product of getting back some of my Friday evenings spent in Exec meetings.

It was doubly worth it as Todd was also a very impressive communicator and he is clearly a strong leader setting high standards for his people. Every day he says is like Christmas Day for him. The one exception he makes being the day he lost an Officer in an anti-Terror raid.

Greater Manchester still looks like one of the weaker forces nationally. There is certainly plenty of headroom for improvement. But the local media seem unable to make their minds up whether to beat them up for newly published figures under old regimes or go easy on them when there are small improvements in the league tables.

A letter from Council Leader Richard Leese to the Chief Constable which somehow found its way to the Manchester Evening News included a robust critique of performance. Though it had been Leese who drove through the extra Police Numbers when several councils were all for leaving it another year.

Back to those figures. The highlights :

For the whole Division (City Centre plus a chunk of North and East Manchester)

Reports Actual Reduction Target

Burglary 26.1% 15.0%
Robbery 19.9% 18.0%
Vehicles 9.5% 8.5%

Detections Actual Improvement Target

Burglary 10.8% 10.5%
Robbery 14.9% 17.5%
Vehicles 8.3% 8.0%
Assaults inc Serious 23.2% 22.4%

All crime 22.7% 18.7%

In the Central LAP alone :

Jan Feb

Serious wounding 1 1
Wounding 53 48
Shoplifting 96 112
Rape 0 1
Indecent assault 2 0
Burglary dwelling 0 1
Robbery 12 5
Theft from person 39 27
From vehicle 16 14
Of vehicles 14 6

I don't record the buglaries from businesses but it is clear from heated discussions that these are up from an already high level. Selfridges reports six organised crime ram raids in a few months. One franchise holder is threatening to decamp to the Trafford Centre. Police say they are making progress. And that number plate recognition software helps intercept the likely lads. The superintendent also says that his officers do not usually intervene on raids in progress. Instead they try to execute an interception at a suitable location.

Some vicarious excitement. Organised criminals. Evil masterminds. High Technology. Heist. Ambush. Arrest. Bad lads banged up.

But it's not really too relevant to the life of local residents. I cross examine on the matter of the Police Pod. This is being relocated from the remodelled Picadilly Gardens to the Exchange Square area next to Urbis. This is Five Star aggressive skate boarding and moshing territory. Tagging. Drugs. Drunkeness. Nuisance.

The idea is to break the patterns. But there is a clear understanding all round that there needs to be pressure with support. Youth facilities and budgets are poor.

I will return to all this expression of youth and music culture stuff when I get a chance. Perhaps in revisions here. Perhaps another day.

Lib Dems are still wavering between weak and very weak on crime and disorder. And they have a confused approach on surveillance and civil liberties to boot.

Ask The Nationalists

2005-04-11T23:37:00.000-07:00

Alex Salmond is first up. He is a socialist and leading his party in a generally socialist programme. Fien for now. They'll not be voting with the Tories that much you have to say. But this doesn't necessarily follow. If your holy grail, your unique selling point, your sheet anchor is national independence then future leaders and future MPs and future MSPs may take a completely different view on other issues.

If I had been picked to ask Alex a question it would have been :

"The smart money these days is on internationalism, not nationalism.
With family from Donegal and Derry I would certainly rather that
politics in the North of Ireland was organised on lines of
economic interest and social philosophy than on Nationalist-
Loyalist or other sectarian grounds.

"Why not organise and agitate within Labour?"

All things considered he does pretty well but the majority in the audience is mildly hostile. One of the Welsh Tories asks him a tax question anticipating rises. His mono-industry on oil is challenged. And audience members also point out the Scottish Labour have many of the same ideas.

I guess the point that hits home the most is on the futility of organising for UK elections rather than sticking to the Assembly. There is this general point in the air that whatever they may say they simply cannot deliver much even if they won all 59 seats in the reduced quota. They currently have five and one probably goes in the re-organisation.

This section is ended with a rather sentimental sort of nationalism from an older audience member and immediately the break starts a teenager turns on the speaker and berates them openly for this maudlin plaid, skirls and shortcake call for votes.

Trading Tales with Tories

2005-04-11T20:45:00.000-07:00

My marching orders have not arrived for the Blair/Brown rally - somewhere in the Manchester area. I have belatedly asked if I can take along Farhat Khan, THE Farhat Khan, asylum seeker. But one way or another I don't have the data to know where to set off for. Tony Lloyd MP is not going. He thinks it might be Bolton. And he offers a canvassing session in Moss Side. I respond that I'm there tomorrow evening already and will head for Dimbleby recording instead. "A wise choice" comes the text back.

Partner hustles me into the car, headed for Cheetham Hill Advice Centre Management Committee. I call Ben, one of Dimbleby's researchers and tell him I can make it after all. That I'm 10 minutes away. It's a done deal.

I have been here before. Last time was for a really live Health debate with John Reid during Labour Spring Conference. Huge bombs at Atocha Station and elsewhere in Madrid are still top of the news - so the show is split with Terror and War getting the lion's share over Doctors and Nurses.

On that occasion one war question makes the warm up, and my health question - about an appallingly put together piece in the poor and now I think defunct Men's Fitness dubbing Manchester Britain's Fat City - didn't make the cut either.

What can I do to improve my odds? Keep my hand up through most of the show ready to ask either Nationalist leader a question within any topic seemed the only way. And hope Ben has assigned me one of the hot seats high and in the middle block which Jonathan tends to prefer.

The "Green" Room is in fact full of Plaid, Tory, Lib Dem and Labour. The Scots are elsewhere. Probably on the motorway. There are a few freelancing one topic specialists like that SPUC woman over there. I help a series of hapless guests work the hot drinks machine. And I spot an Open University pin and strike up a conversation. It's a young Welsh Tory from Cardiff. Working in a call centre and studying something or other with the OU.

We quickly get to the conversation that Tory folk and Labour folk seem to have whenever found together in such social situations. The complete unreliability of this third party. This "real alternative". He can have a beer or a coffee happily with Labour people he says but he cannot abide the Lib Dems. I empathise and say I wish the Tories would organise properly in Manchester.

Let's be clear. I wouldn't want them being elected in any great numbers but I think generally when you read a Tory leaflet you can work out what you're in for if you vote for them. And ditto a Labour leaflet. With the Lib Dems it is a complete mystery. In Trafford we have Tories. In fact they have control. And in Salford there are a handful of Tories - making a comeback - and a handful of Libs.

In Manchester we have Lib Dems and isolated Greens. It is many years since the Tories had a single councillor. And most of the ground they take here is Tory ground.

How can they address poitics in writing when their electoral support includes tactical Tories, tactical ultra-left, old school Liberals, new Libertarians, protests from Labour socialists, and of course a rather socially conservative, economically labour, but rightfully thoroughly anti war series of distinct but united asian communities?

Gradually we are herded through security checks and into the studio were the best laid plans have gone awry. Every one is supposed to have a marked seat. Quite a number of names are missing. Mine included.

Canal Treat

2005-04-11T16:40:00.000-07:00

After lunch it's down to Canal Street at the heart of Manchester's bustling Gay Village for a meeting between a residents' representative and town hall officers with myself and a handy venue operator tossed in the mix for good measure.

Though perceived as among the safest areas of the centre the statistics do not bear this out. Collisions and traffic related injuries are relatively high and crime and disorder also show a hot spot here.

Council, Centre Management Company, Police and Village Business Association have been negotiating away for months to improve matters. In essence the plan is for increased access restrictions for traffic at various times, and discrete seated outside drinking areas 'owned' by each establishment.

Residents - in a couple of loft developments - have been consulted with a request for replies within seven days. And perhaps through slightly careless drafting the letter is not clear that this is actually only a sounding out ahead of a real consultation.

Traffic treat us to a round of soft drinks and we sort out the residents access issues pretty swiftly - probably beating the rat running through traffic to boot by going further than the draft plan.

The Management Company throw in a further round and we agree to a light touch for new street furniture and area delimiting gear. We work in some adequate loading bays for the residents and also clear pavement areas at their doorways. And the idea of raising the street to a continuous surface with the pavements improving mobility access is on the agenda if the experimental period works well.

Success all round. The three ward Councillors have been no where to be seen. Not quite true. 'Dobbo' cycles by with a cheery wave for myself.

I head off with Deputy City Centre manager Roger and catch up on Local Action Partnerships (there's one tomorrow), Youth provision and nuisance, and the current status of various other plans and development sites.

Practical politics in the original Athenian sense. Not a party angle really - except that Labour were there to help, and the others could only send a single representative to cycle by - the wrong way up a one way street!

Off home now to find out which of several options is in store for me campaign wise this evening. Will it be Blair and Brown? Dimbleby, Salmond and some Welsh chap? Or the good people of Moss Side?

School Winners

2005-04-11T10:06:00.000-07:00

First task of the day is to walk Patrick to school. It's not a bad walk. Labour traffic calming was introduced before Lib Dems wrested control of Whalley Range away.

The school itself is great. Top OFSTED. Chastised only for some perceived slackness on collective worship - no problem. The best the particular inspector had ever seen and mentioned in dispatches - great. Children skipping in at the start of the day and out at the end with great grins on their faces - best of all.

Greatest problem really is that after establishing this happy and successful community our children will scatter to a dozen or more high schools. Community High Schools (specialist or otherwise), faith schools within and outside the state system, single sex comps, selective state schools in neighbouring Trafford, not to mention a handful of Premier Cru independents.

As a paid up member of the universal comprehensives Labour left I'm not a bit happy about this. As rapporteur for the "Every School A Good School" group at the Secondary 'Big Conversation'® I told Blair and Clarke this myself. Advising them that there was nothing to be scared of with the news that that's the way they do it in top-of-the-OECD-tables-for-everything Finland.

Sitting directly to my right I was 'assisted' by Ivan Lewis MP in producing a slightly more new-Labourly form of words than I might have done left to myself. An aspiration to make every Community High School so good that no parent would opt out, pay for school, or make their children travel miles.

Ivan was also present at a Socialist Education Association event in Manchester Town Hall and though he was a bit grumpy at being called for New Labour's toleration of existing selection and even introduction of more he was comradely enough afterwards.

Lord Hattersley was the star turn that day with a fund of anecdotes, a fount of principles, and an infectious optimism that having done an unelectable left phase and swung too far to get Maggie out the pendulum would now be on the way back to something more palatable for the left.

Sir Gerald Kaufman's apologia for faith schools was less compelling by far. No harm done, he seemed to say, they want faith schools, they'll do them anyway, best to have them in the state system. From my perspective though there is harm done as every child's education is impoverished by secondary segregation.

Manchester Labour are now attempting the same kind of mitigation of Academy Schools - by proposing to draw them into area clusters with other state schools, including even area governance, and thereby stopping selection or at least the excesses of it and keeping together a community of schools rather than a rat race.

Only time will tell whether this Manchester Model will work. But the alternative of not accepting a nine figure sum in capital improvement money is not much of an option.

Back to Patrick's school. The richness of the community is fantastic. Probably 90% from four or five Asian communities, with the balance drawn from African, Caribbean and various European legacies.

Strange then that not 200 metres away one of the Lib Dem candidates of 2004 - now a Councillor - should tell parents and leading Peace and Justice activists that they wouldn't mind if a couple of BNP councillors were elected. Horrifying.

I didn't stand up and speak at a rally last May, play cat and mouse with BNP fascists for an hour or so to find a secret location, and sit down in the road in front of those nazis Le Pen and Griffin for the Lib Dems to let them in through the back door of so-called free speech.

Wavering between weak and very weak on crime and disorder they're even weaker when it comes to tackling the far right. If you want to treat fascists and racists to free speech including in our council chambers, in westminster and in strasbourg, not to mention the ultra nasty Combat 18 website identifying ordinary members of the poublic who oppose them - then vote Lib Dem.

Delivering Blair in Manchester Withington

2005-04-10T19:45:00.000-07:00

Morning - assemble near the Co-Op Late Store for mass leafleting for Keith Bradley MP in Chorlton Park. Keith is mostly loyal, what Lord Hattersley might call craven, but did oppose the war in the key vote. This is the home patch of the Lib Dem PPC in Withington and though it should now be a series of classic Labour supporting estates it has been Tory and it is amazingly Lib Dem orientated at the moment.

"Angela" a party member, unknown to me, passes by by chance and promises that she will be doing some leafleting. But she's not happy. The iD cards bill for example. Keith says this has been stopped - as if New Labour has withdrawn it. Angela continues on other bills. And the ones she wants have been stopped by Tories while the ones she doesn't like are shelved.

I am 100 doors or so into my round before I read the leaflets. They have Mr Blair's picture on them! Quite small and discrete but it's there. Not shaking the MPs hand or anything. So that's alright.

There has been a fuss as at PMQs the vampiric Howard has asked MPs how many have Mr B on their leaflets. Few have. In fact there are many more Blair imprints I should think on opposition leaflets.

In my experience party leaders have rarely featured on our leaflets. Perhaps things are different here in Withington.

A local Labour supporter gives me copy of the Lib Dem candidate's leaflet. This has the usual utterly barmy bar charts on it. The distortion involved here is huge. They suggest they are just 4% behind while the Tories are 20% adrift.

In fact in the last general election they were 11,000 behind, tussling with the Tories for second and third place. Their messages are (a) "you can vote Lib here without letting Tories in" and (b) "Libs can win". But the fact is this was a Tory seat until 1987 and it's not worth risking any vote but Labour.

The message for floating voters is that if they will produce dishonest bar charts like this how trustworthy is the rest of their spiel? Answer - it's glib Lib fibs.

This candidate is also sending targeted letters to women voters about Ovarian cancer. Featuring the logos of various charities. This belies no previous known interest in the subject or indeed medical issues campaigning. And this is scaremonging on a grand scale. There will probably be just five or six cases in the ward each year. I will investigate further.

Mourning - afternoon I take the new dog and the original dog on my usual Sunday run in Lyme Park. This is what I had done as therapy with the original dog on the day after the horrendous poll defeat of 2003. And after a lapse I have now run here on average at least once a week for nine months or more.

There is a good show of Lib Dem Andrew Stunnell MP posters along the way. Better than a Tory and not classic (or even new) Labour territory.

Salford - the Champions

2005-04-09T23:43:00.000-07:00

Cheetham Hill branch quiz in Blackley constituency. I join the Salford Lads and Lasses Club team and we win the top prize against the odds.

The story was written here in great detail but blogger.com threw it away. If I get the chance I will re-write it.

There is no doubt that Graham Eric Stringer MP will be returned here in Blackley. Tony Lloyd in Central has the 11th safest Labour seat in the country. And like Lloyd and Stringer Keith Bradley MP also voted against the war and is a proper, professional and commited MP. But the worry for local campaigners and local people is that well motivated but ultimately self indulgent Guardian folk in other constituencies will go yellow or green and let the noxious Tories in.

Ten percent swing from Labour to Libs causes almost 80 seats to change hands. But of these only SIX go to the Lib Dems, the rest go to the Tories. Disaster.

Tigger, Desi, and Guarding the Guards

2005-04-08T21:41:00.000-07:00

Head off to collect greyhound 'Tigger' from Farnworth. He is a throughbred racing greyhound of around two years of age. The original owner rejected the whole litter of six at just six months of age and so he was rehomed through Tia Greyhound Rescue which is in West Yorkshire.

My original lurcher Ottey passed through the same way with her mum and most of her 11 siblings. Her brother Hooch was rehomed as a very young dog, too young, and as a 'whippet'. When he had grown to 28" high at the shoulder by age seven months, which is big even for a full grown lurcher, he bounced back for rehoming. And we took him.

Anyway, what has this got to do with the election? Not a lot. But as I introduce Hooch to Tigger and we take these two plus Ottey and Simpson walking I get the chance to talk with Sean about the bar security industry and also Desi Noonan.

All the nightclubs and some of the bars in Manchester have got to have registered doormen. This has been the case for some time under Manchester's Doorsafe programme. Guarding the guards. By Christmas all were also supposed to have 'tickets' proving they have had professional training, passed an assessment and are safe and sound.

There is a massive shortage of properly qualified doormen in the area. Although there have been a number of incidents of huge violence involving bar security people, notably a death in Swinton, which was not unlike the McCartney case in Belfast barring the paramilitary memberships, some of the local politicos are incredibly soft on the problem.

The Residents' Labour Party in the city centre have been insisting since the start of consultation that training is a key issue. And not just bouncers and managers. Also bar staff, pot collectors and basically everyone involved in licensed venues.

We have also called for proper protocols on plastic versus glass receptacles and submitted detailed proposals on all kinds of other areas of bar operation.

Our proposals go under the acronym CALM which is Comprehensive Agreements on Licencing Manchester and got some useful publicity ahead of the 2004 election.

The DCMS has chosen a rather dirigiste approach on Local Authorities and they have to issue exactly the same nationally directed forms, guidance notes on so on. But our CALM protocols will find some use in residents' negotiations with bar operators ahead of applications.

Incidentally last time I heard there have been a total of ZERO applications in Manchester under the new regime. All the opposition and media scaremongering has so far looked very foolish. And I'm pretty confident that the new Act will be a great tool for sensible Council's like Manchester to get things under better control and not a cue for Liberty Hall.

Meanwhile fifteen new Licensing staff were taken on to be trained up before the rush. As there has been no rush as yet they are applying themselves to some of the areas the department deals where there is normally a light touch through lack of time. The word on the taxi ranks is that the devil is making work for idle hands.

The Manchester Evening News have launched various campaigns based on our principles including recently a call for a clampdown on glass. But their coverage of the bouncer shortage has not been too helpful.

In fact one of the most frequent pundits in their pages, Phil from the Pub and Club network who has a double life as a Liberal candidate at local, westminster and euro elections, has gone on record that it's good for doorstaff to have "a little history".

I think that this can go too far. A long way too far. Desi Noonan was a doorman at the Hacienda during the most dangerous and druggy days there, where the club was forced to shut up shop several times, and he had a ticket under the new scheme. He certainly had a little history and appeared to boast of 27 killings in the TV documentary which went out just after his own murder.

So he had "a little history". But although he wasn't using his licence he had not earnt it by doing the training and passing the test. He had got it by a legal challenge under restrictive practices laws.

My Salford Harriers team mate Sean got his ticket the proper way. But he sheds some light on the delays and shortages. The SIA have been fussy about dotting i's and crossing t's. But instead of working through the whole application form spotting issues they will send the form back as soon as they spot one thing. Then when that's sorted they spot a second, and the process continues exhaustively.

Of course Manchester Doormen are very patient people but it's easy to see how this form filling plus pedantry is slowing the flow of accreditations.

Sean says Desi was killed for over-taxing a crack dealer. That his life was chaotic. That he was basically just a drug dealer. "Which is no way to live."

The dogs get along great and Sean hands over a load of paraphenalia. Books, baskets, leads, bowls, blankets and so on.

Police Force

2005-04-07T21:28:00.000-07:00

Afternoon - get South Manchester Reporter. This carries letter I submitted on the bias of the paper. Though it has been mauled making the last para a non sequitor. Will probably pen a riposte.

Also carries news of a hitherto 'secret' Lib Dem organised meeting with police representatives, less than 200 metres from my home, and tonight at 7.30pm.

Immediately text Tony Lloyd MP the details. He is on the train coming back from London and initially thinks he cannot make it. But hurrah he is able to change his appointments and get along. Only find this out at 7.20pm. I am already committed to being there but have had no joy in finding reinforcements.

Although this meeting is of general interest as well as focusing on a recent spate of jewelry burglaries this is a fairly cherry picked audience, plus a few fill ins who read the local rag. There are 60 or 70 people there.

This is the most successful action the Lib Dems have managed since the elections themselves. However as Tony is able to be there for an hour and makes several contributions, and is able to demonstrate that he has access to the chief constable and not just the local inspector or superintendent this is at worst a score draw and we may have edged it.

Cllr Faroz Bhatti who organised the meeting greets me on the way in, looks a bit sheepish that Tony and his assistant arrive soon after, and I shake his hand again on the way out. He says it is good to see me depite the difference in our politics.

I genuinely wonder what his politics actually consist of. Are they different to mine? Does he actually have any to speak of? He has been a councillor for less than 12 months. After one month he was included in their shadow Executive though this is nominal. He has written a curious defence of the Lib Dems' selection debacle in Manchester Withington, including the idea that latter day Libs are not crazy mavericks, that they are serious politicians.

I wrote into the paper at that asking whether that means he is calling the old school in his own party crazy mavericks, that they were and are not serious.

Faroz also stars in a full page advert in Aatish a local Urdu paper and perhaps elsewhere calling for a vote on communalist lines. As the selection debacle continues to rumble along in the papers I expose that nonsense too. Nonsense it must be said which was also typical of the Lib Dem Euro campaign.

Anyway, now it turns out that he is the Lib Dem candidate in Stretford and Urmston. I tell Tony's assistant who is a Trafford Councillor that the local Respect group have chosen to fight there - against Beverley Hughes MP - and that their candidate Mark Krantz, much involved with us over the anti-war effort and immigration matters and so on, has attacked the Lib Dems roundly on their war record.

No-one really knows what if any politics Faroz Bhatti has. None are evident from local Focus newsletters. Yet in less that a year of any political activity he is being put forward as a propsective MP. He has leap frogged over a good number of more established politicians, not least those active in Stretford. Perhaps there is another Lib Dem selection debacle in that seat?

But I digress. The strangest thing about the Lib Dems' burglary meeting, attended by five of their councillors including at least two PPCs, and by six or seven middle ranking police officers -> how does this tally with their weak lines locally and nationally on crime and disorder? On anti-social behaviour? On drugs? Not to mention their shameless and scurrilous claims about police numbers being cut - in the face of an increase of some 800 plus Community Support Officers in Greater Manchester?

The Lib Dems unfortunately waver between weak and very weak when it comes to crime and disorder.

St John's Gardens

2005-04-05T16:39:00.000-07:00

Within the city centre St Johns Gardens which runs between the Museum of Science and Industry and Granada more or less is the part of town which has been properly serviced by the parties for the last twenty years.

This is because, unlike most of the centre, these homes have good old letter boxes by the front door. The rest often require guile or luck to gain access. And for years most of them have been neglected.

When I first take on the City Centre campaign for the 2004 campaign - it is ranked 32 out of 32 in our list of winnability - I am told that printing more than 2000 leaflets is a waste of time and money. We print 5000 anyway. And we find 5000 doors to put them through. In fact by adding in the student halls we are eventually able to do an edition of 8000 and get them all through doors as well.

And in all in that campaign we distributed 45,000 pieces of print including about 15,000 Unite Against Fascism/Manchester Against Racism/Anti BNP letters.

I text Jim who is Tony Lloyd's main agent and he joins me, taking an early lunch as soon as he can get away from his Unison duties. We get round St Johns Gardens in no time and move on to Liverpool Road. Letterboxes here too. 500 more leaflets of two flavours are out and before the expenses clock start ticking as Tony Blair is still on his way to Buck Palace.

Chorlton Branch

2005-04-04T21:37:00.000-07:00

The election has not quite been called yet.

Chorlton branch Labour Party meet at the Library. This is a short meeting. And it is mostly about the campaign in Manchester Withington. I am in Central, though in local government terms my ward is Chorlton.

Not sure how much help I'll be for the Withington campaign. But the style is different and I will dip in to see what's happening.

I have already delivered all the pre-election leaflets to the 800 or so households in the Central Constituency part of the patch - which is a relief for the Chorlton councillors. Tony Lloyd MP has been asking them to do it.

I text Tony immediately and confirm that the leaflets are out. All is well in the world.

Home. Early to bed. Easy day.

Untying the Gordian Knot

2005-04-03T23:58:00.000-07:00

Food is good here at the JJB. Lamb Shanks as main course. Same as the last gala dinner I went to. We eat up and chatter all the time. Sheila tells us the whole family history. Love breaking out over a Labour committee table somewhere in London. Moves round the home counties including Kent - where my in-laws spring from.

MC Howard calls order. There is a greeting and Ian McCartney stands up and goes to the lectern. And he does a lot of remembering the Pope, thanking key guests and building up Gordo.

There is a one minute silence for the Pope who has 'died after a long illness' as they say. Gordon is introduced.

Whatever he had been planning to say is abandonned. The pope has died and party politics must take a back seat.

So Gordon Brown speaks without notes. He makes some humerous remarks about his early travails as an eager young politico. But soon to orate on one of John Paul II's priorities. Ending poverty. And Gordon in this off the cuff, speaking from the heart, mode is absolutely fantastic. There is not a stutter or a pause. This is telling fact after telling fact. The UK will achieve 0.7% aid by 2015 but at current rates the rich nations as a whole will not achieve this ot that by 2115, 2150 or even worse.

Britain will use all leverage it can to turn this round. Gordon will personally push this anti poverty agenda to the limit. Here at home and globally.

As Polly Toynbee has written in the Guardian the real life statistics on the alleviation of poverty achieved by Labour and the very real prospects to go further appeal to the great British public. It is a wonder that this is not front and centre of the campaign. Some passion for redistribution and justice would go a long way.

Passionate belief after passionate belief. Mr Brown will almost certainly be drawn into party appeals to the nation's key voters - even talk of privatisation and choice - but here freed from party attack politics he is immense.

In fact there are probably less than 1 million voters who will decide the outcome of the election. I know the feeling as in Manchester we could have lost five more seats or gained/saved five more, turning on just 500 votes across the whole city.

We get our picture. We get our pudding. We get no raffle. Il Papa's dead. But Gordon has taken a sharp blade to the Gordian knot.

And with one bound he was free.

Through the Middle

2005-04-03T20:11:00.000-07:00

We have found our table and our most communicative fellow diner is Sheila. Londoner but these last 20 years a leading light of the Fylde Labour party in coastal Lancashire. She's here with her son Jim - now a Department of Work and Pensions PR wallah - and husband big Den.

Den flirted with the SDP at one point, even had some of them in the house a couple of times, but Sheila is 'totally Labour'. She enjoys annoying the Tory neighbours with her huge Vote Labour garden posters. And she is keen to do what she can for Labour.

In fact last time Fylde Labour reduced the Tory majority by 10,000 votes. This is huge. But there are 10,000 more to go. Nonetheless if Sheila's team could hold their vote and no more and the Lib Dems could snatch 5,001 from the Tories then our man would win by 1.

This is the 'through the middle' route to success. Potentially Lib Dem swings of about 10% from Labour could bring 80 seats changing hands. About 75 Tories therefore winning on the 'through the middle' or 'through the muddle' phenomenon.

And 'our man' is right as Fylde have selected a Manchester Central member as their candidate. In fact young Will (25) texted me as soon as he found out he had got the selection. "Selected for Fylde" it started. I texted back "Aaaaargh" - my reaction as I thought for a fleeting moment that no-one wanted to do it and they were press ganging innocent party members!

Our starters arrive.