Labour Party AV Debate: Stratford Thursday 28 April 2011

West Ham CLP and London UNISON Labour Link are sponsoring this debate on the AV vote in Stratford on Thursday evening 28 April 2011 (Workers Memorial Day!).

John Debham MP will speak in favour of AV and Margaret Beckett MP will speak against.  The venue is only a short walk from Stratford stations, it is comfortable and there will be plenty of seats. 

I am personally a supporter of AV in Parliamentary elections.  While I think there is a progressive majority in this country and that AV will benefit the Labour Party and our policies.  I recognise that no one really knows how the Great British Public will actually vote if such a system is introduced.  Regardless of this, I do think that the principle of each MP having the support (or rather the preference) of at least 50% of their constituents is just right and proper.  The only thing I cannot bear to think is of course that my vote would be in any way to be an endorsement of Clegg.  But who really gives a monkey anymore what he thinks of anything never mind what he considers "miserable compromises".

SO - VOTE LABOUR AND VOTE YES TO AV IN MAY.

Labour Party Banners on TUC March 26th

Hat tip to this LabourList post featuring the 121 photographs taken by Kirstin Hay of Labour Party Banners at the TUC March 26th.

Including of course West Ham CLP (2nd row)

Click on picture to enlarge.

Check out the flickr pages with all the photos here

Lyn Brown MP attacks Tories over abolition of EMA

Watch this YouTube clip of West Ham Labour MP, Lyn Brown, tearing into this Tory–led Coalition while on the floor of the House of Commons, over the abolition of the Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA).

Labour Party Conference 2010: West Ham CLP delegates report

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

West Ham Leadership Hustings: 7.30pm Sunday 18 July at Stratford

 West Ham CLP are putting on a hustings event sponsored by London UNISON Labour Link on Sunday 18 July in Stratford E15, the heart of the 2012 Olympics and the historic home of the first ever Labour MP.

London UNISON Labour Link is sponsoring the event and is writing to all 1100 union members in West Ham who pay the Labour Party political levy and inviting them to this meeting.

I am contacting the political officers of all the affiliated unions in West Ham to ask them to do the same.

Please pass this on to any Party members or levy players.

If everyone can bring photo identification with them.

West Ham CLP "deputy Leadership" hustings 2007 here and here.

West Ham CLP nominate Ed Miliband as Labour Leader

 Tonight there was an “all members” meeting held before our Labour Party General Committee to decide who (if any) of the declared candidates we would endorse. All five candidates were nominated and seconded and there was a lively debate between their respective supporters.

Ed Miliband was nominated by Ellie Robertson who is a new Councillor and Chair of Newham Young Labour. I seconded Ed and was also able to speak in his favour.

My view was that Ed is the candidate best placed to beat Cameron and Clegg which is vitally important since without power - we can do nothing.

However, he also the candidate who has committed to tackling inequality and redistribute wealth, not only because it is fairer but because more equal societies are better societies in all measurable ways not only for the poor but also for the better off.

The previous Labour Government did many, many good things but instead of us having a balanced or truly mixed economy it let the pendulum swing too far to the right in certain areas and “the market” into public services and its provision - and it is now time to swing the pendulum back to the left in order to create balance and a centre left economy. An economy where the public sector does what it is good at and provides not for profit services direct to the public and the private sector does what is good at – creating wealth in the free enterprise business economy.

On a personal note I also mentioned that I supported Ed because I was very impressed with the way he conducted himself when he was the keynote guest speaker at the UNISON Labour Link forum in Manchester last year. Two things in particular struck me. One that he admitted to the forum that the Government did not get everything right. He would be listening to the Radio in the morning and hear about a government announcement and think “why on earth did we do that?” I thought at the time this was a brave thing for a Government minister to say. It was also something very much that I could relate to since I had also in the past choked on my branflakes at some of the things that I had heard the government get up to in the morning while listening to the radio!

The second things that struck me about Ed was that after his speech to Forum in the Q&A - the delegates got stuck in (as UNISON delegates do) with the questions and gave him a “bit of a hard time”. Yet Ed gave as good as he got and while passionate in his responses he was not rattled and in the end the forum organisers had to practically drag him off so they could move business on. Ed in the meanwhile told delegates that he wasn’t going to leave the conference venue and he wanted to continue the debate and invited questioners to carry on where they had left it outside the forum hall. Which he did!

It was a close race in West Ham but Ed was in the lead (just) on the 1st preferences but was confirmed as winner after the 2nd preference count.

On Sunday evening July 18 the West Ham (and East London) Labour movement will have a chance to judge the candidates at the Hustings (sponsored by UNISON who will invite affiliates to attend) that is due to take place in Stratford (home of the first ever Labour MP)

(Picture is of Ed Miliband at the East Ham meeting on June 11th - East Ham CLP have since also made a supportive nomination for Ed. I’ll post pictures of tonight’s event soon)