21 April 2005
No Time For Tea!
Since I last blogged on I have been extremely busy. The response on the doorstep is very promising, people are so willing to talk to us that it is hard to keep dragging ourselves away from people who feel, like we do, so betrayed by the present system of government. I keep having to turn down cups of tea. Whole families are coming to the door and showing how well informed and concerned they are about the mess British politics is in. I have yet to meet someone who feels the ‘democratic’ system we have is working for them.
I am at work and although they are being flexible with my time it is hard to balance everything we have to do. Seeing the students and other staff is really rewarding because so many are so supportive. Every day more people say they have received the tabloid and that mum or dad or they are going to vote Respect or that they have seen us in the paper or seen our battle bike. The staff at my old school raffled a cake for me and other donations are coming in. The feeling is that if only we had more time to visit people we would really be able to make a massive break through.
We are buoyant because we know that after the elections we have lots of excellent opportunities to build on the feeling and contacts we are making.
I was in London on Monday to take part in a gimmick that newsnight are running on Thursday. It was a speed dating/voting thing were 14 different party candidates had 3 minutes each with 14 undecided voters. It was a bit like being at a parents evening. The voters, although supposedly undecided had been picked to represent a range of concerns and most knew exactly what they wanted to find out. After looking at the coverage put out by the BBC website on Bethnal Green and Bow I feel soiled by having had anything to do with them. It must have been a stupid or very sick editor to run a piece on the ward without noticing Respect!
Tonight I took time out from pounding the streets further the work a pensions action group we set up in February and then a trades council meeting were the support is growing well. We had been building new links across the trade union movement in Cambridge in order to keep solidarity during the pensions campaign. It was a timely reminder of just one of many issues that will return after the election. A husting on pensions has been called for next week and all of the candidates will be there, again with the exception of the Labour MP. This is such a theme. ITV were running a question time program for the east and although, despite trying hard, they would not let John Tipple, Mohamed Ilyas or I on the platform, or even in the audience, we did manage to get some people in the studio and Respect was brought up! The Libs/Dems an Tories fielded sitting MP’s but Labour had to rely on Richard Howitt MEP. Charles Clarke was at the football!?
We Had very bad news this week as the National Front are standing a candidate in Peterborough. We are going to split are activities over the weekend and spend some time there giving out literature and showing a presence in some of the communities that they will try and spread their filth.
I am at work and although they are being flexible with my time it is hard to balance everything we have to do. Seeing the students and other staff is really rewarding because so many are so supportive. Every day more people say they have received the tabloid and that mum or dad or they are going to vote Respect or that they have seen us in the paper or seen our battle bike. The staff at my old school raffled a cake for me and other donations are coming in. The feeling is that if only we had more time to visit people we would really be able to make a massive break through.
We are buoyant because we know that after the elections we have lots of excellent opportunities to build on the feeling and contacts we are making.
I was in London on Monday to take part in a gimmick that newsnight are running on Thursday. It was a speed dating/voting thing were 14 different party candidates had 3 minutes each with 14 undecided voters. It was a bit like being at a parents evening. The voters, although supposedly undecided had been picked to represent a range of concerns and most knew exactly what they wanted to find out. After looking at the coverage put out by the BBC website on Bethnal Green and Bow I feel soiled by having had anything to do with them. It must have been a stupid or very sick editor to run a piece on the ward without noticing Respect!
Tonight I took time out from pounding the streets further the work a pensions action group we set up in February and then a trades council meeting were the support is growing well. We had been building new links across the trade union movement in Cambridge in order to keep solidarity during the pensions campaign. It was a timely reminder of just one of many issues that will return after the election. A husting on pensions has been called for next week and all of the candidates will be there, again with the exception of the Labour MP. This is such a theme. ITV were running a question time program for the east and although, despite trying hard, they would not let John Tipple, Mohamed Ilyas or I on the platform, or even in the audience, we did manage to get some people in the studio and Respect was brought up! The Libs/Dems an Tories fielded sitting MP’s but Labour had to rely on Richard Howitt MEP. Charles Clarke was at the football!?
We Had very bad news this week as the National Front are standing a candidate in Peterborough. We are going to split are activities over the weekend and spend some time there giving out literature and showing a presence in some of the communities that they will try and spread their filth.
