28 April 2005
Bliar Bliar
All those people who said we shouldn't call Tony Blair 'Bliar' must be pretty shamefaced today. The leaked legal advice from the attorney general shows that he did not believe the war was legal.
Labour candidates around the country must really wish Blair would just disappear. He is a complete liability to his party, is slated in most of today's press _and his agenda has been totally pushed off course by this news. Everyone is now talking about the war. A young black woman who works in a care home but lives in west London, and who intends to vote Labour, feels they need to be taught a lesson. She is totally scornful of Blair's claim on television that he told the truth.
Where does this put the election campaign? It must be good for us and the other anti war parties _ and it must utterly demoralise Labour people, who felt they could put this behind them. We said from day one the war would be an issue. We said Blair was a liar. George Galloway was expelled from Labour for saying troops should not obey illegal orders.
How right he was. I see Rose Gentle has, like Respect, called for Blair's resignation. These courageous parents of soldiers who died in Iraq _she and Reg Keys are both standing in this election_have behaved with nothing but integrity and honesty throughout. It's a pity the same can't be said of our government.
The government has been greatly helped by the attitude of the other parties (the LibDems support the occupation and the Tories supported the war outright) and of the BBC. Craig Murray, who is standing against Jack Straw in Blackburn, spells out in the Guardian today how the BBC has ignored his campaign. In Respect we know how he feels. He seems to be doing alright though. I hope he does.
Here in West Ham we've had an interesting few days. I addressed a lovely meeting of Gujerati women who were very anti war, a meeting of Afghan men in a restaurant who all supported Respect. There have been two hustings. The Liberals have turned up to neither. Lyn Brown, my Labour opponent, didn't turn up to the second. She seems worried about going out without Stephen Timms, the former East Ham MP.
I really feel that Labour, having held this seat for so long, should at least send a representative to these meetings. It sums up this election. Labour is frightened to debate for fear of reminding people how unpopular they are. Tories and LibDems know they can't win and have other priorities. The other smaller parties don't have the people on the ground.
On the other hand we have loads of people out working for us all the time. We know that we are winning people over and that we have a lot of support. We have no 'no go areas' and we are aiming to do the whole constituency. We are planning an eve of poll rally in Forest Gate and we will be almost certainly the only party to hold a public meeting.
We're now in the last week of the campaign and it's getting very exciting. We're meeting new people all the time. Campaigning is very tiring but very rewarding because you talk to people about all sorts of things you would never talk to them about normally.
Tonight there is a Stop the War protest because Blair, Bush and Kennedy are on Question Time from Stratford. Bliar Bliar.
Labour candidates around the country must really wish Blair would just disappear. He is a complete liability to his party, is slated in most of today's press _and his agenda has been totally pushed off course by this news. Everyone is now talking about the war. A young black woman who works in a care home but lives in west London, and who intends to vote Labour, feels they need to be taught a lesson. She is totally scornful of Blair's claim on television that he told the truth.
Where does this put the election campaign? It must be good for us and the other anti war parties _ and it must utterly demoralise Labour people, who felt they could put this behind them. We said from day one the war would be an issue. We said Blair was a liar. George Galloway was expelled from Labour for saying troops should not obey illegal orders.
How right he was. I see Rose Gentle has, like Respect, called for Blair's resignation. These courageous parents of soldiers who died in Iraq _she and Reg Keys are both standing in this election_have behaved with nothing but integrity and honesty throughout. It's a pity the same can't be said of our government.
The government has been greatly helped by the attitude of the other parties (the LibDems support the occupation and the Tories supported the war outright) and of the BBC. Craig Murray, who is standing against Jack Straw in Blackburn, spells out in the Guardian today how the BBC has ignored his campaign. In Respect we know how he feels. He seems to be doing alright though. I hope he does.
Here in West Ham we've had an interesting few days. I addressed a lovely meeting of Gujerati women who were very anti war, a meeting of Afghan men in a restaurant who all supported Respect. There have been two hustings. The Liberals have turned up to neither. Lyn Brown, my Labour opponent, didn't turn up to the second. She seems worried about going out without Stephen Timms, the former East Ham MP.
I really feel that Labour, having held this seat for so long, should at least send a representative to these meetings. It sums up this election. Labour is frightened to debate for fear of reminding people how unpopular they are. Tories and LibDems know they can't win and have other priorities. The other smaller parties don't have the people on the ground.
On the other hand we have loads of people out working for us all the time. We know that we are winning people over and that we have a lot of support. We have no 'no go areas' and we are aiming to do the whole constituency. We are planning an eve of poll rally in Forest Gate and we will be almost certainly the only party to hold a public meeting.
We're now in the last week of the campaign and it's getting very exciting. We're meeting new people all the time. Campaigning is very tiring but very rewarding because you talk to people about all sorts of things you would never talk to them about normally.
Tonight there is a Stop the War protest because Blair, Bush and Kennedy are on Question Time from Stratford. Bliar Bliar.
