11 May 2005
Back in the real world
Spent the last few days catching up with the rest of my life. None of it, unfortunately, has meant resting. John and I managed to clean the whole flat which we had both neglected for weeks. I also ordered internet shopping (I've developed an aversion to supermarkets in recent years) but the only delivery slot was between 7 and 8 am so I was putting away food at 7.30.
Flat is sparkling and tidy now and there's lots of food in the fridge, and not much dirty washing. Amazing the things that give you satisfaction.
I'm also getting a lot of satisfaction from our result. We now think we can build Respect everywhere and lots of people are joining. In Newham we're getting people back together to plan future activity and next year's council elections.
Labour seem completely shellshocked by their defeat in Bethnal Green. They are trying to portray it as a completely illegitimate result and Oona King was even on the Today programme this morning. Why? What other loser would be on the BBC's flagship radio programme?
Labour is in turmoil it seems to me. Blair is just carrying on regardless ( his listening lasted all of ten hours until he appointed David Blunkett), the appointment of Andrew Adonis is a real provocation, and as usual Labour's left hasn't been able to put up much of a fight. Let's hope Blair keeps on like this until he is dragged off kicking and screaming.
Meanwhile in the real world, 70 people died in Iraq today. Hundreds died during the election campaign. I've been in Birmingham today talking about the chances of legal action to force a public inquiry over the war. These are the real issues which Blair will not be able to dodge, regardless of his compliant backbenchers.
Flat is sparkling and tidy now and there's lots of food in the fridge, and not much dirty washing. Amazing the things that give you satisfaction.
I'm also getting a lot of satisfaction from our result. We now think we can build Respect everywhere and lots of people are joining. In Newham we're getting people back together to plan future activity and next year's council elections.
Labour seem completely shellshocked by their defeat in Bethnal Green. They are trying to portray it as a completely illegitimate result and Oona King was even on the Today programme this morning. Why? What other loser would be on the BBC's flagship radio programme?
Labour is in turmoil it seems to me. Blair is just carrying on regardless ( his listening lasted all of ten hours until he appointed David Blunkett), the appointment of Andrew Adonis is a real provocation, and as usual Labour's left hasn't been able to put up much of a fight. Let's hope Blair keeps on like this until he is dragged off kicking and screaming.
Meanwhile in the real world, 70 people died in Iraq today. Hundreds died during the election campaign. I've been in Birmingham today talking about the chances of legal action to force a public inquiry over the war. These are the real issues which Blair will not be able to dodge, regardless of his compliant backbenchers.
08 May 2005
What a night
A good second in Newham. Brilliant second in Birmingham for Salma Yaqoob. Third but nearly 20% of the vote in Poplar and Canning Town. And of course a win for George Galloway in Bethnal Green and Bow.
We also picked up very good votes in a number of other places: Preston, Slough, Walsall, Tottenham, Hackney South, Leicester South, Birmingham Perry Barr.
Our results are really historic. George won the seat against all the odds and with everything thrown at him by the Blairites. In Newham, Abdul Khaliq got just over 20% and I got just under 20% _ an incredible achievement for our campaign. I got nearly as many votes as the Tory and Libdem combined. We cut straight into the Labour majorities in a way that has never been done before.
Out of the top ten election swings in the country, Respect had four_ George, Salma, Abdul Khaliq and me. Mine was 19.1%.
None of this has made much news, apart from a middle class revulsion at George's win, epitomised by Jeremy Paxman's low grade and insulting interview with him early on Friday morning. Spoilt dinner parties in Chiswick and Fulham this weekend then.
Our results in Newham have been largely ignored. Yet to achieve these figures over two constituencies should be worthy of comment, especially since there has been much space devoted to BNP votes of 16.9% in Barking.
East Ham and West Ham are next to Barking, we did much better than the BNP (in Dagenham, they got under 10% because they were concentrating on Barking) we stood on a platform of anti racism and in defence of immigrants and asylum seekers _ but nothing.
Even so, these results are making waves in Britain and internationally. The Greens (around for 30 years) neither won nor came second in any seat, although their Brighton candidate got over 20 %, the sectarian left flopped badly, and the SSP had a disappointing result, usually coming behind the Greens and losing their deposit.
We are on the map and are gearing up for next year's local elections. We're also going to challenge postal voting which has clearly been the subject of fraud and disenfranchisement.
Overall, the election result is very good for us. Blair lost over a million votes because of the war and lost a number of seats to anti war parties. The Tories didn't do well, and the LibDems under the appalling Charles Kennedy failed to take advantage of the anti war sentiment to make a real breakthrough.
The anti war movement has done for Blair and Respect is beginning to get the benefit of our role in the movement.
Our people are very happy about the result (catch the lovely picture in Socialist Worker of us at the Newham count) and we know we have a lot of support in Newham.
I'm going to keep posting for a bit to assess the post election fallout. But let me just return here to Ken Livingstone, who had a very bad election. Labour lost to the Tories in west London seats like Putney and Hammersmith, and lost large numbers of votes to us in east London.
Both these things create problems for him come the next mayoral election and he has certainly lost a lot of credibility and dare I say respect among the left. His support for Oona King, flanked by police and sneering at an anti war demo in Brick Lane, will stick in people's memories.
In addition, his protegee Yasmin Qureshi lost his old seat of Brent East to the Libdems, despite his campaigning efforts. Perhaps next election he should stay at home.
We also picked up very good votes in a number of other places: Preston, Slough, Walsall, Tottenham, Hackney South, Leicester South, Birmingham Perry Barr.
Our results are really historic. George won the seat against all the odds and with everything thrown at him by the Blairites. In Newham, Abdul Khaliq got just over 20% and I got just under 20% _ an incredible achievement for our campaign. I got nearly as many votes as the Tory and Libdem combined. We cut straight into the Labour majorities in a way that has never been done before.
Out of the top ten election swings in the country, Respect had four_ George, Salma, Abdul Khaliq and me. Mine was 19.1%.
None of this has made much news, apart from a middle class revulsion at George's win, epitomised by Jeremy Paxman's low grade and insulting interview with him early on Friday morning. Spoilt dinner parties in Chiswick and Fulham this weekend then.
Our results in Newham have been largely ignored. Yet to achieve these figures over two constituencies should be worthy of comment, especially since there has been much space devoted to BNP votes of 16.9% in Barking.
East Ham and West Ham are next to Barking, we did much better than the BNP (in Dagenham, they got under 10% because they were concentrating on Barking) we stood on a platform of anti racism and in defence of immigrants and asylum seekers _ but nothing.
Even so, these results are making waves in Britain and internationally. The Greens (around for 30 years) neither won nor came second in any seat, although their Brighton candidate got over 20 %, the sectarian left flopped badly, and the SSP had a disappointing result, usually coming behind the Greens and losing their deposit.
We are on the map and are gearing up for next year's local elections. We're also going to challenge postal voting which has clearly been the subject of fraud and disenfranchisement.
Overall, the election result is very good for us. Blair lost over a million votes because of the war and lost a number of seats to anti war parties. The Tories didn't do well, and the LibDems under the appalling Charles Kennedy failed to take advantage of the anti war sentiment to make a real breakthrough.
The anti war movement has done for Blair and Respect is beginning to get the benefit of our role in the movement.
Our people are very happy about the result (catch the lovely picture in Socialist Worker of us at the Newham count) and we know we have a lot of support in Newham.
I'm going to keep posting for a bit to assess the post election fallout. But let me just return here to Ken Livingstone, who had a very bad election. Labour lost to the Tories in west London seats like Putney and Hammersmith, and lost large numbers of votes to us in east London.
Both these things create problems for him come the next mayoral election and he has certainly lost a lot of credibility and dare I say respect among the left. His support for Oona King, flanked by police and sneering at an anti war demo in Brick Lane, will stick in people's memories.
In addition, his protegee Yasmin Qureshi lost his old seat of Brent East to the Libdems, despite his campaigning efforts. Perhaps next election he should stay at home.
04 May 2005
And now, the time has come
Well, here we are. It's late and I have to be up very early tomorrow. We've all been to our eve of poll rally in the Genesis Cinema in Stepney. Had to finish by 9 or we would have clashed with the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Four hundred people crowded in and we heard great speeches. Now it's all (nearly) said and done and we will find out what people think. I hope we win.
It's hard at the end of a campaign _ or at least it is for me _ to know exactly what to do. My mind was partly made up by my trip to Downing St yesterday where I met more families of soldiers who had died and the solicitor who is representing them, Phil Shiner. He was really great, as were the families, but the press are all too ready to spout the Downing St line.
We met a man outside no 10 who was kind of hanging around _ not allowed in this particular location. Andrew Burgin asked him who he was and he admitted he worked inside. We asked him why he was there _usually there is no one except the police and the press_ and he said it depended on the number of press and the issue.
In other words, he was spinning the government line against the families two days before an election. Andrew asked him if Tony was worried. He said, I couldn't tell you. I said, sounds bad then.
He was like something from Yes, Minister.
In West Ham I feel we are gaining all the time. One Labour supporter told me my opponent Lyn Brown spent a lot of today at the hairdresser. Hope it's worth it!
Seriously, their campaign is non existent, which shows how little they want to engage with real politics. This is a disaster for them in the longer term _ and maybe in the shorter term as well.
Anyway I must end because I need some sleep. I am very proud of our campaign, our principles, and having involved some of the best people in Newham. By the time I post again we will know the result. Wish me luck. Not just for me but for everyone who wants change.
Four hundred people crowded in and we heard great speeches. Now it's all (nearly) said and done and we will find out what people think. I hope we win.
It's hard at the end of a campaign _ or at least it is for me _ to know exactly what to do. My mind was partly made up by my trip to Downing St yesterday where I met more families of soldiers who had died and the solicitor who is representing them, Phil Shiner. He was really great, as were the families, but the press are all too ready to spout the Downing St line.
We met a man outside no 10 who was kind of hanging around _ not allowed in this particular location. Andrew Burgin asked him who he was and he admitted he worked inside. We asked him why he was there _usually there is no one except the police and the press_ and he said it depended on the number of press and the issue.
In other words, he was spinning the government line against the families two days before an election. Andrew asked him if Tony was worried. He said, I couldn't tell you. I said, sounds bad then.
He was like something from Yes, Minister.
In West Ham I feel we are gaining all the time. One Labour supporter told me my opponent Lyn Brown spent a lot of today at the hairdresser. Hope it's worth it!
Seriously, their campaign is non existent, which shows how little they want to engage with real politics. This is a disaster for them in the longer term _ and maybe in the shorter term as well.
Anyway I must end because I need some sleep. I am very proud of our campaign, our principles, and having involved some of the best people in Newham. By the time I post again we will know the result. Wish me luck. Not just for me but for everyone who wants change.
03 May 2005
Do mention the war
It's the war, stupid! Who could have thought that this election was about anything else? Despite all the main parties agreeing to keep it under wraps, and a complicit media, the war now dominates all the news. I don't see that changing before Thursday and that is a disaster for Blair.
The widow of the soldier killed in Iraq yesterday has attacked him. There must be such bitterness in the military about the war. I am seeing some of the military families this afternoon. It's a break from campaigning _and for them, because Rose Gentle and Reg Keys are also standing in this election_but it's important.
We have to think beyond this election about how we continue our campaigning and we are planning, with the families, legal action over the war. So it's down to Whitehall this afternoon which will be strange after Newham.
The seat of government is so remote from ordinary people's lives that you could be in another world, not just a few miles and a half hour on the tube away. That's just one thing we want to change if we get elected.
I was in the lift of a tower block yesterday after visiting a potential voter so I asked the man in it if he'd heard of it. 'Oh yes I've already voted for you'. I'm getting a lot of people saying that.
We've had a very big holiday weekend. Labour are really rattled now and have had to take their campaign onto the streets. I knew this would happen and that they couldn't just sit tight as was their original aim. They are losing a lot of votes and we are gaining a lot. There are still a lot of unsures but we are gaining some of them.
Labour gave up soon after we set up our stall in Green Street so then we got on our campaign bus _ not the most luxurious of vehicles_ and went over to East Ham where Labour's Stephen Timms was there with his agent and some councillors who must be very worried people. We gave them a hard time and a big crowd gathered outside Primark while our bus was parked.
Our office is really buzzing all the time. Even at 8 last night there were still around 20 people and everyone was reporting a very good day. I went to a meeting of Somalis where they told us that the community had decided to back us. Some of the young women want to come and help in the campaign.
I think that whatever happens in this campaign we are doing something very important in uniting the different forces of the coalition. You would be amazed at the different people who go through the office every day and work very hard. Food now arrives in industrial quantities _ samosas from the cafe round the corner, pakora made by one of our supporters, M&Ms bought by my agent Abdurahman, chocolates, cakes and pastries brought by helpers from west London, big bags of popcorn. Delicious but not exactly a balanced diet.
The children are also great _ if they could vote we would win a landslide everywhere. I sent a card to the candidate standing in Stratford school mock elections for Respect. I bet he wins.
The widow of the soldier killed in Iraq yesterday has attacked him. There must be such bitterness in the military about the war. I am seeing some of the military families this afternoon. It's a break from campaigning _and for them, because Rose Gentle and Reg Keys are also standing in this election_but it's important.
We have to think beyond this election about how we continue our campaigning and we are planning, with the families, legal action over the war. So it's down to Whitehall this afternoon which will be strange after Newham.
The seat of government is so remote from ordinary people's lives that you could be in another world, not just a few miles and a half hour on the tube away. That's just one thing we want to change if we get elected.
I was in the lift of a tower block yesterday after visiting a potential voter so I asked the man in it if he'd heard of it. 'Oh yes I've already voted for you'. I'm getting a lot of people saying that.
We've had a very big holiday weekend. Labour are really rattled now and have had to take their campaign onto the streets. I knew this would happen and that they couldn't just sit tight as was their original aim. They are losing a lot of votes and we are gaining a lot. There are still a lot of unsures but we are gaining some of them.
Labour gave up soon after we set up our stall in Green Street so then we got on our campaign bus _ not the most luxurious of vehicles_ and went over to East Ham where Labour's Stephen Timms was there with his agent and some councillors who must be very worried people. We gave them a hard time and a big crowd gathered outside Primark while our bus was parked.
Our office is really buzzing all the time. Even at 8 last night there were still around 20 people and everyone was reporting a very good day. I went to a meeting of Somalis where they told us that the community had decided to back us. Some of the young women want to come and help in the campaign.
I think that whatever happens in this campaign we are doing something very important in uniting the different forces of the coalition. You would be amazed at the different people who go through the office every day and work very hard. Food now arrives in industrial quantities _ samosas from the cafe round the corner, pakora made by one of our supporters, M&Ms bought by my agent Abdurahman, chocolates, cakes and pastries brought by helpers from west London, big bags of popcorn. Delicious but not exactly a balanced diet.
The children are also great _ if they could vote we would win a landslide everywhere. I sent a card to the candidate standing in Stratford school mock elections for Respect. I bet he wins.
01 May 2005
Exit stage right
Feeling a bit bruised this morning after falling off a stage while sitting in a chair. I pushed my chair back and there was nothing there so toppled over. Luckily it wasn't a high stage and I wasn't badly hurt.
I was waiting to adress a meeting of Muslim men who were watching a slide show on the massacres in Gujerat three years ago. The meeting was fascinating and I spoke about the war, Respect and how we can change things. I talked about how the East End was the cradle of the trade unions _with the strikes of the match girls, the dockers and the gasworkers in Beckton.
I said how many of the workers involved in the strikes were immigrants _mainly Irish or Jewish at the time _ and about how Keir Hardie was elected as MP for West Ham in 1894 and how that led to the founding of the Labour Party.
People like to hear this history, which they don't hear many other places, because they want to feel part of a wider community and because there is a remarkable similarity of interests between different ethnic minorities and the white population of Newham.
A lot of it comes down to how working class people are treated with houses, schools and hospitals. You can see that every day the different components of Respect are learning from each other and finding a unity of interests.
We are finding now that we are really on a roll. Canvassing in areas where we did less well last June, people come back and report a very good response. That is my feeling, especially with the white working class, where we are getting a good response to Respect.
Over 100 people out in Newham on Saturday, with stalls everywhere, loads of canvassing teams and speaker cars. Friday the mosques were very good and so were the primary schools.
Only 5 days to go now.
I was waiting to adress a meeting of Muslim men who were watching a slide show on the massacres in Gujerat three years ago. The meeting was fascinating and I spoke about the war, Respect and how we can change things. I talked about how the East End was the cradle of the trade unions _with the strikes of the match girls, the dockers and the gasworkers in Beckton.
I said how many of the workers involved in the strikes were immigrants _mainly Irish or Jewish at the time _ and about how Keir Hardie was elected as MP for West Ham in 1894 and how that led to the founding of the Labour Party.
People like to hear this history, which they don't hear many other places, because they want to feel part of a wider community and because there is a remarkable similarity of interests between different ethnic minorities and the white population of Newham.
A lot of it comes down to how working class people are treated with houses, schools and hospitals. You can see that every day the different components of Respect are learning from each other and finding a unity of interests.
We are finding now that we are really on a roll. Canvassing in areas where we did less well last June, people come back and report a very good response. That is my feeling, especially with the white working class, where we are getting a good response to Respect.
Over 100 people out in Newham on Saturday, with stalls everywhere, loads of canvassing teams and speaker cars. Friday the mosques were very good and so were the primary schools.
Only 5 days to go now.
