Fast-moving world this politics lark. Last time I posted anything at this blog I put up a link to the letter orignated by Seema Malhotra, head honcho of Fabian Women’s Network and longtime pal of mine urging gender equality in the think tank world. Since then she has also become Labour candidate in Feltham and Heston where a by-election has been called for December 15th.
Despite the procedure in place for an exhaustive ballot, Seema won on the first round. I’ve known her since the mid 90s and she will be a doughty local fighter for the issues in the constituency where she grew up and went to school. The Conservatives have picked a councillor whos in his ninth year in office Mark Bowen, UKIP have also picked someone apparently big in UKIP Andrew Charalambous and apprently the BNP were leafleting Heston high street this weekend and have declared they are standing.
There is more to this constituency than a Cineworld with extensive Bollywood offer and Young Offenders institution, Politics Home says of it: “This is just the kind of working class suburban constituency that, along with neighbouring Hayes & Harlington, flirted with Margaret Thatcher during her 1983 and 1987 landslides, before reverting back to Labour.” Indeed the seat was Tory until 1992 when Labour’s Alan Keen began his tenure. It looks to be solid for Labour again and to help ensure it is I’ll be getting down there to lend a hand.
Its only the Lib Dems who haven’t picked yet of the mainstream parties and I think I they are selecting this week. As Paul Waugh has noted Vince Cable is showing an unnatural interest in helping out across the border in Hounslow borough. The seat looks vulnerable to be swallowed up in the boundary changes with bits merged with Southall and other bits going to Cable’s current Twickenham fiefdom. I am reminded of something Vince said when he came to spaek at Kingston University sometime in 2009 that sums up priorities in the suburban electorate: it went something like “even at the height of the financial crisis [of 2008] with the global economic system collapsing like a house of cards, the most popular issue at my constituency surgery was parking controls.” I reckon this time round they have other woes on their plate too though. These are to use Ed Miliband’s phrase the “squeezed middle”.
In any case the LibDem vote is likely to collapse this time round they’ve shown us just the lengths they’ll go to to get their bums on the back seats of ministerial Priuses…
13 comments
Comments feed for this article
November 30, 2011 at 12:27 am
Dan Filson
Maybe the Liberal Democrat agent might be tempted to accidentally-on-purpose forget to put in the nomination papers on time. The LibDems are in for a thrashing even more than the Tories, and they would be well out of it, blaming the agent who presumably would be given a revolver and a locked room to do the decent thing.
November 30, 2011 at 10:12 am
Sally Taylor
We have a real Choice in this Election, The Team Behind Lewisham People Before Profit, Will be fighting the Seat as London People Beforev Profit, the economist George Hallam, has been selected and Nominations were handed over yesterday, This means People before profit will be the only Political party fighting the By-Election whom have been activly campaigning and Supporting the Public Sector Workers. Remember The Labour Party is no less a friend of Big Business than the Present Goverment, they have also disgracefully failed to support the local workers on Strike Today.. My Vote and My Familys will go to London People Before Profit.. Our Vote will not change the Election, but if People before Profit do0 well, it will remind the Labour Party, that they were set up to represent the Poor and the Workers, not the Interests of Big Business. Website for London People Before Profit is ; http://www.lpbp.org.uk if any one Local wants to help get a local Group up and Riunning for this election and Next years GLA elections, please email me. info@housemartins.net
November 30, 2011 at 1:40 pm
Dan Filson
I don’t see how splitting the labour movement vote remotely assists in our struggles against the coalition.
November 30, 2011 at 2:03 pm
Sally Taylor
What Labour Movement?. Do you really think the Labour party would do any thing different?, They Ignored us on the war, have you forgotton 1 million plus marched in London,? today 2 million working class people strike for a basic pension, a strike in which the Labour party has TOTALLY REFUSED TO SUPPORT.Many of us left the party when it became clear that under Blair and Brown, the Party was clearly the party of the Rich.We had 13 years of a Labour Goverment in which the gap between rich and poor became as great as it was in the 1930s, Council and Social Housing was almost none existant, 94% of Labour MPs fiddeled their expenses, 5 went to jail, many more should have, including the disgraced Baroness Uddin.PFI was introduced that has crippled the health service. And Labour Started Tuition fees for students, in fact most commentators would say the last Labour Goverment was the most right wing in living memory.
Is it no Wonder that People have stopped voting on mass for Labour Who should hold there heads in shame. Thank God, for London People Before Profit and Occupy London and others that do speak and stand up for Local People,……. And do not take my word for it, Heads of Both Teachers Unions and the PCS union,. have all stated publicly the Labour Party is a disgrace for not supporting working people…
November 30, 2011 at 3:12 pm
Dan Filson
Let’s see if your man can better his 0.8% share of vote he got in Lewisham East. It’s somehow typical that this so-called radical group attacks the Labour Party as “the party of the Rich” whilst not mentioning the true criminals in the party system. I’ve often thought the SWP etc were secretly funded by the Tory party, and see no reason to doubt it today. If you don’t know the meaning of “the labour movement” then god help us.
November 30, 2011 at 3:26 pm
Sally Taylor
People before profit was only 3 months old at that time, across Lewisham they secured 14.600 votes a stunning result in just 3 months, when they fought every seat in the Borough, no one had ever done this before,London Residents are gettiing justly angry and active, and as every opion poll shows a huge swing of popular surport for groups like this…You only have to look at the middle east to see how fast things can and are changing.. no one really believes in Labour any more. they win Votes because they are not the Tory party, and sadly far to many people vote, without any clue as to why…or does the party they vote for truly represent them. if they did, the Labour vote would be well and truely in the gutter.. since the formation of the Labour Movement..at a time Labour were clearly likely to benifit from the National Picture in this area, packed like Hounslow with Public sector workers..i will wager a pot of Hounslow Honey, that George will be in the Top 3…I have signed up lots of people who say they want to help London People before Profit Win, and most of these voted Labour last time..But i do agree with you, We are picking up Loads of Lib Dem votes and plenty that say they have not voted for years, and were disgusted at the election frauds of the last Labour MP in this seat..I had planned not to vote in protest, but discovered this group from my work place..
November 30, 2011 at 4:00 pm
Dan Filson
Pluck figures from the sky if you will, but the facts speak for themselves:
George Hallam
Lewisham People Before Profit 332 Votes 0.8%
That’s across the entire Lewisham East constituency at a General Election on a 63.3% turnout. If your man manages to haul the other 36.7% to the polls and manages to poll 14,000 congratulations to him, but the reality is he won’t get even 1,000 votes and will be beaten by the Labour, Tory, UKIP, LibDem and BNP candidates, and whatever other oddballs surface.
November 30, 2011 at 4:42 pm
rupahuq
Guys, guys, lok, no need to draw daggers here (or pistols at dawn or whatever). The ConDem coalition is surely the enemy that needs to be given a kicking.
I have to say as a Labour party member I feel inclined to agree with Dan. LPBP are entitled to stand but it could be an expensive business as our current electoral system demands a £500 forfeit for anyone wishing to stand which requires obtaining 5% of the popular vote to retain.
In the 80s the SWP used to campaign under the banner “Vote Labour but Fight For a True Socialist Programme” which came to my attention when oddly the Housemartins (LPBP’s email server?) posed in front of it. That decade was riven by a split anti-Thatcher vote (the SDP experiment and subsequent so-called “Alliance”) but we still have lessons to learn from it…
December 1, 2011 at 9:04 am
Sally Taylor
We only have to wait until 15th December, the speed in which Labour have called this, has been the fastest in Living Memory. Had Labour Campaigned for working People over the past 13 Years, Thousands of Labour Party Members would not have left, and the increasing numbers of Groups set up to campaign on Community issues that Labour Gave up years ago, would not exist.What has been clear since i decided to campaign for george and London People Before Profit, is that local people are clearly not happy with the Labour party, and will be Voting London people before Profit on 15th December because the New Labour Party is no different to the present Goverment . i am pleased that your blog has given time and space to real concerns about the present Labour Party, but i have no intention of adding any more. My View of the Present shameful Labour Party and why many local people will be Voting People before is very clear from my earlier postings.. so think we should call a halt.. Need to get my neighbours out to vote, and make sure they can..Sally
December 8, 2011 at 3:02 pm
Me
Don’t waste your vote on any of the old worn-out parties. Conmen (blue) or the Layabouts(red) or the Glibdummies(orange) are all the same., They are puppets being told what to do by the EU.
No wonder we cannot afford pensions when we have had to fork out tens of £billions to bail out the debt-ridden economies of Ireland, Greece and Italy. Next comes Spain and then Romania and even,,,France.
The crazy unelected dictators of the EU have overthrown democracy in Greece and Italy to put in their own unelected stooges. Why bother to vote for Cameron, Milliband or Nick Smegg (the brazen liar) when they are all just puppets?
I am voting UKIP because I want my vote to count.
If you vote for any other party, your vote will not count. You will be voting for a doormat under Merkozy’s feet.
Furthermore, Andrew Charalambous is an outstanding candidate. He is a barrister, a successful businessman and a philanthropist.
December 8, 2011 at 3:13 pm
Sally Taylor
So you want local working people to vote for a Rich Lawyer, who twice was a Conservative Candidate, UKIP is nothing more or less than a nasty party of the right, full of small minded bigots who are no different to the wrotton establishment, whose greed and self interest got us in this mess,Many of the low paid workers that work at Heathrow on poor wages, can only dream about the Ukips Life style, or the Mega Rich Labour Candidate, who works as a Consultant, advicing Local Councils how to make cuts, this is a Woman, who should never have been selected, that has hidden the fact she lives in a muliti million pound house in Chelsea, and who has even dropped her double barrelled name, to secure a victory in this seat…Sadly the media only gives news coverage to Establish partys, London People before profit, would win this seat, if they had been given fair media coverage, and that every resident in the BY-Election was able to meet George.. By far the best Candidate, and the only one with any understanding how the Poor and working Class live. The Only Choice is Establishment or the real Alternative George Hallam from London People Before Profit.
December 15, 2011 at 10:42 pm
sandy dennis
dave furness is the only candidate to vote for – BNP
December 16, 2011 at 2:42 pm
Seema Wins By a Mile « Rupa Huq's Blog
[...] done Seema. The local girl done good. As for the comment late last night to this blog urging a vote for the [...]