Friday, August 10, 2007

Shadwell Election Day (and Result)



Just back home from “post election” curry and chin wag at Zeera Restaurant, Mile End. Delicious as usual. Received text from usually very reliable source at the election count in Town hall. Not looking that good at the moment to be honest. At 00:40 Respect on 1400 votes and Labour on 900.

However, very good campaign by Labour Candidate Michael Keith and Tower Hamlets Labour Party. Picture of Labour committee room at Cable Street and the top cross London canvass team that I spent most of the evening with (from Barking, Croyden, Enfield, Tower Hamlets UNISON, Havering, West Ham CLP – sorry if I left you out) next to Watney market. Who says “knocking up” cannot also be fun!

I must admit that I thought that the campaign went quite well – usual thugs not about? no-one threw anything at me, no physical threats, no foul abuse etc. We will see. I won’t wait up much longer. But "Community Politics"? - has the well "respected" (pardon the pun) local Bengali businessman come up with the votes (ignore the SWP, they are just playing a mugs game in Shadwell)?

UPDATE 01:00 - Just about to post above when result came in - 97 Majority to Respect!

Well, dare I say success-ish rather than victory? 560 odd Respect majority slashed to 97? Not really I suppose but if Labour got this vote at next election then nearly all Respect Councillors will lose their seats and Gorgeous George would be thrashed if he stood against Jim Fitzpatrick. I’ll sleep on the result and come back later. No doubt Dick Tuck would have come up with a good line to express my current feelings.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ha-Ha-Ha

John Gray said...

Hi Respect member

I'm still up sorting things out with a glass (or three) of the hard stuff - I'll give you this one.

Tomorrow (or later this morning) is another day.

Anonymous said...

and remember about the boundery changes....

Anonymous said...

Thats true john..... i dont feel george would get thrashed in a direct battle with fitzpatrick, after all in a general election resources are very thin and you guys would have to ward off the bethnal green and bow seat and fight george in poplar, also georges seat would see the benefits of the boundery changes. fitzpatricks voting record (according to the whip) goes against the muslim community very strongly.

Anonymous said...

John
Just came across this blog when looking for the result in Shadwell. Got to say I find it a tad ironic that you attack the Respect candidate for being pro - business etc given the record of New Labour, "the natural home of business"


As for supporting trade unions,New Labour have been a disgrace. It was your mate Fitzpatrick who was put up in Parliament to prevent the TU Freedom Bill progressing. I didn't see many Labour members on the posties picket line either mate.

John Gray said...

Hi
Off to work then straight to "leaving do". Will respond tomorrow.

Anonymous said...

As a Labour Party member who stayed away, and who has been a member of the local CLP I am not surprised. By putting Keith up Labour have shown no understanding of why they lost last time. Respectdoes has some odd elements but then so does the Labour Party. Interesting that the turn our was high for a council by election.

marshajane said...

Hi JG - Offtopic a bit (I blogged re shadwell and linked here:p)

Care to leave a supporting comment here http://unionfutures.blogspot.com/2007/08/attacks-on-union-activists.html

Ta
Mj

Anonymous said...

I can't believe you published the photo .....

Shame we didn't quite get the desired result - next time!

No doubt see you again in party circles somewhere.

Jo

John Gray said...

“boundery changes.... Thats true john..... i dont feel george would get thrashed in”

Hi respect member
I think you are wrong and the gorgeous one will be thrashed at the next general election. Yes, the boundary changes have not been positive for Jim but resources will be tight for Respect as well since they will also have to fight two CLP at the same time. Remember Galloway only sneaked in last time. Respect won’t be able to play the “race” and “religious” card against Rushanara and since is a bloke, Jim then the smears used against Oona cannot be repeated.

I also suspect that the Respect coalition will collapse before the next general election. With either a massive defection of Bangladeshi community defecting to Labour or the SWP splits over the coalition (or ideally both!). Even if you don’t agree with me about this you cannot say it will never happen. The “coalition is in trouble.

Also, there is a strong Tory vote in both CLP’s who will be open to pressure to vote Labour to stop Respect.

Still should be interesting couple of years.

John Gray said...

“John
Just came across this blog when looking for the result in Shadwell”

Hi Anon

I’m would agree that the Labour Party (old and new) pays too much attention to business interests and not being supportive “enough” for trade unions. But at least it is upfront about this and it is electorally very poplar. The Labour Party is of course itself a broad coalition. However, the overwhelming majority of members share common values and interests such as a belief in social progress, equality, freedom of religion, Parliamentary democracy and the rule of law. In my view Respect can never be more than a protest movement because since they do not have a common set of shared political values.

Overall, despite mistakes, this government has done more for trade unions and ordinary working people than probably any other Labour government. Not least that it can win elections and keep the Tories out. Which is really important to me, What about you?

John Gray said...

“As a Labour Party member who stayed away”

Hi Anon
Pity you stayed away, it was really well run, organised and even quite exciting at times. One good legacy will be that I felt that the Local Party (which I am not a member) was “united” and people were putting aside differences to come together for the good of the Party. It was good to see members out campaigning who had rejoined the Party following Blair’s resignation.

Even with that wonderful thing hindsight, I believe that no-other candidate would have got more votes for Labour than Michael. The business and community interests behind Harun were too strong (for now). I fully expect Harun (who seems a decent stick with sense of humour) to join the Labour Party after a decent interval.

John Gray said...

“Hi JG - Offtopic a bit (I blogged re shadwell and linked here:p)”

Hi Marsha

Will do, – I post something later.

John Gray said...

Hi Jo
Yes, it wasn’t quite “Reservoir Dogs” but a good record of what was a good day’s campaigning (the really bad bit was following the count the next day).

Regards to Andy and next time “Victory”!

Apoplexy said...

lOL...i am not from the UK but feel sorry for these New Labour-ites.When RESPECT WINS, it is community and money.When NL wins..then it is...principles..what a joke.It is principled anger against New Labour betrayal that even high profile canvassing by big New Labour elements couldnt change the result.
Keith is packed off for good.
The grocer has shown the elite professor that RESPECT can destroy New Labour.
Power to the people!

John Gray said...

Come off it Apoplexy – can you imagine the result if a white Trotsky SWPer such as John Rees or Lindsey Germain had been allowed to stand?

Without community politics diss-respect would have had the 3.5% standard extremist vote that they had in the Ealing by-election.