Tag Archives: iraq

Iraq march

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Off to the Stop the War march today. Meet my troops at Highgate Station and link up with Muswell Hill group there. We get to Charing Cross and walk down together to the assembly point at which we part company to join the march and wait, corralled in line for the march to begin. There is a good turn-out – around 15,000 I hear later on the news – to mark the third anniversary of going to war.

In Iraq the British and American troops are like a red rag to a bull. We are seen by a section of the population as an occupying force. We are part of the problem not the solution. Let’s listen to the people and sort out a date and am exit strategy. If there is no date and no plan – it won’t happen.

Iraq, Iraq, Iraq

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First panic of the day – the first batch of our election address needs to be bundled and got to Royal Mail. Neil (agent) phones around the ‘gang’ and we all flood in to finish off the last envelopes. All is well – except it takes Neil three and a half hours round trip to get it there.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch (lot of western allusion today) I get my spurs on and go canvassing with Jonathan Marciano from the Ham & High. As ever, we are looking for Labour ‘switchers’ as I guess that will be the story of this seat. But it is hard to find anyone who is not out and out Lib Dem (of the very few people in that time of the morning).

In the end Jonathan decides he will have to make do with a photo of me on the doorstep of a Lib Dem supporter. So we talk on the step and as we are talking it turns out that he did indeed used to be a Labour supporter. It was the LibDem work locally that first brought us into the frame (cracked pavements and rubbish collection etc) – and combined with Iraq … If you can’t keep a street clean – how can you run the country – I always say!

We do bits of interviews as we go. My successful campaigns for the 603 bus route and the police front counter reopening at Muswell Hill police station are touched upon but the main issue coming up on the doorsteps is Iraq. Crime, education (particularly school places) and health also feature.

When people start talking about why they are voting and switching it is about the sort of world people want. It matters how you behave. It matters if you wage an illegal war. It matters if your civil liberties are taken away. It matters if what makes our society decent and caring is trashed.

Whew – glad to get that off my chest.

Rush home to try and get my emails done. It is absolute mayhem trying to deal with everything that is coming in. I am glad that the volume of stuff has exploded in size – I think. Rush back to HQ after a few hours of inbox control and to help get our next leaflet our to deliverers in Hornsey and then off canvassing again with Alexis.

Very good canvassing here and more posters. People are very interested in talking – which means I cover less ground – but it I feel an important part of the democratic process for candidates to have to meet and talk to the public.

Actually go home quite early at around 8pm to read the Liberal Democrat manifesto properly and start to think about the hustings the first one of which is to be Churches of Muswell Hill on Sunday afternoon.

Tariq Ali puts Labour on the spot

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9am sharp the campaign team arrives at my house. Everyone in very good form and we get through the business of going through the status of our campaign in record time. Most head off for our HQ to begin the days canvassing (not before 11am as waking people on a Sunday morning does not endear them to your cause!), delivering and sticking and stuffing.

Neil, Susie and I head off to do a photo shoot at Alexandra Park Station and then I come back home to write some notes for Bill Rodgers who the following night is to chair my adoption meeting. Drop them off and head to HQ myself.

Uneventful couple of hours canvassing and then off to the Kurdish Centre off Green Lanes where I have been invited to speak for 10 minutes on anything I like. This is the celebration of 17 years of the centre.

As I was asked what time slot I would like and had said 3.30pm I turned up and the hall was full of people. The proceedings were mainly in Kurdish (with a bit of Turkish). There was a Green MEP there and she was called to speak first. A translator translated as she went.

When I was called I just spoke about the choice they would have at the election, the war, and the importance of communities like the Kurdish community not just voting, but becoming politicians and active members of the community.

Then Barbara Roche (my Labour opponent) arrived. Didn’t know she was coming. She took the stage in an absolute thundercloud – so assume that she didn’t know I was going to be there either. Blasted the LibDems right, left and centre.

She also introduced herself as a Member of Parliament for a left-wing progressive government. You could have knocked me down with a feather! This from the most right-wing, privatising government we have seen. And her voting track-record? Voted for tube privatisation, for top up fees, for war in Iraq, for cutting benefits for disabled people, for Post Office closures, the list goes on …

Dash back to HQ (just love having an HQ) and grab some canvassing.

A lot of Labour supporters know about Tariq Ali’s call for people to vote Lib Dem in Hornsey and Wood Green to defeat the pro-war MP. It’s put a lot of people on the spot. Do you stay at home or reluctantly vote Labour – or do you take the plunge and cast a vote which will actually make a difference?

Tariq has basically challenged all those in Hornsey & Wood Green who have been so upset by the Labour Government taking us to war illegally and by the MP’s unswerving support for that war – to actually do something about it – because here they can.

Take canvassing back to HQ and dash off to meeting about traffic issues in Bounds Green. As usual – a proposed traffic scheme to stop rat-running from the North Circular is dividing a community that straddles the Haringey / Enfield border. I look at all the maps with the two women who have called me in desperation to stop Enfield just doing what they plan – without Haringey sorting out their side. As ever – one road’s benefit by timed closures means another road’s suffering. I will pursue as it drives me mad – the sticking plaster approach to traffic problems in London.

Home to emails, paperwork etc – and lots of requests for posters! Hurrah!

Fun on the Today programme

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Radio 4 have a piece about disgruntled Labour activists – and they pick a group of Labour members from Hornsey and Wood Green.

Some of the comments from the Labour members:

“There’s so many things the Labour government does that I am in total, complete disagreement with. And it’s not just Iraq, it is the rightwards drift, it’s the attack on local authorities, it’s the attack on social housing. It’s the arrogant attitude that they have towards ordinary people.”

“I know dozens, literally dozens and dozens, of people who are Labour voters who will be voting Lib Dem. Because they are the party in the area that’s got some momentum behind it, and are the anti war party, and it is the war that has been the biggest issue for me.”

“For a Labour government to take us to war in that way is just for me unsupportable, but there are also the attacks on civil liberties, top up fees, the privatisation, galloping privatisation, it’s just more than I can bear and when they dress it up in this whole language of choice, and so on, well I’m sorry I cannot trust people who behave like that – I don’t trust them.”

All this from Labour party members! You can listen again to this on the Radio 4 website for a week.

People switching from Labour

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A week or so ago I got a call from a Labour member in Stroud Green ward saying that he and quite a few people around where he lived were thinking not only of voting for the Lib Dems in the coming election – but perhaps actively going out and campaigning for us when the election is called. However, they wanted to ‘interview’ me as the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate to make sure I was – whatever.

He assured me it would not be an ‘interrogation’ but just that they didn’t know me and wanted to check out some issues with me.

I took Laura Edge with me as she is the Lib Dem councillor in Stroud Green ward (elected with a massive swing from Labour in the January 2004 by-election – 29% swing!).

I suppose there are about ten people there when we arrive – and they certainly put me through my paces. The key issues appeared to be Iraq, Control Orders, PPP for the tube and many, many others. I just answered directly – my thoughts. My late mother’s advice to me in all things was ‘be yourself’. So I was.

I recognise that many Lib Dem policies and positions at the moment resonate with Labour members and voters. This is not because of any change in Liberal Democracy – it is because Labour has moved. I am not a socialist but much of the rest of politics has moved so far to the right, that many people now find the Liberal Democrats closest to their own views.

One issue that was causing anxiety was the possibility that if they voted Lib Dem it might let a Tory in. No chance in Hornsey & Wood Green. The Tory candidate has even said publicly that the election is a very close contest between Labour and the Lib Dems.

Moreover, there are a couple of Labour websites that have sprung up to advise disaffected Labour voters where it is safe to vote away from Labour. In Hornsey & Wood Green the sites advocate voting Lib Dem completely safely:

www.strategicvoter.org.uk says, “Vote for the best-placed candidate from an anti-war party, which in this seat means LibDem … You are in a vital battleground constituency where you have a real chance of getting someone from an anti-war party elected.”

www.sonowwhodowevotefor.net says the sitting Labour MP, having voted for the war in Iraq, tuition fees and foundation hospitals, is “part of the problem” and urges visitors to back the Lib Dems instead.

I very much enjoyed meeting this Labour group this morning. There are some differences inevitably – but I was greatly impressed by their commitment and engagement in the political process – and that they cared so passionately about a variety of issues they were prepared to be active to deliver an outcome.

After a two-hour ‘grilling’ (not really) I sneak a quick lunch with my friend Jenny. Don’t tell my campaign manager!

Then campaigning in the afternoon followed by a campaign team meeting at my house. All the ward organisers for the campaign come and we run through the programme and update on where we all are with our various tasks. We are all trying to do so much – and getting it mostly done. It is a fantastic team of people who are determined to give it their best!

On the doorsteps

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Out canvassing in the afternoon. Positive response on the doorstep – there’s clearly a very large group of disillusioned Labour voters who are thinking seriously of voting Lib Dem. It’s not just about Iraq – though that has been key in breaking people’s trust of Blair.

Election predictions

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My daughter is trying to inveigle a lift to her friend’s house in Primrose Hill. I avoid giving my children lifts the vast majority of the time. Firstly – I use public transport much of the time and want them to do same. Secondly – I have very little time. Thirdly – don’t think it’s good for them to be molly-coddled!

However, as luck would have it, I was going to speak as part of a panel to Camden Liberal Democrats at a supper / Question Time sort of fundraiser. And sod’s law – it was about two minutes from where she was going – so she won! On route we saw gangs of little witches, wizards and warlocks – it was so cute. Little covens of kids knocking on doors with a grown up figure lurking not far away overseeing their trick or treating. I quite like Halloween – but still won’t watch a horror film on my own!

The other panel members were Sarah Teather MP (she of Brent East by-election victory), Baroness Sally Hamwee (London Assembly and House of Lords frontbencher), Lord Tim Garden (our expert on Iraq, the military and on every TV program on the subject) and myself.

It was a lively old night with lots of questions – pretty challenging ones at that. Iraq figured very largely over the evening and with the impending American presidential election – no surprise. Of course, after Tim Garden speaks so informatively, knowledgeably and well on those key issues. It’s not an easy act to follow, but we did our best.

Asked what the panel felt would be the most significant factor in the forthcoming General Election, my answer was trust. Whatever the policies, I think the fundamental problem for Labour is that no one trusts them any more.

The bloke sitting on my left at the Camden supper put his hand up to speak and made the same point about loss of trust because Tim Garden had expressed the view that trust wouldn’t be the key issue – it would be policies. This chap, Alexis, then stated that he had left the Labour party for that very reason and had only joined the LibDems one week earlier. I rest my case!

The panel was asked in two words to state their bets on the result of the American elections and the date of the General. Earlier in the year, it looked to me like Bush might go. But now I go for Bush and May!