Harriet, Hilary and Jon strut their stuff in West Ham

A bit of Westminster village came to the East End last night (only 150m from a real “Albert Square” E15). Lyn Brown MP and West Ham CLP has organised two hustings for deputy leadership candidates. (Sponsored by London UNISON Labour Link). These are not nationally organised Labour Party or socialist society events. The candidates couldn't attend the same night, so we organised two meetings, the first was last night. It is I think good for the party that a local CLP (with the enthusiastic support of its MP and her hard working parliamentary assistants – and UNISON of course) can organise and run such events. On Tuesday 29th 7.30pm doors open /8.00pm start, same location, same time, there will be Peter Hain (now confirmed), Alan Johnson and Hazel Blears. The West Ham CLP Chair is Cllr Conor McAuley (standing above).

There were about 100 people present. Which was not bad considering it was European cup final thingy. It was good to see a lot of trade union levy payers attend and participate. London Assembly member John Biggs had written to all UNISON members who lived in West Ham inviting them. It was held in the main assembly hall of Sarah Bonnell (Girls secondary) – now a “specialist language college” which is a state school which traces its route back to 1777. A Sarah Bonnell left £3,500 in her will for the setting up of a school for "poor girls" in West Ham. The School was also open to a wide range of community groups that night.

It was nice to see all the candidates arrive in the same way as ordinary members. No big government limos. I had to go and find Harriet who had been dropped off at the wrong end of the school. As was Jon, it’s a big site, with an interesting one way system outside. Hilary was the only one who managed to park directly outside the main entrance of the school (car radio tuned to the football).

All the stewards were wearing “UNISON steward” armbands. Which I think lead to some candidates to think that we were picketing!

As one of the stewards (and general “headless chicken” gofer) I did not really have a chance to listen properly to the speeches and the response to questions. My impression was that all of them had a different take on the job; however, they all performed very well. A comrade who was present did say he would write something up on the candidates performance. I’m always welcome to post sensible stuff. If not I will gave a go after Tuesday.

The next husting will take on Tuesday 29 May, same time, same location.

Many thanks to the top Sarah Bonnell Community caretakers and the Community development manager.