Labour Euro Election Street Stall in Stratford (2)

Today I returned from my long skive on holiday to help out with the 2nd EU Election stall in Stratford High Street outside the shopping centre. East London and City London Assembly member John Biggs was also there to help campaign.

Over 25 local councillors and Party members from across Newham spent some time at the stall. It was quite a colourful affair since in front of us there were evangelic Christian preachers preaching to passerby’s while behind there was a Hare Krishna band and dancers.

When you consider the difficult national political circumstances it was pretty successful I thought. The overwhelming response from people was positive. There were two dipsticks that walked past quickly shouting abuse before rapidly disappearing into the crowds. With the few people who brought the matter about MP expenses we had an open and honest conversation about what is going on.

One elderly bloke approached me and asked how many MP’s will be getting “Bird” over their expense claim. I said I was not sure that any will be but a number will be quite rightly stepping down as MPs because of this. He then asked if I thought it was right that the women who lied about her address to get her child in a good school were facing 5 years in jail. I agreed that this was wrong but also said I doubt very much that she faced any sort of a prison sentence even if convicted. He then tapped me on the shoulder and said “you boys have a lot of courage asking people to vote Labour at this time” and he walked away shaking his head.

The other side of the coin was that a women from the Teviot estate (I think) in Tower Hamlets came up to John Biggs to thank him for helping to get their communal gardens sorted out 7 years ago. We also had a Labour Party member who lived outside Newham come up and complain that she had not been contacted at all by her local party to help out with the election. I gave her the number of her local organiser.

The most amusing moment IMO was when a small group of Ultra left extremists (I believe they called themselves members of the so-called “Revolutionary Communist Party”) were lecturing some of our black members on how dare they support the “racist Labour Party” that had been deliberately set up to “support Empire and the colonies”? Our Black members dealt with the situation with humour and tolerance while gently explaining that the Labour Party was not racist and that they were proud to be not only supporters but activists.

To me it was a delicious irony to see these (all white and middle class) toy town revolutionaries lecturing and patronising working class black people on the “meaning of Racism” and demanding that they should follow their own perverted politics. Do these people simply have no insight on how normal people actually perceive them? Obviously not.