Battle on the hill (tweekender) – here’s to thursday!

Sorry for the lateness of this post but I’ve been a bit busy this weekend. On saturday, I joined 100′s of activists summoned by Kev Peel over the twittersphere who descended to do battle on the streets of Oldham East and Saddleworth. As someone new to this, there was so much energy and the room was so packed, I was awestruck.

This by-election has been hyped as the first real test for the coalition and from the areas I did on my round, the reaction on the doorstep was telling. While most were stauch Labour supporters and had always been, a few were formally Lib-dem but feel betrayed by their actions as part of the coalition government. While this coupled with the latest polls that put Labour in the lead with 44%, the Lib Dems on around 27% and the Tories trailing on 18% gives us cause for optimism, I warn against any signs of complacency as its all still up in the air.

I found it a rewarding experience and whilst we couldnt get close to Ed who was swarmed by cameras at his speech, I was inspired by Mp’s such as Luciana Berger MP, Jonny Reynolds and Andrew Gwynne who mucked in and really helped out. I met many great people, in particular Aaron Kumar who I am honoured to help in his BAME campaign.

All credit must go to Kev Peel without whom the mass mobilisation would not have been possible. An encouraging day and hopefully fingers crossed, we may win it for Debbie and for Labour on thursday!

Half a step, half a step,

half a step forward,

On the slopes, in the valley,

 Ride the few hundred.

Forward the Red brigade,

Charge for the doors

Charge against the lies,

The despair, the betrayals,

The axe swun hard, cut deep,

For fairness we walk the slopes,

For a brighter tommorow marches the few hundred!

Fighting the VAT and the dawn of oppression!

Tomorrow, yet another shackle will weigh down on us, VAT will rise to 20% on top of the fuel duty rise. Today, campaigning in Oldham, Ed Miliband called the planned rise the “wrong tax, at the wrong time”. He said it would cost the average family £7.50 a week, adding that “today we start to see the Tory-led agenda move from Downing Street to your street, the VAT rise is the most visible example of what we mean when we say the government is going too far and too fast, because it’s clear that it will slow growth and hit jobs.”

He has an almighty point. At a time when jobs are being cut in the public sector, it seems foolhardy and reckless to raise VAT which will affect retail and thus stifle growth of jobs. On saturday we shall be campaigning in Oldham East for the by-election, we shall be fighting against these oppressive measures. If you wish to join us, contact @kevpeel on twitter and follow the link to one of the facebook pages -  

 

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=163285443714106

 

The battle on the hill!

 

 

Our brothers gather from far and wide,

Many, in the darkness become one.

One voice, one morality, one heart

One flame burning bright,

In the darkess hope shines a light

From all over this sceptered isle, we come to fight,

We come to fight for all we hold dear,

A Britain where we care for each other not ourselves,

A Britain where aspiration, where hope shinew anew,

We brothers fight in the hill, ‘we happy few!’

Woolas has been measured and found wanting!

Some of Woolas' campaign literature

As many of you know, the special election court in Oldham have delivered a verdict into the case of the Phil Woolas the MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth., announcing that Woolas breached section 106 of the Representation of the People Act. He has been found guilty on 2 counts of making false statements which means there will be a by-election in Oldham, however Woolas will appeal immediately. The judges say that the statements made by Woolas were untrue and did relate to Watkins’ character.

I for one abhor the literature that was used by Woolas for its whipping up of racial hatred in Oldham of all places, where race riots have erupted in the past. Racism should have no part in mainstream politics and I believe that Woolas was wrong to the point of being foolhardy for opening this Pandora’s box.

So what now? My friend Tom Scholes Fogg on his blog http://blog.tomscholesfogg.co.uk/2010/11/woolas-court-hearing/ rightly states that “The by-election will be a big test for the coalition government as the cuts have been announced and the Lib Dem bounce and ‘Cleggmania’ is over” Thus the challenge for whoever is chosen as the labour candidate for this constituency is to campaign based on what the coalition’s cuts will eman for the people of Oldham, campaign on the Lib Dems offering NO resistance to such measures of the spending review, and to campaign based on an alternative to the coalitions vsison of despair. WE MUST DO THIS HONOURABLY, and not involve race as a factor. As I said before, me and many labour activists found such material insulting and abhorant and this should never happen again!

Mene, Mene, Tekel u-Pharsin

The writing shone on the wall,

You’re days numbered,

You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting,

Foolishly, you entered the vipers nest,

Struck by venom, you suffer an ignoble rest.

From his fate, a lesson must be read,

Campaigning from the gutter must be put to bed,

Give the people a vision of hope in the midst of despair,

We are all the same, all human,

We will all suffer the same once the axe falls,

Let us see the light, let us change our ways,

Let us wipe that writing from the wall!

 

Belshazzar's feast- the writing was on the all for Woolas