Tooting Labour Hold – footage from one hell of a night

Some of the footage from Thursday night. Awesome, awesome experience. Thanks to Luke Waterfield for digging this up.

Hustings in Tooting

Last night I had the pleasure to go to a Hustings in Tooting in the lead-up to the election on the 6th of May.

In my mind, there was only one winner, Sadiq Khan. Sadiq spoke passionately and authoritatively on issues that local Tooting residents face everyday. Affordable high-quality university places; protecting our economy from double dip recession; protection for developing world communities and our own shores from the threat of  devastating climate change; sweeping voting reform to get rid of the first past the post system that is clearly flawed; and importantly for me on a personal level, a real and understanding answer on immigration.

Sadiq put all of his points in the context of Tooting, how these issues will affect us as residents.  Sadiq outlined how he and Labour have worked to ensure Tooting is a great place to live. This has resulted in lower unemployment, better schools and a vastly improved St George’s Hospital. As he said in his opening address, as a Tooting boy born and bred, he “walks in our shoes”, so by using the same services and amenities as the rest of us, he understands what issues are important to we residents.

The other candidates ranged from the slick to the all over the place.  The UKIP representative was the consummate stereotype of his party, anti-Europe, pro public service cuts, anti-climate change. The Green candidate was very amusing and thoughtful in his answers, many of which I support and applaud, but he will be the first to admit he has no chance under the first-past-the-post system, something Labour is going to change if they get back in and the public choose the Alternative Vote Plus system in a referendum. The Independent seems passionate on her issues, but again can’t win because of the electoral system. The Lib-Dem didn’t get the support that the Clegg bounce would have assured him and Mr Clarke of the Conservatives was slick, but his points were straight from the Tory manifesto, rather than focusing on Tooting issues. Sadiq has proven himself to be a MP who will fight for Tooting residents and I don’t know if we would get that to the same extent from any other candidate.

I also question the debate format. There was no real opportunity for acutal debate or rebuttal. Each speaker had two minutes to make his point and move on, thereby leaving no time for rebuttal or proper discussion.

All-in-all it was a fascinating night and it raised many questions about the viability about many of the candidates in my mind.

Campaigning for Sadiq Khan

In my free time I’ve been campaigning for Sadiq Khan, the Labour MP for Tooting for the past 8-9 months since I moved to the area.It has been fantastic to get involved. I’ve met some fantastic new people – it’s true that Labour might not have the money that the Tories do, but they certainly have an enormously energetic level of active support and the team in Tooting are a hard-working, welcoming bunch.

Sadiq has worked exceptionally hard for the people of Tooting since he was first elected in 2005. He was born and raised in the area so he has a natural affinity with the people and a deep-rooted understanding of the issues Tooting residents face. For more information on Sadiq, have a look at his website. It is a new address because he can’t use his old website anymore due to campaigning rules.

He was kind enough to agree to post a message for my blog which is below.

The Tories are panicking

As I lay here in my sickbed, unfortunately unable to canvass for Sadiq Khan and LCID, slowly going mad watching endless Law and Order and Scrubs, I’ve had the opportunity to read even more political articles than I would normally and it is clear that the Tories are in severe panic mode. Not just the doldrums and messaging meetings that you hear about in the media in general prior to today’s poll that saw them only two points ahead of Labour, but proper sweat inducing, palpitation creating, panic.

With the news of this poll, there is talk of them lurching to the right, looking scarily like the McCain 2008 campaign. McCain was known as a moderate and tried to appear so, but during the campaign, although somewhat earlier than Cameron is being called to, he had to lurch to the right to ensure he kept the base. There is significant pressure at the moment for Cameron to start campaigning heavily on tax cuts and immigration, sure signs of panic and dangerous ground to play, because all of a sudden you lose the moderates. There are even signs that some within the party have broken with Tory HQ and are already campaigning on immigration, without approval, but still in the name of Ministers.

There are even stories starting to question the leadership of Cameron, suggesting they would do better under Hague. It seems so long ago similar storylines were in print about Labour. Hoon and Hewitt seem a generation ago. The Conservative press are turning against the Tories and Cameron, they are spouting panic and that doesn’t help the them in the view of a very confused public who don’t know if they can trust him either. They certainly don’t know him.

There is a Cameron quote in the TimesOnline this morning;

“I would say after doing 4½ years of this job, people have got to know me — not as much as I would like but there are some weeks still to go.”

Really, after 4 1/2 years he thinks a couple of weeks will make a difference? Surely that’s grasping at straws.

To be honest, credit where credit due, Cameron is doing the moral thing. I don’t like him, but he realises that the Tories of the far right isn’t where the party should be. And I hope he doesn’t go towards the immigration  line and it appears he won’t, because that only gives credit to Griffin and the BNP’s argument.

The question is, is this a blip, or is this the Kinnock moment in 1992 that things went haywire for the Conservatives and they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. I sure hope so.

Update:

I just saw on sky news that the “official word from inside the Tory leader’s suite in the Metropole is that the latest poll setback “stiffens our resolve” and “blows out of the water their underdog strategy”. It is never a good sign when you are fighting for the underdog title, especially if you are still ahead in the polls as the Tories are, albeit by only two. points.

Sorry – I’ve been busy, but that’s no excuse

My sincerest apologies for not blogging in so so long. This is exactly what I would advise a blogger should never do, but I guess I’ll have to live with a do as I say, not as I do philosophy for now.

Just to give you a brief update of my last  weeks, I have been;

• Helping out with Sadiq Khan MP’s campaign in Tooting. It feels good here, I think we will win it and Mark Clarke and the Tories seem increasingly all over the place. We had the Tooting Action Day last week which was about 6 hours of canvassing and envelope stuffing. Sounds awful, but it is great to hang out with people as passionate as I am. Plus it is a pleasure to help out Sadiq any way I can. Bring on the election.
• I’ve been helping manage the launch of the Labour Campaign for International Development. I’m election and media manager for the group and again, it is great to work with people who share my passions. I won’t go into too much detail, but follow my link and you can get a good idea of what we’ve put into place.
• I’ve been reading. Firstly Kafka’s  The Trial irritating. Secondly David Plouffe’s story of how he managed Obama’s campaign in the brilliant The Audacity to Win – read it.
• I’ve been saving the world. Work has been fantastic, I’ve been seeing the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Pneumococcal Disease Prevention in the Developing World transition itself to the APPG for Global Action against Childhood Pneumonia as well as partaking in some pretty high-profile campaigns, which I probably shouldn’t discuss here.
• I’ve been watching Mad Men, brilliant.
• I’ve been planning some holidays, I’m looking forward to it

There’s plenty more, I’ll add to this list when I think about it. I’ll add hyperlinks soon too.

Canvassing in Tooting

I had the pleasure of joining the Tooting Labour Party team canvassing with local MP Sadiq Khan today. We canvassed around the Hazelhurst Estate area and again, the results were pretty positive. Most people in the area I meet suggest they will vote Labour, with only a few previous Labour voters suggesting they are wavering.

This is obviously good news, and I think that in the not to distant future, probably early in the New Year, the focus of canvassing will change from purely trying to convince people to vote Labour, but to also make sure they actually get out and vote. I think that is one of the big challenges for Labour, ensuring people who may become slightly more apathetic, that they have to get out and vote.

Canvassing in Tooting – Bedford Ward

By Nick Osborne

I joined the local Bedford Ward Labour team, part of Wandsworth Labour, this afternoon on a very, very chilly afternoon in SW17.It was a good session with a good deal of support for Labour and our local member Sadiq Khan.

I’m noticing that, while there is dissatisfaction with Labour on a national level, a fair amount of voters who would normally vote Labour but aren’t happy don’t seem to be able to fully support Cameron and the Tories and are either now in the swing vote category, or will probably vote Labour for Sadiq, or because they still support them on principle. If this is being replicated across the country, things aren’t as cut and dry as the media has been saying.

I admit, it is hard for someone to say they don’t want to vote for a certain party, especially when a representative of that party standing right in front of them. But, I think there is still an underlying support for Labour and a mistrust for Cameron and the Conservatives.

Hopefully, this will lead to positive things happening at the ballot box in May. I’m not so much of a blind supporter to presume Labour will romp it in, that’s not going to happen, but I can envision a hung parliament, or  worst  case scenario, a Conservative Government with a majority of less than 40.

Anyway, we wait and see and hope.

Canvassing with Sadiq Khan MP in Tooting

More of a diary update, rather than a comment piece.

I’ve been recently toying with the idea of joining a political party and as I’ve no doubt you have realised that my preference is for the Labour Party.

Well, I have recently volunteered with Sadiq Khan’s (Lab-Tooting) office offering to do what I can and when I can. Well, today I joined his team out canvassing in the local area. Sadiq has quite impressive and seemed really engaged with the local constituents. If they had a problem he was really keen to speak with them to see what he could do. A couple of people seemed really impressed that he was there to listen and said they would vote for him because of it. I’m sure if every Labour MP and PPC can do the same, Labour has more than a chance at the next election.

But anyway, I enjoyed it and I know I’ll be back to help in the coming weeks.