On Saturday April 24th the Labour Movement for Europe together with the UK Branches of PES sister parties (German SPD, French & Portuguese Socialists, to name but a few) & Labour Friends of Italy are going to Poplar & Limehouse to campaign and help re-elect Jim Fitzpartick MP.

With so many undecided voters that close to the elections, every door knocked, every letter delivered, every hand shook and every conversation had can make all the difference especially in three-way marginals.

Jim faces a double euro-sceptic threat in his constituency. George Galloway’s Respect Party seems to think of Europe as an irrelevance. They didn’t even field candidates in the European Elections last year. The real threat, however, is that the euro-ignorant Respect party wins enough Read the rest of this entry »

I had a really enjoyable day of campaigning in Hammersmith.  I even managed to get sunburnt in the process for the first time this year. It was great to catch up with German and US American comrades I met the Saturday before when we were out for the campaign launch of Sadiq Khan in Tooting. It was also great to see French, Italian and Portugues friends again, who were also out in Tooting and or in Islington on March 20. And to meet so many new PES sister party activists. As on the Saturdays before parliamentary and local candidates as well as everybody in the local Labour party made us feel welcome and at home right from the start.

Hammersmith can really do with 4-5 more years of Andy Slaughter MP and a Labour Government. Having seen the effects  of the socially divisive policies this Tory run Council has been advancing, you can only wish for all the local citizens that Labour will be able to wrestle back control locally as well on May 6.

I am just worried about this  new tribal confidence I have detected amongst Lib-Dem voters. Clegg’s perfomance in the leaders’ debate on ITV and subsequent polling results seem to have made them immune to the Tory squeeze message (As in “this is a Labour-Tory marginal, by voting Lib-Dem you let the Tories in”) So is Clegg’s success this Thursday a blessing in disguise for Cameron? Let’s hope not. Because we all know what the Tories stand for and not only in terms of their position on Europe.

Don’t Let the Tories Get Away with it!