Last night I had a wonderful time at the Harbour restaurant in Upper Street at Meral Ece's fundraising dinner. The atmosphere was fantastic, the company awesome and the food delicious........and all in a splendid cause too!
As often happens, whilst chatting with someone (who shall remain nameless) about a topic (that will remain a secret) concern was expressed that what was said may end up on my blog.......moi?! And to think this nameless character restricted themselves to one glass of wine for fear of spilling too many beans.....shame! However tempting, there are private conversations which will remain private and personal conversations that will of course remain personal. My lips are sealed.....
Anyway, inspirational speeches from Bridget Fox, Simon Hughes and Meral herself left me with a certain sense of frustration. Frustration that we are engaged in an election in London where, as was picked up in the Times yesterday we should be doing well, for a variety of reasons, not least that "London is, furthermore, a city in which the right sort of liberal values - individual liberty, tolerance and internationalism - should have a real market", but are we having the impact we should have? The politics of fear - i.e. we are scared stiff of another Ken term, but also scared stiff of letting Boris (whoops is that a £5 fine?!) loose - apparently drives voting intentions. In theory, the voting system should be to our advantage. All those people on the doorstep (you know, you've met them) who say they would vote for us if they thought we had a chance of winning, well, in London on May 1st they could be putting that to the test, voting for us first with the fail safe of being able to vote for their least worst option second. Brian Paddick has a huge task despite the fact that he is standing against two such scary candidates. I hope he will grasp the nettle and take some risks and with greater exposure, begin to win more of the electorate round. But, however he does in this contest it is important to remember there are other contests taking place. So, despite my frustration, I also left with a great sense of expectation that Meral has a real chance to win her seat on May 1st, she certainly deserves to and the people of London North East deserve someone of her calibre and commitment to be their new, loud and extremely effective, voice on the GLA!
As often happens, whilst chatting with someone (who shall remain nameless) about a topic (that will remain a secret) concern was expressed that what was said may end up on my blog.......moi?! And to think this nameless character restricted themselves to one glass of wine for fear of spilling too many beans.....shame! However tempting, there are private conversations which will remain private and personal conversations that will of course remain personal. My lips are sealed.....
Anyway, inspirational speeches from Bridget Fox, Simon Hughes and Meral herself left me with a certain sense of frustration. Frustration that we are engaged in an election in London where, as was picked up in the Times yesterday we should be doing well, for a variety of reasons, not least that "London is, furthermore, a city in which the right sort of liberal values - individual liberty, tolerance and internationalism - should have a real market", but are we having the impact we should have? The politics of fear - i.e. we are scared stiff of another Ken term, but also scared stiff of letting Boris (whoops is that a £5 fine?!) loose - apparently drives voting intentions. In theory, the voting system should be to our advantage. All those people on the doorstep (you know, you've met them) who say they would vote for us if they thought we had a chance of winning, well, in London on May 1st they could be putting that to the test, voting for us first with the fail safe of being able to vote for their least worst option second. Brian Paddick has a huge task despite the fact that he is standing against two such scary candidates. I hope he will grasp the nettle and take some risks and with greater exposure, begin to win more of the electorate round. But, however he does in this contest it is important to remember there are other contests taking place. So, despite my frustration, I also left with a great sense of expectation that Meral has a real chance to win her seat on May 1st, she certainly deserves to and the people of London North East deserve someone of her calibre and commitment to be their new, loud and extremely effective, voice on the GLA!
1 comment:
I wonder why doesn't Meral Ece link to Brian Paddick's site? All other candidates to the GLA seem to have his banner or at least a link to his site. Doesn't she support his mayoral bid?
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