This evening I attended Islington Liberal Democrats’ traditional pre-Conference Pizza and Politics, at which local party members get the chance to discuss what will be coming up on the agenda (at Bournemouth, from this Saturday, in this instance). Islington South PC Bridget Fox chaired the event, at which presentations were made by Ruth Polling (of the Federal Conference Committee) and Jeremy Hargreaves (the latter hotfoot from chairing a meeting of the Federal Policy Committee). How much hotter off the press can you get? Moreover, this year we had the bonus that the emergency motions had already been discussed by Conference Committe well in advance, rather than being left up until the last minute, so now we know that there will be one on Afghanistan (thank God, as there is precious little else relating to foreign affairs); the others will be balloted on. The main item for debate will be the pre-manifesto for the general election. I would have preferred some of its language to be punchier, but the contant is sound and there is an acknowledgement that no-one can know exactly what the economic situation will be in six or nine months time.
Islington LibDms, in contrast to many other London local parties seem to have an unending supply of generous hosts with beautiful houses (and a willingness to throw them open to a horde of enthusiastic activists gesticulating while holding glasses of wine and plates of pizza). These evenings are a good fund-raising tool and give ordinary party members the chance to have some input into the Conference itself, even if they are not going to attend it in person. Does either the Labour or Conservative Party do the same? No prizes for guessing the correct answer to that.
Islington Liberal Democrats filled committee rooms 5 and 6 in Islington Town Hall last night, to launch the borough’s Euro-election campaign. The sitting MEP, Sarah Ludford, is ‘home grown’ (though actually I first came across her when we were both living and working in Brussels) and both she and I rallied the troops, before a partly-serious, partly tongue-in-cheek video tribute to outgoing Council leader James Kempton was shown. His former deputy, Terry Stacey — who hails from my London adopted home, Tower Hamlets — has taken over as group leader.
The venue was nostalgic for some, as it was there that the count was held for the Hillrise local by-election in December 1999, when a massive swing to the LibDems delivered not only the ward but also the Council into their hands. Over the intervening decade, the party has turned the borough authority from a ‘poor’ to an ‘excellent’ performer, though it got a nasty shock in 2006 when it almost lost control, in part, at least, for not listening sufficiently to local residents’ grumbles about parking issues.
Early this morning I was at Vauxhall bus station in the London borough of Lambeth, alongside Caroline Pidgeon (Member of the Greater London Assembly), Tom Brake MP (Carshalton and Wallington) and the target parliamentary seat LibDem PPCs, Chris Nicholson (Streatham) and Bridget Fox (Islington South). We were launching a campaign to introduce cheap one-hour bus tickets in London, which would enable bus passengers to transfer from one route to another within the space of 60 minutes, without having to buy a separate ticket for each section of their journey. Such timed transfer-type tickets are common in several continental cities and it’s amazing that this still isn’t the case in a cosmopolitan metropolis like London. But it is never too late to learn from our EU’s partners’ best practice!
Jonathan Fryer 