A phenomenally successful People's Assembly in Newcastle
on Saturday.
Owen Jones put the teenage Trots in their place without mentioning
them, while really socking it to the enemy.
Owen understands that the cuts,
never mind the privatisation of the Royal Mail, call for a movement as
broad as the swathe of society that they hit. His powerful call for unity is here.
So he has been to places like
St Albans (packed out, apparently), and he is going to places like King's Lynn and Bangor, to spread the
word.
He is going because they have invited him.
He freely admits that he had never previously heard of some of the places where he is now addressing huge, and hugely enthusiastic, crowds.
There is a media blackout, of course. But it hardly seems to matter. We would appear to be beyond that now. Or very nearly beyond it.
If they are inviting, and then wildly applauding, Owen in Home Counties gin and Jag land, in rural East Anglia, and in small town North Wales, then both the activists and the voters are clearly there to be reached in those places.
He freely admits that he had never previously heard of some of the places where he is now addressing huge, and hugely enthusiastic, crowds.
There is a media blackout, of course. But it hardly seems to matter. We would appear to be beyond that now. Or very nearly beyond it.
If they are inviting, and then wildly applauding, Owen in Home Counties gin and Jag land, in rural East Anglia, and in small town North Wales, then both the activists and the voters are clearly there to be reached in those places.
Fight every seat, say I.
Including, since the interest is now demonstrated, seats that do not even contain a Labour Councillor, still less have they ever previously elected a Labour MP. Read that second part over again, anyone still carrying a torch for Tony Blair.
Someone from the local People's Assembly could be made the parliamentary candidate. They exist. Even, perhaps especially, where any Labour Party organisation has not done so for decades. If ever.
Including, since the interest is now demonstrated, seats that do not even contain a Labour Councillor, still less have they ever previously elected a Labour MP. Read that second part over again, anyone still carrying a torch for Tony Blair.
Someone from the local People's Assembly could be made the parliamentary candidate. They exist. Even, perhaps especially, where any Labour Party organisation has not done so for decades. If ever.
"phenomenally successful in Newcastle"
ReplyDeleteEven Geordie Shore is "phenomenally successful" there.
Hardly a badge of honour.
70% of Newcastle residents have had intercourse in the shower.
The other 30% haven't been to prison yet.
You must be thinking of the City.
ReplyDeleteOne day, anyway.
Until 2011, Newcastle had a Lib Dem council for some years; it still has one of the most right-wing Labour ones in the country, as did not go unremarked.
That authority was under Tory control for much of the post-War period, and the city regularly returned Tory MPs for certain seats. Saturday's conference was held in one of them.
There is still a strikingly high number of privately schooled children, a posh university with Princess Eugenie at it, a thriving arts scene that is certainly not reminiscent of the pitmen painters, several gentlemen's clubs, a racecourse of some importance, and no shortage of the swankier sorts of shops, restaurants, bars, and the like.
There are poor places around it (as well as several very rich ones), but there are very few poor areas in it, although the ones that there are, are undeniably very poor indeed.
Anyway, what about, say, Fenland, the next People's Assembly at which Owen is speaking? Or St Albans, where he packed them in and they cheered him to the rafters?