Heaton & Lostock Labour Party - 2005 Annual Report

Secretary's Annual Report 2005

Introduction

2005 was the second full year of the Heaton & Lostock Labour Party and we continue to be a successful and active Branch, making a significant contribution to the Party's activities not just in our own Constituency but in Bolton generally.

Attendance at Branch meetings has been up and down but it's generally been very good and we've had a variety of guest speakers and discussions covering a wide range of topics. Our finances are still healthy and we have continued to be a very "social bunch of Socialists", remaining friends as well as comrades, regardless of whether or not we agree or disagree on particular policies or the way in which our Government is going.

The main political event of the year was, of course, the General Election in which we were successful both nationally and locally but an election which nonetheless marked a return to something approaching "political normality" with Labour no longer enjoying the massive majorities we had in 1997 and 2001.

Very sadly we said farewell to a number of great political activists during the year. The "Grim Reaper" robbed us of the gifts that Robin Cook had brought to both the Labour Party and the Socialist Movement internationally for so many years and took Mo Mowlem as well. Both are, and will continue to be, greatly missed.

Nationally, the new Government faced some serious challenges, mostly from within its own ranks, on topics as diverse as anti-terrorism legislation, the proposed smoking ban and education reform to name but three. Only time will tell whether or not the new Tory Leader will be any more successful than his three predecessors and already he's tried to steal many of Labour's policies some of which, it's believed, originated with them anyway!

Towards the end of the year we selected our Candidate for the 2006 local elections and it's important that we get as many Labour votes as possible in this ward to show the opposition that we are a force to be reckoned with, even in what is regarded as "Tory heartland" territory, but also to hold onto and hopefully build our vote for the next General Election.

2005 The Year

When looking back at a year it's too easy to forget what happened early on and concentrate on the last couple of months. But there were some highly controversial issues.

January:	The shameful UKIP underwent ructions with its most famous member, the former TV host Robert Kilroy Silk resigning after failing to become leader and the Tories unveiled their plans for annual quotas for refugees should they win the election, rumoured for May.
February:	After years of controversy, the ban on hunting with dogs in England came into force and Ken Livingstone got into trouble when he accused a Jewish journalist of behaving like a "concentration camp guard", a controversy which continues. Kilroy Silk was back in the news as he set up his own Eurosceptic party - Veritas - with himself as leader. Later in the month Tony Blair carried out a whistle-stop tour of the UK to announce our six pre-election pledges. A prize for anyone who can remember them!
March:	The main political argument of the month was about anti-terror measures, with the Lords and Commons in deadlock over plans for control orders, which would give the Home Secretary the power to place Britons and foreign citizens under effective house arrest, without trial. In the end, the deadlock was only broken by the promise of giving MPs a vote in a year's time on whether to scrap or keep the new measures. More interestingly for many of us was that TV chef Jamie Oliver helped persuade the government to pledge £280m to improve the quality and nutritional standards of England's school dinners. Ruth, as Education Secretary, was, of course, very involved in that decision, although Gordon Brown might have been even more involved!
April:	After months of being the worst-kept secret at Westminster, Tony Blair called a general election for 5th May, the announcement apparently being delayed by the death of the Pope. The month was, of course, dominated by the election campaign, with Gordon Brown and Tony Blair inseparable as those of us who saw them together at Oldham will attest. Highlights of the campaign included a Question Time special in which Tony Blair was flustered by a question about the difficulty of getting a GPs appointment; Greenpeace protesters scaling John Prescott's house's roof and the birth of Charles Kennedy's first child - which he blames for a hesitant performance when discussing his party's taxation plans. I guess, that sadly, we now know the real reason for that. The issue of Iraq was mentioned many times and rather cynically George Galloway announced that he would stand for the anti-war Respect Coalition against Oona King in the Bethnall Green and Bow Constituency, with its large Muslim population. In the end the Attorney General's legal advice on the war was published in full after a number of leaks - but opinion polls continued to give us a big lead.
May:	Tony Blair was elected for an unprecedented third Labour successive term but the Government's majority was reduced to from 167 in 2001 to 66. The Lib Dems took 62 seats and the Tories 198. George Galloway was elected in a shameful campaign. In Bolton, all three of our MPs were re-elected, Ruth with a majority of only just over 2,000 and a swing of 4.5% against her, David with a majority of just over 4,000 and an even bigger swing of over 8% away from him and Brian, with a whopping 11,500 majority, albeit losing 5% of his 2001 vote. It wasn't an easy campaign but many of our local Party members, too many to mention individually, worked extremely hard to ensure Ruth's re-election. On the morning after the election, Tory leader Michael Howard announced his resignation, leading to the lengthy race for his successor, which went on for another seven months. Tony Blair promised an "agenda of respect" for his third term, focusing on law and order. Plans included ID cards and laws against religious hatred.
June:	The UK began its six-month presidency of the European Union, with Tony Blair warning that it faces a "crisis in political leadership" and must change to win back public support. He also said the UK's £3bn annual EU rebate is an "anomaly that has to go" - but made clear that its removal has to be linked reform of the CAP.
July:	The mood of the whole country went from jubilation one day, as London won the right to host the 2012 Olympics, to horror the next as Britain's experienced its worst terrorist attack. Tony Blair, flanked by world leaders attending the G8 summit, said: "Whatever they do, it is our determination that they will never succeed in destroying what we hold dear in this country and in other civilised nations throughout the world." The G8 leaders agreed to an almost £30bn aid and debt-cancellation deal for Africa prompted by the worldwide Live8 concerts organised by Bob Geldof. Kilroy Silk quit as Veritas leader, claiming the party, which didn't win any seats at the election, has "failed".
August:	Two of Labour's most prominent figures died within a few days of each other. Robin Cook, the former Foreign Secretary, who resigned from the Government in a principled stand against the Iraq war and regarded as one of the finest parliamentarians of his generation, collapsed on a walking holiday in the Highlands. And Mo Mowlam, once the Northern Ireland Secretary and one of the most popular figures in UK politics, died after a long illness. "The death of a brave, intelligent and engaging woman was a tragedy for British politics," said one party activist.
September:	The Party Conference was held in Brighton, and was accused of being heavy-handed when peace campaigner Walter Wolfgang, 82, was manhandled from the conference hall for shouting "nonsense" during a speech by Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. After a furore in the media and amongst party activists he was readmitted to the hall the following day, to loud acclaim. But his treatment didn't make us feel very good about ourselves. Quite frankly, it was a disgrace and it's a shame that a Conference, which should have been remembered as a celebration of our third victory and planning for the future, will mainly be remembered for that deplorable incident.
October:	The Tories held their conference in Blackpool and it appears that it was David Davis's speech there which consigned him to the very large Tory political waste bin! The Cabinet decided to push ahead with a partial smoking ban in England's public places - exempting members-only clubs and pubs which don't serve food. But several ministers, including Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt, were said to be unhappy that there won't be a complete ban, as in Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Tories get on with the latest part of their saga over who should lead them!
November:	After eight years, Tony Blair suffered his first Commons defeat, as Tories, Lib Dems and Labour rebels voted against allowing terror suspects to be detained for up to 90 days without charge. MPs instead opt for 28 days. But a concerted effort by the opposition to stop longer licensing hours for pubs in England - amid fears of rising crime and violence - failed and so far we haven't seen the promised mayhem. David Blunkett, the Work and Pensions Secretary, was compelled to leave the Government for the second time in less than a year, after breaking the ministerial code of conduct over paid work he took while out of the Cabinet. The Tories continued their search for a new leader.
December:	Finally, David Cameron was named Tory leader and promised to change the image of the party, encourage more women to become MPs and tackle environmental issues. Where have we heard that before? He brought in William Hague, another Tory leader failure, as Shadow Foreign Secretary. Cameron's first confrontation with Tony Blair at Prime Minister's questions, saw the former taunt the latter: "I want to talk about the future...you were the future once." We shall see! In contrast to Cameron, the Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy ended the year uncomfortably, as senior members of his party questioned his "laid back" style. However, he promised to fight on, to create a party "thirsting and thrusting" for electoral success. But Cameron urged Lib Dems to defect to the Tories. At the eleventh hour, Tony Blair agreed to a cut to the UK's EU rebate, in exchange for future discussions on EU funding, including spending on agriculture. The Tories and their press branded the agreement a "surrender", but Tony Blair said that it was the best possible deal "in the circumstances"; and it probably was!

It was quite a year and, as we look forward to a "fun-filled" 2006, it's unlikely that the next twelve months will be any less eventful. They've already started - with the political demise of Charles Kennedy, the near death of Arial Sharon and Tony Banks joining Robin Cook and Mo Mowlem!

What About Us?

Out of the spotlight of the world stage we continue to work away at local level as best as we can. We successfully completed our second year as the Heaton & Lostock Labour Party with our very active participation in the General Election being the main event.

We covered our own Ward very successfully with half a Scandinavian forest of leaflets, thankfully now able to be recycled by Bolton Council!

At the Branch AGM in January several familiar faces appeared once again - Graham was elected Chair; John, Secretary; Noelene, Treasurer; Bob and Sheila, Vice-Chairs, Pat Membership Secretary; Muhammad, Bob, Diane and Sheila CLP Delegates; Terry, LGC Delegate; Terry and Gwen, REC Delegates.

I very much hope that all of these who are able will continue to serve the Branch in 2006 as I think we have a very good and effective team.

Our Membership in 2005

Membership of the Branch remains at approximately XXX and we are still the largest Branch in the Bolton West CLP. There have been a few new members to the Branch in the last year but these are either people transferring in from elsewhere in the country or have been discovered as having been wrongly allocated to other Branches when the new ward parties came into effect a couple of years ago.

There continues to be an appalling problem at Constituency level in that there have been no proper membership reports from Labour Party HQ for a very long time and those that have been received are based on the old ward boundaries. We don't know exactly who our members are, who has paid and who has not, who has joined and left. I mentioned this in my report last year and have raised it several times with the CLP but absolutely nothing seems to have been done except for it to be said that "Pat has put a lot of work in"! It's just not good enough.

Fund-raising

The Branch barbecue remains our main social event of the year and in 2005 it was uniquely held on a Friday (10th June), enabling Ruth to come along and was a celebration of the Bolton West General Election victory. It was a great evening with fine weather, good attendance and Graham cooked his heart out over the barbecue which he handles almost uniquely. We had a great time and made a sizable contribution to Branch funds.

We also held a Potato Pie and Ciabata Supper (although without the Ciabata) on 5th March at Alan and Joyce's house. That too was good fun, raised some money for the funds and helped put us in the mood for the General Election Campaign to come.

The Branch's main fundraiser continues to be the Heaton & Lostock Labour Party Stakeholder Society (100 Club). It makes a major contribution to our funds and we've been quite successful in recruiting new members this year, several from outside the Branch. We were able to donate £X,XXX towards Ruth's re-election campaign, the largest single donation she received, and at the end of the year, for the first time, the monthly prize will be over £XXX. Truly we have a 100 Club at last!

Branch funds currently (end of December 2005) stand at around £X,XXX and, in addition to the contribution to Ruth's campaign, we were able to fully fund our activities during the year.

Branch Meetings

Branch meetings have been generally well attended with XX to XX members usually being present. We've been very fortunate in that several members have continued to offer their homes as venues and my special thanks to Ian and Sheila, Alan and Joyce, Pauline, Anne and Graham and Anne for both the use of their homes and their hospitality. We look forward to continuing to rotate our meetings between members' houses in 2006.

We would like to continue the practice of Branch meetings being occasions for us to participate in political discussion and debate and 2005 was another good year in that respect. We managed to have either a speaker or a topic for debate at almost all of our meetings:

January - Cllr Cliff Morris - "Bolton Update"!

February - Keith Bowes - "The Campaign Ahead" (contact John)

March - Branch Discussion - "The Campaign Ahead" (contact John)

June - Branch Discussion - "What We Did Right And What We Did Wrong" (contact John)

July - Harriet Grimhaw - The Sukula Family Campaign

September - Gary Titley, MEP - The EU After the French and Dutch Constitutional Referenda

October - Cllr Nick Peel - It's a Load of Rubbish - Recycling in Bolton

November - Terry Hyams - The Pensioners' Lobby of Parliament

December - Dorothy Lever - The 2005 Labour Party Conference "An Insider's View"

We are very much looking forward to hearing from Prentice Howarth, Bolton Labour Group Social Services Spokesperson, at the AGM.

Most gratifying has been the vigour and enthusiasm with which members have entered into the discussions regardless of whether or not there has been a speaker.

Members are urged to think about the topics they believe we should be discussing and all suggestions for guest speakers will be most welcome. Our Chair is very good at twisting people's arms up their backs to come along and address us. He does it ever so gently!

Heaton & Lostock Online

I've managed to keep the Branch's Internet Web site (http://www.boltonwest.org) reasonably up to date and shortly after each Branch meeting there is usually a summary of what took place and a link to any talk given by a guest speaker. Because I'm rapidly running out of server space, quite a lot of the historic stuff from the 1997 and 2001 general elections has now been ditched and as Ruth's political importance has grown it's been impossible for me to keep her section up to date; so that too has now gone.

I continue to get responses to the site, although not all are complimentary and I even get contacts such as the one urging us to support the campaign to keep Alain Kimolo in the UK and asking about Bolton Labour's policy on the fortnightly bin emptying issue! All get answered. We've had over 8,500 visitors since the counter was reset in July 2001 with about 1,400 (~1,100 in 2004) hits in the year just gone and not all of them were me!

Thanks

As Secretary I'm happy and proud to have served the Branch for yet another year but it would have been impossible for me to carry out my job without the help and support of very many Party members. I would therefore like to especially thank Graham, Sheila, Bob and Pat, the members who deliver the Branch meeting notices month on month, those who've hosted meetings in their homes during the year, helped out at the socials or in any other way and all those ordinary members without whose help we would have been a pointless debating society.

Most of all, and as always, I'd like to thank Noelene, my wife, who has not only performed the role of Treasurer, holding the purse strings even closer than Terry used to, but has supported me throughout the year and guided me when I've gone astray!

Thank you and best wishes for 2005.

John Gillatt Branch Secretary
January 2006