Those three words have gone from being somewhere in the depths of my subconscious to centre-stage for me lately in recent weeks in my new capacity as deputy mayoress of the borough as they are inscribed on a chain I now have for wearing round my neck at official functions.

While the circus that is the 24-hour news channels and the national press have been obsessed by the ConDem nation we live in as a result of the general election, there have also been changes in local government as a result of local polls that took place on the same day. These demonstrate that suburbs often written off by the urban intelligentsia as politically and culturally backward are in the progressive vanguard and that the Labour party is far from dead.

Results in London were among the best anywhere for Labour, particularly in the outer reaches of the capital. In Newham, considered by government funding formulae as outer London with a council that has campaigned to have it reclassified as inner-city, Labour took all the seats. The same occurred in Newham’s neighbour Barking and Dagenham where the BNP, once feared to take the seat of MPs Margaret Hodge and Jon Cruddas, were wiped out entirely. This area, once dominated by the Ford motor plant, is by spatial positioning on any measure suburban. Yet it is grappling with some issues not usually associated with stereotypically suburban privet hedges and twitching net curtains, like new waves of immigrants from Africa alongside longer established communities and the problems of deindustrialisation. On the other side of London, Labour took Ealing with my new status being a consequence.

So last week I attended my first full council meeting. Most of the business was dominated by the newly elected Labour administration leadership being asked about their priorities for the term ahead. In a mirror of central government action, Labour will be both freezing the council tax for the next year and councillors’ expenses for the next four. Forget anarchy in the UK – austerity rules at the town hall. The level of debate in the wood-panelled chamber was on a par with that of PMQs – disappointingly reflecting yah-boo adversarial politics. The Conservatives tabled a motion wanting to thank the Tories nationally for ditching Heathrow expansion – a policy I know as a candidate myself was more popular on the doorsteps than our environmentally less responsible proposal to back a third runway.

Contentwise, though, the most interesting stuff were the petitions from the public. A children’s bookshop owner in a shopping parade in the north of the borough stepped forward with 2000 signatures asking the council to reconsider the introduction of what he saw as prohibitive ‘stop and shop’ parking bays on his patch. Residents elsewhere wanted a box junction removed, again showing how motor-related issues are a frequent bugbear for the suburbs.

The borough crest next around my neck on Saturday will be at the Hanwell Carnival. Nestling between better-known Ealing (one-time home of comedy) and Southall (one of the UK’s oldest areas of Punjabi settlement), Notting Hill or Rio it isn’t. Hanwell to most is “neither here nor there” territory but this annual festival is now in its 50th year and has quietly notched up an impressive longevity with floats from various community organisations represented. It also demonstrates the multiethnic nature of the contemporary suburb which can be seen all over the capital and all our large cities.

In what was a ‘bad’ night for Labour, the general election saw suburban parliamentary seats held that were first gained under Blair and were until then were considered no-go areas for Labour like Harrow West and Brent North. Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield are still without a single Conservative MP as is Birmingham where multiple Cameron visits could not topple middle-class Birmingham Edgbaston, one-time solid Tory territory, away from Labour. In short, the idea of suburbia as ethnically WASPish and rightwing no longer holds.

It’s going to be an interesting year ahead and ‘progress with unity’ seems to be a fitting resolution for the duration.

Rupa Huq is a former Labour PPC and teaches at Kingston University

Photo: dms246 2006