Margaret Hodge has set about engagement in our communities as the topic of the week. I have thought about how we are doing this in Bristol West, how we might improve and how it is currently connected to what we are picking up on doorstep and on the phone.
In the centre of the city is a council estate divided by a short dual carriageway. On one side of the carriageway is a ward with a diverse population, which is among one of the very poorest in the country. It is served by two terrific Labour councillors, one of Somali origin and one of Irish descent. People in this ward, quickly experience the benefits of immigration, upon receiving help from these councillors. That does not mean that we do not have tensions, but when a Ukip candidate stood he was not warmly welcomed.
The flats on other side of the dual carriageway are in a very different ward, served by two Liberal Democrat councillors. The flats are in three connected blocks making sides of a square around a playground and car park. As well as the now well-equipped playground and a small garden, there is a community room and a computer room for children and adults in the three blocks to use. All are a result of the activism and dedication of the tenants’ group run by three stalwart Labour members who live there. Every summer, they organise the children’s summer fair. They involve residents in tenants’ meetings and help with advice on the bedroom tax. They want a Labour councillor and are delighted to have selected local young man to be their candidate. The candidate and I are trying to recruit a trainee teacher to help with the homework club and constituents are telling us about the problems with damp in some of the flats they want us to solve when elected. Such candidates do not need to be taught how to engage with their communities or urged to re-engage with them. They are in, of and with them. Their communities want a Labour government to build homes and help ease the pressure on council housing, which causes community tensions.When a ward team does voter ID, we have a head start, thanks to the support of the local community.
In another part of the inner city, I spent the afternoon recently with community organisation Easton Energy discussing their role tackling carbon emissions and fuel poverty by helping people to make their homes more energy efficient through motivation to reduce their fuel bills. We discussed why some people prefer pre-paid electricity meters, due to budget planning on low income, but are being unfairly penalised with higher tariffs and the risk of running out of power in the middle of the night if they run out of credit. They are pleased that I have already raised this with one power company and they would like me to go further and use them as an example of how we tackle climate change and poverty through local activism working with national policy makers.
Easton Energy joined forces with radical football team Easton Cowboys, one of the largest community organisations in the city, at Felix Road adventure playground to organise family fun days with food sharing, energy advice and football. Felix Road playground would have shut last year if it were not for the dynamism of a local Labour councillor who is very modest about her vital role mobilising and supporting the local community to lobby the council successfully. I have got friends in the Cowboys so when they were trying to help a young man in one of their teams, who was facing deportation, they could call me and I could put them in touch with the neighbouring Labour MP who could help.
I have had 28 months of being a candidate and building up our ward teams so we have got a fantastic campaigning structure across the whole constituency but importantly it is people who are in, of and with their communities, who are running the campaign to save their local playground, or running the after school club or being the neighbour or friend to make sure people know how to contact their councillor. We have conversations, and voter ID is the icing on the cake.
I am sure others across the UK are doing the same. For me, being in, of and with our communities is not something we have to add in or learn how to be; it is how we live out our Labour values. If we are not, how can we possibly claim to understand people’s lives or what they want from politics?
We have got so many more conversations to have, much more campaigning to do and we need to get better at explaining that involvement and connection in various ways, but I am cautiously optimistic it will help us in May 2015.
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Thangam Debbonaire is prospective parliamentary candidate for Bristol West. She tweets @tdebbonaire
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