Many years later, I’ve progressed to a scenario where my favourite ex Mayor grabs hold of me for a picture and croaks: “there’s not much to you is there”. That would be because I haven’t really had a proper meal since 29th January 2009 when I won the Stoke Newington Central By-election.
Along with 20 local Labour Party activists and candidates we took Ken to Stoke Newington Church Street – home to organic food shops, Nandos, a half painted over Banksy (don’t ask) and lots of happy families shopping in the Spring sunshine. It was one of those wonderfully chaotic Labour Party campaign visits where at 9am in the morning there was no plan in place. By 2pm, there were balloons, matching Hackney Labour t-shirts, a petition, some babies wearing I love Hackney badges and a photographer from the Hackney Gazette.
Admittedly we didn’t get very far with signing people up to our anti Boris fare rises petition because it was hard to go more than a few steps without someone stopping for a photo with Ken. Our ‘did you meet Ken on Church Street site’ has gathered quite a bit of interest, and we eventually did make it to the end of the street for a pint in the pub.
Ken was here to support our campaign and highlight the fact that Hackney is London’s greenest borough. A timely reminder, given the other main event of the last month was the setting the Council’s budget for the year ahead, with the usual opposition amendments (the local government equivalent of PMQs in terms of drama and spectacle).
The one Green councillor on Hackney started her speech by admitting that our budget was ‘perfectly sound and reasonable’. That would be because Labour in Hackney has frozen council tax for 5 years in a row with no cuts to frontline services; prioritised keeping our streets clean; invested in our young people with new youth centres and five new schools; is driving up recycling rates with new facilities; and providing more homecare hours for older people in the borough.
Though of course, this is election time and the Greens need enough fodder to see them through their next set of leaflets. There followed a series of bizarre proposals: increasing pay and display charges (not good for local businesses during tough economic times); introducing parking permits based on emissions (we already have parking permits linked to engine size which is less punitive to those families who actually rely on cars); a free insulation scheme ‘for those who are not eligible for other grants’ (read: for those who can afford to insulate their homes already); some more drinking fountains and benches (instead of investing in our highways improvement scheme). As our Cabinet member for Neighbourhoods declared with great flourish – these were reckless proposals and stealth taxes hitting the poorest hardest in Hackney. I await the headlines from the Greens though: “Labour councillors refuse to back ….”
Part of surviving an election campaign is being immune to these things, but it can be frustrating getting the message across that rather than having a Green councillor who leads a crusade against the national ID card scheme, it’s probably more beneficial to the people of Stoke Newington to have a Labour team who go to local meetings (see previous post), answer emails and phone calls and are always willing to discuss the latest appearance of a pothole on a street and what we can do to get it sorted. We fight on! See you the other side of the risograph….
Photo: We Love Stokey 2010