Graeme Archer: From the frontline in Hackney

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Sunday 23rd April: Saturday was a beautiful day! So of course on Saturday I was uselessly at work in northern Italy. Sunday it rained all day, so of course I was out canvassing in Hoxton and Queensbridge wards in Hackney. What's this, you say, why not the ward where you're standing, Graeme, ie Victoria ward (right on the park, you know, with the lovely canal - "little Venice" they call it when it reaches Maida Vale, of course here it's just the Regent's canal; I dunno, why isn't Maida Vale known as Hackney's estuary? There's no justice is there?). We'll talk about Victoria LATER (candidates: yours truly, yours truly's other 'arf (the mighty Keith), and Steven Farquar). Here's a quick summary of the day. We were delivering pledge letters to postal voters (if you'd like to canvass with us: meet at the Cat and Mutton pub, Broadway Market E8, Monday 24th or any other evening, 7pm; call me on 07740 089 855 for directions, it's 12 minutes from Bethnal Green tube. You don't know what fun sin can be, until you've spent a night with Hackney Conservative Federation).

Sunday 11am: I'm at the Beehive pub in Hoxton. This is the sort of pub I love, for all the sort of reasons I can't write about on a family website: it's in the east end, it's very popular, it gets quite busy. Very friendly. Today I notice that there is quite a large Polish clientele. I'm of the opinion that the influx of Poles is the best thing to happen to London in decades. Zeinab arrives (candidate in Haggerston) and we wait for Alexander (candidate in Queensbridge) to turn up in his big sexy car. Zeinab tells me how she's getting on in Germany, working on her dissertation (in German, about Turkish immigration: Zeinab is, frankly, amazing) - she misses London! Alexander arrives out of breath (of course; I swear that man has lost 3 stone in this campaign already) and apologises for the letters not being organised into streets. Apparently they were, but someone's PA left the sorted ones locked in an office, so they had to be restuffed last night (and who doesn't love a last-minute stuffing?). Will (candidate in Dalston) and Dominic (candidate in De Beauvoir (I bet you didn't know we had anyone with as posh a name as that in Hackney (De Beauvoir, not Dominic))) turn up, as do Andrew Boff (candidate in Queensbridge and for the Hackney mayor) and Dean (candidate in Hoxton). Another Alexander (another candidate in Hoxton) joins us later. We set off. In the rain.

I'm doing bits of the Wenlock Barn estate. It is here that last year I came closest to being punched, by a member of the Hackney Independent association. I think I knocked him up too early on a Saturday; he's actually a really sound bloke. It amazes me how much what you'd think of as the "hard left" has the same strategy for Hackney as we do: real empowerment for the people who live here, and a focus on the residents who need it the most (our canvassing is an example of this: we tend to deprioritise the leafy streets for the council estates). It's just their tactics that we disagree with. But we come together as, I hope, a powerful coalition to protect the people against the whims of the venal NewLab council, over issues as diverse as the selling of leases on the Broadway Market (New Labour: "Sorry that you've spent your life working to improve this area, we've sold the lease to a foreign estate, now b***er off") or the London Fields lido (New Labour: "We realise belatedly that we stuffed up by closing every pool in the borough to make way for the now-failed white elephant in Clissold, we promise to spend more years talking about what to do next, and you the voter will actually be invited to some of the meetings!". Hackney Conservatives: we'll re-open the London Fields lido, pronto). I meet some folk just hanging around on a Sunday ("What you doing delivering mail on a Sunday then? Oh the Conservatives - good luck"). It feels good, but there has been a liberal presence. I see some of their literature hanging in letterboxes, and of course leave it there.

We reconvene up at the Dove on Broadway market (best Belgian beers in London and great food). Paul, the guvnor, is a Tory voting convert in local elections who demonstrates the "Boff" effect (there are a number of "Boff for Mayor" posters in the shops on the Broadway market too). He is sick of the way the council treats the businesses who are trying to make Hackney a better place. I see a couple of friends who have just broken up: always a tricky one that isn't it? Fortunately the needs of the election take precedence ("Socialism doesn't take time off to commiserate with friends") and so, after some of the Dove's best vegetarian burger, chips, and a half pint of Leffe blonde, and we're back out, in Queensbridge this time.

I won't predict anything until May 5th, but Queensbridge even LOOKS better since Andrew became its councillor, in his spectacular by-election victory last year. Tony Blair's first London ward: we went from 4th to 1st on a 25% swing. People are sick of Labour and sick of being told how to organise their lives, and are starting (I hope) to recognise that Hackney Tories aren't an extension of big business, but a group of locals who want to empower as many other locals as possible to make Hackney a better place. The afternoon went well: but if you want to be part of the Hackney revolution, then get in touch on 07740 089 855, and I'll give you directions. Let's Get Labour Out Of Hackney.

Comments

[Mark Fulford]

A wonderfully entertaining description of a wet day in Hackney. If I weren't on a leash in Southampton I'd come up and join in the fun!

[Ted]

Agree - great description and you almost make it seem fun.

[kingbongo]

Very evocative description Graeme - very best of luck to you and all the other Conservative candidates in Hackney.

I think winning in the deprived parts of Britain must be our major mission as a party. We have abandoned too many people for too long and that has to change.