The Heaton & Lostock Labour Party
A Members' Branch of Bolton West Constituency Labour Party

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Annual Report 2006

Introduction

2006 was the third 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 with a notable reduction towards the end of the year.  Nevertheless, we’ve had a variety of guest speakers and discussions covering a wide range of topics.  Our finances are still healthy, enabling us to make two substantial loans to the Constituency Party which have now been fully repaid.  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 for us was the local elections.  We were as successful as we are ever likely to be in Heaton & Lostock, coming a good second to the Tories and a comfortable margin ahead of the Lib-Dems.  In Bolton generally we made significant gains which have enabled us to take de-facto control with our own Clifford Morris becoming Leader of the Council.

Nationally, the Government seems to be in the mire rather, with the mid-year unseemly row and connivance over the departure of Tony Blair and appointment of his successor, the war in Iraq drags on and on and only seems to get worse, there appear to be major problems in the NHS with closures of A&E and other services in many areas and we are being attacked over education and the very high rate of youth unemployment.  Despite this, inflation remains reasonably low (although rising a bit), the economy remains in pretty good shape and unemployment, although rising, is still well below that of the other main EU Member States.

Both the Lib-Dems and Tories elected new leaders and, although Mingis Campbell doesn’t seem to be much of a threat, David Cameron has propelled the Tories into a sustained opinion poll lead which, if repeated at a general election would see them as the largest party and Bolton West with a Tory MP!

Towards the end of the year we selected our Candidate for the 2007 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.

2006 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.

The year kicked off with attention focused on another party leader.  Dissatisfaction with Charles Kennedy’s leadership had been simmering within Liberal Democrat ranks for a while, and before the New Year was a week old it had finally boiled over.  Having belatedly admitted to a drink problem, he was forced out in a revolt by his own MPs, some of whom probably owed their seats to his personal popularity with the voters.

Menzies Campbell saw off a spirited challenge to win the leadership from newbie MP Chris Huhne and there were unfortunate exposures about the private lives of two of the other candidates.  Ming Campbell certainly lacks his predecessor’s common touch and the Lib Dem’s ratings remain in the doldrums.

For the Tories, too, it was a testing year, as David Cameron continued his march towards the political centre-ground to the dismay of the party’s more traditional elements.  Like Tony Blair before him, Cameron set out to define himself in opposition to his own party, notably by backing redistributive taxation and highlighting green issues.  It was all too much for some, and his talk of “tough love,” “hug a hoodie” and “letting sunshine win the day” was widely ridiculed.  But regardless of how we try to portray the Tory leader as “Dave the Chameleon” who changes his policies to suit whatever might be popular, his approach seems to have to struck a chord with at least some of the electorate, with the Tories ending the year eight points ahead of us in some opinion polls.

For the first time since 1997, Tony Blair is up against someone who looks like a genuine contender for power and I think that we are unsure of how to respond to the Tory young pretender.

A generally dismal set of local election results in May (except in Bolton!) saw more and more Labour MPs come to the view that Tony Blair should stand down sooner rather than later.  Initially, the poor showing in the local elections was blamed on the revelation of John Prescott’s affair with his diary secretary shortly before the poll, and a row over the deportation of foreign prisoners which had been badly mishandled by Home Secretary Charles Clarke.  But many thought that it was a reflection of the “Blair factor”.

A dramatic Cabinet reshuffle took place in which Charles Clarke was summarily sacked and John Prescott stripped of all his remaining powers.  But the view among a growing number of Labour backbenchers was that the person Tony Blair really needed to reshuffle was himself.  It all came to an unfortunate head in September when a group of previously loyal MPs signed a letter demanding that Mr Blair set out a timetable for his departure.

At first, it seemed the tip of the iceberg and there was excited talk at Westminster that up to 50 MPs would join in and that a Cabinet minister would deliver the coup-de-grace with a Geoffrey Howe-style resignation.  But the coup attempt, if that’s what it was, faltered, although Tony Blair was forced to make it clear that he would stand down next summer, and that the forthcoming conference in Manchester would be his last.

The Blairites, furious that their man had been backed into such a corner, attempted to implicate the Chancellor in the plot as relations between Labour’s Big Two plummeted to an all-time low. 

It was clear that a patching-up operation would be needed to get through the conference, but Gordon Brown’s attempts at conciliation were undermined when Cherie Blair was heard to call him a liar during his keynote speech.

Blair’s jokey response to this during his final conference address somewhat defused the issue and his speech was a real tear jerking tour de force with him leaving the conference hall in Manchester to a standing ovation, out into the sunlight and into political history.  Many of us wondered why he ever said that the 2005 general election would be his last in the first place.

Thereafter, an uneasy truce prevailed.  Gordon Brown remained on probation, while the Blairites secretly hoped another contender might step up to the mark.  But their great hope, Environment Secretary David Milliband, ruled himself out of the race, while new Home Secretary John Reid also appeared reluctant to join in.

Gordon Brown’s succession is, I believe, just about assured, if only from the lack of plausible alternatives.  But it mustn’t be taken for granted.  In the end it will be up to us, the “Party faithful” to cast our votes in the “one member one vote” election which will undoubtedly be held later in the year, probably just after the local, Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly elections.  Finally, Gordon has even received a somewhat double-edged endorsement from Tony Blair, who warned David Cameron during a Commons debate that a “big clunking first” would soon lay him out on the canvas.  But, by the year end, it seemed politics had gone into a bizarre state of inertia, with Mr Blair increasingly seen as being in office but not in power.

His interview by the Metropolitan Police over the “loans for honours” scandal hasn’t helped us at all, sullying not just our party’s reputation but that of politics in general.

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 third year as the Heaton & Lostock Labour Party and carried out a very successful local election campaign with our members helping out in several other Bolton West wards.

In the month or so to local election day on May 4th we fought the good fight and I was delighted to come a pretty good second to the unexpected Tory victor!  The last time we fought the seat in the all-out election of May 2004 I was pushed into third place by the Lib-Dem candidates.  "Revenge is sweet"!
John Gillatt (Labour) 828 -0.43%
Colin Shaw (Conservative 3,329 +5.65%
Andrew Snowden (Liberal Democrat) 668 -5.52%
Total Votes 4825 46%

Overall in Bolton we did amazingly well, considering the very disappointing results for Labour nationally.  We gained two seats, the Tories gained two and the Lib-Dems lost four.  Since then one Lib-Dem councillor in Westhoughton (Arthur Price) has come over to us and we won the by-election in Crompton Ward from the Lib-Dems.

At present the Council is:
As a result Labour has taken de-facto control of the Council with Heaton & Lostock Branch member Cllr. Clifford Morris as Leader.

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.  We were very sorry to note that Diane stood down as a CLP delegate part way through the year but hope that she will take the role on again in 2007.  We are also sorry to report that Ian and Sheila Jones, real stalwarts of the Branch, and at whose home we held several excellent meetings, have moved out of the Branch.  However, we expect to see Smithills Branch much invigorated once they have settled in to their new home.  Our Membership Secretary, Pat Walker, left us in November to work at a Children’s Hospital in Malawi for six months, although she assures us that “she’ll be back”.

I very much hope that all of these who are able will continue to serve the Branch in 2007 as I think we have a very good and effective team.

Our Membership in 2006

We have finally had a new membership list from Labour Party HQ, although updates seem to be few and far between.  The latest list shows that we are down to about 80 members, a good many left over the Iraq war and others are generally dissatisfied with the direction in which the Part Leadership has taken us in the last few years.  There were 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 three of years ago. 

Although she cannot be here I would like to pay tribute to Pat Walker who has done a tremendous job until her departure to Malawi.  Without her things would be even more chaotic than they sometimes appear to be!

Fund-raising

The Branch barbecue remains our main social event of the year and in 2006 it was promoted as our answer to the World Cup!  Held on July 1st, as always at Graham and Anne’s, it was very well attended and Graham cooked his heart out over the barbecue which he handles almost uniquely.  We had great fun in wonderful weather and made a large contribution to Branch funds.

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 just about maintained our membership this year with a few “ups and downs”.  We were able to make two loans to Bolton West CLP totally £1,350, which have now been fully repaid and fund our own local election campaign.  The current monthly prize is £92 and the theoretical annual contribution to our funds is at present £984.00.

Our Treasurer will give a full financial report separately but it seems that our funds remain buoyant at present.

Branch Meetings

Branch meetings have been generally well attended, although attendances fell to single figures in the autumn.  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 2007.

We would like to continue the practice of Branch meetings being occasions for us to participate in political discussion and debate and 2006 was another good year in that respect.  We managed to have either a speaker or a topic for debate at most of our meetings:
 
  January Cllr. Prentice Howarth Caring for Bolton
  March Cllr. Akhtar Zaman Licence for Change
  April Branch Discussion Adult Education in Bolton
  June Cllr. Linda Thomas Doing it For the Kids
  September Cllr. Elaine Sherrington The New 3 Rs
  October Gary Titley, MEP Europe, the Party Conference and All That
  December Cllr. Clifford Morris A Vision for Bolton

We are honoured to have Ruth, our MP, with us today and we are very much looking forward to what she has to say.  In February, Bolton Executive Member for Development, Ebrahim Adia, will speak to us and we hope to have similar high quality speakers and discussions throughout the year.  However, 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. 

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 almost 11,000 visitors since the counter was reset in July 2001 with 2,500 hits in the year just gone (~1,400 in 2005) 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 2007.


John Gillatt, Branch Secretary
January 2007






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