Local Triumph!!

What a couple of days!

As most of you will know, I was standing for the local council elections. When I say I live in True-Blue Toryville, I'm not sure many of you appreciate just what I mean. There hasn't been a Labour party in my town for decades. Some years we didn't even field candidates and if we did, we were usually beaten into 4th place by UKIP.

We were encouraged to put all of our time and resources into fighting for the marginal seats a few miles along the coast. Labour simply ceased to exist where I live. The Lib Dems were the opposition here, and we colluded to allow them to eat away at the vast Tory majorities, slowly building up a broad base of support.

We were rewarded with unpleasant leaflets sneering at our lack of presence and a sprinkling or dirty tricks.

I decided to stand for Labour a few years ago. I couldn't bear the fact that Labour voters didn't even have a candidate to vote for and stood as a paper candidate so that, if nothing else, democracy would be served.

Slowly, others joined me and this year, with the coalition leaving many feeling upset and betrayed, we managed to persuade our CLP (for the first time) that we should actually do some work in our own constituencies.

It won't sound like much to those of you who volunteer in busy cities and thriving Labour heartlands, but for the first time, we managed to field a candidate in every ward and I wrote a heartfelt plea to Labour voters, appealing to them to vote with their hearts. I suggested that we test the old Lib theory that "Labour cannot win here" "Vote with your hearts, just for once" I suggested, and let's just see what happens.

We hoped to put a leaflet through every door in my constituency, and amazingly, volunteers popped up from everywhere with offers of help to deliver them. It took a herculean effort for a party so fragmented, but we did it with just a day to spare.

And that was it. That was our election campaign. Other candidates used my leaflet too and made their own massive efforts, roping in family and friends to help. We were a team again and it felt amazing.

I love polling day. I always dress up to the nines (always good to out-Tory the Tories I feel) and smile and nod my way through as much of the day as I can. on Thursday, we'd also managed to put together a rota so that my polling station would be manned all day. For the first time in decades, three pretty yellow, blue and red rosettes sat side by side.

And what an odd day it was! For the first time since 1997 people were  actually glad that I was there. Normally, no-one really speaks to me all day. A few defiant voters hand me their polling card pointedly and shake my hand, but other than that I am roundly ignored and have to content myself with good natured opposition-baiting and friendly banter.

Thursday saw me nearly as busy as the other three, with voter after voter smiling or winking or patting me on the back, delighted to have a voice, delighted there was somewhere they could register a vote of protest. I knew the result was likely to be a bit better than last year, but I'm used to false hope and over-excitement. At the last election, the Libs got 38% of the vote, while I got 15% - we were only on the very first step of an endless staircase.

Let's not forget I'm not well. (This is a diary, after all.) By the end of Thursday, I staggered home at 8.30, ate my dinner and fell into bed. I was so exhausted and in so much pain, I nearly collapsed in the hallway.

The following day, colleagues from all over the town reported similar popularity and we even arranged  to go to the count, hoping for the first time that it wouldn't be too humiliating to venture in.

I couldn't get there until 10.30 ish and when I arrived, they'd just started to count.

Something extraordinary started to happen. As I watched my friend's count, her pile was going up as quickly as the Lib one! It couldn't possibly be true, but she seemed to be in second place. I scurried off to my table and sure enough, my pile of ballots was equally large. I'd got on very well with the Conservatives at my polling station and they confirmed that I seemed to be in second place, almost as excited for me as I was!

The next hour or so was just brilliant. I am a self-confessed election geek, and seeing the delight of my colleagues, the grim faces of the Lib Dems and the piles of Labour votes right across the count, I was practically dizzy with excitement. Suddenly, I was being mobbed by scores of Tories all shouting "congratulations" and trying to shake my hand at once*. I'd come second!! With a massive 29% swing to Labour, I'd overturned decades of tactical voting in just one campaign.

Soon, other seats declared and we managed three second places!! Three! for a party that hadn't even existed a year or so before. For the first time in living memory we got to enjoy a little reward for all our hard work.

Anyone looking at the results would simply see a sea of blue. The same old blue they always see. But underneath there is a story that no paper will report. Labour became the opposition again and the Lib Dems took a knock from both sides.

You see, they rarely play fair locally. They attack the Conservatives violently while sneering at us at every opportunity. You could argue that it's "just politics" but it doesn't win many friends. I'm not sure who was more excited yesterday, us or the Tories. They are heartily sick of the Libs in opposition, and celebrated the return of us reds in a way that was almost unseemly - so much so, that in a case of dreadful sour grapes, the Lib Dem leader referred to a "New, blue and red coalition in town" in his speech and was heckled by a Conservative shouting "Long may it last!!"

So, from now on, there will be a Labour voice in my town. Our group has doubled in numbers in the last year and we finally have the manpower and commitment to run successful campaigns. We have a web designer in our little group and a marketing expert. We have a few old time, battle hardened experts to help with organisation and a band of leaflet deliverers and voter-id volunteers to start to find our vote and target it more effectively. We are going to pool resources with our neighbouring constituency and work together. There will be street stalls in the centre of town every month and we're running debt counselling drop-ins for local residents, manned by two other volunteers from legal professions.

If we never win a council seat, I can at least promise that we will oppose, we will give our voters a voice.

Today feels very nice indeed.

Just VOTE!

This is a difficult time for elections.

There's no doubt we're all still punch drunk from a year of pretty intense politics. First, an election that gave us 5 straight days of frenzied nail biting, only to leave us with a decision on points and the odd spectacle of a Con/Lib coalition.

No sooner did we catch our breath, but Labour launched into a leadership election and activists who had just given their heart and soul to endless bouts of election campaigning had to decide who would be best placed to lead their party.

More months of hustings and TV shows and campaigning for favoured candidates saw a result nearly as  surprising as the first. The media fed for weeks. It was a straight knock-out in the 5th round.

As soon as the bell rang for the 6th, Osborne came out hitting with the Comprehensive Spending Review. And hitting. He beat us relentlessly with good, old-fashioned Tory ideology that would make Thatcher blush.

So, all good politicos launched into the Main Event and took their places in the "Cut" camp or the..... well, the what camp? That's the big question. Labour as yet, have been looking at the way forward, leaving rather a vacuum in the present

Nonetheless, many of us politics-geeks were thrown Osborne-gauntlets on the 26th October that simply had to be taken up. We went our own way, some fighting for our National Health Service, some for forests. Some, like The Broken of Britain knew they had to speak for the dignity of sick and disable people, others like UK Uncut tried to put forward an alternative in the form of clamping down on tax avoidance. The Robin Hood Tax and 38 Degrees have surged from nowhere, the new, uncontested champions of politics. Social media has arrived and it's changed everything. These excellent, non-partisan groups have opposed certain policies loudly, and often, successfully.

Today however, we get to vote. We get to walk into a polling station and tell this government, this coalition, what we think so far. Like it or hate it, we also get to do that under the First Past The Post (FPTP) voting system.

Students get to say how they feel about the trebling of tuition fees or scrapping EMAs. Concerned citizens get to say what they think about proposals to sell our forests or close our libraries or sell off our parks. Police officers and nurses and doctors and carers get to give their opinion on the attitude this coalition have shown towards their professions. Mum's get to say what they think about scrapping childcare support and Child Trust Funds and Child Benefit.

It's FPTP. You only get to say what you think is by voting for the other parties. So that's Labour, Green, UKIP or the BNP.

If you want to oppose this government, the best way is to strip as many council seats away from them today as possible. Inevitably, often that will mean voting Labour.

When I hear politicians say they are listening, I always give a little chuckle, thinking, "Well, I know I am." I'm not a politician but I can hear you all loud and clear. Labour let you down. Labour have no alternatives yet. Labour need to change.

When you all say "change" I'm beginning to realise you mean CHAAAAANNNGGGE!!!!!

So, I can't speak for the other candidates, and I certainly don't speak for any of the groups above, but I can speak for myself. I'm standing for Labour because no matter what, they are the main political opposition to the coalition at our ballot boxes. Politically, as things stand, that's simply fact. In a ward like mine, where there's a straight three way fight between Lib/Lab/Con the only protest vote is a Labour one.

This is my promise to my electors : I will stand as a Labour candidate and I will be a Labour candidate. I won't win - it's a safe Tory seat - but I will still be the Labour candidate. I will continue to fight for the dignity of the sick and disabled and I will show my party which way to go. I will do my very best to fill in Ed's blank sheet of paper with the word "compassion".

Up and down the country similar candidates are standing for Labour for similar reasons. They will fight just as passionately for your NHS or your trees or your books or your educations. The only way to make sure that the Labour party is a party made up of people like me is to elect us. To give us a chance.

Let us show our party what Labour really is and what we want it to be.

We are not Westminster. We are not Murdoch or Spin. We are the Grass-Roots. We are Labour.

But whatever you decide to do today, please vote. There is more at stake politically now than there has been for generations. Politicians think you don't care, they think they can do what they like because no-one really understands.

Please show them that you understand all too well. Show them that you do care. Just vote.