Fired up and ready to go!

As with all Labour Party events, notice is very short. I was notified about an event at around 5:00pm in the evening, within twelve hours I was setting out to the station in order to get to Labour Party campaign HQ in Victoria.

Having arrived promptly at campaign HQ at 9:30, we had brief respite until setting out on leafleting in Charing Cross station. By chance, just as we passed Downing Street, the Prime Minister had just got out and was on his way to the Palace at 10:00 to meet with the Queen at and dissolve Parliament.

At 10:30 we returned back to HQ and then took the tube to St Pancras station though had no idea what we were to do there. We waited and waited, for more than half an hour. Then rumours quickly started spreading that the Prime Minister was going to be going through and catch a train to Kent. Within minutes, the cameras were rolling, I, and many other Labour activists had managed to shake the Prime Minister's hand as he went past, which was terribly exciting for someone who had never seen a Labour MP in the flesh until last Friday.

Afterwards we returned to campaign HQ to hear a speech. Mr Alexander is the director of Labour's campaign, and spoke about Labour's pledges to secure our economic recovery, to establish a fairer society, and to continue investing in public services. Each and every time Labour had made the right decisions on the economy, and though we are the underdogs in this race and the Tories have Ashcroft's money, Labour have the greatest number of youth members of the other political parties - and David Cameron had lost 40,000 members during his tenure as leader. He concluded by urging Labour party members to engage with undecided voters, to listen to their specific concerns, and then to talk about how Labour would be the best choice.

Douglas Alexander was followed by Harriet Harman, who made a brief speech concentrating on a number of "F" words:

Future - How Labour want to transform Britain into a digital economy, and reform Parliament.
Fairness - How Labour would create a fairer society with greater social equality.
Fear - of a repeat of the 1980s under Thatcher.
Footsoldiers - The Tories might have Ashcroft's money, but Labour would directly engage with voters on the doorstep
Families - Child Tax Credits, Sure Start, Maternity and Paternity Leave, and much more.
Fighting - Even though we are the underdogs in this race, if we keep at the top of the game we can succeed.

Finally, the day was finished off with some leafleting on behalf of Transport Minister Sadiq Khan MP in his constituency in Tooting. This is a crucial seat that the Tories need to win to win an overall majority in Parliament. While I returned home exhausted after an eventful day, I knew that mentally I was fired up and ready to go for the election on May 6.

New ICM Poll

Just received news that a Guardian/ICM poll shows the following:

Conservatives 37% (-1)
Labour 33% (+4)
Liberal Democrats 21% (-2)
Other 9% (-1)

Based on a uniform swing, Labour would be biggest party in Parliament and around 30,40 seats from a majority. I know this is just one poll but it shows the election race is not over.

Thank you Chris Grayling for ruining your party's chances

VOTE LABOUR FOR A FUTURE FAIR FOR ALL

Sack Chris Grayling

While at the launch of the Labour poster yesterday, David Miliband talked about the difference between Camera-on and Camera-off. The Tories say one thing on their election posters but behind closed doors think totally different thoughts.

And so it has just chanced that Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling MP has come under scrutiny for being filmed saying that he would not mind owners preventing gays from staying in B & Bs. This is obviously unacceptable from a high ranking member in a party which has attempted to rebrand itself as standing for "compassionate conservatism". This latest comment shows that while they're still conservative, they are by no means compassionate. Homophobic Tories are also not new. David Cameron last year took the Conservative Party out of the mainstream of European conservatism into a group which contains homophobic parties and other right-wing extremists. The Tory leader also shamed himself in an interview with the Gay Times last month,

The silence of David Cameron is also astonishing. What is he going to do? Will he keep his Shadow Home Secretary? Tell him off? Or should he sack Chris Grayling from the Tory frontbench? The silence shows that the Tory leader himself is not sure. Why could this be? Is he busy with parliamentary business? Or is the whole party's stance similar to Grayling's and he knows that secretly compassionate conservatism would mean sacking most of his frontbench?

Therefore I have one thing to tell David Cameron; Sack Chris Grayling. Sack him so at least you still keep the image of compassionate conservatism even if most of your party are not compassionate conservatives. The longer the Tories keep Chris Grayling in the Shadow Cabinet, the more damaging it would be for the party at the election.

For more information regarding Grayling's comments, visit http://www.labourlist.org/grayling-b--bs-should-be-able-to-turn-away-gay-couples

Don't go back to the 1980s - Labour's new poster

Last night I saw leaked images of the new Labour poster. The party had run a competition open to party members to design this poster. The competition was won by Jacob Quagliozzi from St Albans, whose design was implemented by the ad agency Saatchi and Saatchi. The poster depicts the politically incorrect Gene Hunt from Ashes to Ashes with David Cameron's faced imposed upon it. Reviews were not kind to the poster, with even Labour members criticising. Which is just as well when I learned that I would be in the audience at its formal unveiling.

This was the first major Labour event I attended, and I was obviously very excited at the chance to meet David and Ed Miliband, who are two of my most admired politicians. It was only when we arrived at the event when we were told what was happening, and I for one was slightly intimidated by the TV cameras scattered round the room.

The Miliband brothers stood in front of a digital image of the poster, which is how it would appear on billboards across the country. Both said the underlying theme of the poster was clear; we do not want a return to the Tory government of the 1980s. They spoke of personal experiences of having gone to school where pupils had to share exercise books, without a formal school building. All that has changed. In this time we a truly blessed with a Labour government that helps all sorts of people from different backgrounds, in education, health, social services, and many other areas.

There are those of my age who argue why I should care so much about this. After all, I was only born in 1994, I had never experienced first-hand what the Thatcher government was like. But I have heard stories from people who have done. David Miliband said having lived through the 80s once was bad enough, living through two would be worse. History tells us that during the Tory recession in the 1990s, unemployment rates are four times lower than they are now. And Labour's investment have brought us on a path to recovery, and it is the Tories who threaten our economic recovery, built not only by the Labour government, but hard work and toil from the British people. Workers were willing to work longer hours for less pay so their fellow workers could stay in employment. The British people take their own initiative, but government provides encouragement.

But if the Tories gain power, all this would be in vain. Cutting public services where it hits hardest is putting our fragile economic recovery at risk. Only when our recovery is secure can we afford to start the hard work of cutting our deficit, while we still have to make difficult decisions on what to cut and what to keep. We learn from history. During the three-term Labour government, there have been less days lost to strike than the Tories had in a single year. That is what real change means. And that is why we must learn from history. After all, why are history lessons concentrated on the brutality of the Nazi regime? Because we can learn that we must not get ourselves into such a situation again.

David Cameron knows that the people don't want to be back in the 1980s. Which is why he is trying to distance himself from Thatcher and offer "compassionate conservatism". Or at least, that's what he's trying to make the people believe. When the camera is on, the Tory leader talks about punishing the bankers and keeping taxes low, but behind closed doors he leaves the mainstream of European Conservatism and puts himself on the fringes of Europe with parties on the extreme right, homophobic, racist parties, and even a Latvian party which honours the Waffen SS. Are these allies we as a nation want in Europe?

Therefore, no matter what you think of the poster, it sends a strong message: If you want to go back to a time of high unemployment, regular strikes like we had in the 1980s, vote for the Conservative Party. But if you want to avoid such an outcome, no matter how much you dislike some of the Labour Party's decisions such as going to war in Iraq, look at what the Tories are really offering. The Europhobe Daniel Hannan MEP is co-writing the Conservative Manifesto. The same Daniel Hannan who went on FOX News in the United States and called the NHS "a 60-year mistake". Even David Cameron had to denounce that, claiming Hannan is just a member who does not represent the views of the party, despite writing the manifesto.

And so to conclude, take a long, hard, look at the Conservative Party. Make sure you look beyond David Camera-on, but David Camera-off, when you'll find that the Tories have not really changed at all. And take another look at the Labour Party. Yes, we have been in office for three terms, yes, there have been mistakes made, yes, the public might have been misled once or twice - but no government can ever be flawless. No matter how much you have lost faith in the Labour Party, just remember that it's a better alternative to the painful 1980s.