Alistair Campbell Dinner

Date: Friday January 30th 2009
Venue: Isis Restaurant, Bolton Road Pendlebury
Guest Speaker: Alistair Campbell
Ticket Price: £25 - 3 course meal

Menu

Starters: Leek & potato soup - Italian meatballs - Buffalo mozzarella and tomato salad - Chicken liver pate

Main Course: Chicken Boscialo - Herb crusted salmon - Lamb san giovale - Risotto tricalore ?

Dessert: Tiramisu - Strawberry cheesecake - White Chocolate profiteroles - Cheese and biscuits ?

All meat options are available with Halal meat. Vegan alternatives are available. Hotel rooms are available (£65 - £80 for a double room). For tickets or more info please contact Peter Wheeler on – 07880790182.

Situation Vacanct

Noticed in this Wednesdays “Guardian” that there is a vacancy for “Black Rod” in the House Of Lords. Had to chuckle at the logo that said “The House Of Lords is committed to equal opportunities”

Council Housing

I was concerned to see alleged proposals to weaken tenant’s security of tenure and put pressure on those not on low wages to move out. This risks turning council housing into the short of “welfare” housing we’ve always as a party rejected and also goes against that valuable New Labour tenet – don’t cut peoples aspirations. It also goes straight against our proposed aim of building mixed communities.

The answer to our council housing shortage isn’t to re-shuffle a patch which is too small, it’s to build more council houses to meet the proven housing needs.

NEC Away Day

Next Monday is the NEC away day being held at the Unite training college in Esher. This is where we discuss the places for the coming year and I’ll be pushing to ensure the NEC is involved in monitoring our build up to the General Election, ensuring we have the best possible election organisation going in to the campaign.

Glenrothes

Congratulations to the Labour Party in Scotland. In a potentially very difficult by-election, which many had written off, they stuck to the job and secured a frankly brilliant result. Coming just after the U.S elections it gave us a very good week all round.

Lindsay Roy MP

West Midlands Regional Conference

The Regional conference in the West Midlands was really impressive. They take the policy process very seriously and there was plenty of detailed discussion about how to make our policies relevant to the detailed needs of the region. There was plenty of good input from the affiliated Trade Unions and there was a good feeling throughout the weekend.