8 Months for Labour

After conference I will have a lot more time on my hands, so I'm determined to put it to good use - working hard for a Labour victory. As well as my own CLP - Salford & Eccles - I'm going to concentrate on doing what I can to help in 3 marginals

Crewe & Nantwich - a seat lost at the by-election which we need to gain back and where my mate Dave Williams from USDAW is working his socks off as the candidate. www.davidwilliams.org.uk

Manchester Withington - The LibDems stole this seat last time by lying about the future of our major cancer hospital. Our candidate Lucy Powell and the members throughout Manchester are determined to right this wrong. www.lucypowell.net

South Ribble - One of the most marginal seats in the country and the member of Parliament Dave Borrow is leading from the front. Given the Tories disarray over the defence industry which is crucial, Dave is going very strongly and deserves our support. davidborrowmp.co.uk

They'll want Blood Next

I remember someone saying to me when I was a kid that the Blood Transfusion Service is the closest thing we have to Socialism in practice.

People who can give it to the NHS for free and then it is there for anyone who needs it for free.

Giving a pint of blood doesn't take long - about 3/4 of an hour - and you soon make it up. You can give a pint every three months and they are always on the lookout for new donors.

I've now discovered a new way of donating - it's by giving platelets. They take the blood out of you - remove the platelets, which are the important bit and then put it back into you. It takes about an hour but as they put the blood back into you, you can go monthly.

I said earlier that you do it for free but in fact you get loads of tea, Chocolate biscuits and they even have Tuc Biscuits - which I never see anywhere else nowadays.

For more information go online or ring 0845 7711711. Anyone in Manchester who wants to know more about giving blood in Manchester just ring me on 07880 790182.

Please click on the picture to enlarge

Conference 2009

Delegates will be gathering next weekend in Brighton for the final conference before the General Election.

For me, this conference has one job and one job only - to lift our party off it's knees and get the fight back going.

We need to deliver a very clear message - Labour's done a lot for working people both here and internationally and if the Tories got their hands on the levers of power they would trash the gains we've made.

We've got 8 months to turn those opinion polls round and we are the only ones who can do it. So enjoy the conference and then get stuck into the Tories!

Back On Line

Sorry I've been away for a long time. Frankly the last 12 months at work have been murder as manufacturing has felt the full force of the global downturn. Redundancies and/or short time working have hit every workplace I represent and it means massive work for all the officers and staff of our union. At the end of last year things looked very grim for manufacturers in this country as nearly every firms order book looked like a ski slope!

Things are looking better than they did - altogether they are a long way from perfect. Its been a difficult 12 months but the one consolation we can take from it is that without our government's initiative there would have been another 500,000 on the dole. If the Tories had had their way over Northern Rock we'd have seen the collapse of the British banking system and god knows how many on the dole!

Anyway I'm back now and will do my best to keep you informed of developments in the run up to the General Election. Here's to a busy 7 or 8 months.