"Beer – proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy", Dr Johnson
Manchester is blessed with more than its fair share of good pubs & good beer. As your NEC member I felt it was my duty to visit (most of) them to check they were up to scratch for you. It’s a tough job but…..
Anyway, as they say…enjoy yourself sensibly. The best beers in town are the local ones – Holts, Hyde’s, Robinsons & John Willie Lees, all reasonably priced. I’ve grouped the pubs in reasonable little groups around the conference centre, feel free to go off piste and let me have your comments – 07880790182 or email
wheelerpeter@hotmail.co.uk if you need any help.
Oxford Road / Piccadilly From the conference centre walk past the Bridgewater Hall and in front of you, you will see “The Britons Protection” – Great Bridgewater Street. Good range of beer including excellent Jennings and apparently 200 different Whiskies. Deceptive in size, if you walk around the bar there are some very comfortable rooms and there is a big outside seating area.
Just up the street on the right is the “Rain Bar” younger pub/bar with good outside seating over looking the canal. Further up on the left is “The Peveril Of The Peak” Lots of good beers and a genuine Manchester Pub. Best table football machine in Town.
Slightly further up is “The Temple Of Convenience” a converted gents urinal. Its actually a lot better than it sounds, reminds me of some 60’s bohemian bar I saw on the telly once – give it a try.
Cross Oxford Road and walk up Portland Street you come to “The Old Monkey” a lively Holts's house. Ten yards further on are “The Circus” and “The Grey Horse” Manchester’s smallest pubs. Excellent beer, good atmosphere and ‘must visits’ when your in town.
To the left down is China Town the only pub is “The Seven Oaks” but the Chinese karaoke bars are very good.
To the right up Chorlten Street is The Gay Village- a big strip of bars, pubs, clubs and restaurants along Canal Street. A key part of Manchester’s cultural vitality its also an excellent place for late drinking “Paddy’s Goose” is. in many ways, the village pub.
Albert Square / Deansgate The area in front of the conference entrance, between Albert Square and Deansgate is a rabbit warren of offices, pubs and restaurants. This area is the site of the Peterloo Massacre in 1819 and is well worth roaming round! “Live Bait,” the best fish, restaurant is in this area.
Peter Street is one long series of bars and clubs, take your pick. More interesting is the area behind Peter Street, walk through the little passage by the RAF recruiting office and the "Sir Ralph Abernathy" is on your left on Bootle Street. Probably the nearest pub to conference it's next door to the police station so there’s unlikely to be any trouble in there. It also has a big beer garden for enjoy the sun shine. Turn right outside the pub and across the car park and in front of you is the “Nags Head” Manchester pub of the year 2007. The karaoke is good on a Friday, and it’s a lively city centre pub.
Carry on through the Nag’s head, i.e out the back door, and in front of you is the "Sun Inn" – another good pub with interesting snacks. If you go out the back door again and turn right you’re in Albert Square. This is a good route to know on a rainy night! Plenty of pubs just off Albert Square. Walk across it and on the left down John Dalton Street is “The Ape and Apple” a big, down to earth Holt House.
Down Cross Street is “Mr.Thomas’s Chop House”, good Victorian pub, good beer. The chops are also very good. Just opposite over Cross Street, 20 yards up, Chapel Walks is “Sam’s Chop House.” Beer, excellent, British food, not for the calorie conscious! Not sure if Tom & Sam were related!
If you wonder back to Albert Square via Mosley Street, you will come across the “City Arms” excellent range of beers including Black Sheep and the watering place of the Manchester City Labour Party.
CastlefieldThis is the site of the original Roman Settlement of Mamucium, it was actually a castle in a field (we’re very literal people in Manchester) Nearly 200 years ago this was the most important industrial area in the world. Site of the worlds first railway station (now the museum of industry on Liverpool Road) and the Manchester end of Bridgewater Canal what brought cheap coal to fuel the worlds first industrial city, and became a canal spaghetti junction. The area fell into neglect but has been massively regenerated over the last decade. Its one of the liveliest parts of town and well worth a visit.
Walk down past Peter Street from the conference centre, turn left into Deansgate and you come to the Hilton Hotel, in the Beetham Tower, if you can get in, The Sky bar is well worth a visit. It’s pricey but the view over Manchester here is worth it and there is a glass floor in the bar which you can stand on and look down to Deansgate 150 foot below. Its like floating!
Just a bit further down is the "Deansgate", good traditional pub with excellent Sunday Roasts. Just a bit further down to the left is Deansgate locks, an area of bars and comedy clubs. Near the station itself are two excellent bars, The Atlas bar and the Knott bar. The Atlas bar is a good place to hang out with a big open area at the back.
The Knott Mill is my favourite round here with good real ales from the Marble Arch brewery and a large open balcony on the 1st floor. If you carry on by the canal, you come to "Dukes 92" and "Barca", big modern bars in a canal side setting. The other pub of note is the" Ox" on Liverpool Road, excellent food and beer and handy for the conference centre. It used to be called the Oxnoble, the only pub in Britain to be named after a potato. Unfortunately corporate management decided it needed a trendy name, one day they’ll come to their senses!
Salford If you fancy getting away from the conference hustle and bustle, just a short walk (or taxi) away is Manchester’s twin city Salford. Separated from Manchester by the mighty river Irwell, Salford has a style of its own. Originally built on the docks and engineering, the city experienced the devastation brought by Thatcher and her accompanies. We’re getting over that now thanks to a Labour council and a Labour Government - but fearful of what this lot have in store.
On Bridge Street, just on the border with Manchester is “The Mark Addy” named after a famous local life saver. Here you can sit by the river and watch the swans.
Just a bit further down past the newly re- furnished Salford Central station, is the" Egerton Arms", a Holt’s house and as typical as a Salford pub as your likely to get. Carry on down, cross over Chapel Street and 50 yards down on the left is the "Kings Arms", this pub has its own theatre and regularly holds gigs with local bands. A wide range of real beers.
Toodle back up Bloom Street, turn right on Chapel Street and about 150 yards on your right hand side is and your in the home of “The New Oxford” An excellent free house ran by Tim from Ireland. On a sunny evening this is one of the best places to sit outside and take it all in. they do an excellent Sunday Roast. Bexley square saw a political battle in the 1930’s between the police and unemployed demonstrators outside the local town hall, described graphically in “Love on the Dole”
Walk a little bit further down Chapel Street and just over the lights on the on the left is "The Crescent", make sure you’re in by 11 and its open until 1am. It’s a well Known fact in Salford that Marx and Engles who had a factory near by, used to come in here at the weekend and get hammered.
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
Delegates will be gathering next weekend in Brighton for the final conference before the General Election. 
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!
Date: Friday January 30th 2009
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”
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.
Off to Malvern this Saturday for the West Midlands Regional Conference. Malvern’s a great place, it’s like a seaside resort in the hills, so miles from the sea. Support from regions like the West Midlands is essential for victory at the General Election. It’s a region based manufacturing and chock full of marginal seats. Clearly many people are worried about economic prospects but the first few weeks have shown that when the going gets tough its Labour people turn to - David Cameron has disappeared and as for the Lib Dems?.JPG)
Many members will be glad to hear that Crewe and Nantwich have selected their candidate for general election. Tamsin Durwoody, our by-election candidate decided not to stand again and the party have picked a former Rolls Royce apprentice and current Usdaw Political Officer, David Williams. We look forward to seeing Labour winning back Crewe and Nantwich for Labour.
Date: Friday January 30th 2009
In Manchester you can eat pretty much any type of food but at Conference you’ll probably want instant gratification, so most of the ones listed below are within stumbling distance of conference. Don’t forget the chip shop, one of Manchester’s unique contributions to world cuisine, gravy a speciality.
It’s good to see the Party in Crewe & Nantwich getting stuck back in to the Tories. They are out canvassing and talking to voters on ‘win back Wednesdays’ – they are also doing ‘fight back Fridays’ Anyone available to help, please contact David Williams on 07798 696 603 or visit the Winning back Crewe and Nantwich blog.
The National Constitution Committee exists to uphold the rules of the party. Its work is unglamorous but is crucial for the integrity of the party. Elections are held at conference this year and two good party member I know are standing:
For those of you in Manchester for the conference, the place to be is the Yang Sing on Princess Road. Withington CLP are organising their conference dinner with David Miliband as the speaker and a guest appearance from Eddie Izzard. It starts at 7.3pm tickets cost £55 and can be bought from Lucy Powell at lucy@lucy.powell.net
Unite will be organising a march and lobby of conference in support of local government workers. Its on Sunday morning at 11:30am at Castlefield, moving off at 12noon and marching to Barbirolli Square – See you there!
After a quiet summer, it’s great to see the government coming out fighting with plans to help first time buyers, those looking for housing and those threatened by re-possession. The action on re possession is crucial, during their peak under the Tories they reached over 90,000 a year. This year they have risen from record lows to 17,000. The difference is that we know that is too many and are taking action to deal with it. The Tories would just leave things to the market at difficult times like this, that’s what people want, action to protect the most vulnerable from unrestrained free market economies, and that’s clear a clear dividing line between us and the Tories – We are prepared to act!
The announcements on economic measures to help people in the housing market were the beginning of the over due fight back. The Labour movement was created by people to protect them from unfettered free enterprise and its times like these we should be coming in to our own. The campaigning is meant to be underpinned by campaign briefings in every region. I went to the Manchester briefing on Saturday 5th with Kitty Ussher Chief secretary to the Treasury and MP for Burnley giving the political briefing. There was a good turn out with delegates from all parts of the North West, who were keen for the fight.
Our branch had another successful “Supper with the minister” with Phil Woolas MP. On a night where the rain was bouncing down it was probably cruel of me to remind members he was the minister for climate change! Phil was in great form and members really enjoyed the evening. Thanks to Phil and everyone for coming and supporting the event.
Summers over, although it didn’t seem to arrive this year! Monday September 1st saw me going to Warrington South for their CLP meeting. Warrington South is a key marginal and the Tories are putting a lot of effort in to the majority, 3,515. It was a good meeting with a detailed report from Helen Southworth on her work as an MP and a good political discussion. The message from the members was that we need to be pushing our message of social justice and fairness much more clearly. I promised to pass it on!
Very disappointed British Gas has announced a 35% price rise on top of the 15% increase last January and I didn’t hear a peep from the Government or regulators!
With Warwick out of the way I was at Poulton (near Fleetwood) on Tuesday to give an NEC report and hear from members as to their views of the current state of affairs.
What can you say? One of the safest seats in Britain, a good candidate looked like a good campaign and we lost.
As you can imagine the news from Glasgow was not the best start for the National Policy Forum in Warwick this weekend – though it did serve to concentrate minds.
Off to Warwick for the NPF. I hope by the end of it we have a radical amd realistic policy platform that we can take into the next election. Something that will inspire the millions of people of all backgrounds to continue backing us in our campaign to build a better, fairer Britain. More details to follow.
Just been told that I have been re-elected to the NEC with something over 16,000 votes. Many many thanks to all those who voted for me - it really is a great honour to be elected by your fellow Party members. I will do my best to justify your confidence.
You go for a meal, the food's good, the staff are friendly, you have a good time. The bill comes - "I'll stick a bit extra on for the staff" you think.
Seven AM on Monday 21st and four of us are on the road to Glasgow. No problem with departure times as I've misread the clock and get of an hour early - only realised when I started ringing people up and asking where they were!
The East Midlands Conference was held on Saturday in Nottingham at the university. I missed the morning fringe events on “Winning with women” and “Young Labour” (and the lunch) but got there for the policy debates. It was good to see a good number of the local MPs there including Gillian Merron from Lincoln, John Heppel from Nottingham, Paddy Tipping – Sherwood, Vernon Coaker from Gedling and Phil Hope from Corby. There was also a session with Ed Miliband 
We held the usual NEC sub committees on Tuesday. There was a relatively low turn out with members sending apologies due to illness or work. At the Women’s Race & Equality Committee we received a number of reports about campaigning activities & initiatives including the 60th anniversary of the NHS. There are also proposals to set up a BAME e-academy to assist with electing more BAME candidates. 
One thing that struck me recently is that we’ve got out of the habit of sharing information about local by-elections and details of where to help. Obviously it's harder now for required staff to collate this information , so I thought it might help if I tried to put details on my blog. 
Had an interesting Friday night in High Peak at the general committee. This is are of the key seats we need to need to win in the next election. Having been gained in 1997 we now hold it with a majority of 735. 
On Saturday by I flew to Belfast to meet Labour Party members in Northern Ireland. 
Ellie Reeves: Ellie has been a breath of fresh air since she got elected last time. She's active in a lot of campaigns - both Labour Party and wider - and confidently speaks her mind at the NEC.
Deborah Gardiner: Deborah is active in the Labour Party on the Isle of Wight and leader of the Labour group there - actually having a Labour group on the Isle of Wight is a real achievement!
Azhar Ali: Azhar was the Labour leader of Pendle Council and has been a European candidate. He'll be a voice not just for the Muslim community but for all Labour members.
The result was terrible, with the members and staff who gave their all and the candidate deserved better for their efforts.
CLP's should be organising Policy Forums to discuss the party's policy documents. It is vital they do as the input of the party members is really needed - whether it is on jobs, Housing, Crime, Health or any of the other key issues.
I have spent most of the weekend and last week in Crewe, there is a great feeling about, we have 100s of Labour Party members coming down and being active. We seem to be leafleting the whole constituency every day with a new leaflet and the voter contact rate is shooting up.
This is the by-election where we can stop Cameron in his tracks! Members are pouring in from all over the country and it is the place to be for the next two weeks.
During the Election campaign I received details for the nominations for the NEC elections later this year. I am honoured to say I have been nominated by over 130 constituencies, significantly up on the 80 or so from last time.
