Isn't it time they thought of a name for it?
North London Bubble #13: Corbyn's party struggles to choose, the leaflet bar charts are back and we've got a by-election in West Hampstead
NORTH LONDON BUBBLE
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PARTY 4 U
THE latest in the Corbyn new party saga played out in real time over X on Thursday as an official announcement became clouded in debate about what the party was going to be called.
In a lengthy statement, the Islington North MP laid the groundwork for the party's manifesto — taxing the rich, bringing transport and water back into public ownership, and investing in council-house building programmes.
He asked supporters to sign up at www.yourparty.uk, prompting every news outlet to immediately declare the party was called "Your Party". In fact, it would have taken one message to one of Corbyn's team to clarify that the party was not called "Your Party" at all and that the name was still "tbc". It will be decided upon at its inaugural conference in the autumn.
The confusion led to more allegations that the whole venture was entirely unserious and that its organisers needed a new comms team.
But allies said that the drama was perhaps helpful, making sure the announcement hit headlines and became a nice talking point among the thousands (estimate) of commentators who need material for their podcasts.
Whatever you think about the new party, the piecemeal way it has been announced does beg the question: how many soft-launches can you have before it all becomes a bit too soft-launchy?' That said support is there. More than 200,000 people registered to receive emails from name-tbc party in the first 24 hours of the website being live.
How will this all affect next year’s council elections? They will need to get their skates on and find a lot of candidates if they really want to make an impact in Islington and Camden. Unsurprisingly, Labour councillors and activists in Islington – Mr Corbyn’s home turf – were complaining that the party was a "dead end" and only designed to hurt them in the local elections.
LEAFLET WATCH: CLERKENWELL’S RUNNERS AND RIDERS
IT'S time for a bit of NLB graph-measuring as leaflet season is getting into full swing.
The Lib Dems in particular have been previously accused of using creative diagrams to demonstrate a unique position to overtake Labour. That bar-graph tradition is back in the latest despatch through letterboxes in Clerkenwell, which claims they are the only party that could possibly win against Labour.
A little reminder: in 2022 (the last time the borough went to the polls for council elections), Labour won 3,760 votes, whilst the Lib Dems picked up 1,279, the Greens 1,266, and the Conservative party 1,189.
And in the Islington South general election last year, the Lib Dems won 3,000 fewer votes than the Greens.
THE COSTCUTTER GUY
THIS week we heard from the shopkeeper at the centre of the parcel rage incident which led to the swift resignation from the council and the Conservatives by the now former councillor Shiva Tiwari – and it turns out he’s a proud Liberal Democrat supporter.
There is no suggestion that Rakesh Bhimjiyani was involved in some orchestrated party political plot to oust a Tory, and the local Lib Dems learned of the incident at the same time as the rest of us in our new regular read, Better Retailing. The CCTV footage would look bad whether the angry customer was an elected representative or not.
Mr Bhimiyani nevertheless said he was happy to go on the record to share the fact he supported Sir Ed Davey’s party, particularly in Watford – where he drives home to after his shifts in the Costcutter in West Hampstead.
“Where I live they have very good policies,” he said. You can read more about what he thinks about anti-social behaviour on the Finchley Road in the current edition of the CNJ.
STICKY SUMMER
LOCAL activists from Labour and the Lib Dems might have thought they could get in a quiet summer before we head into the final run to next May’s council elections.
Now they find themselves with a hot August by-election contest in West Hampstead, caused by Mr Tiwari’s departure. It’s an intriguing one, as it should give us some clues as to how deep the scare stories are for Labour about potentially shedding seats in Camden really are.