26 January (Part 2) - Stop the war
By
far the most approachable of my local political activists -
not a Councillor any more because
Labour can be a bit stupid - is Dave Putson; so when I spotted him
outside Abbey Wood’s Community Centre (†) I crossed the road to say hello. However
he wasn’t there waiting for a bus but to promote his commitment to a ceasefire in Gaza.
For the second time in not much over a month the Erith & Thamesmead Labour Party was meeting
in Abbey Wood; not the AGM this time but to debate Motions calling for a Palestinian
ceasefire from the Thamesmead East, Abbey Wood and Shooter’s Hill branches. This time no one had
called in seven police officers to
control two elderly gents handing out leaflets.
Presumably Abena Oppong-Asare
was not intending to put in an appearance; who but an MP would have the pull to get
seven coppers in the same place at the same time?
Dave told me that there had been pressure to formalise the local call for a ceasefire at the
December meeting but that was not appropriate at an AGM. From a position some
distance to the right of Dave the Abbey Wood branch’s Motion in particular
looked to be entirely reasonable to me.
A call to Dave this morning provided a bit more information. The three Motions,
Shooter’s Hillְ’s being just a single line of text, were all passed unanimously
at a well attended meeting. Councillors Anne Marie Cousins (Abbey Wood) and
Zainab Asunramu (Thamesmead East) showed up but as expected, no MP. The two
pensioners were not admitted to the meeting, they are no longer members,
but their leaflet distribution was not seen as a threat this time around.
While writing this piece I found myself wondering if non-Councillor Dave was
getting more mentions here than the elected ward Councillors but a check revealed ‘not quite’.
Daniel Francis - 16 blogs since January 2023, Dave Putson - 11 , Sally Hinkley - 10 and Esther Amaning - 2.
The Abbey Wood and Thamesmead East Motions
may be read here. (PDF.)
† Not entirely coincidental, I had heard a whisper.