Yesterday, there were local elections in England and Northern Ireland and European elections throughout the UK. Local election results are still being declared and the European results will not be available until Sunday when all the other EU Member States have voted.<\/p>\n
I have been able to vote now for almost 50 years: I have never failed to vote and I have have never voted anything other than Labour. \u00a0For me, the personalities and the polices of the time are very much secondary to the basic ideology of the party: I want a fairer, more egalitarian society with a redistribution of power and wealth to the less fortunate and privileged in our society.<\/p>\n
The result of the election in my London borough of Brent, where I have lived for 30 years, was an outstanding success for Labour. The party took 16 seats from the Liberal Democrats, so that now Labour has 56 seats to just six to the Conservatives and a mere one to the Lib Dems. In Brent as whole, the UK Independence Party (UKIP) took a miniscule 3% of the vote. In my own ward of Northwick Park, Labour took all three seats for the first time.<\/p>\n
All the 56 Labour councillors have my congratulations, but I send especially warm wishes to my own councillors (Margaret McLellan, Joshua Miichell-Murray, and Keith Perrin), our good friends Ruth Moher and Mary Daley, and my closest friend from university days Dan Filson.<\/p>\n