John4leader

Tonight in the Grand Hotel a bunch of Brighton labour Party members and Trade Unionists met with John McDonnell to plan a campaign meeting in Brighton in November.

It was nice to meet in real life two fellow bloggers, Jon Rogers and Marsha Jane (who was down for the TUC conference). Marsha asked if I was the one with the cowboy hat. I said no, other one, the one with the fishnets .

Anyway , back to the point of this post
We all introduced ourselves to John. I said I was still just about in the Party but had not been active because was I disillusioned with Blair. I said I saw this as a last chance to energise the left. A few others said they felt the same and I think this was a message he has heard from many members.

It was good though to feel some enthusiasm for a campaign to build the left. Yep I know some will say I am naive. But as I said tonight, its difficult to leave a Party I have spent all my adult life in.

Jon was very positive, declaring it would be fun. Oh dear, what anoraks we all are. But I agreed. I hope he does not mind me quoting him, he said we should fight for what we want not what we think we can get .

I will post details of the event when its finalised.

At the end I talked to John about blogs . He humoured me ! I asked if he would do an e-mail interview for Stroppyblog. He agreed. Jon Rogers , diplomatically , pointed out it would reach a 'diverse' audience. Hmmm, whatever could he mean.

I will send John an e-mail of questions in a few days. Any ideas from the 'diverse' readership please add to the comments.