One of the consequences of Respect's remarkable level of success in the most recent organisation now has an obligation to act as the principal principled opposition to New Hamlets and Newham on a wide range of policy issues.
In other areas, too, where significant votes were achieved in May the organisation needs to maintain a campaigning and visible political profile if it is to build the basis for further succosses in sunsequent contests.
This means moving well beyond the initial more limited view of Respect as being little more than the political wing of the Stop the War movement, having not a lot to say about wider domestic policies.
A useful, but under-used asset in this is the extensive and readable policy document Another World is Possible, The organisation drafted by Alan Thornett and developed, amended and a campaigning agreed in discus- and visible sions with Respect's national officers and political profile if
it is to build the Council, taking into
basis for further account the policies adopted at the last successes Respect conference.
It has sections setting out policies on a wide spectrum of political and social issues including Civil Liberties; the NHS; Education; Climate Change and Energy Policy; Migration; Trade Unions and Labour Representation; Women's Rights; Lesbian and
Gay Rights; Multicultural Britain; Disability Rights; Young People; needs to maintain Housing and Council
Tax; Transport; Pensions; Crime... and much more. The document was finalised in the run-up to the local elections, and a preminary version has been available for several months on Respect's website: but progress on its production in printed form as a pamphlet have been slow, and it is only now about to go to press. The final version needs to be put on the website and widely publicised.
This is only one way in which Respect is seriously under-selling itself and its policies: the national tabloid that was promised immediately after the May elections to trumpet Respect's successful campaigns and profile some of its new councillors - enabling all local branches to draw new strength from the victories that had been achieved -has also failed to materialise.
The result is that while Respect has a relatively large membership, it has only a minuscule profile as a national organisation, appearing in many areas to be on a level with the much smaller forces of the Campaign for a New Workers Party.
The dust has now settled from the May elections, the euphoria has largely worn off: it is vital that Respect builds a solid national base that can enable its branches and members across the country to become a vital and visible force in local political campaigns.
Members in many areas need more than the willingness to build Respect: they need the tools to do the job.
With Respect's next annual conference looming up in the autumn, it might be a good idea to draw up a balance sheet of the organisation's patchy and irregular publicity machinery, and look at ways in which the glaring gaps can be constructively filled. ernment and the IRA and noted that the only way that terrorism was stopped was when people started talking to one another.
Finally Begg relayed that his love for history means that he will stop at castles throughout Britain whenever he gets une chance.
He found himself in a 19th century castle and was drawn to a sign leading him to rooms
of War". Javeled Upon descending into one of the cells he began to hear banging and clanging.
He then began to hear American voices and was starting to worry he was having a genuine flashback when he noticed it was only a group of young American tourists. Begg thought to himself "If they only knew."