Is Ladywood Solid Labour?

It's not rare for naysayers to question how much effort should be put into gaining representation in Ladywood - some describing it as solid Labour. Setting aside the fact that many of our members and supporters in Ladywood are determined to gain better representation for the area, the electoral picture shows that an opportunity exists for change. The following pie chart shows the breakdown of votes cast in Ladywood ward in the Euro elections.

The turnout in Labour is very poor at about 15% of the electorate which means less than 5% of voters in the area voted Labour. Solid Labour? I don't think so. Given that the Conservative Party polled just 27% nationally in the European elections compared to exactly 20% in Ladywood, we can expect an uplift at the next set of locals. With a good campaign we can increase turnout and get supporters of all parties to switch to us. So why shouldn't Ladywood be a target seat in the next set of local elections?

Don't Let Labour Rewrite History On Swimming In Ladywood

Between 1984 and 2004 Labour ran Birmingham council. In all this time, Ladywood ward and constituency were served by Labour politicians. In 1994, the swimming pool on Monument Rd which is in Ladywood ward was demolished by the council, and as we all know, no local replacement was forthcoming. For a video archive of this story, check out the Monument Road video stream at TNT news.

The 2006 local elections in Birmingham were the first after Labour had been turfed out. As our local candidate in those elections pointed out, Labour's literature in that campaign spoke of the pressure they had been putting on the council to build a swimming pool! Fast forward to 2009 and the Conservative-led council has put forward plans for a first class 50m swimming pool in the heart of Ladywood. So are our local Labour councillors happy? Not a bit of it. At the last Ladywood ward meeting on June 15th Kath Hartley in the chair made the odd prediction that the council might use 'nasty politics' over the swimming pool. Even at this late stage, the local Labour councillors are calling on this international venue to be located at Ladywood Middleway. Steve Beauchampe, a researcher and photographer on Great Lengths (Malavan Media, 2009), a book documenting the historic swimming pools of Britain, has labelled this Labour idea a non-starter.

They've got more front than Brighton Beach and it's about time that we pointed out their knee-jerk opposition to anything that isn't their idea.

Birmingham Lives

Last Sunday saw the Birmingham Lives exhibition staged at the Radisson Hotel with dozens of stalls mainly focused on different slices of Birmingham's heritage. Ladywood was well represented. Mac Joseph and his friends from Old Ladywood displayed their extensive wares including a 2010 calendar, but their stand was so busy that we didn't manage to take a good look at the pictures. We met members of the the Ladywood Reunion club. They have decided to sponsor the Kidney for Kids appeal this year and we picked up some leaflets for one of their upcoming events which is taking place at the Tower Ballroom. The Kidney for Kids campaign has been very successful so far this year and WM was unlucky not to win an award at the Birmingham Media Awards. At our last executive meeting, Ladywood Conservatives decided to support this charity this year.

We had the pleasure of briefly meeting Norman Bartlam. Not only is he the author of several books on the history of the area - I picked up a copy of Ladywood Lives from his stall - but he has been expanding the horizons of Ladywood kids for years. His current project is TNT news which gives youngsters from local schools to present their own local news stories. On Monday, their video was played at the Ladywood Ward meeting at Ladywood Community Centre which seems to be a forum where the 3 Labour councillors moan about things that they should already be doing something about.

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