A Vintage Year for Brentwood Politics?

Brentwood & Ongar Labour Party met last week for the first meeting of 2013 and it was our best attended yet; not just in numbers (although we were nearing 30 on a cold and wet Thursday evening) but also in diversity, enthusiasm, wisdom and intellect.

I suppose inevitably,  people at the meeting last week included charity workers, ex-local councillors (one of 40 year service) NHS staff and ex-nurses, doctors, IT whizzes, teachers and a college lecturer and the breadth of knowledge and political savvy in that tiny little hall gave me great hope for the future.

The range of people and our varying ages makes for lively and interesting debate. We had a half hour discussion about localism, which was supposed to last 10 minutes and could have gone on all night, followed by a fascinating update from 2 of our members who used to work in the health service and were keen that we were fully briefed on the new Health and Well Being Boards that will be in position very soon. The sense of team was powerful stuff

Of course, we have been known to sweat the small stuff and can get entirely hooked up on the position of a bus stop or the toilet in Stratford Station; this is part of what is important to everyday people living everyday lives.  
But we also get our teeth into campaigns and policy.

We made some great plans for 2013 at last week’s meeting – some great social plans and some great campaigning plans.

You should come along to our next meeting – I think 2013 is going to be a vintage year in Brentwood’s local politics.