A great day at the cricket

posted by: Nick L | on: Saturday, 9 February 2008, 15:02

I am writing this on the train back to London after a fantastically successful morning at the Durham county cricket ground. Over 110 people, overwhelmingly from the County Durham area, attended a TUC-organised Hope not hate event to discuss strategies to beat the BNP.

They were joined by activists from Tyne & Wear, Northumberland and Teeside.

It was the first such activity I had attended in the North East but if the atmosphere was anything to go by I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of work being done here over the next year.

I'm sitting opposite Jon Cruddas who promises that he is about to blog about the weekend too. While the BNP does not pose the threat it does in some other regions there was a real determination not to be complacent.

This trip brings back memories of the Labour Party deputy leadership campaign where for the best part of a year Jon and I travelled around the country every weekend. As was the norm back then, the evening consisted of a good curry and a couple of beers. We often joked about writing a guide to the curry houses of Britain.

Last night we went to Latif's curry house, famous for its 'Curry Hell' hot dish which is free to anyone who finishes it. Abdul Latif might have died three weeks ago but his restaurant lives on. For more on the man who revelled in his Viz nickname 'the curry mentalist' visit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Latif_(restaurateur)

Anyway, we avoided the Curry Hell but it was a great meal nevertheless, though still not nearly as good as our favourite Indian which is in Albert Square in Manchester city centre. More about that in some future post.

The BNP organised a picket of our event today though unfortunately for them Searchlight had learnt about their intentions and measures were put in place to stop them intimidating the audience. A couple of BNP had tried to register for the event but thanks to the ever watchful eyes of TWAFA they were identified and turned away at the door. As it was the 20-odd misfits who gathered outside looked particularly stupid when one of them shouted through the megaphone: "They just want to keep us at the bottom where we belong."

No kidding, that is what the fool said.

Anyway, I'd just like to put on record my thanks to the organisers of the event and I look forward to working closly with them in the future. I was also particularly impressed with Stephen Hughes MEP who gave a fascinating and clear explanation of the growth of fascism across Europe.