I was in busy in London on Mayday, but I would have liked to have been at the Mayday Festival at Wingate Grange Farm near Sedgefield with Mark Thomas and others.
On 2005-04-28 the Keys For Sedgefield Campaign released a press release asking Tory and Lib Dem supporters to vote for Reg Keys if they want to see the back of Blair.
The Blair Ditch Project is up and running, respectfully asking Sedgefield voters to "Do Labour a Favour...Vote Blair Out!!" If you live near Sedgefield why not help out? And if you don't but want to help anyway then you could go and stay at the visitors camp which is now open at Wingate Grange Farm.
It seems that David Shayler is also standing in Sedgefield, that makes three independent anti-war candidates I know of running against Tony Blair. Reg Keys's candidacy is being promoted by Military Families Against the War.
Last weekend I was in London for the 50,000 strong anti-war march to mark the second anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. I spent the day with the Soapbox Trike and heard a bit about the Sedgefield Campaign. Basically there will be a load of activists going up to Tony Blair's constituency with the aim of seeing him loose his seat on the 5th of May (which is when the general election is widely anticipated to be held). If Tony loses his seat then he won't be able to be Prime Minister.
From what I heard on the march, there was no suggestion as to who people should vote for instead of Blair, the intention being presumably to avoid alienating any particular section of the electorate. However, for him to loose his seat another candidate will obviously have to pick up more votes than he does, and if the anti-Blair vote is split then that is not likely to happen.
So, it was with great interest that I just read an article from Tuesday's Guardian about the candidacy of Reg Keys. Reg wasn't interested in politics until his son Tom was killed in Iraq in a war which he insists was 'illegal and immoral'. He has the backing of a group of Westminster MPs and musician Brian Eno. Read the article I'll hold Blair to account by Stuart Jeffries.
www.zenatode.org.uk Ian Gregory 2010