HAZEL O'CONNOR AND THE COST OF POLITICAL INVOLVEMENT

Last night I was persuaded (someone paid for my ticket) to head down the Hebden Bridge Trades Club to see Hazel O'Connor. Hazel, who? will probably be the response of anyone under 40. But for about five minutes, back in the 1970's, Hazel was as famous as her contemporaries Annie Lennox and Madonna. However, she had signed a duff record contract and spent years wrangling with the money men to sort it out.In the meantime, she retired to Ireland and has only been back on the circuit for a few years.
Frankly, I only knew Will You? her one hit record ( which in my misspent youth we used to refer to as a "copping off" song) and had low expectations but she was good, surprisingly political , and at 52 she can still stomp around and belt out her music. The place was packed ( OK, it only holds 150 max) with people who had paid £8.00 a ticket on average (£10 non-members) - whether waged or unwaged. Which brings me to my next bit.
Comrade Miles from Manchester seems to think that asking people to help pay for political events is a bit, well, out of order. The £15 ( waged) and £10.00 (unwaged) cost of attending the LRC conference is, he satys, too much. I disagree.
Yes, it would be really great if it was free - but the harsh fact is that conference venues have to be paid for as do the staff who staff them. The venue ( it was formerly held in the TUC's Congress House) has been switched to save money but I daresay it still runs into the thousands. Leaflets have been printed, costs have to be met. Why? Because in case you hadn't noticed the left does not get the corporate sponsors . The COMPASS conference, which gets far more funding from the big trade unions, cost a similar amount. My Visitor Pass to Labour Party Conference cost an eye-watering £90.00 - and that DOES have the big names pouring in money.
My point is this. Asking people to pay the financial equivalent of a round of drinks or a cheap curry ( we paid £15.00 each last night for a meal in a modest Rusholme establishment) to further the cause of re-building the Labour Left really isn't that much to ask .Is it?
Every year, I hand over a couple of hundred quid to my trade union the NUJ. Actually, as a freelance, I "get" far less for my money than a staffer in terms of what can be done to improve my income. But it's paid out of solidarity. For the same reason, I have a standing order for Labour Briefing .It really does surprise me that people who are I have no doubt concerned about the current bloody awful state of the Labour Party are quibbling over tenners. And, for the record, I'm currently utterly skint.