GO IAN LAVERY!

This Saturday I'm heading for York with other members of the LRC for a joint meeting of members from Leeds, Manchester, West Yorkshire and the North.
By the time we get to the Friends Meeting House at 1pm I hope to hear some good news regarding Ian Lavery, currently President of the NUM, who is favourite to win the PC candidature in the safe seat of Wansbeck. If he wins, it will be a triumph indeed.
I believe the usual suspects have been trying for years to stop him being a candidate andf the fact he was lambasted in last week's Daily Mail as a "hard-line union baron" shows that maybe for once a socialist candidate sympathetic to the LRC has a chance of winning against the machine.
Bad news though from Leyton and Wanstead where I believe the NEC has stepped in to the selection process and rather astonishingly kept its own member, Christine Shawcroft, from making it to the final shortlist.
I also understand that John Cryer, who lost his Hornchurch seat at the last election, is the left's last man standing . Serious commiserations to Christine, who has spent months campaigning in the constituency.