JohnI believe you are being deliberately obtuse as a means of trying to wiggle out of the fact that your argument lacks any logic.You know full well that I am not making a moral comparison between the National Front and the Labour Party. What I did was to follow the logic of your own argument to point out that if my rejection of far-right ideology was anything like as superficial as Vanessa's rejection of the Labour Party - whose Isleworth candidates she still nominates at local elections - then you would quite rightly question the sincerity of my complete renunciation of fascist politics.Indeed Vanessa still purports to question that sincerity, as indeed you must have done as recently as 2002 when you spent election day in Isleworth distributing leaflets referring to my political history (presented with typical dishonesty in such a way as to imply that I was still involved with the far-right) and referring to me as "a nasty piece of garbage". At least your party, as was, didn't later try to deny authorship of that one.I would be surprised if you know very much at all about my activities in Isleworth as a National Front activist in the 1970s and 1980s, which is why you resort to the usual hollow emotion and hysteria, fine soundbites but lacking in substance. To suggest that I "consciously cultivated" rate hate and fear on Ivybridge at any time during that period is a very long way from the truth, considering that any time I spent on that estate was entirely occupied with trying to counter the efforts of the Labour Party to take over and dominate the residents' association, using the temporary presence of a National Front member on the management committee as a convenient lever for edging out not only him (an act which today, ironically, I would applaud) but also several other residents who had no connection nor sympathy with the NF or with racist politics. The disgusting behaviour of the Labour Party during that period left a long legacy of bitterness and distrust on the estate which nobody in authority even wanted to address until the new administration came into office in 2006 and used the Hounslow Homes Management Review to single-mindedly drive through much-needed changes in how we engage our tenants in the participatory process. You couldn't begin to imagine how gratifying it is to be told now by tenants' leaders and estate management staff, some of whom opposed and obstructed me during the Review, that in retrospect I was right to do what I did and that residents working together in an environment unpolluted by party politics really is a better way.The quarrel on Ivybridge which began in 1980s had nothing at all to do with race. What I will admit though, with no little embarrassment, is that the Labour Party was successful in taking me for a ride for so many years. While I viewed myself at the time, absurdly, as some kind of liberator and all-round smartarse, it took me a very long time and a lot of introspection to understand that by fighting a just cause in the name of such an unpleasant and despicable organisation I was in fact allowing the Labour Party to claim the moral high ground which it could otherwise have had no hope of claiming.Only many years later did I come to realise that, far from fearing me in any way at all, the Labour Party in those days viewed me with great amusement as the mug who lent legitimacy to their every devious and self-centred act by presenting myself as the (unacceptable) face of their "opposition". It was hardly surprising, under the circumstances, that the Labour Party reacted to my rejection of far-right ideology with such rabid anger and hostility - anger and hostility which Vanessa, even after having left the Labour Party, carries to this day.So when you talk about apologies John, please try to understand what it is I apologise for, and who to. I apologise to members of minority communities who may have been caused distress by my activities as a young man. I apologise also to the wider community for letting them down in their time of need, for being the willing fool playing Labour's perfect bad guy when I should have taken the very good advice offered to me by the late former Labour councillor David Archer, who urged me to reject the National Front and continue the battle from a better moral position.But I make no apology to my political opponents of the time, many of whom remain my opponents today, who used me as a means of achieving their ends. It took me a very long time indeed to cotton on but the prize was worth waiting for. Who could possibly have foretold that Labour's antics on a solitary Isleworth housing estate would cost them so dearly as it did in 2006? It is difficult to think of a more complete example of justice being done, and believe me John and Vanessa it was well worth the wait.
Phil Andrews ● 6296d