IT is with great happiness that I can announce that the results of our local council election, just too late for the deadline for my last column, saw Labour take Adur Council for the first time in history and my wife Robina re-elected with a 500 majority. 
 
When I was growing up here (I’m 66) our area was seen as a caricature of the ultimate Tory stronghold, the Costa del Geriatrica, God’s Little Waiting Room, you name it, but demographics had slowly altered meaning it was ripe for change. In 2017 Beccy Cooper (now PPC for Worthing West) became the first Labour councillor in Worthing for 41 years, and by 2022 they’d won control of the council for the first time, increasing their majority this year.  
 
For us in neighbouring Adur it was less spectacular progress from a firmer initial base. We’d had a smattering of Labour councillors for many years, and in 1999 we were actually the largest party in a no overall control council for a short time, but the last 20 years saw the place become a complete Tory fiefdom: they were complacent and entitled, doing nothing for local residents as the area visibly stagnated. 
 
The stirrings began, as in Worthing, after Corbyn’s election in 2015, with steady increases in Labour representation: the 2021 elections were a personal highlight because my wife Robina became the first elected Labour councillor in our home ward of Southwick Green for decades with a 20 per cent swing. The 2022 election saw our representation rise to nine, with the Tories still in charge, but on May 2 2024 we achieved the biggest proportional councillor swing in the country, to take overall control of Adur Council. We made the national news. Seventeen Labour councillors, eight Tories, two Greens, two independents, an overall majority of five. An absolutely incredible result.
 
And the most striking aspect of our rise on this part of the Sussex coast is we did it all by ourselves. 
 
There was no established Labour old guard to fight against, no barriers to be overcome, and most of us were either brand new recruits or hadn’t been members for years. We were a broad church, united in a common aim – to get the Tories out – doing things our way, left and centre together (but mostly left!).
 
And it goes without saying that the more successful we became, the more the national party took notice and tried to get us under their control. In an absolutely disgraceful decision our three local candidates for PPC, Carl Walker, Cat Arnold and Henna Choudhury, were barred from standing and candidates imposed from outside, which has caused rifts among us, and three Worthing councillors – Carl, his partner and Momentum co-chair Hilary Schan, and Margaret Howard – have now left the party. Region should have left us alone, we were doing fine, but we stand firm, celebrate our brilliant victory in Adur and carry on. 
 
And if Jeremy Corbyn hadn’t become leader, none of this would have happened. He lit the spark. 

West Sussex not Westminster! 
 
Superb day at With Banners Held High 2024 in Wakefield last Saturday commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Miners’ Strike. Wonderful speeches (Heather Wood from Women Against Pit Closures was amazing in her passion and power), an RMT tribute to Bob Crow and great sets from Sally Cinnamon and the inimitable Joe Solo. I had the honour of performing my miners’ strike poem Never Forget and my Bob Crow poem immediately before the tribute to him and then ending proceedings. A truly memorable event.
 
And last but not least, congrats to my comrades in St Pauli on their promotion back to the Bundesliga for the first time in 13 years! The legendary anti-fascist punk club are back where they belong!