I was delighted to go to the Croydon Labour Parties Gala Dinner yesterday evening. Held at the Hilton Hotel in Croydon it was, as ever, a delightful occasion, a chance to catch up with old friends and enjoy a really good evening. Thanks to Tim Godfrey, the Labour Party organiser in the area, and everyone else who worked so hard to make the event such a huge success.
Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, did us all proud as the guest speaker. A former Croydon Labour Party Member and CWU supremo, he was totally at home with his audience. Alan also filled a table with old CWU colleagues. including Billy Hayes. 
You will see me here pictured with Croydon North MP Malcolm Wicks who gave his own inimitable after dinner speech as did Gerry Ryan, the PPC for Croydon Central. The local line up was completed with Councillor Jane Avis who acted as Master (or should I say Mistress) of Ceremonies. Also pictured are GLA Member and former Leader of Croydon Coucil, Val Shawcross, and current Leader of the Labour Group on the Council, Tony Newman.
Filed under: Labour Party | Tagged: Alan Johnson, Croydon Council, Gerry Ryan, Jane Avis, Malcolm Wicks, Val Shawcross
Shouldn’t this read Labour Party’s Gala Dinner not Labour Parties Gala Dinner?
A small point and one which does not alter my view that this is an excellent web site. If anyone doubts the quality of the HoneyBall Buzz, they should have a look at the web site of Charles Tannock MEP (Conservative). The dreariest part of this creaky old web site is his photo album. It takes up a whole 25 pages!
Most of the photographs are of Dr. Tannock posing next to Tory notables.
On pages 23 and 24 he has pictures of himself with Iain Duncan-Smith who is descibed in the caption as the Conservative Party Leader. Page 19 features Dr. Tannock with Michael Howard who is descibed as the Leader of the Opposition.
On page 17 we see an oil painting of Dr. Tannock with Benjamin Disraeli – no not really I am getting carried away, but it is about time the web site was brought up-to-date.
Ungrateful EUsceptic that I am, I really object to paying taxes to fund this politician’s pitiful ego trip, especially as I, along with many others, will have my wallet assaulted by the costs of the new unelected EUSSR President Van Rompuy. If our political masters really want a President of the United States of Europe with a funny name they should have sent a request to the United States of America for Mr. Randy Bumgardner.
Daniel there should perhaps be an apostrophe after the parties, but it is a joint effort of the Croydon North, Croydon Central and Croydon South Labour Parties. It is an excellent example of how constituency parties with a London Borough work together and one of my favourite events of the year.
In fairness to Charles Tannock he does write fairly regularly for Conservative Home, and I suspect there may be pieces of information on this site which might not be quite up to date, as more and information goes on that is an inevitable consequence.
“If our political masters really want a President of the United States of Europe with a funny name … ”
Jibes about names is getting tedious… Jeremy Paxman, Andrew Neil, and the rest of them.