I’m late in blogging about this, but a couple of weeks ago I went and stayed in Dalston, Carlisle for a week.  It is where my parents live and near to where I grew up.  However I have never been involved in the political side up there and I really wanted to meet up with Labour members in the city and broaden my “Labour Friends Network”.  To that end, I contacted Lee Sherriff, the PPC for Carlisle and that led to having a great time with Carlisle CLP.

I contacted Lee through twitter and arranged to meet in the Costa in town.  As soon as she turned up, we got on really well and we talked a lot about our individual CLPs and for the first time I realised just how similar Carlisle and Gloucester are, both in history and social make up.  Carlisle have done really well in getting a Labour council and I was keen to learn how they got there.  After an hour or so, we decided there was a lot we can do between the CLPs.

Lee also let slip that they were having a fundraiser that weekend and asked if I wanted to go along.  It was a Gala dinner and art auction, so I thought, why not!  The Saturday came and I got a lift to the venue and met with over a 100 members.  I perused the artwork, some local, some political, some really very good and some of it I still don’t quite understand, but then I’m not wired that way.

It was a really great event.  We had a number of speeches, including Margaret Curran MP, as well as the Art Auction itself.  I was made to feel really welcome and though I was a bit disappointed not to come away with any art, I was really enthused by what I saw.

I think Carlisle are in great shape and that with the right support, Lee Sherriff will make a great MP for Carlisle.  I look forward to going back north and meeting up again.  It will be great to go and do some campaigning and help other Labour friends.