Life and how to live it

On Wednesday I had intended to spend several hours at an event at Barton Hill Settlement, where various stakeholders - the police, youth services, voluntary sector organisations - met to discuss issues relating to Somali youth. The first hour was taken up by lunch, however, and although it gave me the chance to catch up with a few people, I had to leave soon after the official business started, to attend Frances Easton's funeral.

Val Davey, the former MP for Bristol West, gave a moving tribute to Frances, telling how Frances, her husband George, and her little sister Margaret became involved in the Labour Party in their teens and had worked in every General Election since. Even during my election in 2005, when Frances was in her late 80s and in failing health, she spent hours in the office folding leaflets and stuffing envelopes. (Margaret, only slightly younger, was still CLP Secretary at the time). She never sought political office herself - though George was a councillor - but did it simply because she believed passionately in the Labour Party and what it stands for. She was also very much involved in St Lukes church, and the work of the Church Mission Society in Uganda.

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I heard some very sad and shocking news earlier today. John Deasy, the long-serving councillor for St George West, has been found dead at his Beaufort Heights home. We're not sure of the details at the moment, but it appears that his neighbour heard him coughing or choking; by the time an ambulance arrived, he was already dead. John - who was a personal friend as well as a Labour Party colleague - had represented St George for the best part of two decades, along with his fellow Labour councillor Ron Stone. He worked on the buses for much of his life, where he was a T&GWU rep, and then at SARI; he was passionate both about his trade unionism and about fighting discrimination. More recently he'd got a job working with people with disabilities, which he loved; he brought a group of them down to parliament for a day trip last year, and had an obvious rapport with them. A sad loss, to the Labour Party and to St. George.

The local Labour Party was also saddened by the news today of the death of Frances Easton. Along with her late husband, George - who was a well-known local councillor - and her sister, Margaret Davey, Frances was a stalwart of Bristol East Labour Party and was also active in her local church, St. Lukes in Brislington. Frances, who was in her nineties, had been ill for some time. She gave many years of service to the Labour Party, and will be remembered with great fondness.