About
Welcome to the blog. A more detailed biog will appear in time, meanwhile, here is something to be getting along with.
I have been in the Labour Party since as soon as I was old enough to. We’re talking a long time ago here!I’m the kind of person who loves working on elections. (Actually, I probably have to repeat this over and over again just to convince myself this might be true; it’s a bit Pavlovian).A political CV would be too long. But it should include:
The Labour Reform Group
A centre left pressure group that campaigned for more democracy within the Party. I was a founding member in 1995 and the first Chair of the group for four years or so. During this time LR became a member of the GrassRoots Alliance which, to many, was a very suspicious connection - but then we did convince the left of the value of OMOV. Labour Reform finally round itself up in 2006.
Local Government
I was a Councillor in Birmingham for twelve years from 1990. During that time I was responsible for Education, IT, Finance and a whole load of things. In 2001 I challenged the Leader of the group at our AGM and lost. All hell broke loose and that was the end of me. And my local government career.
Still, these were good years. I’m much more interested in local representation and politics than I am in Parliament. During my time as a Councillor I spent quite a lot of time working with national groupings, such as the Association of Metropolitan Authorities and the Local Government Association. For a while I was Chair of the Local Government Information Unit, which is a kind of local government think tank.
These days I still work a lot in local government, often in the area of political and officer leadership. But most of my time is spent in regeneration work, often in the field of creative industries, art and culture. I also work with the Scarman Trust, in Birmingham, which is committed to creating new opportunities for inner city communities. Feel free to get in touch.
You can mail me at: andy@andyhowell.into
