An 83-year-old Holocaust survivor has been elected to the Labour National Executive Committee. Walter Wolfgang came to prominence when he was ejected from last year's party conference by security goons for shouting the word "nonsense" while Jack Straw was speaking.
His rough treatment at the hands of over-sensitive bouncers enraged many party activists, and he was feted at fringe events for the rest of the conference. Wolfgang was also excluded by police from the security zone around the venue under the Terrorism Act. Eventually then-party chairman Ian McCartney was forced to publicly apologise to the pensioner, who has been a member of the party for over 50 years.
His suprise election to the ruling executive of the Labour party is another sign of disquiet amongst grassroots members at the direction of the government. It is also an embarassment for Blair - the party had sent missives to party members "suggesting" candidates for election.
The PM will now come face to face with Wolfgang on a monthly basis. The NEC votes on the content of manifestos and has a range of other vital roles with the party. Wolfgang is the vice-chair of CND and opposes most of Blair's policies. He called on Tony Blair to resign immediately to make way for Chancellor Gordon Brown.
He went on to cite Lebanon as a pressing concern, stating there should be a ceasefire and announcing that he hopes to address this year's conference from the platform:
"If this Lebanon war is still going on in October - and there needs to be a ceasefire before that - we need to do something about that and stop the fighting.
"The second thing is we have to get our troops out of Iraq. We have to get the Americans out too but getting our troops out will encourage that.
"I am also very much opposed to Britain having nuclear weapons and want to get discussion going on that."
Should make for an interesting speech.
His rough treatment at the hands of over-sensitive bouncers enraged many party activists, and he was feted at fringe events for the rest of the conference. Wolfgang was also excluded by police from the security zone around the venue under the Terrorism Act. Eventually then-party chairman Ian McCartney was forced to publicly apologise to the pensioner, who has been a member of the party for over 50 years.
His suprise election to the ruling executive of the Labour party is another sign of disquiet amongst grassroots members at the direction of the government. It is also an embarassment for Blair - the party had sent missives to party members "suggesting" candidates for election.
The PM will now come face to face with Wolfgang on a monthly basis. The NEC votes on the content of manifestos and has a range of other vital roles with the party. Wolfgang is the vice-chair of CND and opposes most of Blair's policies. He called on Tony Blair to resign immediately to make way for Chancellor Gordon Brown.
He went on to cite Lebanon as a pressing concern, stating there should be a ceasefire and announcing that he hopes to address this year's conference from the platform:
"If this Lebanon war is still going on in October - and there needs to be a ceasefire before that - we need to do something about that and stop the fighting.
"The second thing is we have to get our troops out of Iraq. We have to get the Americans out too but getting our troops out will encourage that.
"I am also very much opposed to Britain having nuclear weapons and want to get discussion going on that."
Should make for an interesting speech.
