Labour HQ at Hardy Lane

The Labour Party election headquarters is in full swing at the Co-op Rooms. Popped in the check out what is happening. Nice use of cycle leaning on the big plastic posters. Lots of paper to push through letterboxes.

Camapign HQ

Hardy Lane Co-op Rooms are currently the head quarters for Lucy Powell the Labour candidate in the forthcoming General Election. The rooms have been used for Labour campaigns since at least 1964, and as HQ since at least 1987.

Picture is of Lucy (left) with Yvette Cooper, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions who dropped by to meet constituents and called into the Hardy Lane rooms. At least the background looks like that.

Co-ops in Salford

Took time out to trek over to the Working Class Movement Library in Salford for a talk on Co-operatives in Salford. It is not a trek since I realised you can do shopping in central Manchester and then take a seven minute train journey - Manchester Oxford Road to Salford Crescent station which a two minute walk from the Library.

The talk was by Gillian Lonergan from the Co-operative Archives at the Co-opsUK building. A muster of over 30 punters for an excellent picture presentation follwed by tea and custard cream biscuits. Always like a history talk when it informs me of new facts. Co-ops in Salford go way back to the days of the Rochdale Pioneers with hand loom weavers, and cloth dyers forming a few co-operative enterprises. The Manchester & Salford Society got a fair mention even though despite its name it didn't have many branches in Salford.

The talks are part of an Invisible Histories series over the next few months at the WCML.