ELECTION 2010 - Drumming up support - Blur band member Dave Rowntree hits streets for Labour Party in safe Conservative seat
Published: 30 April 2010
by JAMIE WELHAM
POLITICAL pamphlets aren’t known for their searing honesty.
But Blur drummer and Labour candidate in the Cities of London and Westminster Dave Rowntree does things a little differently.
Just a few sentences in and he’s owned up to those well-known electable qualities: alcoholism, homelessness and drug addiction. Apparently it works.
“The last thing I want is for people to rub my nose in it,” he said. “If anyone’s going to do it it’s going to be me. It’s old news for voters now.”
Rowntree is under no illusions about the task facing him next week – overturning an 8,000-plus majority held by incumbent MP, Conservative Mark Field. In the “Two Cities”, it’s said the Conservatives don’t count votes, they weigh them. But the 45-year-old has been getting his point across, targeting the large council estates in Pimlico where he hopes to reignite the Labour fires for years to come.
Rowntree said: “I’m not deluded. This is a safe Conservative seat and it would be stupid to pretend otherwise. But this area used to have a Labour presence and I hope we can build that up again.”
Mr Rowntree – who has stood for Labour at council level a number of times – says life will be very different under a Conservative government.
He said: “It’s amazing walking around just how many people they have ignored. It’s definitely the case of Conservatives looking after their own and not caring about anybody else.
“If their record in opposition is anything to go by, a new Tory government would wreck businesses, promote crime, exploit workers, protect privilege, promote discrimination, fight democracy and torture animals. Come to think of it, that’s pretty much how I remember the last one.”