About Joan

I am a socialist
I am a feminist
I am a mother
I was a lover

I am a widow
I grieve, I will always grieve

I am a political activist
I am a trade unionist
My relationship with the Labour Party was ‘complicated’, but we now have a solid relationship
I am a community activist
I am a working class pensioner

I am a housing association tenant living on a former council estate
I chair our Tenants’ and Residents’ Association; and run our Community Centre

Many years ago I was a local councillor, proud to lead Lambeth Council

I am a Londoner
I am a European
I supported the UK staying in the EU
I believe another Europe is possible
I am an internationalist
I am anti-war, a unilateralist

But I support Ukrainian self-determination and condemn the Russian invasion

I support the rights of the Palestinian people, and an immediate ceasefire in Gaza

I am an atheist
I am a sociologist
I am a republican (in the unAmerican sense of the word)

I have Crohn’s Disease
I have a stoma
I take drugs, lots of drugs (my GP says to call them meds….)
I can’t live without the NHS

I am at the highest risk of Covid-19 and have been shielding for a very long time….

I am a reader and a writer
I started, and then discarded, writing a lengthy conspiracy political thriller, ‘Watch the Parking Meters’

I am now writing occasional anecdotal memories of my younger days

And the political articles on Brexit and Covid published on my blog

I like Oysterband and Green Day, Demon Barbers and Springsteen, Richard Thompson and the Stones.
I have a large collection of Grateful Dead CDs
I mourn a Deadhead

I am told I am efficient
I never know if that’s a compliment
I spend too much time on the computer
I have a bad back

I watch a lot of TV, but never in the daytime
I like good drama, cop shows and Eastenders. I listen to the Archers on Sunday mornings….

I am the usually wise, always dangerous, woman of Lambeth

That says it all really, doesn’t it?

Except

Another world – a better world – is possible and we have to work together, fight together, to make it happen.

****

And for those who prefer a more conventional political biography

I got involved in politics in the 70s fighting fascists in Brick Lane, the DHSS (now DWP) with other claimants, and against tuition fees for overseas students at Essex University. During the 80s I held numerous position in the Labour Party in Lambeth and London; and I was a Lambeth Labour Councillor from 1986 to 1994, serving both as Chief Whip and Leader of the Council, until Neil Kinnock objected to our campaigns against cuts, the Poll Tax and the first Gulf War. I was removed as Leader, found guilty of disreputing the Party, slapped on the wrist and suspended for twelve months.

Ill health kept me out of political activity for the next two decades. Shortly after the sad, early death of my partner, Greg Tucker, in 2008, new biological drugs sufficiently restored my energy for me to get back involved in the mid-2010s, first with my Tenants’ Association and then the Labour Party.

I am currently Chair of Kennington Park Estate Tenants’ & Residents’ Association and the Kennington Park Community Centre Community Benefit Society (which leases my local community centre, KPCC Oval, from Hyde Housing). I manage most aspects of the Centre and I’m currently very involved in, and supportive of, plans to refurbish and redevelop the site.

I am on the General and Executive Committees of Vauxhall & Camberwell Green Labour Party, representing Lambeth & Southwark Unite Community branch, of which I am Treasurer. I am currently the CLP’s Trade Union Liaison Officer. I am co-Treasurer of Labour Women Leading. I support Another Europe is Possible; and I am a member of the Steering Committee of Covid Action UK.

4 thoughts on “About Joan”

I remember you-i was bar maid down the town hall club -you used to bring your son Tim with you and he was so polite…sorry to hear about your husband -life is a bitch sometimes

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Hi, Joan, don’t know if you remember me, Adelaide Doble nee Leslie? I lived in Bow in 1979 and later was active around the Haringey ratecapping campaign. My husband Peter was one of the councillors. I heard about Greg about ten years(?) ago. Sad as he was a genuinely nice man, but you don’t need me to tell you that!

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I knew your name. I lived all over south London -Nunhead then Tulse Hill and West Norwood. Worked at the Labour Party at Walworth Road in the 80s. Worked with someone who became Leader of Southwark council then an MP, then left. She married a Hedge Fund manager. Comfy life I expect. Sally Coetzee as was (been married before in SA I believe). Wonder what became of her? While her Blairite babe status at one point pissed me off, she was very very kind once and came to visit me in hospital when she need not have done. Nice to know what became of you – the loss of husband not nice tho’. I dread that too because I married late and was lonely before – and what became of you apart from that has lots of parallels -particularly writing . I too wrote a novel. In my case it was historical. I enjoyed the research mostly which could have been a PhD. The plot became boring. I was bored so everyone else would have been . 125 000 words in, novel was abandoned. I too write occasionally for Labour Hub (once every 5 weeks). (I campaign for Subpostmasters caught up in the scandal and am a campaigner.The left had not really taken it on board until I wrote about it. Then the drama happened and ‘ping’ everyone became aware. I like your self -Aboutery – and your frankness . Beautifully put. The stoma must have been tough. And so vulnerable to Covid. How not to handle a Pandemic could be a book. Would not be very funny tho’. I have a urinary condition which is a bit of a blow as am due a knee replacement. Getting up 10 times a night will be hard. I tore up my LP card. Twice. Never been kicked out. All voluntary my tearing. Starmer was always a sleeper agent. We are so gullible on the left. Like to think the best of people only I don’t. I sometimes think I prefer animals until that was, the Fox we feed killed a squirrel last week. Nature red (in tooth and claw) unlike Labour – which is the violet colour of a bruise. The lesser of two evils, claims Lorna Finlayson, only she is conflicted thinking maybe Starmer is the worst of two evils. But she says rightly we need to aspire to better for the world’s sake. And the squirrels’.

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