Ealing North
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Steve Pound MP Ealing North |
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PM Speaks at Annual LFI LunchAsian Voice - March 2005 Standing in the freezing March cold outside the Café Royal I waited for the Prime Minister to arrive and mentally went through a long list of things that could go wrong. The occasion was the Labour Friends of India Annual Luncheon and an enormous amount of work had gone into organising the highest profile political event we had attempted. While I waited on Tony Blair the Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, and the DTI Minister, Patricia Hewitt, were circulating among the three hundred plus members of the community in the elegant reception rooms on the third floor. Transport Minister, and one of the Founding Four of the Labour Friends of India, Tony McNulty was in charge upstairs and ministers such as Fiona Mactaggart and Paul Boateng were interacting under his watchful eye.A fellow “founding four” – Barry Gardiner – was also dispensing Ministerial wisdom and shaking so many hands that I feared for repetitive strain injury. Needless to say, there was an excellent turnout of MPs with Dari Taylor, Oona King, Ann Keen, Laura Moffat, Rob Marris, Andrew Dismore and Mike Gapes meeting and greeting with distinguished colleagues such as Lord Paul, Lord Triesman, Lord Tarsen King, and Lord Corbett. As ever the centre of attention and surrounded by friends and admirers was Keith Vaz; who really should have been allocated a room to himself so great was the crush around him. Suddenly the personal protection officers started to move as one, alerted by their wrist radios, and a phalanx lined up at the entrance to the Café Royal. Vikas Pota and I stepped forward to greet the Prime Minister and I began to mentally relax. Panic over – Tony has arrived! The message reached Tony McNulty before we emerged from the lift and he officially welcomed everyone to the LFIN Luncheon. I then introduced the High Comissioner, H.E.Kamalesh Sharma, who gave a warm and measured address that was very well received by the room. Tony Blair then gave a powerful speech that stressed the centrality of Indo-UK relationships and the increasing significance of India as a global power. He paid tribute to the immense contribution made by the South Asian community in the UK and no-one who heard his words could doubt his sincerity for a moment. Tony handed back to me turned gratefully to his lunch. Although the Prime Minister managed to chat with table companions Sonjoy Chatterjee (of ICICI Bank) and his wife Amita, Sir Gulam Noon, Andrew Cahn of British Airways and Mr.Dadiseth of Unilever he also managed to eat most of a superb meal. Then my worst fears were realised. Urgent messages began to flow in from Downing Street that the Prime Minister of Ireland was waiting for urgent talks with Tony Blair. We had to cancel the series of meetings that Tony had planned to follow his meal and yet he managed to meet with Himmat Singh Sohi and Tarlok Singh Bagga of the Sri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara with Cllr.Virendra Sharma in attendance and ensuring that the meeting took place. The PM also insisted on meeting Prashant Jhawar and his wife Anu as well as old friends like Navin Shah and Umesh Chander. Anil Bhanot of the Hindu Council of the UK was high on the list of those who the Prime Minister wanted to meet and he also managed to have a word with Amarjit and Susha Jammu, Mr.and Mrs.Thinju, Kandiah Balakrishnan and Param Singh Sandhu from my constituency of Ealing North. Vikas and I hadn’t managed to eat a morsel of our lunches and we couldn’t really relax until the luncheon was over. I was delighted with the success of the occasion and remarked in my short speech that it was right and opportune that we were meeting on the 166th.birth anniversary of Mr.Jamshetjee Tata who was the visionary entrepreneur who first envisaged an Indian future based on scientific excellence, technical leadership and world-class quality. As one who knows the modern Tata Company well I can see how this vision has been transformed into reality. Let me close with the same words that the Prime Minister used; “Long live the Labour Friends of India!” |
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