Election "analysis": Dave Rowntree

I'm still awaiting the results for Dave Rowntree, best known to most as Blur's drummer, standing for Labour in his local ward, which has been Tory for decades. He came across really well in this Time Out interview:

‘I do local politics, not to be confused with parliamentary politics... It’s not politics for people who want a demonstration, it’s politics for people who have a problem and want to do something about it. It’s neither Blair or Brown.’

'My girlfriend’s mother was a nurse who was arrested by Saddam Hussein. My girlfriend flew round the Middle East and got her mother released. She met all the people involved – Saddam and his sons. So I got a different perspective of what was going on. My take on the war was that Saddam was a horrendous murdering dictator and thought nothing of killing his own people and at that time he had to go. I’m not a pacifist, I do believe that some things are worth fighting for, and dying for. I understand that that’s easier to say, I’m not being the one who’s asked to die, but Saddam was such an illegal ruthless bastard I didn’t shed any tears for it [the war].'

'anyone who supports Labour gets flak at the moment, but you have to take it on the chin. What I do believe in is Labour core values: social justice, richer people in society helping the poorer people in society, again all the nerdy stuff to do with what it means to be a socialist rings true for me.'

(Of course, there's also a SE London connection: he went to Goldsmiths College in New Cross.)

Update: the news is in; he didn't make it. Oh well.

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