It is evenings like last night which remind me why I love the Labour Party; and if John McDonnell's leadership campaign can continue to have that effect on his supporters - old and new - then it will continue to merit its billing as 'the most important campaign in a generation'.  

Some of the newspapers and blogs want to focus on rumours of infighting and the possible declarations of various candidates for various positions: let them.  This campaign isn't about Westminster gossip, it's about the grassroots of our movement.  That grassroots had another good turnout tonight - fifty or so people came in from the cold, to the Halifax Irish Centre, in the week before Christmas.  There was a great atmosphere.  The vast majority of people present were from either the Halifax or the Calder Valley CLPs (with the occasional offcumden like me!)

Local MP, Linda Riordan, spoke first: passionately endorsing John's campaign.  Alice Mahon came next - one of our movement's recent heroes - and she continued the passion and the purpose.

Then came John, who gave another impressive, entertaining, positive and purposeful speech.  And I really must stress the positive.  On Labourhome and elsewhere, I've heard people suggest that John's programme was a 'series of gripes' and that the campaign was negative and attacked the government.  This caricature is unfair.  Alice Mahon made the point initially, referring people to John's campaigning leaflet and the relentlessly positive message it contains.  John took the theme further: take peace for instance.  John heaped praise on Tony Blair and his government for their achievements in Northern Ireland (saying, incidentally, that his success there should have been Blair's legacy).  But he went on - people who joined our progressive coalition in '97 because they saw us as the party of peace could feel vindicated by the achievements in Northern Ireland, but then have been marginalised by events such as Iraq (and also by our response to the Lebanese crisis).  What the party needed now was a strategy to bring those people back, and to re-establish our reputation as a party of peace.

That's just one example: it was a forensic examination of why - despite having such achievements and doing so many things right - we have alienated our support in recent years, and why some who marched for us in '97 are marching again, but this time against us.

And each point led up to a positive set of proposals.

The question and answer session was excellent.  A really good discussion.  Sometimes at an event like this discussions get dominated by people with pet issues or a sectarian line: there was none of that.  To my knowledge there was one Liberal and one Respect member, but other than that this was the Labour Party in all its diversity.  And the response was overwhelmingly positive.  We had questions on the environment, on the House of Lords, on education, on the BNP, on the role of the UN, PLP nominations: a really good, positive and wide-ranging discussion.

Interesting conversations continued at the bar after the meeting had closed.  It was particularly fun for me, as an old comrade and good mate from student politics days works for the MP in Halifax and we were able to catch up.

If only Labour Party meetings were like this more often: a discussion about the issues that really matter, in the real world, amongst a large group of comrades, with a real sense of confidence and hope: that there's a point to our being there, because we can make a difference.

Here's to the Labour Party.