Interesting take from Simon Derby - 'Battle For Botswana'

Left: Margaret Hodge - playing to the cameras.

MR Derby sums it all up in his last paragraph "Whilst the left can smirk, there's nothing at all they can do about the sense of empowerment and even aloofness that we can all gain knowing that we fight for a cause that is right".

Indeed Sir...well said!

You can watch the documentary Battle for Barking here

From Simon Derbys blog.

Having sat through the "Battle For Barking" documentary on More4 last night I could spend a whole day reviewing and analysing the contents. As it is, with a host of winter and work-related chores to complete this morning, I cannot go into too much depth. However, what I can offer is an inside view into how this programme came about.

I first met the director, Laura Fairrie, at the last annual conference in Wigan some time in mid-November 2009. Allowing her to film inside the lobby of the facility, I told two of our security team to keep an eye on her. In fact I'll be more specific, I asked Zane and Stuart, two of the Birmingham contingent, to watch her like a hawk. I did this knowing full well that that was exactly what they would do.

Within an hour, I was receiving reports that secret filming was taking place and that microphones were being surreptitiously left switched on. Needless to say, that didn't go down very well at all but nevertheless Laura and her soundman, who I said looked like a Marxist, were allowed to obtain significant interviews.

At the time she explained the project she was working on but by then I had half made up my mind that for safety reasons, this was going to be a non-runner. A few weeks later she called, genuinely distressed concerning the prospect of her film being cancelled. She implored upon me the reason she wanted to make "The Battle For Barking" and promised to send me some of previous work whilst she was away in Australia.

Sure enough, a couple of DVD's turned up, but as one eluded to the slaughter of dolphins I couldn't bring myself to watch them. Having spoken to her again, for some reason, I changed my mind, trusting her to produce something that would accurately reflect the events surrounding the electoral campaign.

As Press Officer at the time, I suggested to people on the ground in Barking and the rest of London that she should have access to our campaign and that I had taken the decision to trust her.

Well, was I right in trusting her, was the question I asked myself whilst brushing my teeth in the early hours of this morning. "Yes", was the answer, what she produced was different and sincere and as far as I am concerned, she kept her side of the bargain. "Just be straight" I said to her, "show it the way it is and don't stab us in the back".

As for the contents, to keep things short I'll summarise as such:

1. I felt very proud of everyone involved in that campaign, especially in the light of extreme provocation.

2. If this had been a black politician receiving death threats and being spat at would the police not now be trawling through the footage?

3. Considering the Phil Woolas case, are there not any implications considering Margaret Hodge's wild claims that Nick hates women and want to instantly deport everyone he doesn't like etc?

4. Margaret Hodge, in her Jimmy Choo shoes, looked like a Dickensian character at times. To see her trying to represent the white working class was as close to stomach-churning as television can get.

5. The big picture here, which none of the mainstream media will touch is that Labour deliberately flooded the constituency with Africans in order to keep themselves in power. Get that, they actually engaged in an organised, genocidal replacement of native Londoners and sold it as a fight against racism!

6. It's very, very hard to take on the establishment and win. I've done it a few times but opportunities do not come around as often as you might like. Even so we now have documentary evidence of how a relative few brave and committed individuals stood up to the lies, deceit and treachery and had a real fight back. Whilst the left can smirk, there's nothing at all they can do about the sense of empowerment and even aloofness that we can all gain knowing that we fight for a cause that is right.