Check out former Guardian journalist, Dave Hill’s website “OnLondon” about the latest twist in the Newham Mayoral Trigger saga. Leaving aside this important issue for the moment, what is happening with excessive trade union affiliation to local Labour …Read more…
“Newham Co-op continued”
An excellent account of the meeting last week by James Beckles. There is another more pointed post here by another Newham Co-op member. You can click to a link to my post on the rerun AGM 2016.
“On Wednesday 8th March Newham Cooperative Party we…Read more…
UNISON Community Conference 2017: Day 2 (& many thanks to Kevin)
Collage from last week’s day 2 National UNISON Community Conference in Bournemouth. Check out first 24 hours here.
Steve Reed MP gave the keynote speech for the seminar and took no prisoners from those who said in the Q&A that it was possible for …Read more…
International Workers Memorial Day 28 April 2017
Need to sort out and organise our Branch event for this year. Read more…
Newham Radical SwimBikeRun Triathlon Club – a start
Off message but back from gentle jog around Wanstead Flats & Park, Epping Forest. I restarted cycling into work last week. A group of West Ham Councillors and Party members have been “volunteered” into a FaceBook “Radical SwimBikeRun Triathlon club…Read more…
Brexit Fundraising Dinner – Keir Starmer MP 30 March 2017
Canvassing this Saturday 11 March:
1) Join Lyn Brown 11am Stubbs Point, New Barn Rd, E13 8JL (contact Rohit)
2) 11.30am, Custom House Library, Prince Regents Ln, E16 3JJ (contact Rokhsana)
Our Brexit Fundraising Dinner ~ Thursday 30th March (early bird price £20 till Sunday midnight)
Join Lyn…Read more…
UNISON Housing Association Branch AGM – 21 March 2017 UNISON Centre. Keynote speaker Tom Copley AM
Looking forward to my Branch AGM on the 21st March. Our keynote speaker will be Tom Copley AM. We are holding the AGM at the UNISON Centre (our national headquarters) in Euston Road during lunchtime and also the evening to maximise attendance. Read more…
West Ham Women’s Forum Councillor Training and AGM
Hat tip West Ham Labour blog on Women’s International Day.
“On Monday, West Ham women gathered to boost the sisterhood for the 2018 local government elections.
It was so wonderful to see a group of women from all walks of life dedicated to makin…Read more…
OPINION: Community Links life-president Kevin Jenkins wonders how Newham can maintain services on a council tax freeze
This article was in last weeks local Newspaper, the “Newham Recorder”. I have had no contact with Kevin about this but it would appear that this highly respected former senior Councillor shares some of my my concerns about the recent budget.
“On…Read more…
STRONGERUNISON – NEC Election 2017 – Regional Seats
Recommendations for Regional UNISON NEC seats. Mitsy and I were handing out leaflets on Saturday to UNISON Community Conference delegates. I think this is a fantastic slate and hope that UNISON members in England and Wales support these candidates.
Ch…Read more…
Newham ditches LOBOs pledging £94m in savings
This has been one of the most popular stories on the Local Government finance website Room 151 recently. By Colin Marrs. LOBOS is the Spanish name for wolf. “Newham Council has agreed a deal with Barclays to switch almost half of its Lender Option…Read more…
“New Tory White Paper – Putting Jobs & Residents at Risk”. Emergency motion to UNISON Community Conference 2017
On 7 February 2017 the Government issued a white paper on the future of housing in England. The paper had been trailed beforehand as being the blueprint to fix the housing crisis and “as having affordability at its heart”.
The actual white paper has been dismissed by many commentators as being a…Read more…
STRONGERUNISON – NEC Election 2017 – National Seats
It will soon be UNISON National Executive Committee elections. This morning I was outside Bournemouth Conference Centre with Greater London NEC Candidate, Mitsy Harmon-Russell, handing out these leaflets to delegates arriving for the UNISON Community S…Read more…
UNISON Community National Seminar & Conference 2017
UNISON members that work for Housing Associations and the voluntary sector have an annual 2 day National Seminar and Conference.
This years seminar is in Bournemouth and started for me this morning with a meeting of the Service Group Executive t…Read more…
Newham mayor ‘trigger ballot’: union confirms that affiliation fee not paid
Check out Guardian Journalist, Dave Hill’s blog.
A second organisation whose vote helped Newham mayor Sir Robin Wales go forward unopposed as Labour candidate for next year’s mayoral election in the borough has effectively substantiated a complaint by local party members about an…Read more…
“Executive mayors and one-party councils”
“As a councillor for the London borough of Newham, I find the observations in your editorial (22 February) linking one-party councils and autocratic government only too true. Not only does Newham have no councillors other than from the L…Read more…
“I like to pay taxes. With them, I buy civilisation.” Newham Council Budget meeting 2017
This was to be my speech last night at the Newham Council Meeting on the budget. There was a free vote for Labour Councillors (i.e all of us) and I had proposed an amendment to the budget on increasing Council tax by 1.99% in order to pay for hardship …Read more…
“Unaccompanied Child Migrants” Forest Gate North Labour Party Branch meeting Thursday 2 March 2017
This is a flyer for our next branch meeting. As well as usual Labour Party business there is a motion and debate on “”Unaccompanied Child Migrants”.
“We call upon Newham Council to confirm that it agrees to accept a significant number of unaccompanied…Read more…
Can we have a national DB pension scheme?
My latest article for Professional Pensions. “John Gray says we need to do all we can to preserve defined benefit pension provision in the UK
Those of us who live in the real pension world know it is true but many are in denial. For entirely understand…Read more…
Be a councillor: West Ham Womens Forum AGM 6.3.17
NEW DATE ALERT!!We’ve been struggling to find a suitable/affordable venue for our training + I now have to stay in the Middle East a bit longer for work 🙁 / :-)We’re still super keen for this training to happen as soon as possible so holding the trai…Read more…