This morning I attended the Remembrance Day service at All Saints Church in West Ham, the ward I have represented as a Councillor since 2010. It was a marvellous and moving service, attended by our local MP, Lyn Brown, our local British Army TA unit, G…Read more…
White Notley and Cressing Walk
It has been a while since I have been for (or posted) a country walk for various reasons. Today Gill and I took advantage of a dry and warmish weather forecast to go for this 7.5 mile circular walk in Essex. A map and description is in this Essex…Read more…
Armistice Day – Newham Central Park Cenotaph 2022 (and searching for Alf Wells, Clarion Cycles, KIA 1914)
This morning I attended yet another very moving Armistice Day memorial at the Cenotaph in Central Park. As well as the usual suspects (myself included) there was I think around 200 children from local schools gathered around Cenotaph, many of who…Read more…
UNISON Labour Link Parliamentary Reception for London Councillors hosted by David Lammy MP
Picture collage from last weeks reception in the Jubilee Room in Westminster Hall. Many, many thanks to Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy MP and his staff for hosting this event and for David giving a passionate speech and Parliamentary report…Read more…
John at 60
I am amazed at being 60. I still don’t feel at all “old” (whatever that means nowadays) but how on earth did this happen – 60??? I have my London + 60 free travel card and I am also now due to receive a small pension from a past employment, so I w…Read more…
Newham Voices – November 2022 & Congratulations to our Young Cllr of the Year!
Congratulations to my Newham Councillor colleague, Mariam Dawood, who has been given this national award. Subscribe and check out latest editions of “Newham Voices” here https://newhamvoices.co.uk/Read more…
Why join UNISON
(hat tip our number one recruiter Joseph and his standard email to potential members)”Hi Fellow WorkerFurther to our discussion, you can join UNISON online via the link below:https://join.unison.org.uk/Signing up is very straight forward. On…Read more…
“Do you know about work-related stress? Take the test”
Hat tip to the Health & Safety Executive & IOSH. If you care about stress at work and what to do about it then give this short quiz a go.”A report from Deloitte puts the total annual cost of poor mental health to UK employers at £56 billion – t…Read more…
Labour National Day of Action Canvass and Newham Labour Unions feedback on Lab22 Conference
Yesterday was a bit busy. In morning I helped out my UNISON branch to empty its office in Holloway Road then in the afternoon, I was a panel speaker at an informal feedback session in Newham to talk to Labour Union members on the recent Labour Pa…Read more…
Time to say goodbye to our UNISON office & look forward to becoming a “virtual branch”
It was with mixed emotions this morning I travelled to my UNISON branch office in Holloway Road, Islington. Volunteers from the branch executive were meeting up to empty the office, since we had given notice to our landlord. As the former branch secret…Read more…
Moment PM Rishi Sunak gets stern telling off to ‘try harder’ over nurses…
“The arrogance of @RishiSunak, thinking he can pose for a nice video clip at Croydon Hospital, whilst simultaneously cutting NHS workers pay in real terms!! Well done to this patient for calling him out!” #NHSPay #CROYDON (hat tip Joel Bodmer…Read more…
Vote Yes for the NHS – nhspay.org
It’s time to take a stand for your pay, your colleagues and the NHS – every vote is needed.Voting to take industrial action is a big step. But it’s time to take it. The public supports you – and so do your colleagues and your union.Your pay matte…Read more…
United Colours of Europe – Newham 5.11.22
This looks like a marvellous event but unfortunately I have a clash. Many thanks to Councillor Larisa Zilickaja for her work in organising this important event. “We invite you to the event  …Read more…
Labour Party Conference 2022 – Final Day 4 Wednesday
Belated post on final day of Labour Party conference in Liverpool. I went for an early morning run in sunshine (for a change) then had to check out of hotel room and leave my suitcase with them. A great morning session of speeches then our d…Read more…
No one voted for this.
Well said. Johnson withdrew probably because the economy is in such a mess and Truss is well gone but let no one forget that while Rishi is thankfully competent, he is a right wing rich posh boy. We need a General Election now but since Turkeys do…Read more…
Greater London UNISON Regional Council Meeting – Key Note speaker David Lammy MP
Last week I had to “last minute” chair the virtual Regional Council meeting of UNISON Greater London Region. Our Regional convenor, Yvonne Green, was on holiday in the Caribbean and had tried to join the meeting to chair (despite being silly O’Clock ov…Read more…
Labour Housing Group Policy Day – “Fighting for the Housing Standards we Need & Deserve”
Today I travelled to Birmingham to attend a policy day organised by the Labour Housing Group. There was a number of excellent speakers including Shadow Secretary of State, Lisa Nandy MP. She pledged that a future Labour Government will introduce a Pr…Read more…
Liz Truss, lettuce and a lectern: 25 hours of chaos in three minutes
Love it but ashamed of our political system for allowing this to happen. Bring on slightly boring but competent Keir. We need grown ups in charge. Read more…
Newham Affiliated Trade Union Focused Feedback on #LABCON22
I am looking forward to this trade union Labour Party focused debate on 29 October (in personal capacity only). It was an amazing conference and while we should not be at all complacent, the Tories were (and still are) seemingly trying to do everything…Read more…
Labour Housing Group Policy Day, 22.10.22: Fighting for the housing standards we need and deserve
(Looking forward to being a speaker at the Labour Housing Group Policy day this Saturday in Birmingham). “Join us in Birmingham or online to discuss tackling poor housing standards across all tenures. Winter is coming and millions of pe…Read more…