All the union news that's fit to blog...
Boleyn (Newham) result: LAB: 74.8% (+4.3) CON: 14.2% (-4.4) GRN: 7.5% (-3.4) LDEM: 3.6% (+3.6) Labour HOLD.
Well done. Moniba Khan (right of picture next to our Mayor, Rokhsana Fiaz) is elected as a Labour Councillor in a by-election last night.
Th…Read more…
This is from a hard hitting report by the Child Poverty Action Group. 37% of children in London (700,000 kids) live in poverty. It is projected to rise 2019-2021 to 41.5%. What a shameful statistic for one of the richest cities in the world. 2/3rds of …Read more…
“There’s a lot of talk about Tory austerity. But what is it? Let’s break it down, brick by brick”.
Off message: Gill and I went for this fantastic 8 mile autumnal walk last Sunday in the Chilterns. The weather was incredibly warm and sunny for the time of year. Many trees were still remarkably green which I put down to the unusual hot summer we have…Read more…
“I’m at least the fourth generation of my family to be a Trade Unionist – back to the blacklisted docker and the miner on strike for the minimum wage in 1912.
Trade Unions are the core of the Labour Movement. I am so humbled by @unisontweets endorseme…Read more…
Off message. There has been some spectacular dawns and sunsets this month. This is view from the Cabinet workstations on the 4th floor, Newham Council Dockside, E16 on 6.12pm, October 5 (Google stylised photo but it was stunning at the time) Read more…
Love it. NEWHAM GREAT HOUSING COUNCIL. Way to go
If you tweet check out @tweetcloudbot
Hat tip Martin WarneRead more…
I have just made my first ever complaint to the press regulator https://www.ipso.co.uk/complain/ about the article yesterday in The Sunday Times about suicide bombers blowing themselves up in Tower Hamlets.
I have worked in Tower Hamlets for 25 y…Read more…
Off message this was a seriously good Sunday walk that Gill & I did late September which is only a short drive from London (apologies to my fellow Newham Cllr Daniel B for using the “D” word). It was the first walk that I had downloaded from the Ra…Read more…
I was also simply appalled to visit such a dirty, infested, unsafe and unlicensed house and to hear from tenants about the threats made against them. I felt that I was back in Victorian East London and not the 21st Century. Sickening.
Hat tip Ne…Read more…
Picture collage from yesterday’s campaigning in Boleyn Ward by-election, Newham. There had been 3 teams out in the morning and I joined our truly exceptional candidate, Moniba Khan, for the 3pm session with as it happens, all West Ham CLP comrades.
Tw…Read more…
This is my message to UNISON members of the Social Housing Pension Scheme, who will no doubt be worried about their families pension futures.
Inside Housing magazine has reported on this completely unwarranted attack on the Social Housing Pensio…Read more…
On Monday evening Newham Council Cabinet & Mayoral proceedings was important, historic, a little exciting yet also reassuringly mundane. In the finest tradition of UK Local Government.
There was a mass of important Council business to wade throug…Read more…
The union’s Capital Stewardship Programme is holding our annual seminar for all LGPS Board members, branches and activists on the governance and economics of the LGPS. There are major reforms being implemented England, Wales and Scotland and these will…Read more…
Pictures from Saturdays afternoon canvass in Boleyn ward, East Ham. Meeting point is the 1966 World Cup Champions statute. There were 2 canvass teams, one with the Mayor, Rokhsana Fiaz and the other with the candidate, Moniba Khan, which I was sen…Read more…
Ace comments by a British Army veteran, Sgt Major Glenn Haughton, about racists in the British Army.
“Haughton’s service medals include the Gulf Medal, the General Service Medal, the Iraq Medal, and the Operational Servic…Read more…
This afternoon Gill and I went on a walk organised by the local conservation and wildlife group called WREN in the “flats” (ancient heath land, part of Epping Forest, now owned and managed by the City of London) right next door to where we live.
I was little late turning up to the Greater London UNISON Regional Council on Thursday, so missed the guest speakers from Camden UNISON on their dispute with Parking Contractors NSL on poverty pay (see UNISON General Secretary, Dave Prentis, on th…Read more…
Since the introduction of licensing in 2013 an extra £5,002,203 has been collected from rogue landlords renting out houses in multiple occupation.
Newham’s Private Rented Sector (PRS) licensing scheme began five years ago but was forced, by governme…Read more…
Andrew Haldane, Chief Economist at the Bank of England, has pointed to the decline in trade union power as a key factor in the last ten years of real wage stagnation, alongside the rise of insecure work, low productivity and automation.
Speaking to tr…Read more…