The first phase of the Labour Party’s Democracy Review is very much upon us. The deadline for submissions on the organisational aspects of Young Labour, BAME Labour and Women’s Conference is 12 January 2018. The questions which are specifically as…Read more…

Although I have stood down in the past year from all my elected positions within my trade union, UNISON, of which I am now simply a member like any other, I have not lost my interest in what UNISON, its activists and officials, are doing. Indeed, at Ch…Read more…

As regular readers of this blog might expect, I got into something of a row in a pub in the run up to Christmas about whether or not black workers experience systematic racial disadvantage in the workplace. I know what I know from the evidence of my ow…Read more…

As the year in which I ceased to be a full-time local trade union representative after quarter of a century draws to a close, I am sorry to hear of the passing of two other former UNISON Branch Secretaries in London local government.
John Mulrenan, fro…Read more…

Comrade Lloyd Russell-Moyle, the recently elected MP for Brighton Kemptown, has written an interesting article proposing that Labour Group Leaders should be elected by the Party membership, rather than simply by Labour Group Members.
Lloyd argues persu…Read more…

As regular readers of this blog (Sid and Doris Retired) will be aware, your humble blogger spent many years as a troublemaker in the ranks of UNISON, during which time (according to no less an authority than the Assistant Certification Officer) I acqui…Read more…

I was going to blog thanks to those members of Brighton Pavilion Constituency Labour Party (CLP) who attended last night’s Annual General Meeting (at which I was re-elected as Chair) for the comradely conduct of the meeting – but my attention has been …Read more…

It has been good to hear of the victories of left-wing candidates supportive of the direction of the national Labour Party under its current leadership at the recent Annual General Meetings of Hove and Kemptown Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs). We sh…Read more…

Tomorrow is the inaugural meeting of the Local Campaign Forum for the Labour Party in Brighton and Hove.

This is where we will move forward the campaign for a socialist Council for Brighton and Hove, and continue the debate about what we want from Lab…Read more…

A few weeks ago I bloggedabout the dilemma which faces socialists in the Labour Party (now that it has a socialist Leader) in relation to Labour Councillors and what it is we want from them.
I have, since then, held off blogging a fair bit because (as …Read more…

For anyone else contemplating stepping aside from onerous trade union responsibilities after a quarter of a century, my advice is to give yourself some space and not to try to pay too much detailed attention to what is going on in relation to matters w…Read more…

A Labour Party commitment will keep me from today’s marchand lobby of Parliament in support of fair pay for public servants.
This is a shame since I am fascinated by the novel approach of relying upon lobbying and petitioning in order to secure a pay r…Read more…

I have not blogged much about local Labour Party matters for the past couple of weeks.
And I won’t now.
I just want to reflect on my experience of saying something online, which I said in good faith, but which turned out to have been ill advised and t…Read more…

Today is the first meeting of UNISON’s Regional Council in Greater London (since its inception in 2004) at which I will be neither a delegate nor a member of the Regional Committee.
There may well not be a quorum, since there has not been a quorum at a…Read more…

I have today received the following message as a UNISON member.Sadly, Rodney Bickerstaffe – former General Secretary of both UNISON and NUPE – died today, Tuesday 3 October 2017.

Rodney, or Bick as he was known to many, was a great personal friend to many of us and a dedicated champion of all the…Read more…

My attempt to avoid being dragged into Labour Party Conference was today partly frustrated by having to carry the historic banner of Brighton Labour Party on a convoluted route from the Level to Regency Square by way of a circuit of the Old Steine as p…Read more…

Regular readers (Sid and Doris Blogger) may have been disappointed by my recent silence.
Or they may have been quite happy.
However, I’m not abandoning blogging just because I have stepped aside from a quarter century of defending workers’ rights at the front line.
This evening I enjoyed a drink…Read more…

Brighton is welcoming delegates to the annual Trades Union Congress, which convenes here this afternoon (read more here).
I hope that friends and comrades in the UNISON delegation (and other delegations) will take the opportunity to network between activists in different trade unions – because…Read more…

Those of us with an interest in our trade union movement may sometimes peruse the Final Agendafor the Annual Trades Union Congress when it is published. Having attended Congress on UNISON’s behalf on eight occasions I know that the annual Parliament of our trade unions could (just possibly) be a…Read more…

Having stepped down from my various UNISON roles a couple of months ago, I have more time to think and read. I am, of course, still interested in trade unionism (and am still a public sector trade unionists).
In a couple of recent blog posts I have com…Read more…