Yesterday, the first day of UNISON’s annual Local Government Conference at the Brighton Centre was greeted, in appropriate local style, by the annual naked bike ride.
This helps to demonstrate that Brighton is more fun every week than any conference an…Read more…

I was finally able today to take a call from “Labour for a New Democracy”, who are lobbying for UNISON conference delegates to re-prioritise motion 102 at National Delegate Conference, which only stands any chance of getting debated if it is reprioriti…Read more…

 
More than 31 years ago, in March 1991, Labour Briefing carried the report above about goings-on in what was then the single Brighton Constituency Labour Party, which had been suspended six months beforehand..
There is nothing new about the Labou…Read more…

Whilst everyone else is waiting for the publication of the Sue Gray report, your blogger has noticed today’s annual publication of the official report on trade union statistics.There’s not a lot of change, although the recent trend to small increases i…Read more…

I am indebted to Mike Phipps and Labourhub for publishing my memories of involvement with Labour Briefing, alongside those of other comrades more centrally involved in the project over 40 years.The occasion for our trip down memory lane was the news th…Read more…

Today I have completed a course of palliative radiotherapy on the secondary tumour in my upper right arm. I hope not only that this will reduce the pain I have been experiencing, but also that comrades will accept this as a good reason not to h…Read more…

12 years ago to the day, I wrote a blog post here in the run-up to the 2010 General election in which, with a more or less heavy heart, I advocated support for Labour under the leadership of Gordon Brown.After four General Elections, and four Labour le…Read more…

10 years ago to the day I blogged here about the failure of our trade union satisfactorily to assess the equality impact of proposed settlement of the public sector pension dispute which had led, five months before, to the largest strike action of my w…Read more…

The Tory government’s plan to fly asylum seekers to Rwanda is, of course, the most appalling racist dog whistle imaginable in the run-up to the May local elections.It almost certainly isn’t intended that this will ever actually happen, it is a device t…Read more…

I’ve been on very many demonstrations since the late 1970s.
In particular I have marched against war. I marched against war in Iraq in 2003 when we were in a majority and I marched against war in the Falklands in 1982 when we were in a minority.
Unfort…Read more…

This is the last, for the time being, extract from my memoirs (which you can purchase at https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/an-obscure-footnote-in-trade-union-history). This concerns a little remarked upon overlap between vampire lore and UNISON …Read more…

Once again, here is an extract from my memoirs (which you can purchase at https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/an-obscure-footnote-in-trade-union-history). This explains how I came to be described in the national press as a “Trade Union Bully …Read more…

Just when you thought it might stop here is yet another extract from my memoirs (which you can purchase at https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/an-obscure-footnote-in-trade-union-history). This concerns the UNISON Centre, a large erection on the Eu…Read more…

 
In response to popular demand (from regular readers of this blog, Sid and Doris Blogger) here is another extract from my memoirs (which you can purchase at https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/an-obscure-footnote-in-trade-union-history), an excursio…Read more…

 Continuing the series of extracts from my memoirs (which you can purchase at https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/an-obscure-footnote-in-trade-union-history), here is a recollection of the debate about UNISON democracy back in 2008 during which it wa…Read more…

Here is this week’s final extract from my memoirs, available at https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/an-obscure-footnote-in-trade-union-history. This concerns a meeting called, almost 16 years ago, by the best leader our party never had;
“On the da…Read more…

Here’s yet another extract from my memoirs, available at https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/an-obscure-footnote-in-trade-union-history.
This concerns a case which was one of the first in which an employment tribunal had to consider the interactio…Read more…

Here’s yet another extract from my memoirs, which are going for a song at https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/an-obscure-footnote-in-trade-union-history.
This refers to my first (of seven) term of office on the National Executive Council (NEC) of …Read more…

Here’s yet another extract from my memoirs, which you can purchase for next to nothing at https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/an-obscure-footnote-in-trade-union-history.This concerns changes made to Lambeth council’s Human Resources function, dur…Read more…

Here’s yet another extract from my memoirs, which you can purchase inexpensively at https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/an-obscure-footnote-in-trade-union-history.
This concerns a staff conference held by Lambeth Council on the Southbank in 2001;
…Read more…