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Institute for Fiscal Shock Therapy
The past week’s debate sparked by the 2014 Autumn Statement has confirmed the marginalisation of trade unions from British current affairs. Even in the recent past the trade union response to…Read more…
Upshire Walk & Site of Boadicea End Game?
Off message but went for a great country walk on Sunday around Upshire in Essex.
Check out the free Essex Walks website.
I thought that I knew the area quite well but this 5.5 mile walk was different and apart from the distant buzz of the M25 …Read more…
Yet more government-induced hunger pains
Earlier this year I questioned why people in the sixth richest country in the world were becoming increasingly dependant on food banks. It’s heartbreaking to be asking the same question in the lead…Read more…
A Left Platform for the Election?
http://l-r-c.org.uk/news/story/a-left-platform-for-the-election/
John McDonnell is right, in the link above, that there is a sizeable constituency with an appetite for the policies to the left of the main parties.
As a local government trade unionist i…Read more…
Ruling the Void
Ruling the Void, a posthumous sort of finished book by Peter Mair, is one of the most interesting things I have read recently. It covers similar issues to Colin Crouch’s Post-Democracy but with a) some analysis of electoral behaviour to underpin the ar…Read more…
Austerity – Just Say No!
‘Even if the government/OBR forecasts for the scale of the cuts prove to be unworkable they amount to a plan for permanent austerity, of ever deeper cuts. They are also a Tory trap for Labour, which…Read more…
“You Cannot Pick & Mix Which Human Rights to Respect” National Express LAPFF14
The President of the USA Teamsters Union, James Hoffa, sent a video message to the LAPFF conference to thank them for our support in their campaign to stop the North American arm of British company National Express’s union busting.
Teamster Louis Mali…Read more…
The 23 Enigma – three stories
I’m a Discordian – which means nothing other than I think religion is a joke, so I claim membership of a joke religion. One of the articles of faith, in a religion that believes nothing, is that there’s something going on with the number 23. Or maybe there isn’t, or maybe there…Read more…
Cherie Blair CBE QC “how better business practice can drive both market & social returns” LAPFF14
Picture of Guest Speaker at LAPFF conference, Cherie Blair, with the youngest member of the Newham Council Pension Committee (and possibly in the entire UK?) Cllr Seyi Akiwowo.
Cherie spoke about how when she started to practise law, human rights was …Read more…
Engagement Panel at LAPFF14
The next item at the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF) conference was a panel on “engagement” with Cllr Kieran Quinn GMPF, Chair Sir Merrick Cockell, Cllr Richard Greening LBI and Cllr Cameron Rose LPF.
Investor engagement is probably …Read more…
LAPFF Conference 2014: Public Funds & Public Purpose
Yesterday I came back from the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF) conference. I will post more on the conference later on.
It was I think the best attended LAPFF conference I have been to which reflects the huge changes and chellenges that the…Read more…
PSI names every single health worker killed by Ebola …
We were shown this powerful video at the UNISON National Executive meeting this week. The meeting also sent our support to the 1000 NHS workers who have volunteered to go to West Africa to fight Ebola. Many of whom will of course be UNISON members.
“O…Read more…
Why do the Tories love the financial services industry? Follow the money…
“The latest figures from the Electoral Commission reveal that in the last quarter, hedge funds gave the Tories £1.34 million in donations, bringing the overall total to £51.1 million. These are, of course, the same hedge funds which were given a tax cut worth £145 million by George Osborne in…Read more…
Think solidarity. Act locally. (Support Lambeth UCU)
This morning I supported a picket line of striking UCU members at Lambeth College and was, this lunchtime, one of the speakers at their strike rally.
Today is the first of a series of planned strikes by UCU members at the College, continuing an earlier series of strikes in opposition to the…Read more…
Looking Forward (and Remembering) – A tribute to Tony
Tony Benn (photo courtesy Sunday Mail)
300 plus people squashed into Glasgow’s Mitchell Theatre on Sunday to celebrate a legend. As compère Susan Morrison pointed out, the word was in danger of…Read more…
Congratulations Manchester UNISON
http://www.unisonmanchester.org/national-news/special-local-government-conference-update
In the first of a few brief blog posts extracted from the report which I am preparing of yesterday’s meeting of UNISON’s National Executive Council (NEC) I am very…Read more…
The real chill in the Autumn Statement
A budget package in December may not be Autumn, but it certainly had a real chill for those least able to afford its consequences.
This was a classic Osborne budget statement. Massive real cuts,…Read more…
Debate on Local Government Pay dispute
Today during the meeting of UNISON National Executive Committee there was a wide ranging discussion on the recent dispute on Local Government pay. For some reason I was reminded of this lovely song. I have updated some of the words in honour of the occ…Read more…
Ruskin College: The legacy of trade union education and research
Colleagues,
My colleague Caroline Holmes (co-ordinator of the BA ILTUS) at Ruskin College has pulled off a fantastic feat in organising the first student-based and led symposium of the Critical Labour Studies network (CLS: http://criticallabourst…Read more…