Alexander Baron book relaunch

The once very famous East End and second world war author Alexander Baron is enjoying a revival.

One of his most well known books "King Dido" is being relaunched at Bethnal Green Library on 23rd October.

Hat-tip thingy to Comrade Bolzen

(label facility currently broke on blogger)

Forest Gate North: The Fight Back begins

Back from conference yesterday then off to my local Forest Gate North Labour Party Ward meeting.

Our West Ham MP Lyn Brown (see photo) was the guest speaker and she gave a presentation on her work at Parliament and answered questions on the conference and other national issues.

The Conference message that the Tories are a change that we cannot afford was to say the least well received. All of the Newham wards now have a detailed campaigning work plan for the next few months. The Fight Back against the Tories now begins in earnest.

Harriet Rallies Labour Red Army

Conference just finished - Harriet Harman gave an excellent closing speech and now back off home to fight and win. Fighting for the many not the few.

Question Time on Equality Bill – How will women fare?

I missed this UNISON/Fawcett Society fringe (Wednesday) but have received good feedback from those who did and have looked at this here. Probably the largest conference fringe with over 150 present.

The UNISON speaker was Bronwyn McKenna, Head of organising and membership.

Now that “no win, no fee” legal vultures are now withdrawing their tribunal cases against UNISON the union can now concentrate on pursuing employers for equal pay.

GOTCHA!

A definite Conference "magic moment" happened late yesterday (Wednesday).

Unite Joint General Secretary Tony Woodley showed us all his recycling techniques whenever he runs short of toilet paper.

Wednesday PM – Co-op, Education (Free School Meals), Royal Mail Pension

Gareth Thomas MP, chair of Co-op Party addressed conference. The Co-op movement is on a bit of a roll at the moment. It’s not just about the failure of the demutualised banks and building societies but new interest in co-operative provision of public services – housing, hospitals and even schools.

The Education debate saw a barn standing speech in favour of free school meals by Newham Councillor Unmesh Desai (see picture). Newham is part of a government pilot to offer free school meals to all primary schools. A commitment to roll this programme out nationally in the Labour manifesto next year is IMO a "no-brainer".

Next we had some alternative show business glamour with awards given out by the Labour Party supporter Eddie Izzard.

Billy Hayes the CWU General Secretary successfully moved the emergency motion on the Royal Mail pension deficit. This deficit is mostly due to contribution holidays by the state owned Post Office during most of the period of Tory rule and the Party will now be pressing the government to take responsibility for it.

John on Gordon’s Speech – a public housing perspective

Inside Housing has uploaded a vox pop video interview here of me yesterday on my reaction as a delegate with a housing background to Gordon’s speech.

This was just after the end of the speech and while I was waiting for the Communities Policy Seminar to begin.

I’ll try and get a copy and post on YouTube.

Wednesday morning: £, rules change, equalities and health

The day started off with an upbeat Jack Dromey giving a finance report. The Party is in a much better financial shape than I thought. There was a welcome commitment that “give to win” donations during the next several months will only be used for the General election campaign and not to pay off existing debts.

Next there was a bit of excitement and even almost a bun fight over proposed rule changes.

Followed by a very good debate on Equalities. Harriet Harman gave a cracking speech rightly promoting Labour as the Party of Equality and bashing both Tories and the Sun (which has typically come out with some silly and negative coverage of the conference).

The Health debate had a number of positive CLP and trade union contributions. Health Secretary Andy Burnham announced the removal of parking costs at hospitals for inpatients. Great news - this is the Party doing the right thing both morally and politically.

Labour blogger Luke Akehurst (on the left for a change – of the picture I mean) who has been seriously ill spoke movingly of his NHS treatment and his thanks not only for the doctors and nurses but also the hospital cleaners, the cooks and the drivers. He pointed out that he and his fellow patients got their treatment “because they needed it not because they could afford it”

Million Voices for Public Services

UNISON launched their “Million Voices” campaign at the Labour Party conference.

All delegates should visit the UNISON stall and sign up to support.

Picture includes Barking and Dagenham Schools crossing officer, Louise Couling (aka Lollypop lady)

Live twittering on Gordon's speech

This is live from the Labour Party conference floor. Waiting for the "big event" - the speech of Prime Minister Gordon Brown to conference.

People are still rushing around trying to get to their seats, there is loud lively music (Levellers "Beautiful Day"). I am with Rachel from West Ham delegation. Charlene the other delegate is sitting with Sarah Brown.

I am going to try and tweet for the first time. Not the best time to start but I have been inspired by last nights "Twinge"" (twitter at the fringe).

Check out "grayee" at #Lab09. Here goes....

The Economy - first time speaker at conference

"Chair, conference - John Gray, Proud to be a West Ham Labour Party delegate – Proud to be a UNISON activist and one of their million voices.

Conference, I’m Proud that West Ham is the birthplace of the Labour Party. Proud that in our London borough of Newham we this year increased the Labour vote during the European elections. Proud that Newham is the home of the biggest share of the vote for Labour in the entire Country.

Conference - I have two related contributions to make towards the debate on the economy. Firstly to remind people that it was our Labour government that stood up to the massive and unknown problems of the recent financial crisis and the government took enormous and unprecedented risks to save us from a most savage depression. We need to remember this and be proud of our achievements so far. We need to remind everyone that at this time of national crisis - our opponents, the Tories and their friends in the media were attacking the government - attacking and undermining - with only “Do Nothing” alternatives.

Conference – can you just imagine what the state of our country would now be if Cameron and Osborne, these “Champagne Charlie’s” had been in charge?

Secondly conference - and this is why I am still convinced that we will win the next general election - at the end of the day it will be “its the economy stupid” that will decide the election and we have the economic talents and competency and the Tories do not. We must never ever forget that the financial crisis was caused by market failure which can only be cured more Government intervention, better ownership by collective share owners, more regulation - to which the Tories remain ideologically opposed.

Conference - of course we can’t take anything for granted and we are in a hard place but we must have the self belief that we have got the right economic fundamentals and the Tories have simply got it wrong.

After all conference never forget “Gordon did save the world”

The Blair Project

I am sure that others are using this post title about Peter Mandelson’s speech to conference and its reaction to it.

This was the speech of his life (and at the end you could see he knew it). There are standing ovations and standing ovations. This one was for real.

He cheekily referred to the famous quotation by Tony Blair that he would know when his New Labour project successful when the Labour Party learned to love Peter Mandelson.

Mandelson touched all the right conference buttons. Initial feedback from back home and from folk out of the conference bubble and in living in a real world agree. Apart from the great showmanship the New New Labour apparent change of approach towards supporting and defending UK manufacturing went down very well with conference. In particular the trade unions. This is “clear red water” between the Tories which is not only popular politics but it exposes the real ideological gulf between them and us on the role of the market.

I think you have to watch the whole speech “to get it”. Check it out on YouTube

Social Housing and life chances

Day 2 (Monday) of conference started at 8am at a housing fringe put on by Fabians. It was chaired by Gail Cartmail, assistant General Secretary of Unite. By co-incidence Gail spoke before me to conference on the Economy (more of that to follow).

The main speaker was Housing & Planning meeting Minister John Healey together with James Gregory (Fabians) and Tony Hawkhead (CEO Groundwork). The meeting was supposed to me under “Chatham House rules”. However the Minister announced with media present that in his experience there is no such thing as “off the record” so he was quite happy to be quoted. I'm not sure about the other speakers or guests?

His most significant comment was his clear put down of a suggestion that any new government would have to make massive cuts in the housing budget. He said that this would happen if the Tories came in but not under Labour. In fact capital spending will rise undeer Labour. Housing will have to fight hard to justify their funding but it is wrong to suggest that there is not a choice.

Some other interesting stuff that the Minister said was how the Tories now call public housing “barracks for the Poor” and how frustrating it can be deal with journalists who obviously never actually been on a Council Estate. The importance of creating real mixed communities of rich and poor living together, local decision making and accountability. Housing policy should not be separate from leisure or environment policies.

I asked a question regarding the total supply of housing. The government has done a lot of good things in housing and there are always better ways of doing things but there are 4 million on council waiting lists. As a housing officer I see overcrowded families and wonder how kids can do their homework when they have nowhere to work. Current plans will not address this. There were a number of thoughtful responses.

At the end of the fringe I “nobbled” John (as you do at these things) and he agreed to attend a future UNISON Labour Link Housing association branch event I am organising and speak on Housing.

Dinner with London Labour MEP Mary Honeyball.

Next was a dinner with MEP Mary Honeyball. Every year Mary hosts a dinner for London CLP delegates to discuss European issues. Mary is of course also a European Parliamentary blogger (see The Honeyball Buzz).

The meal was very pleasant and informative. The West Ham delegation was sat next to East London comrades from Barking & Dagenham and Hornchurch.

Check out Mary’s report on the dinner.

Afterwards Newham visitors and delegates including West Ham MP Lyn Brown and Sir Robin Wales met up for a sherbet or two at the Grand Hotel which was absolutely packed. Sunday merged into Monday.

Newham Fringe

After TULO we then dashed off to the Newham fringe event. This was a “round table” informal discussion on regeneration and development issues. We had got the times wrong so we missed most of it.

Anyway – any excuse for another photo! Left to right – Cllr Unmesh Desai, Cllr Alec Kellaway, Sir Robin Wales – elected Newham Mayor, Alan Griffiths (UNISON), Stephen Timms East Ham MP, Charlene McLean (West Ham), Lord Victor Adebowale, Rachel Tripp (West Ham), Moi.

TULO reception - the union movement at the "Heart of Labour"

Straight after the conference all the West Ham delegation went off to the TULO (Labour Party affiliated trade unions and Trade union MPs) reception in the Hilton hotel.

We were not sure which room it was in - so when we saw Paul Kenny (GMB General Secretary) we decided to follow him. He led us to the wrong room but eventually we all found the right one.

The enviable surprise guest was of course Gordon Brown. What I found interesting is that in the speeches beforehand I thought the “mood music” by the union General Secretaries I heard about the Labour government has changed. There was pretty whole hearted and positive enthusiasm for the Government and Labour. There are still “problems” but there does seem to be a much, much better appreciation of Labour than previously.

I don’t think this is just because there is a General Election in the offering. Is the Mandy magic working?

Operation Fight Back

I arrived at the end of Ed Miliband MP speech during the “General Election campaign” report but “Operation Fight back” is obviously on course.

Ed was followed by the co-ordinator Douglas Alexander MP. He noted the success that Hasting Labour Party had enjoyed by contacting a massive 16,000 voters. The national Party has done twice as well on voter contacts as last year.

Also that the Tories membership is down by 40,000 since Cameron took over as leader. He is still convinced that we can out organise and then out poll the Tories with 3 approaches.

1.Direct contact with public and earn the right for their support
2. Personal communication
3. Be rooted and reflect local communities.

He argued that new media is not so much a new medium but empowers traditional electioneering processes. For example “Virtual phone banks” get people to ring at home for the Party who simply would not do otherwise.

The General Secretary Ray Collins started his annual report to conference by promising that he has never knowingly kissed a Tory!

Conference finished with a “Candidates fighting to win presentation” which featured the Prime Minister amongst a backdrop of young Labour Prospective Parliamentary candidates. I thought this was quite clever but some “mature” delegates were complaining that this was ageist!

I thought that Gordon’s first speech and Q&A to conference was confident, comfortable and measured. A key theme seems to be to compare and contrast the Labour way of dealing with recession with that of Tories.

I will post next on the various fringes and events. Posting will be a little erratic not least that I hope to make a speech tomorrow.

Labour Party Conference 2009 Sunday 27th September

It must be true that the sun shines on the righteous since the 2009 Labour Party conference opened this afternoon amidst glorious blue skies and bright warm sunshine.

Due to massive traffic jams I was late and by the time I checked into my hotel and made my way to the conference I had missed the beginning. Luckily my two fellow West Ham CLP delegates Rachel Tripp and Charlene McLean were far more organised than me and had attended the London Labour regional briefing and voted on the contemporary priorities ballot (we voted for Beating the BNP, Housing, Royal Mail post office and School meals).

I am in row A on the far left (of course) of the floor. If you are a delegate come over and say hello.

I hope to post on the main debates, exhibitions and fringe events. If I can work out how to do it I will twitter live from the conference floor.

Housing Matters 27 September 2009

I’m rushing off to the Labour Party conference so I’ll just note the main story in the public housing news this week.

Which is again on Housing Association Executive pay.

Following last week’s disclosure that the chief of Anchor Trust pocketed nearly £400,000 we found that the Trust also lost £35 million during the period.

Payment for failure? CEO’s pay has gone up 32% in five years while staff wages have only gone up by 11%.

I feel that a question or two to government ministers about this will come up at the conference housing fringes.

Consultation on LGPS Governance Reform.

These comments below are part of my response to a CLG consultation on the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) governance arrangements.

It does appear to be a little boring but we are talking about managing over £100 billion and the pensions of over 3 million people.

The two main National UNISON arguments are:-

"Ministers must introduce the full requirements of Articles 8 and 18 of the EU Directive 41/2003 Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision (There should be separate accounting from employer and funds should always act in the beneficiaries interests)

Ministers should replace that the voluntary exercise of improving member representation by a ‘Best Practice Guidance’ with statutory scheme member representation" (The voluntary approach to good governance has failed and we need proper statutory guidance)

All UNISON Local Government branches are encouraged to reply by 30th Sept.

I've added "There have been welcome improvements in member representation in the London LGPS but there is still a very long way to go. There are still far too many London funds that do not have any form of member nominated representation; some funds still treat them as observers who have no formal rights at all. None of the London funds meet the best practice standards found elsewhere in the LGPS “family” (e.g. Environment agency).

Some funds are still refusing to allow any form of democratic member representation. One London LGPS recently refused to allow even an observer on its pension panel since the proposed nominee had not previously served on a panel and therefore had “nothing to offer the panel”. While others just simply refuse to respond properly to our requests.

This is wrong since this is LGPS member’s money not the employers - it is their direct contributions and deferred pay. If it is accepted as a very positive thing that there is effective member representation in the private sector funded schemes then why are we in the LGPS being treated so differently?

There is no effective regulatory guidance on representation or competency. Some schemes have never provided any structured training for lay or elected members despite the fact they are legally responsible for overseeing hundreds of millions of pounds. An occasional briefing by a scheme advisor is not enough.

There is a lack of any firm guidance on facility time for employees to be representatives. Therefore it is often very difficult to get time off to be trained or attend meetings and to properly prepare. This adds to the difficulty of recruiting and retaining active member nominated representatives.