Paying homage to Keir Hardie at West Ham

Yesterday I took my fellow UNISON NEC member (and NHS hospital worker) Mary Locke on a whistle stop tour of the Old Town Hall in Stratford. 

Mary was re-elected in May as a Labour Councillor in Birmingham. 

Mary is a huge fan of Keir Hardie who was the first ever Labour Member of Parliament. He was elected as MP for West Ham South on 4 July 1892. 

In this town hall during the 1892 the election count took place in the main hall and Keir made his acceptance speech from its outside balcony to people gathered below in the Broadway. He was then taken on a victory procession to Canning town. 

The old West Ham Council debating chamber is now called the "Will Thorne" chamber (see photo bottom right) in honour of another local MP (and Mayor) who was also a founder of the GMB union. Ironically, one of the founders of UNISON's predecessor union, NALGO, Herbert Blaine, was also a West Ham Council officer but he was also a Conservative Party National Agent! 

Newham Council, its Logo and my blog

This morning I received this email from Ian Tompkins, Head of Newham Council Communications Unit about the use of the Council logo in this post about the sacking of Newham UNISON Chair Michael Gavan. This is what he sent.

Dear Mr Gray

We've noticed on your blog site there is a reproduction of our council logo (the Newham "ribbon" logo). I cannot trace any request from you for permission to use this so would ask that you remove it immediately.

Thank you.
Ian Tompkins, Head of Communications, London Borough of Newham, Town Hall, Barking Road, London E6 2RP
Being the courteous and polite fellow that I am this is how I responded.

Dear Mr Tompkins

Thank you for your email. I must admit to be somewhat surprised that senior managers spend their time scouring the blogsphere on the look out for errant Newham council logos. I am not sure that this is a good use of my Council tax? Mind you, I suppose this is a better use of senior manager’s time than victimising and sacking trade unionists. I have replaced the offending logo with a photo taken from a public place. I assume that this is OK? If not please let me know.

Formally, please can I ask for permission to use the logo since what with the future industrial action over Michael Gavan’s dismissal, the internal appeal and employment tribunal applications (all sort of hearings) there will be lots and lots to blog about in the future.

Cheers
John
I thought I might as well post some pictures of past Newham trade union and Labour Party leaders who will no doubt be spinning in their graves at what is going on over Michael’s dismissal.

Newham is arguably the birthplace of the Labour Party and modern day trade unions. Left is Keir Hardie, the first ever Labour MP who was elected for West Ham in 1892 ; Herbert Blaine who is credited in 1905 with forming NALGO which eventually became part of UNISON, while working for West Ham Council (ironically like Michael he was not a Labour Party supporter and was in fact a lifelong Tory!) and finally Will Thorne, West Ham Labour MP 100 years ago and founder of the GMB (Beckton gas works).

UPDATE: 25 minutes after I sent this email at 18:07 today I got this two word reply from Mr Tompkins - "Thank you". A bit brief for a Head of Communications I suppose. What exactly does this mean? can I use the Newham logo? I suppose it does. As suggested on this post's "comments" should I put in a FOI request?