UNISON National Delegate Conference 25: Day One

 

Today (Tuesday 17 June) was day one of the UNISON National Delegate Conference 2025, which is taking place in the ACC, Liverpool. This is certainly the largest trade union conference in the UK, if not Europe, with over 2,000 delegates and visitors.

I am here as an elected member of the UNISON National Executive Council. So I had to be up early for firstly, a short morning run/jog along the River Mersey, breakfast, then a pre conference meeting of the NEC at 8.30am. Which went I think pretty well and there was a couple of interesting votes. 

Then as also being a UNISON Greater London elected Regional Council officer, I was asked to help out our regional  delegates with the sometimes "difficult" but important task of assisting our London delegates with finding out where their allocated seats are on the conference floor. 

Conference started a little late due to queues of delegates and visitors waiting to get through security at the main entrance.  

The morning debate was chaired by current NEC member and respected former President, Maureen le Marinel, who is a super competent and very fair chair. Such a relief to have someone like Maureen Charing NDC after some shambolic and very destructive chairs in the recent past.

We all watched the names of UNISON members, activists, friends and officers who have died during the last year displayed on the screen behind the platform while listening to beautiful music.  

I was so pleased that conference supported our elected Chair of the Standing Order Committee, who had to report that motions that broke the rules of our union (decided upon by 2/3 majorities by previous conferences) could not be debated at this conference. It was in my personal view, a complete and utter waste of conference debating time that we had to listen and vote on the same arguments, time and time again for every single similar challenge. 

Conference went largely ok afterwards. We had the Annual report and the Financial statement. Then we debated motions. There were many good speakers on important issues but also in my view some completely negative and I suspect deliberately destructive views by political opponents of the current Labour Government. Which is fair enough, but please declare your party card when you do so.  I hope and think, I always make it clear my affiliations when I speak?

During lunch I attended a really good panel fringe on DC pensions. My question to the panel was how can we protect our members in DC pensions schemes, who are not able to physically to carry out their job but have no ill health retirement protection. I think that we need the Government to intervene on this.

It was great that current NEC member and former President Margaret McKee chaired the afternoon session in the similar fair but no nonsense manner as Maureen. 

After conference I attended a fringe on  a new proposed UNISON app for members which looks really good and as long as we have sufficient resource to keep it updated and relevant should be brilliant. 

UNISON NEC at our National Delegate Conference 2024 (with some missing for valid reasons)

 

This photo arrived this today by Royal Mail to my home address which I have scanned and uploaded. A great photograph of our General Secretary, Christina McAnea and many good comrades but also those who allowed a number of vile comments to be made in speeches at Conference about fellow members of UNISON. 

This meant that some elected NEC members felt felt they had to leave the platform to try and support and comfort delegates who had been told in these "speeches" by a tiny number of far left extremists, that effectively they were useless at work and should be sacked. 

The NEC Presidential team did nothing to protect these Members and stop such comments. 

I have been going to UNISON conferences for 20 years or so and have never seen any thing so disgusting and shameful. 

UNISON National Delegate Conference 2024 - Greater London regional meeting

 

This evening I attended the London Regional meeting in advance of the start of our UNISON National Delegate Conference (NDC) in Brighton. Our Regional delegate Yvonne Green, aided by our Regional Secretary,  Jo Galloway, briefed around 100 of our delegates on conference arrangements and events. 

UNISON NDC is one of the largest independent trade union conferences in the world. There are thousands of delegates and visitors from hundreds of branches, regions and nations, service groups and self organised groups, representing 1.3 million members. It is a huge and immensely complicated event, 

Jim Mansfield, who is our elected London representative on the conference Standing Orders Committee (SOC) gave us a briefing on their report. The SOC runs the conference business and timetable in line with our rule book and legal obligations. 

Some delegates, no doubt genuinely, find it difficult to understand these processes. So do I at times, despite being a conference veteran. But it needs to be run in line with our rules and the law. It is not a "free for all". 

At the end I gave a plug for delegates to attend the UNISON Labour Link meeting on Wednesday evening where Labour Parliamentary Candidate, Tom Gray (a well known musician and no known relative!) will talk to us then lead canvass sessions in Brighton Pavilion. Also, we passed around an information sheet on how London delegates can register to find out further information on how to campaign for Labour in London.

I am at conference as an elected member representing the Community Service Group (Housing Associations and voluntary sector) of UNISON National Executive Council and will look forward to listening to the debates, fringes and guest speakers and of course, meeting and listening to my members.

NEC pre meeting 8.30am tomorrow morning. 

UNISON Greater London Housing Associations Branch e-newsletter: Feb 2023

 

Welcome to the Branch Newsletter! 

Last Monday, we all heard the horrible news about the powerful earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria early in the morning. A week later there are still many people trapped under debris, and the ones who managed to escape from the buildings were left homeless and without any shelter or support in severe weather conditions. If you wish to help, please donate money to the Emergency Earthquake Fund. You can do that by visiting the website: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/turkey-emergency-earthquake-fund 

Barbara Zagrodniczek Branch Communications Officer 

Opportunity to represent the Branch at UNISON 2023 National Delegate Conference Date: Friday, 13th June 2023 – Sunday, 16th June 2023 Location: Liverpool 

In the last issue of the Newsletter we announced that we are looking for members who wish to represent the Branch at the National Delegate Conference. Due to an error in the provided email address, we would like to extend the deadline to 3:00pm on Friday, 24th February 2023. If you would like to attend, please send your details along with a supporting statement (max. 100 words) to AGM.Admin@unisonhablondon.org 

For those who already submitted the statement, we kindly ask you to re-send it to the above email address. We apologise for any inconvenience this causes. Travel, accommodation, and meals will be paid for by the Branch in line with our expenses policy. We look forward to your responses. 

Upcoming Events UNISON LGBT+ London Region to celebrate LGBT+ History Month (In person) Thu, 16th February at 6:30pm-9:00pm at Queer Britain Museum, 2 Granary Square, London, N1C 4BH 

The Regional LGBT+ Committee would like to invite you to celebrate LGBT+ History Month at the UK’s first ever dedicated LGBT+ museum. The regional UNISON LGBT+ committee will be holding its first LGBT+ History Month in person since 2020. We are really excited for this event which is open to all members. Karl Lewis, the LGBT+ Officer will be in attendance. Please get in touch if you want to find out more. 

Sign up for the event here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/unison-london-lgbt-history-month-receptionat-queer-britain-tickets-531844419977 

Branch’s AGM (Hybrid meeting) Wednesday, 8th March 2023 at 6:00pm-8:00pm (in person and virtual) 

Details will be circulated separately by email. 

Women’s Training and Networking Event (In person event) Friday, 10th March 2023 at 10:00am-4:30pm at UNISON Centre, 130 Euston Road, London, NW1 2AY 

It is an annual women’s training and networking event hosted by the Regional Women’s Committee. The event is aimed at all elected branch officers who are women, and branch women’s contacts. Attendance is free, but pre-registration is essential. The deadline to submit registration forms is 24th February 2023. If you are interested in attending, please get in touch with Barbara Zagrodniczek, Branch Communications Officer at AGM.Admin@unisonhablondon.org 

International Workers Memorial Day (In person event) Friday, 28th April 2023, Bow, East London 

Please save the date in your calendars. More details will follow soon. 

Branch Officers’ Reports (February 2023) 

Chris Milson – Branch Secretary 

Working people are continuing to stand-up all-over Britain, fighting for better pay and conditions, catalysed by the current cost of living crisis and a Westminster government that is proving deaf to their concerns. In UNISON, public service workers in local government, education, health, and other sectors either have been striking, or have strike dates booked in the coming weeks. 

The UNISON Housing Associations Branch stands in solidarity with all union members that take the difficult decision to go on strike for better pay and conditions. 

Your Branch Needs You The UNISON Housing Association Branch’s AGM is next month. We’ve had an eventful year and all officers of the Branch Executive will be talking about what they’ve done in their elected roles this year for the Branch and its members. If you can, please come along and hear about what we’ve been doing, and what our goals are for the coming year. 

You can also stand for election to join the committee – look out for the online nomination form we’ll be sending out shortly. If you care about your Branch, and believe that you, or another member you know, has something to offer in helping to run it – do please consider nominating them or yourself for an Executive Officer position. 

Barbara Zagrodniczek – Branch Communication Officer 

In October 2022 I edited and circulated the first issue of the Branch Newsletter. Five months later I am proud to see that more and more of our members are taking part in the surveys and are putting themselves forward to represent the Branch at different forums. 

I hope we will be continue sharing similar opportunities with you in the future. I continue to work on improving Branch communications. This is why I am pleased to announce that our Branch is now ready to start publishing the Newsletter on the Branch website. I hope that this will make it more accessible to those who do not always have access to their emails. 

Further to that, we are planning to update content on the Branch website. 

Conference and Meeting Reports Greater London Regional Council AGM – 

Report For those of you who may not be aware, the Regional Council is the senior membership body which oversees the work of the Greater London region representing and supporting members, and it is being elected by all Greater London branches. The Annual General Meeting took place on Wednesday, 8 th February 2023 at Holiday Inn in Bloomsbury. Our Branch was represented by John Gray, Joseph Ogundemuren and myself. 

The meeting opened with passionate speeches given by Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, MP and Shadow Minister (Mental Health) and Sara Gorton, UNISON Head of Health. Both speakers focused on the importance of changes in the UK health system and solidarity with the Ambulance Service. 

After that, similarly to the Branch AGM, the meeting followed a standard agenda – minutes from the last AGM, matters arising, reports and motions. 

Our Branch submitted two motions. The first one, ‘Cost of Living’, was submitted for consideration as a regional motion to the 2023 National Delegate Conference. At the AGM it was presented by John Gray and received a positive response. 

The second one, ‘Year of the Black Worker’, was written in collaboration with the Croydon Local Government Branch and put forward by Joseph Ogundemuren. 

Barbara Zagrodniczek

(This communication has been written by a dyslexic person. If you have any trouble with the meaning of any of the sentences or words, please do not be afraid to ask for clarification)

UNISON National Delegate Conference 2022: Day 3 (Why hasn't our NEC resigned yet?)

 

This morning I started the day with another slow jog along the Brighton beach front. During breakfast at the hotel my branch delegation agreed which 6 motions that we want to be "prioritised" for debate on Friday afternoon (the infamous UNISON "snake" - please don't ask me to explain what it is).

Conference started with a Solidarity photo call in support of Turkish trade union leader, Gonul Erden followed by an address by Mehmet Bozgeyik, co-president of KESK. After further debates on motions, Patricia King, General Secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions gave a video message. 

During lunch I attended a very good fringe on health and safety. First a comprehensive report and presentation by Scott Donohoe from UNISON  Scotland on their Covid-19 Response then a fascinating academic report on the effectiveness of safety reps by Minjie Cai from University of Greenwich. A great fringe which had very practical solutions for union reps followed by some well researched blue sky thinking. 

Thursday afternoons at UNISON conference is set aside for debate on proposed rule changes. Normally a poorly attended and often pretty boring session. Not today. 

I spoke on the rule change 1 which was about whether conference could trust the current NEC to allow unemployed members to retain their unison positions. Clearly in light of the overwhelming decision on motion 11 that conference has no confidence in the NEC. We cannot trust them. The amendment was passed but there was a card vote and this failed to reach the 2/3 majority needed. 

However, Rule Change 2 was passed by more than 90% of delegates (so no card vote needed). Which meant that if someone is dismissed due to discrimination then the NEC would not be allowed to give that honour to them. Of course if someone is cleared on appeal then their position would be reinstated. 

I did point out in my speech that if my branch met and and passed a vote of no confidence in its executive, we would of course all resign and there should be fresh elections. Why hasn't out NEC resigned yet? Isn't Conference supposed to be "Sovereign" in our union?

After conference I went to another great fringe organised by UNISON black workers on "Racism and levelling up". Chaired by my branch member Lola Oyewusi. Keynote speaker was David Lammy MP with UNISON Head of equalities Gloria Mills, TUC Kudsia Batool, Alba Kapoor from Runnymeade Trust and UNISON East Region secretary Tim Roberts. 

Afterwards David met up with UNISON Labour Link members. 

NEC Celebrating 25 years in UNISON: NDC 2018

Picture of the UNISON National Executive Council at this year's National Delegate Conference.  All of us (including the General Secretary) are elected via secret ballot by rank and file UNISON members from all parts of the union.

We are wearing green to honour Grenfell victims. 

UNISON NEC 2017 at NDC

Great picture of elected UNISON National Executive Council members at our National Delegate Conference in Brighton in 2017.  

Unison NDC 16: Greater London Regional Delegates meeting

Unison is back in Brighton for its National Delegate Conference. The NDC is the annual Parliament of our 1.3 million members. Over 2000 delegates and visitors will be in Brighton for the conference

Picture is from the London meeting this evening for delegates. Regional publicity convener, Lynn Bentley, is speaking about the daily newsletter she helps publish for delegates. 

The elected regional  delegates Yvonne and Mandy, give their report and make it clear that their role is to help delegates enjoy and participate in the conference (they are not there to recommend local pubs, give train timetable information or change hotel rooms). 

Jim, our regional representative on Standing orders committee made it clear that conference itself really decides on how conference is run. If conference wants to let dozens of delegates give endless speeches self congratulating themselves on motions that no one disagrees with then so be it. It is not the role of SOC to interfere, it is up to conference to stop this and raise points of order to bring the debate to a close. 

The regional staff conference team were introduced and the importance of making sure that delegates attend all debates and are properly scanned in as they enter the hall was explained.  All branches were also reminded to make sure they pick up their Card votes!

Finally, Karen reminded us of regional conference events. Tomorrow lunchtime (Tuesday) at 12,30 3rd floor BCC there is a new and lone branch delegates lunchtime event (which  I really recommend). 

A motion re-prioritisation  huddle on Wednesday 5pm at confrrence floor and our regional social on Wednesday 7.30pm at the Holiday Inn (£5 per ticket). 

Enjoy conference delegates!

A Living Rent

This motion was passed at my branch AGM which took place in City Hall last week. It will be one of our motions submitted to our UNISON National Conference in June (the other on "Union Busting").

If people think a "Living Wage" makes sense, then what about a "Living Rent"?

The motion was ably moved by Branch Executive member, Peter Daley. The idea for the motion came from a local branch steward who privately rents.

"UNISON National Delegate Conference notes

1.       Soaring UK rent rises will leave almost six million private renters living in poverty by 2040, according to recent research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF).

2.       Rents are growing  more than wages, year in and year out and are becoming more and more unaffordable.  This has caused overcrowding, exploitation and ill health.

3.       It has reached the point that working people cannot afford to live in many high rent areas anymore with homelessness also on the increase.

4.       We are becoming economic slaves to a new master class of landlords who will evict tenants who object to rent increases or if they complain about the state of their property.

5.       Huge amounts of taxpayers’ money is wasted on housing benefit and little is invested in building new homes.

6.       That in other countries such as Germany, Sweden, France and even America there is legal controls on rents.

7.       A “living rent” is as much a basic human right as access to the National Health Service: It is a basic human right

8.       That a truly affordable and sustainable “Living rents” cap for social and market rents in different parts of the Country can be calculated as is already done with the Living wage.

This National Delegate Conference calls upon the NEC to ensure

1.       That UNISON should campaign for a future government to begin a mass house building programme of social homes at social rents (around 50% of the market rent).  This will also bring about reductions in rent in the private sector

2.       That there should be compulsory regulation in the private rented sector to give tenants greater protection and security of tenure

3.    That rent controls are reintroduced and rents are capped at a “Living Rent” set by an independent commission.

"It will be the biggest since the general strike. It won't be the miners' strike. We are going to win."

UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis warns the government of the biggest strike in 100 years (today's Guardian & also BBC report). 

All power to Dave's elbow.  Let us be absolutely clear.  Public sector pension funds are not in crisis.  They are not unaffordable.  They are not "gold plated".  The massive 50% plus proposed increase in contributions as well as increases in retirement age are an excuse to cut spending.  Nothing more and nothing less.  So nurse, teachers, carers, receptionists and town hall clerks are being forced to pay for the past theft, fraud and corruption of the financial services sector and the Banks.  Who are now returning to their bad old ways with huge increases in their bonuses and bankrolling their mates in the Tory Party.  While at the same time said public sector workers are having their pension contributions increased they are facing years of pay freezes while inflation cuts their pay by 5% per year (and gas prices going up by 20%).  If pension subs go up by 50% many people will leave the schemes and they could collapse.

Only a few years ago there was a serious dispute over pensions which brought about radical change.  Much of which the unions were not happy about but compromised in order to secure the funds future.  Now this agreement is being ripped up.  Forget the fibs and scare mongering of the Daily Hate and the Tax Evaders Alliance.  The Local Government Pension Scheme is cash rich and worth over £160 billion.  The NHS pension scheme has a cost sharing agreement.  If employer contribution goes over 14% (close to the traditional final salary norm) then the employees will bear the cost.  Even the Conservative Party dominated Public Accounts committee accept that public penisons are affordable. Finally, never forget that Hutton found that the average public sector pension for a women is only about £4000 a year.

Dave Prentis makes it clear that he still wants to negotiate and that we will not be taking industrial action for industrial actions sake - but as a means to get an acceptable agreement.  Dave quite rightly expects the full support of the Labour Party over this dispute.  I am pleased that Newham Council recently passed this motion at our Annual General Meeting.

Tomorrow UNISON begins its Service Group conferences in Manchester and its National Delegate Conference begins on Tuesday morning.  Pensions will be the top issue.

UNISON NEC Elections 2011: Community Service Group General

This morning I received a letter from UNISON headquarters telling me that I had been elected unopposed as a National Executive Council (NEC) member for UNISON Community Service Group - General seat. 

I must admit to being just a little disappointed that there will not be a full contest but this will free up my time to support other sensible left comrades who will be fighting contested seats.  Many thanks to all the branches with Community members who nominated me.  I am really proud to be one of the first two Community NEC members of UNISON. Congratulations to Isobel McVicar from Manchester City Branch who was also automatically elected.

I will take up this seat for two years after the UNISON National Delegate Conference in June. 

In the meanwhile my many good comrades in UNISON United left have sent me this YouTube video above to celebrate the occasion.  

 :)

The Death and Rebirth of Public Housing

This motion on Housing was passed at our recent Branch AGM(s) and will be submitted to this year's UNISON National Conference. 

"This Conference notes:-  

1. That the ConDem government is proposing cuts to Housing Benefits that will result in financial hardship and even evictions for hundreds of thousands of private and public sector tenants.  This is not only the unemployed but families in work on low wages and pensioners.  

2. Cheaper rental areas will face an influx of people and families from more expensive areas.  Local education, social and medical services will not be able to cope with such dramatic population changes.  

3. This ConDem Government has stopped a hundred year old tradition by all previous political parties of subsidising the cost of building new homes for low income families.  It is also proposing to end security of tenure for new tenants and charging them “near market” rents.  This has been estimated as meaning that an average 3 bedroom home for rent will cost an extra £130 per week on top of the existing social rent.  The government has also slashed existing new build and refurbishment programmes.  

4. This Government has removed the safety net of ensuring that vulnerable and homeless families have the Right to re-housed in secure public sector housing and instead are to be housed in unregulated private sector properties.   

5. We believe that this is an ideological attack by the Condem government upon the low paid and those most at need.  There is a battle of ideas in housing that at this moment progressives are not winning. We need to oppose and campaign against all regressive housing policies. 

This Conference calls for:- 

1. The only short term solution to Britain’s housing crisis is the reintroduction of rent controls which will bring down private and public rents to affordable levels.  For this to work all tenants must be offered security of tenure.  We should allow a reasonable return by private landlords but not at the current levels.  

2. That the only long term solution to adequately house the 4.5 million on Council waiting lists is to build more homes.  This could be paid for by savings from Housing benefit and the replacement of Council tax with a continental style Land Tax as well as direct public and private investment.  These homes must have secure tenancies and affordable rents. The ConDem government’s expectation for new homes to be funded through higher rents at 80% of market rents will mean fewer truly affordable new homes.  The ConDem government blames housing applicants for the length of waiting lists, rather than government’s woefully inadequate funding and Right to Buy policies.  In 2008, Shelter calculated that 1.76 million homes had been lost through Right to Buy.  

3. We request that National Labour Link considers affiliating to the Labour Housing Group in order to help win the battle of ideas in housing during the next General Election campaign.    

4. It must be an overriding priority of the next Government that there must be a renaissance and rebirth of good quality, affordable, accountable and secure public housing.

5.  The NEC to coordinate a campaign against government housing reforms.   This to include : production of information for shops and members ; encouraging shops to    distribute information and hold meetings to discuss their response to the reforms ; encouraging shops to lobby Councils and Housing Association Boards to join us in opposing government reforms.

      6. The NEC to seek further joint working with other trade unions in the housing association & voluntary sector, tenants groups, councillors and MPs".

Picture Eric Tamm

UNISON NDC defeats call for Nationalisation without Compensation

Composite I - Economic Crisis and Public Services amendment I.1

Conference, President, John Gray, London Region, Housing Association Branch speaking in favour of Composite I and against amendment I.1.

Conference this amendment may not be a wreaking amendment in the technical sense but if passed it would be an ugly sore on what is otherwise a very good composite.

I am not going to argue about whether of not the Banks should be nationalised. That is a separate question. Nor will I bring up Capital Stewardship issues on how we can properly exercise influence over them. What this amendment seeks to achieve is the nationalization of all the Banks without compensation.

Conference, we are the owners, we own big chunks of these banks even before the current crisis. Our savings which is invested in our pension funds, our life insurance policies, our co-op and mutual companies savings – are all heavily invested in the banks.

I am speaking as a UNISON LGPS scheme member for 18 years. I have been saving the equivalent of nearly 20% of my salary in it each year. My scheme and your schemes are heavily invested in Banks. My fund in Tower Hamlets is relatively small but it has over £16 million invested in Banks - never mind all the other related investments.

If you nationalise the Banks without compensation you in effect rob every single one of us. Arguably Pension schemes themselves would be under threat as well as insurance companies - mutual companies as well as privately run ones.

Conference I think it is known by those misfortune to know me that unlike some others I do not usually bring up the the Russian revolutionary leader - Lenin - but I understand that even he paid compensation to investors when he nationalised the Russian Banks. So conference for the first time in my life – I will say support Comrade Lenin and his actions and vote against this amendment.

(the amendment had a number of speakers against it and was overwhelmingly defeated)

Wednesday: UNISON NDC “Show Racism the Red Card”.

...and "Happy 60th Birthday NHS".

Once again, apologies for not posting sooner. The 2nd day of the conference started with a Closed/Private session on “Funding the Equal Pay challenge”. I spoke during the session but assume since it was “closed” for members only I suppose I’d better not report on it.

After this our guest speaker was the footballer, Leory Rosenior, who spoke for the Presidents choice of charity “Show Racism the Red Card”, which campaigns against racism in football and society. He is a brilliant speaker. He described the awful experience that black footballers of his generation had from racist supporters. Then important debates on opposing the far right and defending multiculturalism.

In the afternoon there was a big debate on Public services and celebrating the 60th Birthday of the NHS.

I’ll just have another little dig at delegates who will remain unnamed who “Grandstand”. This is when speakers come to the platform to supposedly speak on a motion or amendment. They barely mention the actual motion but use their time to rant and shout how awful the Labour Government is and how there should be revolution now etc. It is of course perfectly legitimate to attack the government if it is relevant to the motion. But given the same individuals the opportunity to go on and on, time after time, is just wrong.

I think it is off-putting to delegates and gives our enemies ammunition to attack us as dinosaurs and further marginalise us. The only positive thing is that the speakers themselves do not realise how foolish and outdated they look and how harmful it is to their cause.

I think we need to look at the rule book and see if this can be stopped.

UNISON Conference 2008

Off soon to Bournemouth to be a delegate at the UNISON Local government conference which begins on Sunday morning and finishes late on Monday afternoon. There are about 850,000 (nearly 80,000 in London alone) UNISON members who work in sectors associated with local government such as my own Housing Association branch. All UNISON conferences are of course notoriously quiet, reasoned and sedate affairs. I have no doubt that this year will be the same.

Immediately afterwards it is the UNISON National Delegate Conference (the “NDC”) which is the UNISON “parliament” for its 1.3 million members (130,000 in London).

Blogging may be a little intermittent during the next several days as I will be doing my best “to fight the good fight” (as I see it of course). So, there will be lots of writing and practicing speeches, plotting and planning and maybe, just maybe the odd occasion to have a drink or two (strictly shandy or diet cokes).

If you have never been to a UNISON conference before, make sure you get a photo for your ID badge BEFOREHAND; go to the Regional delegate meeting (its really useful); don’t buy any political newspapers or magazines unless you really want to; expect to spend ages finding your seat; check out your Regional newsletter; find out in advance the time and location of last bus back to your hotel, go to the pension Capital Stewardship fringe; NDC health & safety fringe. The NDC Labour Link and London Regional social are the best; consider supporting your democratically elected NEC recommendations and especially your poor old conference Standing Order committee; if you don’t support Far left motions and want a dabble at speaking but don’t know who to speak to in your region then give me a pull; tell GK to stop heckling speakers and be quiet if you are sitting next to him; ask me if JR suggests you do or sign anything. Finally, it is also a tradition of conference for London delegates to buy their Regional Finance convener a drink.

There is a lot to divide us but also much to unite. There are a number of interesting motions on health and safety, pensions, equality, workers’ rights and pay to debate. Core trade union issues in my views. Also a whole load of nonsense as well. But such is life.

(picture from last NDC at Bournemouth 2006)