Nye | Full Show | Watch for free | National Theatre at Home

Fantastic. Never watched a play in this way. Cried my eyes out, every so often and at end. So, so much better than the Netflick, prime etc rubbish I have been watching lately

Last day tomorrow? (11.11.24)

The rural poverty that caused the first bankrupt "Council" & the final home of the Welsh Socialist founder of the NHS, Nye Bevan

Back from a great 6.8 mile circular walk with Gill around Cholesbury Hill fort, Grim Ditch and The Ridgeway, courtesy of the Chilterns Society and Ordnance Survey app. 

Very quiet and peaceful. Lots of gentle ups and downs with nothing that strenuous but a good walking work out with lots of contrast. The iron age hill fort is is pretty obvious and fascinating, while the later iron age feature called the "Grim Ditch" is difficult to make out but I have seen it more clearly elsewhere. 

It is incredible to think how our ancestors built these these fortifications and boundary markers with the basic animal tools they had at that time. 

What was also fascinating is that Cholesbury was in 1832 the first "Parish" (somewhat similar to a modern day UK council) to declare itself bankrupt. This was due to dreadful rural poverty at the time which meant that the Parish did not have enough money from rates to pay for "Poor relief".  

At this time many  UK Councils across the Country are also declaring themselves "Bankrupt" (or rather issuing section 144 notices that they do not have enough income to pay for expenditure).

What I was astonished to find out was that this village was also the home of former Welsh Miner and founder of the NHS, Nye Bevan, while he was a South Wales MP at Westminster. 

The walk didn't go near his home, Asheridge Farm, where he died in 1960 from stomach cancer aged 62 but I hopefully tracked it down (see collage).  I wonder if I should come back to the area on the anniversary of the birth of the NHS in July? 

Recommend the Full Moon pub where we had coffee in the garden beforehand and I had a pint of London Pride at the end. 

Now We Are The Builders! New Centre Left political blog

Check out this new Labour Supporting blog "Now We Are The Builders". It aims to be "A Centre-Left blog, a space for discussion and comment. Thoughts and reflections from within the Labour movement.- all views are the contributors own".

It welcomes guest posts from the centre left. Email contributions to "nowwearethebuilders@outlook.com".

The title of the blog is from a famous quote by Nye Bevan. Our goal in 2020 should be the same as 1945.

""We have been the dreamers, we have been the sufferers, now we are the builders.

- Aneurin Bevan start of 1945 election campaign

Dave Prentis - We want a Labour Government not for one term but for "15 years" #LabLink14

Our UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis spoke next after Jon Cruddas MP at Labour Link National Forum. He started by explaining how moved he was to have been last night at an UNISON event to honour activists who had helped the ANC to defeat the Apartheid regime in South Africa. .

He also also thanked long serving UNISON Labour Link officer, Joyce Kay, who is retiring this year so this will be her last National Forum.

Dave reminded us about the 250,000 local government workers who are on the  national minimum wage and the 1 million who earn less than a living wage. The Day of Action on the NHS and the Local Government Strike on 10th July is just the start. In August there a ballot by food safety members and after that the NHS. Its time that we stand up for our class, our people.

 Dave Cameron's "Big society" has turned into a bigoted society. We are a world leader in zero hour contracts. Our Councils have lost £20 billion in funding. Just pointing at the failures of the Tories will not get people to vote Labour or even get them to vote. Our Party needs to have a vision of a modern welfare state run on a not for profit basis.. We want these issues cleared up. What we want is a Labour Party committed to tackle child and pensioner poverty. We want a Party committed to build an NHS that Nye Bevan would be proud of. We do not want Labour Councils just being vehicles for putting out contracts.

Labour should have no unfunded spending commitments. But Spending and Income are two parts of the equation. Bankers should pay little more. So should the rich who are bleeding our society dry due to tax evasion. Let us have a real wealth tax. Claw back some of the great wealth of the top 1%.

The rise of UKIP is a damning indictment of the main political parties. we took on the BNP before and sent them packing.  We will do the same to UKIP. We will say what others will not say - that UKIP is a racist party and its policies are racist.

In past Labour has been taken in about business. We need and now must get alternative policies not alternative spelling. We expect Labour to support us over Pay. Opposition means opposing and supporting us. We want no weasel words. We want our demands to be heard. We want clear commitments.

It is great news that the Health & Social Care Act will be repealed by Labour. We cannot further privatise the NHS. We know that we have to win the next General Election. The Tory plan is clearly to pillar Ed Miliband. He has done some silly things such as pose with "the Sun" newspaper. We know things are difficult but we have got to have clear commitments about what Labour stands for it. We not a union that makes a fuss about affiliations, we are a union that pay our dues.

Cameron and Tories do not stand for our class. We must get rid of them. Our one objective is to kick the Tories out and get a Labour Government elected not just 5 years but 15 years.

(Co-coincidently during the break I got a voice mail message from my branch office in London who said former UNISON General secretary Rodney Bickerstaff had just popped in to say "hello". I assume he was speaking at an event in the building that we rent an office. Shame I missed him).

Hat tip picture to SusPol & Justice

UNISON National Community Service Group Seminar: Motion on Pension Strike

I'm in Cardiff for the first ever UNISON Community Service Group Seminar which starts this evening.  The picture is of the statute of Nye Bevan which overlooks Cardiff Castle. The Community Executive met beforehand and passed unanimously this motion.  I attended as a NEC member.

"MOTION FOR COMMUNITY SGE – 23 SEPTEMBER 2011

This SGE notes the decision of public sector unions, under the auspices of the TUC, to ballot for a day of industrial action on 30 November in defence of public sector pensions and to get ministers to withdraw their current proposals for change. The SGE also notes that:

· Further consideration will be given to what further action may be appropriate under the auspices of the TUC beyond 30 November if progress is not achieved

· Other unions and organisations will be organising events in the run-up to the day of industrial action

· There will be events organised to involve communities, service users and those not taking industrial action running alongside strike action on 30 November

While welcoming other activities being organised before and alongside industrial action, this SGE endorses the steps taken to prepare for industrial action mandated by UNISON conferences and resolves to support a ballot for industrial action on 30 November, supported by other public service unions, announced at the TUC. This SGE therefore requests the National Secretary to initiate a ballot for strike action on 30 November as provided for within UNISON’s Industrial Action procedures".

It is going to be a busy, busy few weeks.  Ballot papers for strike action will be out soon.  I'll post on the rest of the Seminar over the weekend.

Number 10 E-Petition on Olympic Health Centre Promise

My local Labour Party CLP, West Ham, is running a campaign against the decision by the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) not to honour a promise to build a purpose built health centre in the Stratford Olympic Village for 2012. Our Labour MP, Lyn Brown, is fully behind us.

Click here to sign the petition or cut and paste this http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/OlympicPromise/

This health centre had been promised as an Olympic legacy for the local community. Once the Olympics took place, the heath centre should have been passed over to the Newham health authority to meet local needs. We will be collecting signatures at a street stall in Stratford next weekend.

The petition says “We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to take action to ensure that the Olympic Delivery Authority makes sure that the promised Health facility is built at the same time as the Olympic village for the benefit of the athletes and then the wider local community. Also to make certain that the Government will commit itself to ensuring a measurable Olympic legacy for the East End of London in skills, jobs, homes and facilities and create an accountable agency to oversee the legacy to the local community"

Further information
The London Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) had promised that a badly needed £10 million health centre would be built in Stratford, Newham, East London. The centre was to cater for athletes during the Games then to be handed over for the benefit of local people afterwards as an Olympic legacy. A funding crisis is threatening to delay the construction until 2020. Many fear that once the ODA is disbanded after the games then no-one is legally liable to build the centre.

The picture above is of of 13 year old Sylvia Diggory who was the first ever NHS patient in 1948, meeting Nye Bevan. He asked her if "if I understood the significance of the occasion and told me it was a milestone in history — the most civilised step any country had ever taken and a day I would remember for the rest of my life". She said of course, "yes". I thought it was somewhat apt.