Remembering Tessa Jowell - UNISON Kings College Hospital Branch

Hat tip @LondonNurse2015 for this wonderful photo of the new UNISON branch banner, remembering former local Labour MP and Secretary of State,  Tessa Jowell. 

Newham Compass debate on "Devolution London" 7.30pm Wednesday 7 October

This should be interesting. "Devolution London". Former leader of Southwark Counicl Jeremy Frazer, Co-author of "Changing London" David Robinson, Co-author of London Devolution Prospectus and Tessa Jowell former Minster. Chaired by Julianne Marriott.

Free parking nearby (check spot first for restrictions) and only 10 minustes walk from Upton Park underground. Right next door to a rather well known football stadium.

 All members of the progressive left are welcome!

Sadiq Khan Wins! Labour's candidate for London Mayor

I have just heard that Sadiq Khan has been elected as the Labour candidate for London Mayor! Great news.

"The Tooting MP said he was "overwhelmed" and "deeply honoured" after the results were announced.

Mr Khan won 48,152 votes, a 58.9% share, in the fifth round of voting after four other candidates had been eliminated.

Ex-minister Tessa Jowell, regarded as the frontrunner going into the contest, came second with 41.1% of the vote.

A total of 87,954 votes were cast".  BBC News http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34218390

Update

Check out Labourlist for full breakdown of results. Sadiq won convincingly in all categeries: - Members, registered supporters and affialated supporters. 

http://labourlist.org/2015/09/labours-mayor-of-london-candidate-result-full-breakdown/

East London Labour Mayoral Hustings: #YesWeKhan

This afternoon there was a London Labour Party Mayoral candidate hustings at the historic Old Town Hall in Stratford, East London 

West Ham MP, Lyn Brown, local Councillors and other Party supporters held a stall outside on behalf of candidate, Sadiq Khan and encouraged local Labour voters to sign up and become "Party Supporters" for only £3. 

I had volunteered with local West Ham CLP members to help out with the registration of people at the door coming to the event (and sell them raffle tickets - see picture of the dynamic trio with back drop of Keir Hardie statute, who was elected as the first ever Labour MP in this same town hall in 1892). 

All six Labour mayoral candidates were present. The newly elected Tower Hamlets Executive Mayor, John Biggs, chaired the meeting. 

Since I was on the door I missed the beginning of the hustings and then left to go back after 30 minutes. My initial thoughts were that the panel all looked a little nervous and very serious. 

Diane Abbot spoke first and said she should be the candidate since due to her TV and media work people all over London know her and unlike former ministers, she also has the personality to win a London Mayoral election. 

Gareth Thomas said he was the only outer London Labour politician standing, who also knows how to fight these marginal seats and how to win for Labour in outer London. He is a street fighter while his opponents all come from safe inner London seats. 

Sadiq Khan said he wanted to be someone who having been born and bred in a London council estate and was the son of a London bus driver, wants to be the candidate who will represents all of London. 

David Lammy made clear that he wanted be the young, active and independent of party candidate who could defeat Zac Goldsmith. 

Tessa Jowell  compared herself to Hillary Clinton, and pointed out that if she win, she will be the youngest ever female mayor of London (think about it).

After 30 minutes I went back to the front door to let another member of the registration team go and listen. I understand things got a little heated later on with questions about building on the Green belt, the number of social housing homes in the Olympic Park and the relaxation of gambling laws.  

Talking to people as they left it seemed that they did learn from and enjoy this event. 

Nuf said. 

Mayoral Nomination Canvassing Survey - Greater London UNISON Labour Link

This is a reminder about the survey that all UNISON members who are in Greater London region (and are part of the Applied political Fund APF - also known as Labour Link) received last week.

UNISON is I think the only union affiliated to the Labour Party to survey its members on who to nominate.

There is a longstanding national policy in UNISON Labour Link to prioritise nominating and supporting candidates who are UNISON members..

This policy was agreed by the elected UNISON Greater London Labour Committee, which I Chair. The 3 UNISON members are:-

JOWELL, Tessa    

KHAN, Sadiq     

LAMMY, David

If you click on the names above you will find copies of the candidates statements.

I have also sent a reminder today to the 1000 members of my branch (Housing Associations) who have chosen to affiliate to the Labour Party.

The survey finishes 12 noon on Friday 5 June 2015!

To sign up as a UNISON Affiliated Supporter and be able to participate in the actual ballot for Mayor candidate (and new Labour Leader and Deputy Leader) go to http://support.labour.org.uk/.   All APF members need to register with the Party to be able to vote. This is free for UNISON members and only £3 if you are not a member of an affiliated trade union. The deadline to register has been extended to 12 noon 12 August. 

West Ham Labour nominates Sadiq Khan and Tessa Jowell as their London Mayoral Candidates

Over 80 members of West Ham Labour Party attended yesterdays nomination meeting at Vicarage Lane Community centre, E15. At the beginning, our CLP Chair, Charlene McLean, called out the names of the 8 declared candidates and asked for proposers and seconders. Members present selected Diane Abbot, Tessa Jowell, David Lammy, Gareth Thomas, Sadiq Khan and Neeraj Patil.

We could nominate up to two candidates, at least one of which had to be a women. The women candidate was decided first. A number of members spoke in favour of nominating Diane or Tessa. All contributions that evening were heard out and treated with respect.

Tessa Jowell was elected as a women's candidate by 49 votes to Diane Abbot 32.

Next we debated the open selection and voted for Sadiq Khan as our candidate, who got 52 votes to 16 for Gareth Thomas and 15 this time for Diane.

There was some fantastic contributions from a wide range of new and experienced activists. I was really pleased with the arguments, the passion and energy shown. Despite our national defeat on May 7, the Labour Party in its historic homeland, West Ham, is still very much alive and kicking.

Our MP, Lyn Brown then gave us an impassioned speech, thanking us for all our hard work during the General election and in particular, for Wes Streeting's victory in marginal Ilford North. She promised to lead a "fightback" in West Ham against  the consequences of Tory rule.

After which, of course, was the inevitable Labour Party raffle, followed by a little bit of a social followed by some late night discussion by some in the nearby Bay Tree public bar.

Check out the report in West Ham Labour blog. We hope as a CLP to host a hustings for the Labour Leadership nominations.

Hat tip picture Julianne Marriott. Many thanks to top Community Centre volunteer Kim for helping to set up and clean up. 

TELL KEN: Didsbury Centre, East Ham Mon 30th Jan

Next Monday January 30th Labour candidate for London Mayor, Ken Livingstone, will be spending the day in Newham campaigning. In the evening 7pm to 8.30pm there will be a "TELL KEN" event at the Didsbury Centre, 2 Didsbury Close, East Ham, E6 2SX (5 minutes walk away from East Ham Town Hall). This is sponsored by Greater London UNISON Labour Link.

Further good news today about Ken's campaign. Another
opinion poll has put him (narrowly) into the lead. "

Tessa Jowell said today, “This poll shows that Boris Johnson is increasingly out of touch with Londoners facing a squeeze in their living standards. They know that under Boris Johnson, fares have gone up; violent crime including knife crime and robbery are rising while the numbers of police keeping Londoners safe are being cut. Ken will put Londoners first by cutting bus, tube and train fares and making the streets safer by protecting police services.

“Building London’s Future” (& defending London’s poor & vulnerable)

The proposed Tory/Lib Dems reforms of housing benefit (HB) “will lead to two things - firstly a dramatic increase in homelessness which will result in a shift in London’s population -equal in size to a typical post war new town and secondly - deepening and abject poverty”.  So said the host, MP for Westminster North, Karen Buck MP, in her introduction to a “crisis” housing meeting on Thursday to launch this report by London Labour Party.

The report details David Cameron’s and his London Mayor, Boris Johnson, attempts to “cleanse” the Tory controlled boroughs in the Capital of their poor and the vulnerable by changing housing benefit to private tenants.

To show the seriousness of the situation there was a pretty high profile panel of speakers.  Labour Party Leader Harriot Harman MP, Shadow Secretary of State Yvette Cooper MP, Leader of LB Hammersmith & Fulham Labour Group Cllr Steve Cowan, Shadow Minister of Housing John Healey MP, GLA member and London Labour Party leader Len Duvall and Shadow Minister of London, Tessa Jowell MP.  This was before an audience of Councillors and housing activists from across London.

Despite working in housing in London I must admit to being rather shocked at the report and its conclusions.  I will try and post in more detail on each speaker and on the rest of the report another time (there was a lot of interesting stuff) but I’ll outline now the key thing about HB changes that should have every single person who gives a damn about London (and elsewhere) jumping up and down.

Housing benefit provides a roof over the heads of millions of people.  If these cuts to HB go ahead it will mean:-

Yvette Cooper MP: “One million families will lose £12 per week...50,000 of the poorest pensioners will lose £11 per week...Working families will also lose £12 per week...Disabled residents will lose £13 per week.  These are averages...A pensioner in a one-bed flat in Hackney will lose £21 per week...150,000 households in London will not have enough benefit to cover the rent...A population the size of Hackney could be forced to move to cheaper accommodation.  This is what you get from the £550 million of cuts to HB already announced.  Remember that the CONDEMS want £2.3 billion cuts in HB”. 

From the “Building London’s Future” report: “People in London will face on average £1,000 a year cut in support”....159,370 private sector tenants on Local Housing Allowance (LHA) will lose an average of £22 a week in the first wave of cuts....80% of LHA recipients in London will lose more than £10 a week...990 families in a 2-bed property in Tower Hamlets will lose on average £27 a week...73 families living a 2-bed property in Camden will lose on average £53 a week.

(as soon as I find a link to the report I will update but you can check this government site here to find out what will happen to your local authority)

Vote Steve Brayshaw - Vote Labour in Royal Docks By-Election 26 March

Tomorrow (Thursday 26 March) is the big day - it is polling day for the Royal Docks By-Election in E16, Newham, London. If you are available to help out please contact 8 Constable Avenue E16 (Bus 474, DLR West Silvertown or across the footbridge from Custom House DLR). Text 07772 723 765.

Picture above includes pics of Government Minister, Tessa Jowell, who went out canvassing for Steve (centre) on Tuesday.

Today was pretty busy, I’ll post on it another time - UNISON London Labour Link/APF Forum in House of Commons, Reception for Rev Jessie Jackson in Washington Hotel and this evening a “Chatham House rules” meeting on Capital Stewardship also in House of Commons.

Looking forward to 6.45am report in for polling station duty.

London Labour Biennial Conference (II)

Gareth Thomas, MP, (good Welsh name) Minister for Trade, Investment and Consumer Affairs gave a cracking speech while giving fraternal greetings from the Co-op Party.

Outside the hall, the Co-op stall was also giving away free bottles of Fair Trade wine with every membership form filled out!

He posed the question - would Northern Rock have crashed or would the Halifax (HBOS) been forced into a merger if they had remained mutually owned? (Of course not)

Not that long ago I was told that those of us who are interested in the concepts of owner citizens and capital stewardship in investments were the “New Rochdale Pioneers”. Which, if accurate, would be a tremendous honour and responsibility. Gareth left a wonderful image of what it was like when the Tories were last in power, when many school buildings were kept aloft only by the woodworms holding hands.

There was then an open Q&A of the panel. I asked whether or not they agreed that one reason for the current credit crunch was due to a failure of ownership and governance by pension and insurance funds. There was a failure to ensure that their money was not misused by those we employed to look after it. Instead it was invested in schemes that no one really under the risk and resulted in us being ripped off by executives motivated by short term bonuses.

Now that was “sort of” the question I had written on my crib card. But to be honest I didn’t actually put it over that well. Tessa Jowell MP answered by saying that she thought that there had been a failure of regulation and transparency rather than anything else. She also thought that due to this there would be a change for ever in the relationship between the regulators and the financial services industry.

Tony McNulty MP, very carefully, said that once the current crisis was over then the government will have to look again at what needed to be changed. However, he did think that there had been a failure of governance not government which needed looking at. But he thought that my “gentile dig” at the government for causing the problems was wrong.

I am pretty sure that I did not get my point over properly and possibly there was confusion over Government and Governance. I wasn't having a dig. But so what - any undertaking to look at regulation, transparency and governance of financial services will be good enough for me.

London MEP Claude Moreas reminded us all that the European Union was important to Londoners. Soon 1.3 million Londoners who work for agencies will soon have significant extra employment rights and protections thanks to the EU. This only happens since there is a small majority of MEPs in the EU who believe in progressive politics. This can change in future elections. There are more MEPs belonging to fascist or racist political parties than black MEPs.

Next year the top priority must be the European elections in June and we need to explain to Londoners why this election is important and relevant.

Andrew Dismore MP gave a Parliamentary report and mentioned the 10 (repeat 10) social housing homes built in Tory Barnet Council last year.

John Biggs, London Assembly member, deputy GLA labour Group leader (and “attack dog”) gave a typically good humoured and thoughtful speech. Boris being described by John as a “vacuous bag of wind” being one of my favourite moments.

Finally Jules Pipe, elected Major of Hackney gave a very confident and lucid report on the problems facing the 9 Labour London Boroughs and our role in “London Councils” as well as the huge social housing problems we face across London.

Next was lunch then workshops.

To be continued.

Photo Dan McCurry

London Labour Party Biennial Conference 2008

The conference was in the historical Old Town Hall in Stratford, Newham, E15 so I was able to walk there from home this morning enjoying the blue skies, cold fresh air and winter sunshine.

I was there as a member of the UNISON Labour Link delegation. We had a delegation meeting first where we discussed motions and whether we should support them or not and who should try and speak on motions from the conference floor.

The morning session of the conference was dominated by speakers, reports and Q&A’s. The afternoon had workshops, “our Ken” and Resolution debates, finishing up with the internal regional election results.

I’m not going to try and give a “full report” on the conference. Rather, a snapshot of some of the stuff I personally found interesting, usually from my own particular trade union perspective. A health warning is that this post is based on my hurried and often illegible scribbled notes.

Ken Clark, London regional director of the Labour Party brought us all into order (eventually, a Labour Party meeting of any kind is loath to start on time). The main hall of the Town Hall was pretty full with delegates. I assume about 300 plus people? Len Duvall, Chair of London Labour Party (and GLA Labour leader) chaired the conference. He had been re-elected Chair unopposed. From my hurried squiggles I note that he pointed out that this was not a time for the London Party to be sending out mixed messages; Labour in power makes a huge difference to people’s lives and we should never forget this; in the recent GLA elections despite the loss of the mayor we actually polled more votes than in the past and we had support in inner and outer London. Labour represents all of London.

The first main speaker was Sir Robin Wales, the directly elected Mayor of Newham who welcomed delegates to smell the fresh air of a Tory free Newham (there are no Tory or Liberal Democrat opposition councillors in Newham). He reminded everyone of the Labour history of Newham and this very Town Hall. It was at this very place that Keir Hardy was elected as the first ever Labour MP in 1892. The balcony overlooking the High Street that we had all walked past to get in the hall was were Keir gave his victory speech.

The first ever Labour Council was elected in West Ham, Newham has the largest Labour majority in the Country. London as well as the “North”, has its Labour heartlands. Robin was very, very direct about his opinion about Galloway’s Respect (no comment). He also warned the conference about Boris and that we should judge him on what he does rather than what he says. This was a common theme from the day.

Harriet Harman MP (and deputy leader), reminded the conference that the Labour Government had indeed paid off debt in the past so now was in a better position to deal with present problems. While in the past you had to believe in prudence, now it is prudent to be bold. Labour in the current economic difficulties will not be saying unlike the Tories “if it isn’t hurting, it isn’t working” or that unemployment is “a price worth paying”. Traditional Labour values are about fairness and equality. She also noted that all London Tory MPs are white.

Next was an unopposed Conference Arrangements report (standing orders committee) followed by Guest speakers.

First was Tessa Jowell MP, Minister for the Olympics, who started her speech by mentioning that on route to Stratford today, the Jubilee Line had been partly closed. If Ken had still been in charge of Transport of London, this of course would never have happened! (Joke) She also said that the last time she had been at a London Biennial conference in 2006 she never thought that she would be present when Labour had nationalised the commanding heights of the British economy! (Joke – if somewhat true). Tessa pointed out that 75p in every £ spent on the Olympics would be spent on regeneration. 8,000 jobs will be created in the newly built Stratford Olympic shopping centre alone while 10% of the current 3,000 construction jobs are recruited locally from the unemployed.

Tony McNulty MP, Minister for London, Employment and Welfare Reform was next. He argued that some were overdoing the “doom and gloom”. The Tories are proving themselves not to be serious politicians. Cameron is very like “Strictly Come Dancing” Star, John Sergeant, (I can’t remember exactly why but it seemed applicable at the time and got a good cheer from conference). Tony reminded everyone about a fundamental difference between the Labour Party and the Tories – you would not get anyone in Labour “singing in the bath” about market cruelty. He also accused Boris of imitating disgraced Tory Westminster Politician Shirley Porter, for trying to use housing policy to gerrymander elections. Finally, he reminded everyone that if the election of Barack Obama taught us anything the last thing this country needed is an Old Etonion as our Prime Minister.

Good stuff - I’ll post on the rest of conference tomorrow.