Ed Miliband got more votes in England in 2015 than Tony Blair got in 2005.

Yes, I know about an increase in population and low turnout in 2005 but...

#justsaying.

Makes you think maybe it wasn't that bad...?

Hat tip Dr Éoin Clarke

TUC 2012: Trade Union Rights - Why is Britain always different - and always worse?

After close of Congress last night I went to the fascinating "History & Policy" fringe chaired by John Edmonds, former General Secretary of the GMB.  The fringe was supported by the excellent Peoples History Museum.

Professor Keith Ewing started by disagreeing that the UK has always been different. The real problem facing trade unions is the collapse in collective bargaining. In 2010 only 32% of workers covered. If unions don't collectively bargain then what is their purpose?

In the past even the Tories recognised the value of bargaining and encouraged it in 1934 to raise wages and get the country out of the depression. 1979 it was 82%, a time of the lowest ever level of inequality.  This is what trade unionism should be about. The total membership of unions is not key, its impact is.

Three reasons for failure: Hubris of unions who thought that better benefits could be achieved by local bargaining; foreign inward investment with no tradition of collective bargaining and Political (Thatcher).

Sarah Veale from the TUC spoke about being sympathetic to the view that workers want to left alone by employment law. Unions are about addressing collective concerns rather than individual. Individual representation is important but it is very time consuming. It is rubbish that small businesses want tighter employment law. It is only the 6th most important concern in a recent government survey. Need to be careful that we are not just seen as an arm of the Labour Party but as acting to defend ordinary workers.

John Monks, former TUC and ETUC General Secretary pointed out that trade unions in most European countries have declined, but the most in Britain. In 1969 when he started out in the movement unions were intellectually very confident. At a time of full employment the reality was that power did lie in the hands of local stewards. The unions saw off two attempts to limit their power. The Tories learnt their lessons and when they came for the unions again, they fought dirty.  

John remembers Tony Blair making a visit to Congress House soon after he became leader. He asked to see the TUC Trophy room. We said "Trophy room"? Yes, he said, the room where you keep the heads of Wilson and Callaghan? He told us that his head will not be joining them.

He remembered that in those days we use to patronise the German unions with their "work councils" and "limited or no strike deals". "We were the world leaders, we were the hard men". He thinks that there was a missed opportunity in the past. We settled for minimum wage, Social Chapter and Trade Union recognition.

Must learn from Countries that still have high trade union density. These unions provide welfare services and benefits. We were offered this opportunity in the past but refused.

Final speaker was the former trade union official and historian Jim Moher.  Jim believes that the Labour Party and the Unions share the blame for the problems today. Trade unions were first legalised in the UK as far back as 1824. The first country to do so. Trade union support for the first and second world war gave them power.

The unions have to accept that is was the over turning of elected governments that led to Thatcherism. We need to look to ourselves. "In Place of Strife" may not have been perfect but it would have been much better than now. This is a political issue that we have to address.

In the Q&A with regards to unions providing welfare services I asked whether we should consider running a decent defined benefit pension scheme? Final point from Keith - The trade unions are in crisis we have to adapt (and maybe offer services) or we will end up as just another protest group along with all the other protest groups.

Patricia Hewlett’s tears over Brown

Well, after today’s events I think we all need cheering up at bit. So I’ll just play this clip on YouTube which shows Patricia’s reaction (she is referred to by her family nickname Zoey) in 2007 to the resignation of Tony Blair and the prospect of Gordon Brown as Prime Minister.

This obviously explains a lot!

(I won’t name and embarrass the person who originally showed me this clip in a very different context. But hat-tip thingy anon anyway)

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

Happy Labour Day – Workin’ Man – Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

A very Happy Labour (Labor) Day to all those across the pond. Hat-tip thingy to Norm.

This is my first ever link to Mr Geras who I heard speaking to a Euston Manifesto meeting a few years back.

I have a RSS feed to his site but he is a very scary blogger for these reasons:-

1. He does so,so many posts – For example 9 in the past 36 hours!!!
2. He is said to be a admirer of Tony Blair despite being a Marxist (but he hates the SWP “not socialists, not workers and not a Party”)
3. He loves cricket and also blogs about it on his site.

nuff said!

Let's Have a Better Britain - Vote Labour

Unison United Left Exposed as Blairite Front!

Leila Deen – Green Custard Bigot.

Tony Blair famously once joked that his New Labour mission would not be complete until the Party loved Peter Mandelson. The unbelievably arrogant, stuck up and conceited Leila Deen has done the impossible. She has made people feel sorry for Mandy!

These sort of bigots don’t care what damage they cause to their campaign by such actions. All they want is vain-glory and their 3 minutes of “fame”. Yes, Mandelson and Gordon Brown have turned it around in their favour and made jokes about it.

However, it could have been acid in that cup and all this will do apart from discrediting her cause is helping those who want to build further barriers between Politicians and ordinary people.

Directors face Porridge over 'elf 'n' Safety

On route this morning to represent a member in Hertfordshire I had to pull over to sort out a flat tyre just when a really interesting topic was starting on the BBC Radio 4 “Today” programme. I’m sure everyone has sometime or other experienced similar frustrating moments!

On 16 January the “Health & Safety (Offences) Act 2008 came into force. Thanks to modern technology I was able to listen again to this report just now on the BBC iplayer.

Tim Hill, from Eversheds Solicitors, was being interviewed. This superb law was due to a private members bill sponsored by London Labour MP (and UNISON member) Keith Hill. Even before this I thought that Keith was an impressive figure. He gave a tour de force presentation at a London UNISON Labour Link meeting last year. Thanks I think to Keith the bill was supported by the Government.

Many fines for breaches of health and safety law have been increased significantly but for the first time, imprisonment is now an option for the Courts for a wide range of offences.

Tim (no relation I assume to Keith) thought that this will have a greater effect than the much better publicised Corporate Manslaughter Act, since far, far more managers will be potentially affected.

Managers and directors must “enable that things are done safely”. The board will have to take health & safety as seriously as they do finance and production. If they turn a blind eye or are reckless and break the law then Eversheds will inform their clients that for the first time that they face Porridge, not a fine that the company could pay and write off against tax.

It’s a lovely irony I suppose that potentially one of the most far reaching laws to benefit workers and meet trade union demands should had been nurtured and brought to life by Tony Blair’s former PPS.

Gordon at Progress Conference

Registration for the annual Progress Conference started at 9:00 yesterday morning at Congress Hall, TUC. The first keynote address was due to start at 10:00. As usual, despite my very best intentions, I was running late and I arrived at about 9:45 and went straight down to get a coffee in the TUC lower hall.

To my surprise the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, came down the stairs and started to shake everybody’s hand he came across including my own. I could only think at the time of saying “Hello Prime Minister”. Now of course I can think of all sorts of profound and convincing statements to say to him. But at the time it was only “Hello”. I couldn’t find my camera either to take a photo - but there you go.

It is only when you are up close to him that you realise that he is literally such a “big bloke” with a barrel like chest and rugby playing shoulders. His famous “big clunking fist” would indeed deliver quite a knock out punch. Light weight Tory leaders and egg throwers beware.

Gordon was the surprise keynote speaker and had not been on the original agenda. As soon as he entered the main hall there was a spontaneous standing ovation for him. Most of the audience didn’t have a clue that he was going to be there. He took over the platform for a confident and far reaching 20 minute speech, delivered without any obvious notes or screens (how do these people do it?).

I felt he was very buoyant but wanting to appear very calm. I think that the current financial crisis “extraordinary times need extraordinary solutions” is bringing out the best in him. It is “the biggest New Labour Project...it falls on us to deliver...We live in a global financial system where there is no global supervision" It’s personal as well, he talked about a women who wrote to him who had invested her savings in an Icelandic bank and could not any reassurance about her money. She had not slept for the previous 4 days. "We need to apply lasting values to new circumstances... Labour is the greatest force for fairness in our society. ..The lesson is that only progressive forces work”.

He also importantly, I think, gave an impression of optimism, not all is doom and gloom and in the long term we will come out of this. I managed to ask a question about the role that Governance failure in Banks, fund managers, accountants, actuaries etc, played in the current financial crisis and whether the concept of citizen investor will help prevent future failures. Gordon was I thought a bit wary in his answer but he assured us that once the crisis was under control there will be significant and wide reaching regulatory change in the future to prevent such things happening again. Fair enough.

In the last Progress conference I attended in 2006, Tony Blair was the keynote speaker. This was also in the same hall in Congress House. Tony had recently “agreed” to resign and delivered a blinding farewell speech. Later on I saw Gordon speak in this same location during the London trade union hustings for the deputy leadership election. He was very well received by that audience. Gordon left the Progress stage yesterday to another standing ovation.

I’ll post later on the rest of conference.

Goodbye to all That? Tony Blair PM – A Personal Perspective

I know that you are not supposed to view politics from your own personal or family perspective, however, my politics are personal and based upon my own upbringing and life experiences. I suspect that in reality everyone shares this view.

So, what has been some of my personal and family perspectives on Tony Blair successes and failures during his time as Prime Minister? This is a short snap shot. Perhaps I could expand it to wider issues such as constitutional matters, gay rights, employment, mortgages, Northern Ireland, Trade union rights, Warwick or foreign policy? I’ll start with my Mum, brother-in-law and niece.

I think that the major achievement of Blair (and Brown) for my family has been pension credit. My mother is totally dependant upon her state pension. She (like most people) never had a chance to join a company pension scheme. The massive increase in her pension under Labour has made a huge difference to her life. Pounds in pockets. Easy to mock this if you already have them.

She lives in a very nice EPD (Elderly Persons Dwelling – which ironically used to be her primary school when she was little). She is the tenant of a Housing Association which was newly built about 7 years ago. A Blair government may have provided the money to build her flat, but she would rather have rented from the Council. She does not think that she has a personal “relationship” with her landlord in the same way her mother had with the Council. Blair has refused to allow Councils to build new properties and effectively tried to force them to transfer their stock to Housing associations.

My elder sister is married to a self-employed “lagger”. He drives a “white (-ish) van” very carefully. He provides and fits (usually by himself) insulation to commercial central heating and hot water systems. Most of his work is in the public sector as a sub-contractor to refurbishment or new build fire stations, hospitals, schools etc. He works bloody hard. It is a often, dirty physical work with no long term security. He refuses to declare who he votes for (I can guess). However, he accepts that under Blair he has never had so much work, due to massive investment in public services. Even though he also moans that he now has to pay far more in income tax. He is worried about his pension and what would happen to him if he was to fall sick or have an accident.

One of my nieces is now 21 and works as a shop assistant. She lives in an area where wages are traditionally very low. Blair may have done little to change the structural economic problems in that region; however, what he and his government have done is to introduce the national minimum wage (and 20 days’ annual holidays). Her money and working conditions may still be poor; however, the minimum wages has made a huge difference to her life. Pounds in pockets. She may have no pension (or sick company pay) at the moment, but the proposed Pension Personal accounts should help her start protecting her future.
Shall I go on?