Denis Healey: the Labour Giant who did the dirty work for socialism

I was at home today recovering still from this weeks Labour Party conference, when I saw on the news that Denis Healey had died this morning in his sleep aged 98.

Which is a good age by any standards, so some of the reporting I have seen that his death is a "grave loss to Labour" is a little misplaced. Instead we should be celebrating his long life of public service to the Party and to our Country.

He was a brave soldier who saw active front line service in North Africa and Italy in the Second War and a brave politician who did what he thought was right regardless (or in spite?) of opposition or abuse.

Our Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has described the former Chancellor, Defence Secretary, Shadow Foreign Secretary and Party deputy leader as a "Labour Giant".

I heard our current Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, say he had "towering intellectual" and although they disagreed politically, he was the "kindest" (that word again) of people privately and completely loyal to the Labour Party in its time of need. 

I only ever saw Denis in person once at the "Stand Up for Labour" event at the Labour Party conference in Brighton 2013. He read out his limericks to the audience. He looked a little frail but he went down very well with the audience who sang "Happy Birthday" to him (it was 30 August).

Bearing in mind the current fuss and bother over Jeremy Corbyn's remarks that if he ever became Prime Minister, he would never authorise the use of British Nuclear weapons. The BBC reminded me that Denis, the archetypal multilateralist cold war warrior, had said in an interview that he would have done the same. 

The BBC obituary claims that Denis prided himself on doing "the dirty work for socialism". Which if true (and I can't find any other source for this so far) is a fair reflection of the man who stood up to a hostile Labour Party conference and spoke what he thought to be uncomfortable truths. As far as I am aware Denis was very loyal publicly to Labour leader, Michael Foot, while he was his deputy. I have no doubt that he spoke his mind to him. I hope (and frankly have no doubts) that our current deputy leader, Tom Watson, will do the same to Jeremy.

Denis was famous (and wise) for having a "hinterland" away from politics - photography, music, poetry. At a Memorial Poetry Reading in  2005 he read out this marvellous verse about a Royal Navy Fleet Arm pilot which I assume he related to his own war time service.

"Fleet Fighter

Olivia Fitzroy

"Good show !" he said, leaned his head back and laughed. 
"They're wizard types !' he said, and held his beer 
Steadily, looked at it and gulped it down 
Out of its jamjar, took a cigarette 
And blew a neat smoke-ring into the air. 
"After this morning's prang I've got the twitch; 
"I thought I'd had it in that teased-out kite." 
His eyes were blue and older than his face, 
His single stripe had known a lonely war, 
But all his talk and movements showed his age, 
His jargon was of aircraft and of beer. 
"And what will you do afterwards ?' I said. 
Then saw his puzzled face and caught my breath. 
There was no afterwards for him but death".

Rest In Peace Denis.

Oh well, never mind... let’s have a nice cup of tea

Coming home from work last night I found out by letter from the ERS that I had lost the election to be the London rep to the new UNISON "Community" Service Group.

Congratulations to my former branch secretary (Housing Association) Mary Powell, who was clearly elected for the General seat with 327 votes, also to Charlie Hore (Voluntary Organisations branch) who got 285 while I came third (aka last!) with 265.

Which, while recognising a defeat is a defeat, it is not that bad and something to learn and build upon in the future.

Turnout was as usual pretty poor at 9.1% (9,704 eligible voters) but considering this is the first such "Community" election and most regions either had no nominations for seats or only one candidate at least we had a contest.

I have had a good run of success in elections recently so I will take the rough with the smooth and as usual in these circumstances it is best to just have a nice cup of tea made strictly in accordance to the instructions of Mr Blair.

PS Just think – John McDonnell and I will from now on think of June 9 and actually have something in common.

See: it is true that every cloud has a silver lining :)

Hillingdon Local Government UNISON AGM - “Why you should be a Pension rep”

This is a bit late but playing catch up on a few things tonight. Earlier this month I was invited to attend this AGM as a guest speaker on becoming a local government pension rep. Following campaigning nationally by UNISON there is pressure to increase representation of trade union reps on local pension panels and committees. Hillingdon Council have offered an extra seat on its panel (currently they have one). This of course falls short of the UNISON demand for 50% representation but is a start.

My main theme was that it is absolutely imperative that we have trade union members on pension bodies in order to defend the local government pension scheme. We need to make sure that all schemes are properly run and the only real way of doing so is to make sure that we have effective representation by those whose money (deferred pay) it is in the first place. I was pleased that one member did at the end “express an interest” to become a rep.

I really enjoy visiting London region branches and would welcome the opportunity to visit any London branch meetings to make the case for pension reps.

I was also allowed to brief the meeting on the Notting Hill Housing Trust strike on Monday.  Which the branch secretary offerred to send a message of support.

My fellow East London Labour Party loyalist and blogger mucker, Dave Osler, will be pleased that in the collage is a picture of Hillingdon UNISON member and local MP John McDonnell who was also at the meeting!  I had to go before his Parliamentary report to the meeting.

Hazel Blears at London UNISON Labour Link Forum

Hazel Blears was the guest speaker at the Forum. Which is the annual meeting of London UNISON "Labour Link" branch delegates. It took place at the media room of the Labour Party headquarters in Victoria Street, SW1. Very "New Labour".

I thought her speech and the way she handled questions from the floor was very impressive. She came over as a "real" person, committed to her role and her politics. She was speaking to us as Party Chair, not as a leadership candidate. The question I wanted to ask (but at the last minute I "bottled it" for a technical one on TUPE) was her opinion over whether or not there should be gender balance in the forthcoming leadership elections!

Recently, I saw Peter Hain speak to the UNISON National health and safety committee and Hilary Benn at the London Labour Party conference. I thought they both performed well. I wondered though what sort of cosy chats Hilary and his Dad have over Iraq and Trident?

The meeting was jointly Chaired by Louise Couling (Local Government, also an UNISON NEC member) and Bill Beeko (Health). Jeremy Corbyn MP (former NUPE FTO) gave a Parliamentary report on behalf of London UNISON MP's (members). Keith Birch, the Head of Labour Link gave a competent report on National Labour Link priorities and unlike other reports of the forum I cannot recall him predicting that John McDonnell getting 80% of the UNISON Labour Link vote!!! (dream on)

There were 3 motions. I spoke against a motion about the Labour Leadership elections even though I agreed with much of its analysis. However, this motion suggested that MP's should nominate a "Left" Candidate even if they did not support him (or her). To be frank there is more than 45 "Left" MP's and if due to ego's and personality clashes they can't even agree amongst themselves on a candidate, then why should they expect support from opponents? It is clear that John McDonnell is disliked by many members of the campaign group and the abuse that his supporters have been piling on Meacher makes some sort of an "deal" unlikely. They should both step down in favour of some other more credible candidate (who will still lose). The motion was passed. Such is life.

Rachel Voller (also Health SGE) moved a sensible rule change request for biannual elections to London Labour Link committee which was agreed and the Tower Hamlets motion on the Living Wage Campaign was accepted unanimously (see below)

Motion on Living Wage Campaign

This Forum notes that Labour’s National Minimum Wage remains one of the most popular and highly-regarded achievements of our Government. Forum is proud that UNISON’s predecessor unions were at the forefront of the campaign to establish a national minimum wage at a time when it was not widely supported, even within the trade union movement.

Forum further notes that despite the National Minimum Wage and the success of many of Labour’s economic policies, too many people in Britain and particularly in London remain poor. With costs of living particularly high in the capital, it is estimated that some 400,000 people, despite being employed, live in poverty.

Research by the Family Budget Unit calculates that a two-parent household with two children, in which both parents work – one part-time – needs a disposable income of £7.74 an hour nationally to achieve a 'living wage' without recourse to benefits. The Greater London Authority's living wage unit says that a worker in London, taking full advantage of tax credits and benefits, would need to earn £7.05 an hour to avoid poverty.

Labour’s aspiration to eliminate poverty in our country will only be fulfilled by ending low pay. Forum therefore supports the campaign for a living wage in London and urges Labour to consider extending the remit of the Low Pay Commission to establish a genuine living wage.