John Gray statement seeking nomination Vice-Chair Campaigns & Communications West Ham CLP

Dear Branch Secretary

I am standing ‎to be the West Ham CLP Vice Chair campaigns at our Annual General Meeting in June and I am requesting the supportive nomination of your Branch. 

I am a long standing member and activist in West Ham and have served the Party in a number of different roles, including Vice Chair Campaigns in the past and Parliamentary Agent for Lyn Brown MP in 2010 and 2015. 

I have also been a Labour Party agent for Council by elections. 

I have been an active campaigner for many years and have planned and led canvassing teams in Newham and elsewhere. I can write and design leaflets, press releases and social media posts.

For the past 5  years I have also been a full time lay organiser‎ for my trade union UNISON and have taken part and directed a wide range of campaigns for a living wage, better housing and employment protection. 

If elected as Vice Chair Campaigns I commit to doing everything possible to support the local and national Party. While there are no local elections this year we have to work for council elections in 2018 and the prospect of a sudden general election.  If elected my aim will be to attract and involve the huge number of new members who have joined the Party in recent times to become activists and campaigners for Labour in West Ham and nearby crucial marginal seats.  As Parliamentary agent in the 2015 General election, West Ham played an important role in defeating the Tory MP in Ilford North. 

I believe that I have the local knowledge, skills, dedication and experience to be a successful campaigner, vice chair and team player. 

I am currently a backbench Councillor for West Ham, Vice Chair Membership for West Ham CLP, Vice Chair Forest Gate North branch, Chair Greater London UNISON Labour link and Vice Chair UNISON London international and Europe Committee.

Yours faithfully

John Gray

UNISON Greater London Regional Council AGM 2017 results

I was re-elected today at the Greater London UNISON AGM as the Regional Finance Convenor for the 10th time. Many, many thanks for the continued support of London delegates.

Next to me is our (new) Regional Publicity Officer Francesca Hammond, Regional Convenor Yvonne Green, Regional Equalities Convenor Liz Baptiste, Head of Regional Management & Governance Stephanie Thomas and last but not least Deputy Regional Convenor Conroy Lawrence.

The Future of the Left in Britain: Newham Compass & Fabians event 21 Feb 2017

Should be interesting. 

My Question On Risk to Full Council before it was Cut

This is the question that I submitted to the Newham Council Chief Executive for tonight's Full Council meeting as an elected Councillor complying fully under its constitution and rules yet my questions ended up being cut.

Dear Kim

Please submit the following question

Question to Cllr Lester Hudson

"I refer to Agenda Item 12 “Annual Treasury Management Report 2015/2016 page 51 of the Yellow Book item 3.8.

While I would agree with the aspiration in 3.8.1 for the Councils investments to mirror that achieved by the LBN Pension fund (and other Pensions schemes) would not Councillor Hudson agree that consistent outperformance of investment return is not just down to good fund management but also depends on the taking of risk. The more risk you take the more return you may achieve. However, equally the more risk you take then the more money you can lose.  With Pension funds the risk of things going wrong are shared. Employers and employees may have to pay more and benefits may be cut. Most importantly for pensions that is also guarantors in the private sector the Pension protection fund and in the public sector (in theory) the British State. 

While I am not against the taking of appropriate long term financial risks if the Council invests in “alternative” investments such as solar farms or toll tunnels, takes risks and it all goes horribly wrong then who will be our guarantor?"

Regards

John Gray

Councillor

This is the question below that was actually read out at Council by the monitoring officer without my agreement to these "changes". 

I refer to Agenda Item 12 “Annual Treasury Management Report 2015/2016 page 51 of the Yellow Book item 3.8.  If the Council invests in “alternative” investments such as solar farms or toll tunnels, takes risks and it all goes horribly wrong then who will be our guarantor?

Needless to say that I didn't get an answer to either. 

Anyone see anything wrong with my original question? 

Angie Roberts UNISON NEC Candidate Female Seat Cymru/Wales

"The stronger UNISON pledge sums up how I feel in my heart.

Our members are amazing individuals who collectively are our great Union and I am determined no matter what happens in these unprecedented times, that I will continue to be a strong voice for our members and together we can be a stronger UNISON".

Angie Roberts Regional candidate for the female seat for Cymru/Wales

Plea for mayoral "open selection"

A well argued letter in the Newham Recorder by respected and long standing West Ham CLP Treasurer and former Councillor John Saunders. 

Pizza & Politics : Broadlands UNISON AGM 1 March

AGM season for the Labour Movement is in full swing. There has already been a Newham Fabians AGM, on Wednesday it is the Greater London UNISON Regional Council AGM. On Thursday it is Forest Gate North Labour Branch AGM and I am planning the UNISON Housing Association branch AGM for March and our branch Labour Link AGM at the House of Commons. Not forgetting the West Ham CLP AGM in June.

I hope to make the Broadlands (Norwich) UNISON AGM this year. I like the "Pizza and Politics" theme. 

Holocaust Memorial Day - Newham 2017

On Friday I attended a very moving event to mark "Holocaust Memorial Day" which remembers the attempt by German Nazi to murder all Jews in Europe and all subsequent holocausts in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur and now Syria.

The wonderful guest speaker this year was the childhood survivor of 5 Nazi concentration camps, 90 year old Harry Olmer. I had tears in my eyes for much of Harry's speech. I also really appreciated the the wonderful moving music, songs and poetry of local Newham school children.

Democracy, free speech, decency, tolerance and respect for differences is so important and worth fighting for. Harry stood next to a man in a concentration camp who was shot dead by a Nazi for no reason other than that they were both Jews. He does not know why he survived and so many did not.

See Newham Council Press release below:-

"The victims of the Holocaust and other genocides across the world were remembered at a special event today (Friday 27 January) attended by Mayor Sir Robin Wales, and Holocaust survivor Harry Olmer. More than 400 people including schoolchildren and local residents attended Newham Council’s annual event at the Old Town Hall, Stratford, to mark Holocaust Memorial Day. Candles were lit, a minute’s silence held and there was also a performance by Newham’s Every Child a Musician Orchestra. 

As part of the event, 90-year-old Harry Olmer outlined his memories of the Nazi persecution of the Jews during the Holocaust and shared his experiences which included surviving five concentration camps – including Plaszow near Krakow which later became famous in the movie Schindler’s List. He was also forced to work in a munitions factory filling shells with explosives and last saw his mother and sisters after he, his brother and father were separated from them in 1942.

Harry, who was one of six children, was born in Sonsowiec, Poland, in 1927. He told those at today’s event that one of his earliest memories of the war was from 1942 when 650 people were taken to a wood and shot. He said: “I was in a truck with a lot of other people and could hear the shooting. We had a woman who started screaming, so they stopped the truck and shot her. They separated all the women and children, and they were put on wagons and taken away. That was the last time I saw my mother and my sisters. The trains took all the women and I did not have time to say goodbye.” Harry, a retired dentist, is now one of a handful of Holocaust survivors who visit schools to tell their stories. 

He said: “People say it can’t happen again but it did, in Cambodia, in Europe, Serbia and now, as we are seeing, in Syria with Aleppo. That is why I talk to the schoolchildren, so they can hear the story. It is my story, it is a living history.” Harry also took part in a question and answer session and received a standing ovation after his talk. The theme of Holocaust Memorial Day 2017 was How can life go on? with candles lit at the event in memory of those who lost their lives during the Holocaust and other genocides".

Tony Green UNISON NEC Candidate Male Seat Yorkshire & Humberside

"I want to a build a union that looks after you - I know the pressure you, your families and your colleagues are under. So I will always stand up for you, and ensure that UNISON properly supports our members both inside and outside of the workplace".

Tony Green Male Seat Yorkshire & Humberside

Sunday Night Live - Fake News Invasion 29 Jan

SNL is back! Post Truth Politics: 5pm, Sunday 29th Jan 2017 @GerrysKitchenST    View this email in your browser

Register here! Sunday Night Live 2017  Post-Truth politics & ethics in the digital age

What is it, does it matter and what are the implications for progressive politics now?  'In this era of post-truth politics, it's easy to cherry-pick data and come to whatever conclusion you desire’  Oxford English Dictionary 'Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts' The late NY Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihant In this so-called ‘Post-Truth’ age, objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion over appeals to emotion and personal belief. We witnessed the cold reality of this with Brexit last year. More recently, the election of Donald Trump as US President is a seen as who since his inauguration last Friday has a Press Secretary already pushing ‘alternative facts’ about crowd sizes at Capitol Hill. While Post-Truth politics has been described as a contemporary problem, it has been a long-standing characteristic of political life, though less notable before the advent of the Internet. The idea of a post-truth era has been percolating through public discourse for at least a decade. In 2005, Stephen Colbert popularized the concept of “truthiness” to describe statements people feel are intuitively true - regardless of whether they are backed up by facts. Five years later, in a column for Grist, blogger David Roberts coined the phrase ‘post-truth politics’ suggesting voters were more likely to choose a party aligned with their identity and values, and consciously seek out evidence to support its proposals, rather than assess the facts and then choose a party. The Internet clearly has had a flattening effect. Your best friend’s opinion on Facebook looks the same as a thoroughly sourced story. One person’s blog looks the same as an article in The Guardian. Then you have algorithms serving users content that aligns with their existing beliefs. Think about the echo chamber your Facebook space has become, and the way in which falsehoods and dubious claims rapidly spread. So is it a problem? Well, the danger is that it serves to undermine informed civil discourse creating strong polarized online and offline communities with troubling effects. It also diminishes the place that ethics should play in our politics and amongst our political leaders who have a civic duty to tell us the truth. But whose truth do they promote and for what ends? Consequently, this week’s Sunday Night Live - our first after a few months off  - will be discussing what can and should be done in response with an expert speaker who will help us critically navigate this challenging new terrain.   Sunday Night Live Feel free to invite your friends, circulate this email to your networks and post on Facebook & Twitter!