Sunday Sectarianism: Let GP's Run our NHS!

Hat-tip thingy to Col. Roi

(My GP is of course wonderful and hopefully does not read blogs)

Giovanni's Lavoro Blog

Blogger has included a "Stats" counter facility since May 2010. 

To my surprise (see screen print right) it would appear that "John's Labour Blog" is somewhat popular in Italy!

While this blog had most readers in the UK (29,545 pages views) second apparently is Italy with 11,606 page views.  Beating the United States into third place with 9,860.

Not entirely sure for the reason for this and suspect some sort of tracking error by blogger?

But anyway "ciao" to any Italian comrades:)

Letter to David Cameron

"In proposing a reply to one’s opponents, in the best Oxbridge tradition, it is traditional to start by finding at least one flattering thing to say of them. This letter is in more of a Roman tradition. I come not to praise Caesar but to bury him.

Was the tone struck at the start supposed to be Churchillian?

“We can build a country defined not by what we can consume but by what we can contribute. A country, a society where we can say I am not alone. I will play my part. I will work with others to give Britain a brand new start.”

Winston was rallying the country to stand up to the Nazi hordes when he asked us to fight them on the beaches, a somewhat more noble enterprise than your government is attempting. You are asking us to bow down to the greed of the financial sector and the bankers who have cost this country dearly, to self-flagellate while you pull the great achievements of Britain down about us. You are defending the indefensible, declaring war on the working people of this country.

Of course the reference may have been intended to be more to JFK, asking not what the country can do for you but what you can do for your country. But you sir are no John Kennedy, more the boy who cries wolf trying to scare us into believing the unbelievable.

Like your Chancellor before you, you are content to lie to the British people, spouting the same old right wing ideology dressed up as urgency and necessity and accepting the praise of the IMF, a discredited body who failed to see the financial storm coming even as the tornado blew in. Your economic policy turns the clock back to the disreputable Tory policies of the 1920’s. Another Great Depression anyone?

But then, when my family were standing in dole queues then, yours and Osborne’s were probably dining at the Ritz. Then, as now, as the song goes, it’s the rich what get the pleasure and the poor the bloody blame.
“Reduced spending,” you say will be difficult, “but lets remember a lot of businesses have had to make savings in recent years”.

But can you answer an honest question? How many businesses have remained solvent while cutting wages, cutting investment and selling off the plant and machinery? But that is what you propose to do to the British economy, isn’t it?

You cannot be serious in asking us to trust your government with the NHS when the White Paper that your party has just produced will dismantle its infrastructure and sell off the component parts to the highest bidder, producing a health care system akin to an American model where treatment depends not on your illness but on the ability to pay, thus ensuring the highest profit for privatised providers?

Please don’t ask me and the rest of the working people of this country to believe you when you talk about poverty. For the Tory Party, poverty is another country, one you have never visited and have no intention of travelling to. I doubt that Mrs C counts out the leckie money, the rent and the council tax from her meagre minimum wage, to see if she has enough left to feed the kids that week. Spare us the crocodile tears.

“Fairness isn’t just about getting help from the state”? Your quote. You said it. What about the help given to the tax dodgers and non doms who fail to pay their way? Why is the state helping them dodge paying their fair share?

You talk of “more freedom for local councils to keep more of the money when they attract business to the area”. At the same time you deprive local government of funds necessary to keep services running. We remember the great cities of this country in the 1980 are when you tried the same tactics. When Glasgow, Newcastle, Liverpool and Manchester were starved of necessary investment and they became urban wastelands from which businesses fled. We don’t look forward to time turning back.

We know what you mean when you say, "No more top down, bureaucrat driven public services”. Strip out the adjectives and there is the truth: - No more public services. Strip out the professionals, as you said of the police service and leave law and order to the special constables, the Keystone cops, or the hobby Bobbies. And since we don’t have enough university places or apprenticeships for our young people, let’s ship them to the colonies, sorry offer them “international service". Thunderbirds are go!

I’m afraid your roots as a PR man are showing. Your performance as an international statesman is as convincing as Roger Moore’s in 007. There is no integrity, only bluster and sounds bites hiding the use of political power as a means of ensuring that post war social democracy is dismantled, and that we return a life that is solitary, poor, nasty brutal and short.

So I won’t be heeding you plea “to pull together”. In my world suicide is to be avoided, as bad for the health".

Jane Carolan - hat tip UNISONactive

It's Grim Down Sarf: SERTUC Cuts Watch

SERTUC (South Eastern Region Trade Union Congress) are publishing a monthly guide to the cuts facing our region.  There has been concern that some people think that the "cuts" will only impact on "the North".  When in reality:-

- "The highest change in long-term youth unemployment in UK is in Medway in the South East - up 158% compared to next highest West Lothian up 120%, with Wandsworth in London the 6th highest increase, and Peterborough in the East of England in 13th place (out of 231 authorities)

- Lewisham and Hackney in London have the highest claimant to jobs ratios in the UK, with 7 other London boroughs in the top 20 (out of 206) Many of the authorities with the highest percentage of public sector jobs are in the SERTUC region, including Oxford, Cambridge, Canterbury and Hastings at over 40%, and 45 others above the national average of 26.9%

- 20 of the 62 authorities to already receive a larger than average cut to their grant allocation for 2010 were in the SERTUC region

- 500,000 people in the South East sub-region live in areas that rank within the 20% most deprived in the country

- the South East England Development Agency estimated (in August 2010) 100,000 job losses following the public sector cuts (74,000 public sector, 26,000 consequent private sector losses)-

- London has the second highest unemployment rate at 9.3% (North East 9.4%)".

By coincidence I got an email from the Fabians (I am a member) inviting me to a Policy Network meeting on Monday called "Southern Discomfort Again" about the failure of Labour to attract support in the South of England during the last election.

Our NHS: Our UNISON, Our Future - London Health Conference 2010

Today there was a really successful training conference at Congress House for UNISON London Health Branches.

This is probably the biggest UNISON Regional Service group meeting in the country.  Our General Secretary Dave Prentis was the keynote speaker. 

I will post on the many excellent speeches, presentations and Q&A's.  The sparks did fly in some debates but credit to everyone that we had some diverse and passionate differences of view without any nastiness.

Radio 5 Live: Pre Hutton Report on Public Pensions

This morning I was picked up from home by a car at 04:20am (the joy) and taken to the BBC studios in Shepherd Bush.  I was being interviewed on the Radio 5 "Wake Up To Money" business news.  Later today (08:00am) Lord Hutton was due to publish his interim report on the future of Public Sector Pensions.

I was there as a "shop steward and member of UNISON who is in the Local Government Pension Scheme" (LGPS).

I live in East London but at this time of night/morning it only took just over 25 minutes to drive to the West End.  Young people were still in the streets walking home from parties or night clubs. 

I was looking forward to this because I hadn't been interviewed in a studio before and I welcomed any opportunity to try and counter the sheer rubbish being put out about public sector pensions.

At the BBC I was wheeled into the studio with presenters Mickey Clark and Andrew Verity at 05:30am and interviewed alongside pension consultant, Dawid Konotery-Ahulu, who was in another studio.  You can check out a "play again" recording and podcast here.  I'm not sure how long this will be available.

I thought it was quite a fair debate (even if the first question was as ever about the prospect of strike action).  I did get an opportunity to try and argue :-

• Against the "propaganda, misconceptions and down right lies" told about public sector pensions. 
• We should not have a race to the gutter or to the bottom in pension provision.
• There are £100 billion of assets in the LGPS which could pay for all pensions for the next 20 years without any further contributions from anyone (not that I am suggesting that!)
• I pay nearly £190 per month to my pension and having been contributing similar levels for nearly 20 years.
• The most I could get out of my pension after 40 years of service is half pay and 1.5 x final salary lump sum
• The average LGPS for women is £2800 per year.  These pensions are not gold plated.
• In the NHS pension there is already an agreement to restrict employer contributions to 14%.
• If you got rid of final salary schemes then you will not save any money since if you want to avoid pensioner poverty you will have to spend similar or even more on money purchase schemes.  Decent pensions costs money.
• The real pension scandal is the 2/3 of private sector employees whose companies make no contribution whatsoever to their pensions.  Many of whom will have to rely on means tested pension benefits when they retire and this will have to be fully funded by all taxpayers.  

Afterwards I went out of the studio and soon after the next guest was sent in.  I was escorted to the reception and chatted to the researcher about pensions (ironically the BBC was supposed to be on strike over pensions yesterday). Another car took me home for 06:30 and I was able to have enough time for a quick run along Wanstead Flats in the morning fog before work.  

I'll post another time on the actual Hutton Report (when I have caught up on my zeds)

World Day for Decent Work - Thursday 7 October

Today is "World Day for Decent Work".  Check out "BloggersUnite" for further details.

"WDDW therefore has three core messages for this year:

1) Growth and decent jobs, not austerity, are essential to beating the crisis and ending poverty.

2) Quality public services are essential for a decent life and must not be slashed in the name of fiscal consolidation.

3) The financial sector must pay for the damage it has caused and be made to serve the real economy and real human needs".
Let's see if Lord Hutton is going mark the occasion by making his interim report on Public Pensions due out at 08:00 today really fair and equitable (see next post).

Labour Party Conference 2010: Bloggers 4 Labour fringe

Last Monday I was a member of this panel at the conference fringe chaired by London Labour MEP, (and blogger) Mary Honeyball.  I was first to speak then Islington Councillor and head of David Miliband social media campaign, Jessica Asato; the popular website Labour List’s acting editor, Mark Ferguson (who despite a dare did not appear in the supposed atypical male blogging attire – boxer shorts and dressing gown) and Labour “Social Media Tsar”, Kerry McCarthy MP.

There were around 100 people present in the fringe.  Many of whom were furiously blogging, tweeting and facebooking as we spoke.  There was even a few die-hards writing notes with pen-and-paper!

I went first about the legal perils of blogging and how Alex Hilton, Dave Olser and I have lived in “interesting times” for the past 3 1/2 years.  Since my case and Alex is still “on-going” (although in its final stages hopefully) I was a little circumspect about what I could say. 

I did warn bloggers that they must be mindful that it only costs £75 for someone to make a claim (serve a writ) for libel no matter how seemingly ridiculous the claim.  If you are in receipt of certain benefits it is even free.  You could spend thousands of pounds in legal costs (and years of your life) trying to get such a case kicked out with no guarantee you would ever be able to reclaim any of your costs. 

There are a few things to safeguard yourself - such as if you make a somewhat controversial post or comment on something you see on a web site - then save a screen print of it.  If you allow comments then make sure you do indeed moderate them.  If you get a complaint - take down the post until you get advice. 

Some say that the best posts are written late on a Friday or Saturday night after a “few” drinkies – but it is best to post only in the cold harsh light of the following day.  No matter how brilliant you thought it was at the time.

It is not all doom and gloom.  There were a number of occasions of “high comedy”.  Such as when Dave Osler "Ex-punk. Ex-Trot. Unchanged attitude problem" (definitely not a New Labour Supporter)" had to stand up in chambers and respectfully address the bowler hat wearing and MCC tie judge as “Master”.

Check out top legal blog “Jack of Kent” for fuller details of case's.

Next, I spoke about my cunning plan to “drive a wedge in the Coalition by social media”.  Blogging is usually driven either by the top or the bottom.  There are a number of high profile national individual or party blogs with widespread readership and interest.  There are also a huge number of smaller local and personal blogs with a small number of readers.  There is a gap in the middle to exploit. 

I wanted to encourage a Labour movement family blog in every locality.  In London this could be on a borough or regional basis. Run jointly by the local Labour Party and the affiliated trade unions.  A campaigning and reporting blog which will primarily be aimed and used to demonstrate to the 3 million trade union affiliates (and others) that the responsibility for the massive cuts in services and benefits that we face are down to the CONDEMS – and no one else. 

(I did mention that this wasn’t probably the most sensitive time to mention the further political mobilisation of trade union members!).  

Next was Jessica who was able to tell us what it was like to run a national mass new media campaign.  She suggested that there should be a fund for bloggers who face legal action and we need to do something about vile misogynistic anonymous commenter’s (which Mary concurred)

Mark is in the best tradition of Labour bloggers – enthusiastic, knowledgeable, cynical yet amusing.  He will make a fine editor of Labour List as long as they do not run out of money.

Kerry is a total new media enthusiast who wants to use this medium as a new means to communicate our traditional Labour values to the real wider public.   

Mary noted that she “was very pleased by the number of serious bloggers in the audience Councillor Stephen Cowan, Jon Worth, Tracey Cheetham, Mark Nottingham, Colin Ellar and the increasingly well regarded Political Scrapbook”.

There was a very good Q&A from the audience and since no-one mentioned my grand design for local Labour movement blogging, I assume that everyone agreed that it was a wonderful idea - or were too polite to disagree. 

Mary gave all us panellists at the end a very lovely thank you card and a little pressie (see – bloggers do have manners!). 

My pressie was the DVD of “A Very British Coup”.  Which perhaps I ought to send on to our “Red Ed” to prepare him for what might happen when he does become PM!

Many thanks to Mary and her team for all their hard work for what was an enjoyable and instructive fringe.

Would Osborne label Mumsnet "deficit deniers?

Just a thought.  On the popular family website Mumsnet there has been over 1000 mainly hostile posts since Monday about the ending of Child Benefit for higher rate tax payers? 

Are they all "deficit deniers" as well George?

Hat tip Col. Roi.

"On the knocker" for Labour's Abbas for Mayor: Uniting the East End

Last night I went out door knocking for Labour in Limehouse ward, Tower Hamlets.  The team was led by local Labour Councillor, David Edgar.

There was a number of Labour teams out canvassing in various parts of Tower Hamlets that night. 

One local resident helping out was a fellow UNISON Housing officer who worked in Haringey.

There were lots of low rise blocks with no lifts, so plenty of healthy exercise going up and down stairwells.  Once again I thought why pay for an expensive gym to get fit when you can go canvassing for Labour for free! - perhaps the Party ought to charge?

I felt we had a really good response on the door step.  People wanted a real Labour Mayor to work with real Labour Councillors and real Labour MP's to fight the impending Tsunami of CONDEM slash and burn cuts about to engulf the borough. 

During the canvass I asked David why politics in Tower Hamlets is so, so boring, why nothing ever happens in the borough, why everything is so unexciting, drab and predictable.  David immediately replied that it is because everyone in the local Party loves each other, are always in total agreement and have never a bad word to say about each other.

:)

(campaign office is at 349 Cambridge Heath Road, London, E2 9RA - 3 mins from Bethnal Green tube and is open for canvassing and leafleting from 10am-6.30pm every day until the election.  Or you can ring 0207 729 6682 or email abbas4mayor@gmail.com for further details).