Congratulations on the Royal Birth by a Loyal Republican (but)

While I have tried to avoid as much as possible the media frenzy on the birth yesterday of a son (and heir) to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. I'm not going to join in the carping and name calling by some of the "left" on Facebook and other social media.

Frankly, a lot of it is just plain silly and actually puts back the cause of a British Republic and an elected Head of State. It just makes us seem to be, dare I say swivel-eyed loons?

As I posted here last year on the Queen's Jubilee I am opposed to the politics and not the personalities.  Name calling is not going to change the 80% of the British population who support the monarchy. Reasoned argument might. Until then the Queen is our Head of State.

So I support those who welcome the birth of a new Prince but point out we should not forget the other 2000 babies born yesterday in the UK. Many of whom will live and die in poverty. Changing from a monarchy to a republic would not necessary make a jot of difference to this (as in USA). Making considered political and economic arguments for a different type of society will (eventually - fingers crossed).

Focus on Member Nominated Representation in the LGPS

This is the article I posted on the Pension Social Media site Mallowstreet for a feature they did on trustees. I have been short listed for the annual Mallowstreet Awards for 2013 as "Most Influential Trustee" (2nd year running) and "Top Blogger". 

"I've been a member nominated representative on the Tower Hamlets Local Government Pension Scheme since 1996 (there are no Trustees in the LGPS). I was nominated by my trade union UNISON and have been there ever since. In fact all the original Councillors, Council officers, professional advisers and fund managers have all left apart from me. I am also the admitted body representative.  

There are 101 different LGPS. Collectively they are worth around £130 billion. It is an open defined benefit scheme.  The Tower Hamlets scheme is worth (June) £930 million and has 16,000 members (5,200 active).  There is an investment panel which reports to a Council committee.

The main challenge as a "trustee" is keeping up-to-date with the scheme paperwork and keeping your pension knowledge current. The best part of the role (not really a highlight) is holding your fund managers and advisers to account. Especially with regard to good Governance and other ESG issues. It is surprising how poorly prepared some managers are when they come to present to panel. Even in Beauty Parades you find prospective managers come to see us and they haven't even read our Statement of Investment Principles.

The LGPS is changing dramatically next year with a new set of benefits. Also there are going to be local pensions boards set up in partnership with the trade unions and the employer representatives (elected Councillors). There will be for the first time 50/50 representation on these boards.

I think all member nominated trustees or representatives need more support and independent training. UNISON is planning to offer training and advice to its representatives. The TUC Trustee Network and the Association of Member Nominated Trustees (AMNT) have been really supportive (as of course can be social media sites such as Mallowstreet!).

It can be very difficult as a lay trustee to feel confident enough to challenge your advisers and managers. You need the input of your peers".

Olympic Anniversary Run 2013

I still can't quite believe that the London Olympics have been and gone (and its now almost a year since!).

Life in Newham has pretty much returned to normal but the Olympic Park (now renamed the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park) is there to remind us that it was all not a dream

This morning I took part in a 5 mile Anniversary run around the Olympic Park finishing off in the Stadium itself.

There were I believe about 12000 runners. The weather was warm but thankfully overcast so not too hot.

It was a strange feeling waiting for the start amidst all these thousands of like minded strangers dressed in the same blue National Lottery tee-shirts.  We were divided into white, red, green and pink sections and while we waited we were blasted with very loud "motivation music" with lots of bass. Pretty much everyone was cheerful and eager to go but a little apprehensive.

I wonder why we do this? I thought we are supposed to be living in an "individualist" society. Does this sort of thing appeal to some sort of collective race memory? Who knows (or cares).

The run itself went okay although at the beginning a little crowded in places so you had to walk for a bit then run then walk again.  You could not avoid bumping into people but nearly everyone was very "English" about things with lots of "sorry" and "excuse me".

It was superb to run again through the Olympic park. The waterways and green spaces are just absolutely stunning. I can still remember the awful industrial estate and ugly railway sidings that were there when I used to cycle to work from Forest Gate to Bow.

I had a bit of a panic when I saw a 3 mile marker when I was expecting the 4 mile one but thankfully I was looking at the wrong marker.

The best part was the final 300m along the Olympic Stadium running track to the finish line with the crowd cheering and clapping. That was a long, long 300m mind!

At the end we picked up our goodie bags and medals. As we went out of the park families and young children were streaming into it for their run.

I walked back to Forest Gate feeling pretty happy and content with myself albeit just a little sore.

(Picture of fellow Councillor David Christie bottom left and I have stolen his great pic of the "medal and Tortoise" from Facebook. Also Newham Labour Candidate 2014 James Beckles top right)

Newham's Wonderful Women

This is a speech by Newham (born and bred) Councillor, Ellie Robinson, at the Full Council meeting last Monday.

It was a marvelous speech and it was a shame that at that meeting we voted to change our Constitution so that Council meetings in the future can be filmed. Shame Ellie missed out on this.

"I am going to talk about Newham’s wonderful women.

We have a proud history of fabulous women here.  Yesterday was the birthday of Emmeline Pankhurst, born on the 14th July 1858, who founded the women’s franchise league which fought to allow married women a vote in local elections.

She later helped found the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) whose members were the first to be called the 'suffragettes'.  Emmeline's daughters Christabel and Sylvia followed in their mum’s footsteps and when the Union’s headquarters moved to London, Sylvia Pankhurst moved into the Canning Town Public Hall, now the home of Community Links on the Barking Road.  The first London branch of the Women’s Social and Political Union was formed right there. 

Today, we all continue to come across fabulous women everyday - helping to run our schools, our businesses, our voluntary organisations, and our health services, and, of course our council services. 

At the Mayor’s Town Show over the weekend, there were some fantastic women and girls performing, educating, organising, inspiring throughout the day.  On Saturday I went to the Forest Gate Women’s Institute food festival which is a fabulous family-friendly event organised by a great group who are currently campaigning against female genital mutilation. 

Last Friday, I was very honoured to spend some time with our social workers.  The woman who let me shadow her in the morning works all hours of the day, with a smile and with incredible patience, changing families’ lives in Newham.  At the end of the day I was privileged to meet with some of our care leavers and their key workers.  One care leaver spoke confidently about our children in care council and how it had given her confidence and ambition and new skills while bouncing her new born, much loved, daughter on her lap.  When I asked the key worker about the best part of her job she told me, without hesitation how proud she had been to be her birthing partner.

There are fabulous women doing worthwhile things all around us, yet this government clearly does not respect the contribution of women.  Women’s unemployment has risen to a 25 year high whilst men’s has decreased.  The Government’s attack on welfare and plans for growth are frankly leaving women behind. 

In addition, women are still underrepresented at the highest levels. 

·  UK women have slipped from 33rd to 57th place since 2001 in the international power rankings

·  22% of MPs are women

·  within the legal system, only 14% of the senior judiciary are women.

·  11% of UK bank CEOs are women

·  5% of Editors of national daily newspapers are women

This is made worse by there being a real lack of black women, Asian women, working class women, disabled women and lesbian, bisexual and transgender women in positions of power and influence. 

Ensuring that women are equally represented ensures that issues which affect half the population are understood and debated.  Last month, the very awesome Texas State Senator, Wendy Davis electrified the pro-choice movement with her 11-hour filibuster.  Facing down condescension and sexism, she stood and spoke for 11 hours to ensure the rigid anti-abortion bill would not go through.

We all know that important decisions affecting us all, men and women, are better made when different experiences and perspectives are heard.  Not having women at the table is huge waste of talent and potential which perpetuates itself, reproducing a model image of what leadership looks like, constraining and  stifling the aspirations of future generations. 

100 years ago this year Emily Davison was killed when she threw herself under the King's horse as a protest at the government's continued failure to grant women the right to vote.  100 years on, we can all vote but there is a long way to go.

Emmeline Pankhurst said of the Suffragettes, ‘We are here, not because we are law-breakers; we are here in our efforts to become law-makers.’  Emmeline broke the law so that I and others could help make it. 

Let us commit to ensure that, in Newham, in all that we plan and all that we deliver, ALL the women and girls in our care, in our schools, in our workforce, in our community have the support and the opportunity to be the best that we can be.”

Hat tip picture to Col Roi and Museum of London. 

Tolpuddle and the Essex Connection

This year my plans to go to the Tolpuddle Martyrs' festival this weekend in Dorset fell through again.

The 6 martyrs were farm labourers who were sentenced to transportation to Australia for forming a trade union in the village of Tolpuddle, Dorset 1834.

There was an outcry against this injustice and after 3 years the men were given free pardons and brought back home.

What many people do not realise is that when they returned from Australia they were given farm tenancies in Greensted and High Laver in Essex near Chipping Ongar. (TOWIE 1837?) This is only a 25 minutes drive from Newham in East London.

So today I retraced the walk I went on in 2010 (apart from getting lost this time) and revisited the historic Saxon church at Greensted where one of the Martryrs James Brine, had married Elizabeth Standfield (daughter of another Martyr) at the Church in 1839. I think this was their local parish church (despite most of them being Methodists).

The reactionary Rector of the Greensted Church at the time (I wonder if he took James wedding?) was virulently opposed to the Martyrs and helped make their lives so unpleasant that all of them eventually left and apart from one they emigrated to Canada.

Despite this latter association I would recommend that anyone who lives nearby and cannot make it to Tolpuddle to visit Greensted. It is believed to be the oldest wooden Church in the world and even the oldest wooden building in Europe. It is also incredibly beautiful and peaceful in lovely surroundings. 

PIRC Corporate Governance & Responsible Investment Journalism Awards 2013

On Wednesday evening I went to the PIRC awards at the Design Museum on the south bank of London.

The winning journalists were Tom Bergin from Reuters (2nd left) who won the Corporate Governance Award for stories on tax dodging by Google. 

While Rob Davies (3rd from left) from the Daily Mail won the SRI award for his work on polluting mining giant Glencore (now who would think there was good in the Daily Mail?).

I suppose that I should ask PIRC MD, Alan MacDougall (on right of photo) why there isn't an award for CG or RI Blogging?  Or is this a contradiction in terms? :)  Must ask Tom P (who was poorly last week and missed the event).

Chris Byrant MP at West Ham Immigration Debate

Yesterday evening West Ham Labour Party and our MP, Lyn Brown, hoisted a debate on Immigration with the Shadow Minister responsible, Chris Byrant MP.

This took place in the courtyard of the Old Town Hall, Stratford, Newham.

Immigration is a sensitive political subject which the Labour Party has I think on the whole, a proud record.  Yet we were clearly punished over our policy in the 2010 election by some parts of our core vote. The Party has vowed to learn from this while not forgetting our values.

Newham is probably the most diverse borough in the UK and West Ham Labour Party reflects this. So it was fitting that Chris should spend an evening listening and debating with Party members on this key subject.

Chris started by saying that during the last General Election  he was asked questions on immigration that he did not know how to answer. While he won't enter into any "dutch auction" with the likes of UKIP, he understands that there is genuine concern about immigration and that this concern has nothing to do with racism.

The UK have had massive benefits from migration and he is not going to spend all day apologising for the last Labour Government, since we did many great things such as the longest ever period of  economic growth but we made mistakes - such as not stopping bogus collages and not restricting the right to work in the UK for new EU members - and we need to admit this to voters.

Chris attacked UK companies such as Tesco who have been quite happy to sack British workers in order to employ cheaper East Europeans on insecure and temporary contracts.   They exploit all workers for profit regardless of the damage they cause to society. Chris finished by making it clear that the vast majority of British people are not racist but they just want things to be fair.

Chris then spend over an hour on a open Q&A with all members of the audience. Everyone who wanted to ask a question or make a comment did so.

My question to Chris was that as a West Ham Councillor during a recent surgery I had a family from an immigrant background come to see me about a serious housing issue. During which a serious complaint was made about all these "foreigners" who just arrive in this country and get "given" homes immediately. While I challenged their "facts" I think that the real problem is the unfair and insecure employment practices in this country that allow such inaccurate views to be given credence.

During the last Labour Government, the Corporate tax dodgers at Amazon were given government grants to build a huge new warehouse. Yet they employed no workers on decent terms and conditions, only exploited agency workers from East Europe.  In the past when we had fairer employment practices, immigration had not been quite the issue that it has now become. This exploitation of all workers is now a cancer in our society and can only be addressed by fair wages and employment for all.

Chris did a terrific job holding his own amidst a mass of questions and comments often strongly put. He answered them all I think with honesty and at times humour.  This was a great debate for us in West Ham and I hope Chris will take back something from us as well to contribute towards the National Party discourse.

Hat tip for some of the pictures in collage to various #WesthamCLP Facebook friends. Click on collage to bring up details.

Pensions Age article on Rana Plaza Building Collapse.

This is a short article I wrote on behalf of the Associated Member Nominated Trustees (AMNT) for Pensions Age magazine last month (sorry can't find on line link).  See my previous post
on this wholly avoidable mass killing.

"I’m sure that everyone who watched the TV footage of the collapsed Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh would have been shocked and horrified. The death toll is now more than 1100. The reasons for the collapse are unclear but there has been suggestions that alterations to the building were made without official planning permission and allegations of local bribery and corruption.

UK clothing retailer Primark who sold goods produced in this building (which is owned by FTSE 100 Associated British Foods) has offered to help with compensation payments. This is all very good but the question that pension trustees should consider at their next board meeting is this.

Have they done all they can to ensure that the companies they invest and partly own take all reasonable steps to ensure that their supply lines do not profit from potential death traps?

To be clear, the direct responsibility for Rana Plaza lies in the hands of its owners and State authorities. However, as owners of companies that have benefited from the production of cheap clothing we also have a duty.

We need to make sure that our fund managers know that not only do we care about what is done in our name and with our money but we believe it makes long term financial sense that we only do business with companies that can demonstrate they take all their responsibilities seriously".

My NEC report to UNISON Community Service Group Executive

In June I was re-elected unopposed as the Community General Seat representative on Unison National Executive Committee (NEC). Isobel (Izzy) McVicar the other Community NEC member was replaced by Janet Byran.

Izzy was the first ever female NEC Community member and had done a fantastic job on the NEC for our members and the union. I have no doubt that she will soon be back soon in a national position.

The first meeting of the 2013-2015 NEC was immediately after the end of our National Delegate Conference in Liverpool. This meeting was to elect our lay President and vice Presidents for the following year. I was really pleased that Maureen Le Marinel has been elected president of UNISON for the next 12 months. Maureen is branch secretary of the Lancashire police branch and is the union's first openly gay president.

Lucia McKeever, a nursing assistant is the new senior vice-president. Lucia is the first woman from Northern Ireland to hold this position. Maureen and Lucia are joined by North Yorkshire County Council branch secretary Wendy Nichols, as junior vice-president - making this the union's first ever all woman presidential team.

The first business meeting of the NEC was on July 3rd at the UNISON Centre building (our national headquarters) in Euston Road, London. At this meeting our general secretary Dave Prentis told us that mobilising for the NHS Rally on 29 September at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester - must be a priority for the union. It is also an event to defend the welfare state and public services. Which are key issues for Community members, both as workers and citizens.

Pay and the casualisation (such as Bank staff or zero hours contracts) of the workforce are the other campaigning issues for the whole union. Community Care and Support members have suffered from direct cuts in their wages while most of us have had “hidden” pay cuts due to years of below inflation pay awards (if any). Many of our members are also still on poverty minimum wage rates.

Assistant general secretary Bronwyn McKenna reported on a recent equal pay victory members in Scotland which will hopefully stop employers using ridiculous arguments to avoid equal pay justice.

The NEC has a number of sub-committees. I had been re-appointed by the lay Presidential team to be a member of Policy and Development sub-committee, an employer trustee on the £600 million UNISON staff pension fund and as a delegate to the TUC Congress. There is a great UNISON motion going to Congress on Fair Pay (not a minimum wage, not a “living” wage but fair wages including terms and conditions such as sickness benefits and pensions) which I will report further about soon. I was re-elected by NEC Link levy payers to the National Labour Link Committee.

Next was a series of elections by NEC members of Committee Chairs and vice chairs. During which I spent an hour stuck in a lift with 12 other NEC members. Which was not a particularly pleasant experience but as a Housing management officer gives me more empathy with my residents when they complain about lift breakdowns! (see picture above from inside trapped lift)

I am planning to make regular reports to Community members on NEC and sub-committees I sit on. The next NEC meeting will be in October. Please circulate this report to any Community members in your branch and let me know of any issues or campaigns that I should be aware of or can offer assistance.

John Gray

NEC Community General seat Member (and Secretary of Greater London Housing Association Branch). If any Community branches or members want to contact me please ring 07432 150 530 or email john.gray2012ATBtinternetDOTcom (personal blog "John’s Labour blog" http://grayee.blogspot.co.uk/ and Twitter @grayee)

How wrong public opinion can be on key social issues

Hat tip Redbrick "A fascinating paper published yesterday by the Royal Statistical Society and King’s College London – The Power of Perception - reported on a survey undertaken by Ipsos MORI which ‘shows just how wrong public opinion can be on key social issues’.

1. Teenage pregnancy: on average, we think teenage pregnancy is 25 times higher than official estimates: we think that 15% of girls under 16 get pregnant each year, when official figures suggest it is around 0.6%.
2. Crime: 58% do not believe that crime is falling, when the Crime Survey for England and Wales shows that incidents of crime were 19% lower in 2012 than in 2006/07 and 53% lower than in 1995. 51% think violent crime is rising, when it has fallen from almost 2.5 million incidents in 2006/07 to under 2 million in 2012.
3. Job-seekers allowance: 29% of people think we spend more on JSA than pensions, when in fact we spend 15 times more on pensions (£4.9bn vs £74.2bn).
4. Benefit fraud: people estimate that 34 times more benefit money is claimed fraudulently than official estimates: the public think that £24 out of every £100 spent on benefits is claimed fraudulently, compared with official estimates of £0.70 per £100.
5. Foreign aid: 26% of people think foreign aid is one of the top 2-3 items government spends most money on, when it actually made up 1.1% of expenditure (£7.9bn) in the 2011/12 financial year. More people select this as a top item of expenditure than pensions (which cost nearly ten times as much, £74bn) and education in the UK (£51.5bn).
6. Religion: we greatly overestimate the proportion of the population who are Muslims: on average we say 24%, compared with 5% in England and Wales. And we underestimate the proportion of Christians: we estimate 34% on average, compared with the actual proportion of 59% in England and Wales.
7. Immigration and ethnicity: the public think that 31% of the population are immigrants, when the official figures are 13%. Even estimates that attempt to account for illegal immigration suggest a figure closer to 15%. There are similar misperceptions on ethnicity: the average estimate is that black and Asian people make up 30% of the population, when it is actually 11% (or 14% if we include mixed and other non-white ethnic groups).
8. Age: we think the population is much older than it actually is – the average estimate is that 36% of the population are 65+, when only 16% are.
9. Benefit bill: people are most likely to think that capping benefits at £26,000 per household will save most money from a list provided (33% pick this option), over twice the level that select raising the pension age to 66 for both men and women or stopping child benefit when someone in the household earns £50k+. In fact, capping household benefits is estimated to save £290m, compared with £5bn for raising the pension age and £1.7bn for stopping child benefit for wealthier households.
10. Voting: we underestimate the proportion of people who voted in the last general election – our average guess is 43%, when 65% actually did.