"tax avoidance, everyone does it"

Brilliant. Tories justifying tax avoidance by rich. Hat tip Wrexham for Labour Facebook.

Ed & Education, Education, Education

On Thursday lunchtime I went to see Labour leader Ed Miliband at a policy launch on Education which took place at Haverstock school in Camden, North London. This state run comprehensive was where Ed and his brother David were educated.

While waiting for the event to begin I had a chat to a women sitting next to and by coincidence she was a retired former teacher of Ed at this school. Her name was Kate Myers and she was his form teacher and later head of house.

Of course I asked whether she had any juicy gossip about Ed when he was in the school and she shook her head and said "No, he was absolutely lovely".

Graham Lane, former Newham Council Chair of Education, was there and we had a chat about local issues. I must get around to reviewing Graham's excellent book "Local Government and Democracy - an insider's view" which is actually a first hand account of the massive changes in education policy in in recent decades. It has not always been a pretty tale.

The current head teacher of Haverstock, John Dowd, (who has a magnificent trimmed beard) introduced Ed to the audience and said the school always welcomes former pupils, including future Prime Ministers. 

Ed spoke about how important the school and its "extraordinary teachers" had been to him. A good education is imperative not only for pupils but also nations. He announced plans for a future Labour Government to increase spending on Education at least in line with inflation and limit primary school classes to 30. He also wanted parity of esteem for technical and academic qualifications.

In the Q&A the media present ignored education and failed to ask Ed a single question about it and instead only asked about the row between Ed and the Treasurer of the Conservative Party about tax avoidance. While this is an important subject the event was supposed to be about "Education". It goes to show how shallow and irreverent traditional UK media is making itself. I suppose if Ed had talked about changes to private school education they would have shown more interest.

I wasn't picked for the Q&A which was a shame since I was going to welcome his comments about the importance of paying teachers well with making sure that school support staff are also recognised as being vital to a great education and who equally deserve decent pay.

At the end I said to Ed's former teacher Kate that she must be very proud of Ed and what she has helped to achieve. She replied very softly but firmly "Yes, I am".

So there you go all you undecided and floating voters. Vote Ed for Prime Minister. Teacher knows best.

Councillor Dianne Walls OBE

Congratulations to top Labour Forest Gate Councillor and former Newham school head, Dianne Walls, for her award of the Order of British Empire (OBE) last week at Buckingham Place.  Well deserved and what a great photograph! hat tip Conor.

UNISON Housing Association AGM - Stella Creasy MP Keynote Speaker

Don't forget the branch AGM is next Tuesaday 17th February, 6-8.30pm at City Hall, The Queen's Walk, London SE1 2AA (the London Assembly building). 

London Assembly member (and former branch member) Murad Qureshi is hosting the meeting whose theme will be "Rights at Work". 

All branch members welcome. Our keynote speaker will be Labour Shadow Minister and London MP Stella Creasy. 

There will be sandwiches and soft drinks as well as other speakers from UNISON. 

Check out agenda, motions and other information in the branch Annual Report - have a look for information about what your branch officers have been up to over the last year. You can also find the branch's annual reports on our website at: http://unisonhablondon.org/resources/annual-reports/

Councillor report to West Ham Ward: February 2015

This is my written report as a Newham Councillor to West Ham ward Labour Party branch which meets every month. The ward thought to save time they would prefer written reports from Cllrs of which they could then ask questions.

Councillor Report to West Ham Ward

WEST HAM WARD LABOUR PARTY tel: 020 3373 **** or email John.Gray@newham.***.**

Ward meeting 5 February 2015

On 7 January I attended the Executive meeting of the Local Authority Pension Forum (LAPFF).  The forum believes that Council Pensions funds are being misled by accountancy firms about the profits and risks of companies they invest in.  They are taking advice by Cherie Blair QC on the matter and are lobbying the Financial Regulator for changes.

On 8 January I attend a finance committee meeting then full governors meeting of Rebecca Cheetham Nursery School, E15.  At the meeting the recent OFSTED report was discussed. The governors and staff were pleased that the school had gone from “requires improvement” to “Good” but were disappointed that they only narrowly missed obtaining “Outstanding”.

I did then go to the West Ham ward meeting that evening but it had finished early

On Saturday 10 January I held my surgery at Vicarage Lane community Centre. I had 3 cases - all involving housing issues.

On Wednesday 14 January I met with the Chief Executive of Newham Council, the Director of Finance and the Monitoring Officer with other Cllrs who are very concerned at the East Ham Campus overspend and unlawful expenditures.

On Wednesday 21 January I attended the AGM of LAPFF.  Please note that I am no longer a Newham Council member on the LAPFF and have reverted to being a trade union representative.

On Thursday evening 22 January I held a surgery at Brassett Point. Cllr Whitworth and I had swooped surgeries at my request due to a clash. I had one resident attend regarding a complicated planning dispute with a neighbour.

On Friday 23 January I meet up with the new engagement manager for West Ham and Stratford at the Stratford Library with Cllr Whitworth.

On Tuesday 27 January I attended a very moving and dignified remembrance event for Holocaust Memorial Day in the Old Town Hall in Stratford which was attended by our MP Lyn Brown.

In the evening I attended the Overview and Scrutiny commission meeting at East Ham Town hall where we scoped out our investigation into East Ham campus overspend and governance failures.

On Monday 2 February I attended a very interesting meeting of local Cllrs on Social media at  Coffee7 in Forest Gate. Publishing my Councillor reports on social media was one of the outcomes. 

Union Rights are Human Rights

This is me speaking last week at our UNISON London Regional Council AGM.

The motion was on "Union busting by UK public service providers" (see link for wording).

There a number of completely rogue and fascistic large UK Charities and Housing  Associations who refuse to recognise human rights and who threaten and attack union activists trying to protect their members.

This motion argues that no employer should have access to any public funds or procurement if they do not have a recognition agreement with a TUC affiliated trade union.

"Council, the United Nations recognises that there are 10 fundamental human rights and of those 10 rights is included that of free assembly for trade unions and collective bargaining. In the history of our union movement, activists have given their lives and their liberty in the fight to have trade unions recognised.

Unions in this country and all over the world are under attack. In the UK are numbers have gone down significantly but in recent years numbers have stabilised and we may see soon a return to growth. It is no coincidence that the massive decline in pay in recent years has been linked to the decline of collective bargaining. Workers desperately need the unions to protect and strengthen their terms and conditions by collective bargaining.

The best way to get recognition and collective bargaining is by action by members forcing anti-trade union employers to negotiate and bargain with unions. Yet when you are in a fight with employers for justice at work you want every help you can get.

Council, is it not perverse that in this county vast amounts of public money is handed over to organisations, which are hostile to unions? Why is this money going to organisations who don't believe in human rights? If public money was going to those who employed child labour or used corruption there would be an outcry. Yet we have allowed the government and employers to pick and choose which human rights they want to respect. A human right is a human right.

No organisation which refuses to recognise a trade union should be allowed to bid for any form of public money or support. No grants, No contracts, No loans, no Partnerships, No deals - not even housing benefit.

Council, What have they got to hide? Remember, that there is an extreme right wing ideology against trade unions. It is called corporatism. A core belief of corporatism is to get rid of trade unions and replace them with powerless and compliant staff associations.

While we would expect some hostile private sector employer to be anti union, we have organisations in this country masquerading as socially responsible charities.  They not only refuse to recognise trade unions but carry out trade union busting to threaten and frighten union activists and members.

Council, please support this motion and help send a message that trade unionism is your human right and we will not tolerate attacks on our human rights from anyone. Council, I move".

(motion was passed unopposed. I am not sure yet if it was selected for submission to our National Delegate conference. However, a version will be debated at the Community Conference later this month and I hope to try and send it by some route to the Labour Party conference in September)

A day with G Company 7 Rifles on Salisbury Plain

On Saturday I spent the day with 7 other Newham Councillors as the guests of G Company 7th Rifles Regiment, while they were training on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire.

G Company is our local British Army reservist unit in Newham, based at Cedar barracks in my ward next to West Ham park. This trip had been organised by the one and only, Terry Paul, Cllr for Stratford ward.

The idea was to give local Councillors some understanding of what our reservist soldiers in the modern army have to go through. Terry and I had both been members of the "Territorial Army" (TA) when we were younger, so we had some idea of what to expect. But in our day the TA role was to support NATO against a Soviet Union invasion of Germany. Not to serve on hostile active service operations such as in Iraq or Afghanistan, which modern day reservists are normally expected to carry out.

We arrived at the Drill Hall at 7.45 and we were somewhat to our surprise were issued with combat overalls, waterproofs, Bergen's (rucksacks), 24 hour pack of rations, mess tin, cooker and steel helmets. Everyone was very welcoming and pleased to see us. We then drove by a minibus to Salisbury Plain which is a massive military training area and got off at at some disused farm buildings.

During the trip down the soldiers accompanying us were very honest and frank about their experiences while on active service. By coincidence one was born in Canning Town, a street away from where Terry was brought up while the other was his possible distant cousin. At the farm buildings we had a series of briefings about our day and were advised to put on all our warmest and windproof clothing.

G Company had arrived on the previous Friday evening and had spent the night sleeping out in the open and were carrying out reconnaissance training exercises all Saturday until about 2am the following day.  They were then planning a dawn attack on an "enemy" position on the Sunday morning.

We discovered why we had metal helmets as we climbed into our army cross country heavy goods vehicle to be transported to our first site. I used to be a military HGV driver and in my day (an expression which makes me feel pretty old) there was only a bench either side of the rear of the HGV that we were expected to sit on as passengers. Nowadays you have to wear a metal helmet and sit in racks with an airplane style safety harness. Going across rough country you appreciate wearing a helmet and harness.

After about 15 minutes we stopped at a wood near a training ground, got out and walked to the company machine gun platoon exercise. The platoon were practising coordinating and firing 7.62mm General Purpose Machine Guns (GPMG)

We then spoke to the machine gun teams about what they do and examined the GPMG and their SA 80 rifles. The machine guns, the tripods and belts of ammunition were so heavy you could not imagine carrying them as well as your other military kit.

Afterwards we went into a nearby wood which had been the sleeping area for the company the previous night and had a fantastic presentation by a rifleman on how to cook lunch from our "24 hour ration packs".  It was very cold in the wood and we all enjoyed the hot food even if it took us a little while and a bit of trial and error. Hot food is a brilliant pick-you-up that you only really appreciate if you are very cold.

We then went off to observe a section of the Rifle platoon carry out different patrolling exercises and formations. If a patrol was attacked they practiced firing back and maneuvering either to attack or move away. This is what infantry soldiering is all about. If you come under fire on a patrol you know what to do instinctively since you have practiced this time after time after time.

It was sobering to think that some of the more experienced soldiers present had actually done this in real life and had carried out these exercises while under fire from live bullets.

Finally, we drove back to the base in the HGV and then had a debrief with a cup of hot coffee then left to drive home to East London. All of us fell asleep on the way back. At Cedar barracks we dropped off our kit and changed back into our normal clothes.

I think that every single one of us Councillors really enjoyed the day and found it fascinating and different but also the friendliness and hospitality shown by everyone towards all of us was simply stunning. Thank you very much G Company 7 Rifles. You did us proud.

Afterwards some of us went to the Black Lion in Plaistow to give a toast to 7 Rifles and wish them well with the rest of the exercise.

I must admit that I was also thinking that day of my Grandfather, Frederick Matthews, who in 1915 did his basic military training in the Salisbury Plain and then went on to command a machine gun platoon in Gallipoli and later in the trenches in France. Did he practice such military skills in these very same fields and valleys 100 years ago?

Protecting our Pensions from Tory Con Trick

UNISON Housing Association delegate, Mitsy Harman, speaking at the regional AGM last week on our motion "Protect our Pensions" (see link here for text). This is an early draft of her speech.

"Council, from April 6 this year, this Conservative led government is about to play a huge con trick on ordinary working people.  People who have skimped and saved over the years to put money by for their futures.

Council, this money is being deliberately put at risk and the only ones to benefit will be the City crooks that finance the Conservative Party, as they rob our members over the age of 55 of their money and that of their spouses.

Remember the Tories hate anything that is collective, they don't want pension boards or independent trustees looking after their members money and making sure that it is safe. They would rather dismantle our person schemes and hand them over directly to big business to profit from.

Tory Chancellor, George Osborne, calls April 6 "pension freedom day". Council, this is not freedom, it is an occupation, an occupation by those who see you as easy pickings; an occupation that will destroy lives and end up with many of our members retiring into and dieing in poverty.

Our members in the Local Government Pension Scheme and other funded schemes such as the Pension Trust and the Social Housing Pension fund will be targeted by armies of thieves, spivs and charlatans, as they did under Thatcher, when millions of people were told to buy personal pensions and sell their company schemes.

Those of you here who have pension money invested in stakeholders or auto enrolment will also be targeted by those wanting to steal your futures as well.

We must as a union save our pensions and save our members from having them stolen and exchanged for snake oil. We have a responsibility to make sure that our pensions are safe. One of the reasons for forming unions was for decent secure retirements and we must do whatever is necessary to defend our members and their pensions.

Please support this motion, Council, I move". It was passed unanimously.

Newham Councillors on route to 7 Rifles

This picture is from this morning, just before the 8 of us went off to join our local British Army Reservists - G Company, 7 Rifles in Salisbury Plain.

We got back this evening after a great day with G Company. I will write up a full post tomorrow but in the meanwhile, can we all think of G Company, who are now spending their 2nd night sleeping out on Salisbury Plain in the freezing cold while preparing for a practice assault at first light tomorrow.

As well as all the other British Forces personal, who are still putting themselves in harms way across the world.

UNISON London LGBT "Equality at Work" Labour Link event at House of Commons

This great picture is from last weeks London UNISON LGBT "Equality at Work" mobilisation event at Portcullis House. I chaired the meeting on behalf of London Labour Link. Margret Hodge MP and Stephen Twigg MP were the guest speakers and reminded us that the Labour Party was the first political party to take LGBT equality at all seriously. While LGBT Chair, Deirdre Costigan, (next to Margaret) gave a fantastic speech about how no one should take these rights for granted if there is a future right wing government.

We are going to arrange for UNISON London LGBT activists to join West Ham CLP canvassing sessions for Labour in Ilford North. 2pm on the 2nd Saturday and 4th Saturday at Fairlop Underground station entrance. If you can let me know you are coming do so or just turn up at this time and place.