UNISON North West has produced an excellent policy statement on Devo Manc. They are rightly concerned by the blurred lines of accountability, future funding and how services will be delivered or commissioned in the future.
http://www.unisonnw.org/unison-north-west-agrees-position-statement-on-devo-manc/
One of the key areas to be included in Devo Manc is health spending. Labour’s vision for greater integration of health and social care was a strong concept which the Labour Party placed as a central plank of its NHS policy. Devo Manc appeared to wrong-foot Andy Burnham pre-election and led to accusations of a policy rift with the regions Labour leaders. Whether this is true or not it appears to me that Andy Burnham is the critical friend who should be listened to.
In the aftermath of last week’s Scottish referendum the big political issue is the impact on the UK Parliament of greater devolved powers to Scotland, namely to what extent if any should Scottish MPs be excluded from voting at Westminster on say, matters affecting English public services. UNISON conference delegates might consider that this is one area where the union has been ahead of its time.
Over ten years ago UNISON NDC approved a report on bargaining and devolution which led to a simple rule change which dealt with the new reality of bargaining structures in devolved administrations and thus empowered the standing orders committee to make recommendations on restricting voting to delegates covered by specific negotiating machinery. Who are the modernisers and who are the dinosaurs?
I dropped my car off for a service this morning around the corner from the Downing Street Men’s hostel - an ironic name where many of Manchester’s homeless alcoholics gather for a bed, warm food and sign posting to agencies. It was 8.30AM and they were standing in weak sunshine cracking open their first can of beer. It made me smile because the car radio was just reporting on the Guardian letter from a range of think tank signatories offering their views on Ed Miliband and what he needs to concentrate on to win the next election. The upshot of the debate was less centralised public services and more devolution.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/23/ed-miliband-labour-manifesto-thinktanks
'How are we going to achieve a fairer, more equal society? Can you achieve that with independence, through the status quo or with more devolution? In terms of local government, it is really important that people start talking about what kind of local government we want.' UNISON Scotland's deputy regional convenor Stephen Smellie comments on the constitutional debate and other topics in a personal profile published by Scottish political journal Holyrood:
http://www.holyrood.com/2013/02/for-the-people-unison-scotland-vice-convener-stephen-smellie/
Saturday was the second (and last) day of this year's Forum in Cardiff. Check out the report on
day one here. The traditional Labour Link Social had been held the previous night and "a good time had been had by all" (it also raised money for UNISON welfare).
In a keynote speech today Ed Miliband said that the Labour Party had been ‘too reluctant to talk about England in recent years. We have concentrated on shaping a new politics for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland’ and committed to ‘continue devolving powers to English local authorities and away from
London’.
Whether this amounts to a resurgence of a Labour Party regional agenda in England - which was disastrously derailed by the North East regional Assembly referendum in 2004 - remains to be see? The current issue of Red Pepper includes a radical proposal by Paul Salveson for an elected Regional Assembly for the whole of the North of England ‘to counter the economic and political dominance of the south east and build strong economic and cultural relationships with the increasingly confident and autonomous Scots and Welsh’ – ay-up that sounds like a good idea!
http://www.redpepper.org.uk/a-voice-for-the-north/
We need to recognise the "Scottish or British?" debate as the blind alley it is. Instead we should be articulating the Scotland we want to see, writes UNISON Scotland NEC member Gordon Mckay in the Morning Star on the day UNISON’s Scottish Council ran workshops on that very issue.
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/117784
‘Which way will the unions jump?’ asks Chris Bartter in a debate on unions and independence as the clock starts ticking on a referendum in Scotland. Just how difficult will that debate be since most STUC affiliates are UK entities, with few of them reflecting internally anything like the political devolution that exists in reality?
Interesting reflections on yesterday’s UNISON strike in Northern Ireland by Lorcan Mullen on the Slugger O’Toole blog. Large scale strikes against cuts in devolved administrations are relatively unchartered waters and very complex given the cause and effect of austerity measures. There is political divergence between the hard line cost cutting UK Government and the administrations in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales which since devolution have been generally pro-public services and less hostile to workforce interests but nonetheless operate within Westminster imposed financial straitjackets:
http://sluggerotoole.com/2011/10/06/dissent-and-devolution-notes-on-the-unison-strike/
The need for change while avoiding the danger of over-reaction to the seismic shift in party control in the Scottish Parliament was well recognised by UNISON’s Scottish Committee meeting in Glasgow on Tuesday.
This week the Con Dem Coalition announced the tax shambles, which will impact upon middle class families, and has implications for the debate on universal benefits, balanced by fair and full taxation on all income. The FT saw this "spreading the pain" argument of millionaire Chancellor Osborne, as a cover for the worst to come in the October Spending Review, which will target, our people, our services and our communities. The FT again questioned the mandate for the threatened austerity measures.
Representatives of the Scottish, Welsh and Irish trade union centres met with the TUC at its annual Congress in Manchester today to discuss the impact of the Con Dem Government's economic policies. The proposed cuts in public spending will hit the devolved nations hard, as well as many of the most vulnerable areas and regions of England.
The politically charged blame game, feasting on whether a terminally ill man is not dying soon enough, shows no respect to the victims of Lockerbie, the sovereignty of the Scottish legal system or the concept of compassion. It betrays a political process based on a sincerity (if you can fake that, you’ve made it) that comes only from opinion polls. Followers masquerading as leaders.
News that the All Wales Convention, established by the assembly government, has stated that a 'yes' vote in favour of boosting powers is obtainable - is to be welcomed by UNISON, as it clearly reflects the views of the union put to the Richard’s Commission back in 2003.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/wales_politics/8350333.stm
