#TUC13 Only 15 of the 54 unions which make up the TUC are affiliated to the Labour Party. Although they include the largest unions, trade unionists who pay a political levy to Labour make up a declining minority of the 6m workers represented at Congress. The TUC itself has no constitutional relationship with Labour. Yet rather than delivering a unifying pre-election message about ending the pay freeze, abandoning austerity, reversing the drive to privatisation (including Royal Mail), restoring workplace rights and collective bargaining, Ed Miliband chose to re-affirm his catastrophic proposals to end the collective affiliation of unions to the Labour Party: 'I respect those who worry about change. I understand. But I disagree. It is the right thing to do. Change can happen. Change must happen. And I am absolutely determined that this change will happen. It is the only way to build a truly One Nation party so we can build a One Nation country.'
Tory Education Minister Michael Gove's
speech inciting Labour leader Ed Miliband to
attack the union link by comparing him unfavourably with Tony Blair was a blatant attempt to influence Labour's internal constitutional review - 'our country cannot afford - as we had in the '70s - the same old Labour Party with a weak leader buffeted by union pressure to adopt policies only they want and asking hard-working people to pay the bills'
Ed Miliband’s speech in Newham on the subject of social security was an excellent example of the failure of the Labour front bench to think beyond the Tory terms of debate. It features the workshy, “hard working families”, compulsory work for the unemployed and better testing for the disabled.
The Labour Leader displayed all the understanding of the working of the social security system that is commonly found in the average episode of the Jeremy Kyle show. There is a simple rule that states that every time Frank Field MP praises a change in the social security system check the smell on the air. And in this case something stinks.
An excellent speech by Ed Miliband today at the Royal College of Pyschiatrists setting out what UNISON members and stewards working in mental health service have known for many years - that there is a crisis of under-funding with demand for services massively outstripping capacity - and you can't get a quart out of a pint bottle:
#lab12 There was a telling emphasis by Ed Miliband when talking yesterday to the BBC’s Andrew Marr. Pressed on the union link, the Labour leader talked up the party’s links with those individual trade unionists that pay the political levy - but gave no acknowledgement of the collective input of unions at all levels of the party in terms of leadership, people and resources:
A large UNISON contingent took part in Saturday’s 128th Durham Miners’ Gala, with dozens of branch banners on display on the march as well as regional delegations from Northern Ireland, North West and the host Northern Region. The presence of Ed Miliband, the first Labour leader since 1989 to attend the Gala and address the rally, ensured that this powerful celebration of trade union solidarity received national media attention:
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/121454
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/
UNISON today condemned the Labour Party's suggestion that public service workers should accept more pay freezes and pay cuts as "a slap in the face". Labour's misguided statement comes at a time when it is predicted that 700,000 jobs will be lost in the public sector by 2017, two thirds of whose workers are women.
It is no surprise that Len McCluskey has publically voiced the concerns that have been quietly uttered since Miliband’s disastrous first year as Leader of the Labour Party. Whilst being the Leader of the Opposition is bound to be a thankless task, one of the key roles is to hold the Government to account. Instead that opportunity has been squandered.
There is no doubt we are living in interesting times. This truly could be a defining moment for the Labour Party. Many commentators are though sensing a carefully orchestrated dance here, whereby ‘Red’ Ed is portrayed as less in hock to the Unions and the Labour Party effectively distances itself from too many undeliverable promises before an election which will start in less than three years time.
As Ed Miliband read out a list of concessions to Thatcherism during his leader’s speech, he referred to the outlawing of the closed shop and "strikes before ballots”, no doubt intending to signal support for the legal straightjacket in which successive Tory governments placed UK unions (which was accepted by Labour when in power).
#TUC11 ‘Britain’s problem isn’t unions threatening strikes. The problem for Britons is unions aren’t stronger. If they were, living standards wouldn’t be falling so fast’ writes
Kevin Maguire in today’s Mirror, on the Labour leader’s unhelpful comment yesterday that ‘while negotiations were going on, I do believe it was a mistake for strikes to happen. I continue to believe that’.
#TUC11
Reaction to That Speech: On being asked if they found the Labour Leaders speech invigorating, two UNISON delegates confessed –“we fell asleep”. Another answered “It was bollocks”.
The flash bulbs have started, #TUC11 so the Leader of the Labour Party must be in the room. It would be nice to report a hushed expectancy. There isn’t one. There is a less than riveting introduction from Leahy. The man is on.
The spectacular avoidance by Francis Maude to answer legitimate questions on this morning's BBC news about MPs' pensions was only matched by the equally appalling spectacle of Tessa Jowell following close on the heels of Ed Miliband to condemn today's strikers in the absence of facts.
In an incredibly unprincipled pitch to Daily Mail reading middle England, Ed Miliband boldly claims that Labour is no longer the party of benefits cheats at a time when benefit claimants face unprecedented attacks from the Con Dem Government welfare reforms. Surely there's some mistake here?
