I have been out of blogging action for the past couple of days as I went down to Brighton to join MP Kelvin Hopkins at a UNISON conference fringe meeting organised by leading activist Marsha jane Thompson of the LRC National Committee. Kelvin is often descrobed as the "alternative Chancellor of the Exchequer". His grasp of economics is way beyond most of us but he manages to explain it all in a way so accessible one can only wish the current Chancellor would take note. A report of the meeting is in today's Morning Star ( see link below).
As I was making the long trip back North from Brighton, Dave Prentis was urging the Conference to suspend payments to Labour CLPs on the grounds that UNISON should not be funding a Party which does not carry out its policies in Government.
The problem though is possibly more the MPs than the ordinary members, who are consistently frustrated and opposed as they move progressive policies at Party Conference and the National Policy Forum - only to have them kiboshed by the leadership.
UNISON has a large tranche of sponsored MPs in Parliament , many of whom ignore their calls against more privatisation in the NHS, and concerns at public sector pay. It is certainly time to call them to account.
Posts
2 comments:
Prentis' threat is an annual one, usually designed to persuade those who may be thinking of supporting resolutions calling for the political fund to disaffiliate from supporting Labour.
Yes, he tends to talk the talk......far better IMO to hold the MPs to account
Post a Comment