Slumdog & MoD Pay

Earlier this evening I watched the film Slumdog Millionaire which I found to be excellent, although I found the emphasis to be quite different from the book on which it is based. I am not going to give you a review on the film but you can find a a good one here.

I read the book when it first came out in paperback. I really enjoyed it and loved the premise, which certainly did come across in the film. The ending though is quite different from the book, which incidentally was originally called Q&A and written by Vikas Swarup. I might do a review of the book for you when I can find my copy...

I came back to some good news in my mail box - the MoD pay ballot results. PCS members have voted against accepting the divisive pay offer. The offer means that some of the lowest paid members would receive a cut in their earning potential whilst other members would receive as much as a 17% pay rise.

Preparing for Conference

The voting papers and agendas for the PCS main and group conferences all landed up in my mail this week. I am happy to say I have completed my voting papers and they are ready for posting tomorrow. Obviously I knew what agenda items were tabled for the group conference (I am on the standing orders committee after all ;-) ). But today for the first time I saw the National Conference agenda. The agenda is always very busy but reading between the lines I noticed some very interesting motions up for debate...

One of my tasks whilst at the conferences is to report on the key motions and debates, sharing information with PCS members who were unable to attend.

I am toying with the idea of doing 'Conference Live Tweeting' - live updates via twitter which will automatically update on my blog and also the local PCS site...

Message to the Government

The PCS Union is running out of patience with the Government over unacceptable delays in receiving national guidance for Civil Servants' 2009/10 pay offer. The delays are against the agreement made during talks last November.

"Our general secretary has written to ministers, and lead negotiators in our civil and public service bargaining areas have been asked to raise the issue with permanent secretaries and chief executive officers, to make the point that the delay in issuing the remit has led to unacceptable delays in the bargaining process."

The current economic crisis brings fears that there will be a fresh clampdown on public sector pay, which could be announced as part of the budget. PCS also needs to address the propaganda that is peddled by the press against public sector workers.

"One of the key tasks for us is to counter increasing propaganda in the press that is clearly designed to pit the private sector against the public sector. We will be working hard to rebut the inaccurate way in which public sector pay is reported."

"We need to confront these attacks both in the media and by campaigning politically to give the lie to the artificial divide that some are trying to create between public and private.In a recession, communities need adequately resourced public services more than ever.

Our campaigning will be supported by detailed research into civil and public service pay to challenge the myth that average public sector pay is increasing, while private sector pay is falling."

Meanwhile PCS is urging members in one Department to vote against the pay offer that is on the table. This offer, which is separate from the national agreement, is seen as divisive and suggests amongst other things a pay cut for some of the lowest paid staff. The shortening of pay scales will also mean that many members will lose out by being pushed back to the bottom of their pay band. Even though the offer has not yet been accepted, the Department has elected to impose the offer with effect from 1st May 2009 thereby forcing PCS to ballot its members and recommend that they reject the pay offer. Full details can be found here.

Message to the G20

From CongressTV.tv

On Saturday 28th March 2009, several hundred PCS members joined the 35,000 people from all over the country who marched through London in order to challenge the G20 ahead of the summit that is due to take place on 2nd April. The march started off from Embankment and wound its way to Hyde Park where the event culminated in a Rally addressed by several speakers. At the summit world leaders will be discussing their response to the current global financial crisis.

The event was organised by ‘Put the People First’ which is a coalition of trade unions, development charities, faith groups, environmentalists and other organisations. This coalition was formed in response to call on the G20 members to seek a sustainable route out of the recession.

Even before the banking collapse, the world suffered poverty, inequality and the threat of climate chaos. The world has followed a financial model that has created an economy fueled by ever-increasing debt, both financial and environmental.

Our future depends on creating an economy based on fair distribution of wealth, decent jobs for all and a low carbon future.

There can be no going back to business as usual.

• 'Put the People First' recommendations for the UK Government
• 'Put the People First full policy document'
• The BBC report on the rally
• Photo Gallery of PCS members taking part
  

Put People First

The G20 summit takes place on 2nd April 2009. World leaders will be attempting to tackle the recession and the global financial crisis. The PCS Union urges the summit to 'put people first'.

The last year has made us appreciate even more so than before that crises in one part of the world impact on other areas of the globe.

Solutions must therefore be truly global and not just designed to protect the interests of the most economically developed countries and the wealthy elites within them.

To get this message across, PCS has joined a broad ‘Put People First’ coalition of organisations, including the TUC and many others who were part of Make Poverty History.

As the world leaders are congregating in advance of the summit 'Put People First' is organising a mass march and rally in central London on 28th March 2009. The clear message to the G20 is 'put people first'.

A coach is being organised from Shropshire but unfortunately I have a prior commitment so I will be unable to attend.

Ellee has a really good post on this issue too.

My Temporary Space

After a little bit of trial and error I have managed to get my latest PCS posts into a temporary place, pending repair work on the server. The new look is only slightly different from the original but I think I am liking it better. Another job for the administrator, I think I will be in trouble...

I have also been investigating a more permanent back up solution just in case there are any future problems with the server. Free WordPress isn't the answer as it doesn't do all the things I need it to do. I think I have just about come up with a viable option. At least for the time being it has stopped me being obsessed with checking who has been visiting!!!

Some of you have commented that you have problems commenting on WordPress blogs and that you have to log in and out. I have never had problems with the WordPress blogs I have visited. My username, email address and blog URL are already there and waiting on the comments forms for me. Sometimes I do find Wordpress blogs slow to load though.

But don't worry I intend to keep this blog on blogger unless something goes drastically wrong.

Busy Again!

Due to the demise of my PCS blog for the third time this year I have been working on a back up solution. I have explored many options and all of them are a compromise, I have not been able to find a suitable alternative that provides all the original features. I am determined to get it sorted out!

So what else have I been doing? Yesterday I had a long commute to and back from London. I was attending a meeting in preparation for my PCS group conference. I am on the 'Standing Orders Committee' and we were assessing the motions that had been submitted for conference and also setting the conference agenda.

And today? I was at a meeting that was trying to get the Trade Unions and management back on message with each other after a difficult start... From my point of view, things should be back on track now.

Oh! Yes! I have just remembered I didn't tell you about my water leak (flood) at the weekend...

I know I have been neglecting you all, but normal service will be resumed ASAP!

Technology Takes Over!

Some of you may know that early last week I had problems trying to make comments on Blogger. On one occasion I spent quite some time making a detailed response then when I pressed the publish button, Blogger ate my comment! I had to start all over again...

It seems it wasn't only me that had problems, Sean is unable to comment at all! Phew that means it isn't me being incompetent.

On Friday I had an even bigger problem. The database where my PCS site is hosted suddenly decided not to play. It was working fine before I went out for the evening and when I got back it seemed to be sulking, it provided me with the following unhelpful response:

Error establishing a database connection

Normally it wouldn't matter too much - but it happened on the very day that the site administrator had gone away until next weekend! We have both tried to access the site remotely, but the firewall says 'NO'. I suppose that is reassuring, but not very helpful ;-)

Now I have a backlog of posts and suffer from blog withdrawal symptoms...

I think it is time for some peace and tranquility.

Branch AGM

As mentioned a couple of days ago, today was our Branch AGM. The meeting rattled on at a fair pace through all but one of the agenda items, the final one. This was a member's question and answer session. Suddenly all hell broke loose! All sorts of questions about, health, safety and pay were asked. The sort of questions that should have been asked of the reps as soon as soon as the problem arose...

The questions were all answered or noted ready to take to the appropriate forums. The Chairman suggested that members should address their concerns as they occur so that problems can be sorted out as soon as possible.

I think next year we will be going back to the usual format of having a guest speaker ;-)

I almost forgot to mention the extremely good buffet that was provided.

AGM Season

The time schedule is tight in the run up to the PCS National and Group conferences. At the moment it is time for all the branches to hold their AGMs and ratify business that will be discussed at the conferences.

Our AGM will be held on Friday, but today Cosford held their AGM and I attended with a couple of my colleagues. The meeting rattled along quite quickly and it was the first time that we had experienced 'speed debating'. (Please read that last comment carefully...)

The guest speaker was a PCS National Officer, referred to by the Shropshire Star as 'A top union chief'. It was news to him ;-)

He was able to update the members with information on the national pay negotiations and also the latest Defence Training Review (DTR) developments.

PS: Do I need to say the AGM = Annual General Meeting?

Media Bias & Freedom of Speech

Last week the BBC published an article about the Defence Training Review (DTR). It was entitled '£12bn military academy 'on track'. The article was quite biased and lacking in research. Chris Ames sums it up very well here.

The article doesn’t mention that the project is already delayed and over budget nor the fact that Qinetiq, the equal equity partner along with Sodexho, are themselves experiencing difficulties. See the following articles:
The Cost of Privatisation
Qinetiq Prepares to Tighten Finances

I won’t go into whether or not the 5000 jobs figure is accurate, but that number of ‘new’ jobs won’t be created at the base. The jobs are already held by Civil Servants around the country who will be expected to relocate to Wales or lose their jobs.

Many of the trainers will be unable to relocate to Wales and the loss of these skilled trainers will put Defence Training and front line troops at risk.

In addition to the above there is the question of putting the Defence of the United Kingdom in the hands of private companies that are ultimately out to make a profit for their shareholders. A further risk is that the companies involved may get taken over by a non-British organisation which could generate a conflict of interest between corporate aims and loyalties and national security.

You may also be interested in this article entitled ‘The Ministry and the Media'.

A bit of an Update

Following on from my post yesterday:

Today it has been announced that the Metrix consortium have come to an agreement with Sodexho who have agreed to join Qinetiq on the basis of being a 50/50 equity partner in provision of the defence training review.

More information can be found here.

A Privatisation Too Far

These are the words of Conservative MP Mark Pritchard when he spoke out against the Defence Training Review (DTR) which would see defence training privatised and delivered by the Metrix consortium.

PCS has been talking about the pitfalls of DTR for several years but now its message seems to have reached the attention of the mainstream media.

From today's edition of The Guardian:

"The project involves planning applications and big investments in infrastructure projects as well as the sale of large amounts of existing MoD property. Defence officials have expressed doubts about the impact on military ethos.

Mark Pritchard, Conservative MP for The Wrekin, who stands to lose the Defence College of Aeronautical Engineering at Cosford in his constituency if the project goes ahead, describes it as a "privatisation too far".

He added: "St Athan does not have the infrastructure so it needs new roads etc. We have all that in the West Midlands."

The consortium and finance is unravelling, he continued, giving the MoD a "massive headache". He called on ministers to make an urgent statement in the Commons on the project.

A consortium called Metrix, consisting of Qinetiq, the MoD's privatised former research and development agency and Land Securities Trillium as equity partners, was set up to finance and manage the project. But Land Securities recently dropped out, leaving Qinetiq having to look for a new partner."

Interestingly, The Telegraph has also picked up on the story. The Telegraph seems an unusual place for a Conservative MP to be reported speaking out against privatisation...

• Guardian Article.

• Telegraph Article.

UnionBook Public Launch

Recently I blogged about the Beta launch of UnionBook which is a social networking site for Trade Unionists. Over 500 people have already joined up and I have found it very useful as a networking tool and it has raised the profile of campaigns that my colleagues and I are involved in.

On his Blog Eric Lee has now announced that the site will be fully launched to the public this weekend:

This weekend will see the public launch of UnionBook - the social networking website for trade unionists, sponsored by LabourStart.

UnionBook offers many features that you and your union will find useful. Among these are:

* Blogs - build your own blog today. Free, with no ads.

* Groups - create a group to support your union and your campaigns. Groups can have discussion forums and shared documents. They can be public or closed. They're a very powerful tool.

* Post your profile and sign up your friends - just like in any other social network (with certain subtle differences).

We're adding more features all the time, fixing and tweaking things, but with over 500 users already using our beta version, we think it's time to go live and to recruit thousands more trade unionists. UnionBook will never be as big as the giant commercial networks like Facebook, but once we have several thousand trade unionists using it, I'm confident that it will become a powerful tool for our movement worldwide.

This public launch will increase the membership of the site which can only lead to the site being an even more powerful tool.

A Busy Day

Yesterday was rather hectic, I had to attend two Trade Union meetings in Birmingham. In the morning I only just managed to get to the station in time to catch the train. I had forgotten to factor in the school kids making their way towards the various schools and the amount of traffic it caused. It was slow going trying to cross all the busy roads!

On arrival in Birmingham there were an awful lot of police around. We weren't sure if this was supposed to make us feel safe or otherwise...

The meetings went well, although I do seem to have managed to pick up another job to do. The train journey back was however not so good...

We arrived at the station in plenty of time and all managed to get seats. Then a large crowd of people pushed on the train and the railway staff were yelling at people to move down the carriages. The train was by this stage absolutely packed and late. It turned out that, what had happened was that another train had broken down and all its passengers evicted and told to get on the train we were on. Our train covered the same route as the other train but stopped and different stops. So to accommodate everyone there were more stops than usual. I think I have said it before - 'the joy of trains'.

In other news... This morning I have had my head put in a 'hair climate zone'. What an unusual experience that was. It is supposed to be good for my hair and it certainly cleared my sinuses.

ClustrMaps

Last years ClustrMap showing visitor locations has now been archived and I find it quite fascinating to see all the different countries that have visited my blog in the past year.

In other news it has also been brought to my attention, that my local PCS Action Group website has been linked to on the Wikipedia entry for PCS.

United Kingdom - United States - Canada - Germany - Australia - Ireland - Italy - Portugal - Russian Federation - India - Norway - France - Malaysia - Sweden - Philippines - Netherlands - Belgium - Brazil - Spain - South Africa - Europe (EU) Singapore - Turkey - Poland - New Zealand - Indonesia - Greece - Romania - China - Japan - Bulgaria - United Arab Emirates - Israel - Finland - Mexico - Argentina - Hungary - Thailand - Hong Kong - Croatia - Egypt - Pakistan - Switzerland - Saudi Arabia - Austria - Denmark - Czech Republic - Korea, Republic of - Taiwan - Serbia - Slovenia - Lithuania - Iceland - Vietnam - Iran, Islamic Republic of - Ukraine - Malta - Venezuela - Slovakia - Cambodia - Bosnia and Herzegovina - Costa Rica - Macedonia - Sri Lanka - Nepal - Peru - Bahrain - Qatar - Bangladesh - Guatemala - Lebanon - Kenya - Colombia - Georgia - Cyprus - Tunisia - Botswana - Latvia - Asia/Pacific Region - Lao People's Democratic Republic - Cayman Islands - El Salvador - Barbados - Nigeria - Nicaragua - Oman - Libyan Arab Jamahiriya - Ghana - Uganda - Bermuda - Falkland Islands (Malvinas) - Algeria - Ecuador

Speaking up for Services

Mark Serwotka, PCS General Secretary has spoken out against the comments that Lord Digby Jones made about the Civil Service.

“Frankly the job could be done with half as many, it could be more productive, more efficient, it could deliver a lot more value for money for the taxpayer.

"I was amazed, quite frankly, at how many people deserved the sack and yet that was the one threat that they never ever worked under, because it doesn't exist."

Mark has branded the words as narrow minded, naïve and insulting showing that Lord Jones has a complete lack of understanding of what the Civil Service does:

"Civil servants are working flat out in Jobcentres across the country to get people back into work, as well as gearing up for tax return deadline day and ensuring the courts system operates smoothly.

"Lord Jones would do well to remember that the driving licence in his wallet and the passport in his pocket are delivered by low paid civil servants who deliver the everyday things we take for granted.

“He must be living on another planet if he thinks these things can be done with half the people. Civil and public servants across the UK will find his comments grossly insulting.

"The civil service has already suffered 80,000 job cuts which has damaged service levels and with more cuts to follow key services will remain at breaking point.

"Rather than making ill informed comments, Lord Jones should remember the billions being wasted on private sector consultants and the billions lost through botched privatisations.”

I would like to add that in addition to the billions wasted on private sector consultants and botched privatisations even more is wasted on inadequate or undeliverable computer systems. Only yesterday the Public Accounts Committee issued a report warning that the Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) programme is already 18 months late and at least £182m over budget!

The £7.1bn Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) programme was intended to provide a single information infrastructure serving the army, navy, airforce and central MoD command but the project is now 18 months late and at least £182m over budget, a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report warned today.
If fully implemented the system will support 150,000 terminals and 300,000 users at more than 2,000 sites, as well as troops on operations and Royal Navy ships. The EDS-led Atlas consortium won the contract to design, install and run the DII back in 2005.

As well as problems with software delivery, the PAC blames "totally inadequate research" in assessing the buildings where terminals would be installed - many of which were subsequently found to contain asbestos - for causing delays to the project.

The rollout methodology, proposed by Atlas, was too inflexible to cope with the challenging reality on the ground, according to the PAC.

PhotoHunt - Hope

PCS members campaigning and hoping to make a difference to public services. Those of you who have been visiting for a while, will know that in this case we had a success but that related campaigns still continue.

Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense regardless of how it turns out.

Vaclav Havel

For more PhotoHunt pictures check out tnchick.

Private Eye Reports on Land Trillium Departure

The latest edition of Private Eye reports on the recent announcement which stated that Land Trillium were dropping out of the Metrix consortium. The Metrix consortium are lined up to deliver the PFI deal that will lead to the privatisation of defence training:

Land Securities was to convert a "super-hangar" at St Athan, South Wales, into a huge new defence academy for around £1bn, but it seems the credit crunch has put paid to it raising that kind of cash. Whether another property company - most of them struggling to raise money - steps forward looks uncertain. The problem with the private finance initiative is that although the profits are great, they come over a long period and not many firms are in the mood for splashing out and waiting for their cash. If the Ministry of Defence can't persuade another company in, the whole scheme could collapse.

Meanwhile the list of compromises on quality that will be made if the deal does go ahead lengthens by the week.

Tory MP for the Wrekin Mark Pritchard, whose constituency will lose out when aeronautical training moves from RAF Cosford to St Athan and who has described the scheme as "a privatisation too far", recently raised a host of concerns with the National Audit Office.

This latest Private Eye article on Defence Training (DTR) which was part of a 'Defence Special', can be viewed here along with their full report on recent Defence news.

In related news 'Wales on Line' reports on the £100m plus plan that is being considered, to build a new road to Cardiff International Airport:

It has been suggested that the road would be to serve the St Athan training academy.

Personally, I think it would be an outrage to spend such huge amounts of Welsh public money on feather- bedding the training academy project.

This is a scheme of the UK government and will be provided by a consortium of private companies. It will cost £12bn.

They will understandably want to make a profit but why should Welsh taxpayers subsidise private organisations?

The full article entitled 'Why Subsidise Private Profit' can be found here.

More information on DTR from a Shropshire perspective can be found here.

Government's Welfare Reform White Paper

John McDonnell MP recently blogged about the 'Government's Welfare Reform White Paper':

I raised my concerns in Parliament, explaining that with 2 million unemployed, the country facing the longest and deepest recession in decades and also according to Gordon Brown a lack of affordable childcare, the Government has sacked 30,000 workers in the Department of Work and Pensions. These are the very people who are supposed to help and advise people get back into work.

He also questioned the government's priorities:

This recession was caused by a small group of very rich speculators in the banks and financial institutions who brought our economy to its knees but who have walked off with huge bonuses and massive pensions. We now know that between £20 billion to £100 billion a year of tax payments is not paid by many of these companies and individuals as a result of tax evasion and avoidance.

In my view the Government should prioritise tackling this tax evasion by the rich rather than attacking the poorest in our society.

John McDonnell interviewed Mark Serwotka, PCS General Secretary on the Welfare Reform proposals.

I am sure you know I think John has a point there ;-) What do you think?