(... a page to announce Labour meetings and events that may be of interest, including reports on them. For more information ring 313843 or email here)
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Austin Reports Back

At the Grimsby Labour Party's first regular meeting (4.6) since the election, Austin Mitchell commented on some of the issues that the coalition have highlighted.

He disagreed with their proposed constitutional reforms. Though sensible to have fixed term parliaments, five years was too long. Most countries had four years, and three could be a better option. The Liberals had not got their way on Proportional Representation. The Alternative voting system, under which electors could list the candidates in order of preference, sounded very democratic, but experience showed it did not always give a fair result. Those at the top of the ballot paper had an advantage, which could be as much as 10%. It would pay to have a name such as Ayling.

The cuts already announced , and those anticipated, were certainly too large at this time. They would likely cause considerable hardship to many. The cut of a further £40 million for Yorkshire Forward would cause unemployment in this town. Several projects are in jeopardy, such as CATCH. The government's first cuts will mean less money for music, Train and Gain, and classroom assistants. The subsidy to help youth unemployment will go, and this is all before the promised budget cuts.

The Liberals had caved in to the Conservative demand for large cuts. Given those taking place in other countries, particularly in our export markets, the prospect is at best for a lengthening of the recession and at worst for a renewed economic turndown. Yet our government debt is less than those in France, Germany, or Italy.

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Shona McIsaac gave a talk (5.2.10) about election campaigning for the general election. She pointed out that in 1997 Labour had a lead of about 20 points in the polls, whereas the Tory lead now was between 7 and 10 points. She said their experience in the Cleethorpes constituency indicated that the candidates, including Austin Mitchell, were more highly regarded than the parties themselves.

Shona spoke at some length about the best methods to use with Labour's information and campaigning techniques. This was naturally of great interest to those in the audience involved in day to day campaigning.

She was confident that Labour would win Grimsby.

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In a talk (6/11/09) Peter Sagar spoke about how Amnesty revealed and publicised abuses of human rights in many countries. He gave the example of Burma, where citizens could be imprisoned for seven years for using relatively minor freedoms such as using the internet without permission.

He had several times been to Thailand to help Karen refugees. The Karen people lived in Eastern Burma and had been persecuted for many years, their villages having been destroyed regularly.

Amnesty had a number of groups who followed injustices in other countries, publicized them, and were sometimes able to help the victims.

Amnesty was founded in1961.

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It's not often we hear younger Labour members putting forward their ideas - why they joined and what they look for. To some older members they seemed very moderate and sensible - not a group of extreme left wingers . It led to an interesting discussion.

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Speaking to a Labour meeting (12/6/09), on " The State We're in", Austin Mitchell thought the Labour leadership question was now settled for some time. Changing the leadership in the Labour Party is a long winded process. We might have done slightly better with Alan Johnson, but changing horses now was pointless.

Feeling in the meeting about MPs' expenses was strong. Austin explained his own misdemeanour (a minor mistake four years ago). He was concerned that some MPs were being condemned without proper consideration. He thought there were perhaps twenty who had taken advantage of slack procedures (fewer than 5%).

Austin said there was certainly a case for a fairer electoral system, and he had always favoured some form of proportional representation.

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Speaking to our local TUC Linda McAvan MEP told how the work of the European Parliament had become more important. Consumer protection was an area where they had agreed some useful legislation. One example was the caps being put on the charges of mobile phone calls and texts.

Now that Britain accepted the Social Charter, workers will benefit from the decision to increase by four days their minimum annual paid holiday entitlement.

It was helpful and useful to establish some common rules across national boundaries. They often had requests from companies for problems to be sorted out to make international trade fairer and easier.

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Our discussion (April 3rd) on Unemployment and the World Recession formed a contrast between the growing familiar picture of many local firms either closing down or shedding staff and world recession getting rapidly worse. Unemployment is 15% in Spain and 11% in Ireland. Some 20 million migrants are estimated to have been laid off in China. The world bank expects 53 million people to fall below the extreme poverty level. The discussion reached no cheerful conclusions.

Austin gave a brief summary of how it all began.

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Chris shaw, leader of the Labour Group on the North East Lincs Council, gave a talk to Grimsby and Cleethorpes members, and led a discussion about issues facing the Council (Dec 5th).

He said the Lib/Dem and Tory controlled council lacked focus. Each of the two parties seemed to be following their own agendas. He referred to the Wintergardens site, which should surely be a key tourist spot, rather than a medical centre.

The Forward Groups in the authority are playing a useful part in the community, and should be properly financed.

The most important matter soon to come before the Council was the budget for next year. Labour would study this closely, as it would probably include spending and investment plans that Labour objected to. When they thought the Lib/Dem/Tory policy was wrong they would present properly costed alternatives.

He commented that the Council were losing hundreds of thousands of pounds because of their investments in Icelandic banks. Lincolnshire County Council, who had the same advisors as North East Lincs, had withdrawn their savings from Icelandic banks last April.

Asked whether the Labour Group agreed with the proposal to have direct elections to the police board, Chris Shaw said they opposed it.

Austin Mitchell answered questions about nation local government issues.

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A meeting, with Dave Webb as the speaker from CND, was hosted last week by Cleethorpes CLP. He said that CND was now fifty years old. He reminded the meeting of the dangers of nuclear war, and gave examples of how, during the cold war, we came close to an exchange of nuclear weapons on more than one occasion, simply because of technical communication failures.

The danger of a world nuclear war may not appear so imminent now, but tension between India and Pakistan, both nuclear powers, shows the need for a renewal of the non-proliferation treaty. Governments recognise this, though most would not give the necessary meaningful concessions. Dave Webb thought it essential to maintain pressure on all governments to begin negotiations for a process of nuclear disarmament.

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Linda McAvan MEP
Linda spoke and answered questions about current European matters.

One issue of great interest to members was the revision of the Working Time Directive. Working on average more than 48 hours per week has to be to by the workers concerned. Even now some firms do not give a fair choice, it was said that working very long hours can lead to accidents and inefficient working. This so called 'opt out' was now being questioned.

One big advance which our government had accepted is to give temporary and agency workers, who remain in their job for 12 weeks, the same pay and conditions as the colleagues they work with.

Linda's main concern at the moment was to get climate change proposals fast tracked -- to ensure 'clean' cars and to make the market for carbon work better. ( The market for carbon is in effect a tax on all industries that in their operation produce CO2, the main 'greenhouse' gas.)

She was asked why the parliament still had to spend a week a month in Strasbourg, as it was obviously expensive in both money and carbon. She replied that a big majority in the European parliament would like to end this, but unfortunately John Major had agreed to it as part of the treaty negotiated in 1992.. Neither the parliament nor the Commission had the power to reverse it. It would require the agreement of all member states of the EU.

Labour Conference Report
Our delegate, Sylvia Moss, in a meeting to Labour supporters, gave a full report about the atmosphere and realities of Labour's Manchester conference.

She described the electrifying effect of Sarah Brown's introduction of her husband ( Sylvia also emphasised this point when she gave an interview to the BBC). The feel of the conference was very good, and although it was true that there were few controversial debates, this was partially counter-balanced by protect rallies outside the conference, on the fate of Remploy and the plight of Postal Workers, amongst others.

The Grimsby Labour Party's contemporary resolution did receive support, but was not chosen for debate. Some big unions preferred other, not too dissimilar ones.

Sylvia also spoke about the number of fringe meetings she attended. Much real debate took place there (with excellent food and drink often included!). They form an interesting and important part of political conferences, and an opportunity to meet with government ministers and with other delegates from our region. For an account of a women's meeting she attended click here

The conference was described as more like a convention, than the "red in teeth and claw" clashes of earlier days. Outsiders can now see and hear the actual conference speeches for themselves, and there is less for the 24 hour media to pounce upon. It makes for a more sober and perhaps duller experience for delegates.

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