The Wage Campaign Day -A Day to Remember–A Day to be Proud of
The Wage Campaign Day -A Day to Remember–A Day to be Proud of.
What a brilliant DAY. It was a day to remember. A day full of support and enthusiasm for the REAL core values of our Party. A day in which equality, justice, concern and support for the most vulnerable in our society was proclaimed loud and clear not only by those attending but by many all across the country who have signed the petition, gone onto the web sites, e mailed and shown their support . A day when the values which our GREAT Labour Party stands for and has always fought for were shown to be at its best and most determined to WIN!!.
Amongst all the difficulties and wrangling over issues upper most in the minds of the media we can be JUSTLY PROUD that both trade unions and politicians joined together to fight against the heartlessness, greed and typical attitudes of the Tory Party. These core Tory attitudes were shown by their proposal of the introduction of the scrapping of The Minimum Wage Bill. (We propose to increase the minimum wage from £5:75 to £5:80)This Bill gives REAL help and security to the lowest paid and most vulnerable people in the countries work force. THE TORIES WANT TO SCRAP IT - NICE ONE DAVE!!!???
A tremendous vote of thanks must go to the originator of the campaign; a young man from Shipley Yorks named Alex Ross. Alex spoke with courage, enthusiasm, determination and is very much a young man with a bright and exciting future in the Labour Party. It was Alex who out of a Street Stall Campaign took forward Wage Concern.com and urged John Prescott to include it in his own GO Fourth Campaign. J P had no hesitation in bringing his considerable influence to bear on encouraging this initiative to really take off in as big a way as it has. Also not to forget thanks to David Prescott for arranging the Parliament side of the day.
I would like to offer some of my own reflections of my day in Parliament and of the speakers we were delighted to listen to but I also ask that you go onto the web site - www.wageconcern.com which contains a great report of our speakers plus video clips of John Prescott and Rodney Bickerstaff. One speaker I would like to have had included in the clips was Kevin Curran from UNITE. Kevin spoke graphically of the abuse of the most vulnerable who are subject to low pay and working practices most would not believe still existed unless they actually heard about them for themselves.
My reflections of THE DAY WE STOPED THE TORIES IN THEIR TRACKS!!
9:50 Phew! Got my train O K and have just checked with a policeman outside St Stephens Entrance to Houses of Parliament just to make sure that everything is set for
11:00. ‘Come back ten minutes before 11:00 and will send you through’ he told me.
Time now for a cup of coffee and also to reread my print out from wage concern web site.
10:50 Going through security and into Westminster Hall (what a wonderful mediaeval building) I am directed up a side stairs to the Jubilee Room and meet by a smiling young man at reception table, I give my address and CLP with name of my M P. Along with cheerful greeting I’ve been given a copy of TRIBUNE to read (not read it before – dare I admit- but will get a copy in future very interesting). Really nice neon gothic room with nice green leather chairs BUT where is everybody? There are only 10 or so people in the room so what’s happening?
11:10 Not many people around but a very nice seeming young women is going round with a microphone talking to some of those present. When she comes to me I find out that she is from BBC Radio 4 and she asks if she can interview me. Well how about that! I tell her of the importance of the minimum wage not only to keep pay at a fair rate but also to make sure that employers aren’t able to undercut there vulnerable workers by only employing those who will work at a cheaper rate of pay. I finish my interview by saying that I am an OAP and saying ‘Thank you Gordon for looking after us OAP’s’ Not sure if I will get onto radio but I bet the bit about – thank you Gordon wont make it.
11:20 Still not too many people around. Although I’m sure there are people here in the room I should know, couple of trade union leaders over there – wonder who they are? Not sure just what is happening. At last I’m being rescued by a very nice young man (my lucky day)
‘Have you come to Lobby your M P?’ he asks me.
‘Lobby? How do I do that?’ I reply.
With loads of patience he explains that the reason there isn’t a lot of people around is that they are down in the St Stephens Entrance Hall lobbying their M P’s. I’m given a sheet of paper with the details of the campaign and asked to put my name and address on along with the name of my M P.
‘Do you want to meet her?’ he asks.
‘NO I don’t!’ I quickly reply. ‘I have met her and I don’t want to again’.
‘That’s O K will deliver this letter to her through members mail’. So off we go through Westminster Hall and into St Stephens Entrance (that’s where a lot of the BBC coverage on debates is transmitted from). With a bit of difficulty we manage to get the receptionist to accept our letter ready to be put into HER! Mailing Pigeon hole.
So that is it! I’ve now Lobbied my M P. Back we go to the Jubilee Room ready for the second part of our day; speeches from union leaders and politicians due to start at 12:00. It turns out that my rescuer works with Alex Ross and was also a PPC standing in Canterbury at the last election. Back at the room I’m glad to see that there are considerably more people than when we were last there ten minute before.
11: 40 Waiting for speakers I have some really interesting chats with people around me. It seems that everyone is either a PPC, Cllr, Union leader/Executive, student or Party Worker. I think I am the only ordinary Party member present – Hope the CLP are glad I went. We may be a small CLP but as I was able to tell Maggie Darling (unashamedly name dropping) we are dedicated and committed to ‘The Cause’.
Those attending must have ranged from 2 to 82 Years and although many, because of work or family commitments or difficulties caused by distance could not attend we were all committed to one aim and that is that whatever the Tories want to do to impose their grotesquely rubbish values no matter what happens in the future the Labour Party will ALWAYS be there to stand up for justice, the rights of all and the greater good of the many against the selfishness and greed of the few.
12:00 Speeches from Unions and Politicians get underway. Please see my opening and the web site reports which gives details far better than I can on what was said. All I can say is No matter what the papers want people to think with the support and the response shown the LABOUR PARTY IS ALIVE AND WELL AND READY TO TAKE THE TORIES ON WHENEVER AND WHEREVER THE FIGHT TAKES US!!!!!