A message from the General Secretary

It’s been quite a year for our union – and for me personally. You might already know that I had a heart transplant at the end of November and I am writing this from my ward at the wonderful Papworth Hospital – although I'll be back home very soon.

Words cannot express how much strength I have taken from the love and support of my wife, Ruth, and children Imogen and Rhys. I also want to repeat my admiration for the truly world-class team here at Papworth who deserve all the praise they get.

It’s been a tough year in many ways, with fresh attacks from the Tories on your terms and conditions at work. But we have won some notable successes – again fighting off the Land Registry privatisation and bringing an end to the most unpleasant aspects of performance management in the civil service.

I hope you find time to relax and enjoy yourself over the festive break. I wish you a very happy Christmas and here’s to a successful new year.

Mark Serwotka

The answer to the crisis in social care?

Tony Mulhearn of NW ARMS wrote this letter to The Observer:

Yet another investigation in addition to at least ten similar reports this year (Observer 11/12/16) confirms that which everybody with a smidgeon of awareness knows - that there is a crisis in social care. This crisis was inevitable since this fat cats’ government seized on the banker-induced economic crash of 2008 as an excuse to slash expenditure on social provision which is demanded by the wealthiest one per cent who bankroll the Tory Party, and whose income has increased exponentially as the working class’s has declined.

Local authorities like Liverpool have butchered social care by complying with Tory cuts, and a further cut of £90million is promised which in the words of Mayor Anderson could see Liverpool council unable to provide even statutory provision for deprived children and the elderly.

Teresa May attempts to disguise the brutal agenda of her government by feigning sympathy with, in her words, 'ordinary, working-class families, not the wealthy, that had made the biggest sacrifices' since the financial crash. The following week her Chancellor Hammond promised no let-up in the Tory programme of everlasting cuts.

The solution proposed in your comment page merely fiddles with the problem. Certainly political will is required, but to do what? Reversing the cuts in inheritance tax is a start, but what about collecting the taxes being dodged on an industrial scale and increasing the taxes of the top 1%. The immediate cancellation of all PFI payments would yield millions for the NHS and social care.

These measures could be given teeth by 6,500 Labour councillors refusing to carry out any further Tory cuts, supported by a massive programme of industrial action to be initiated by the TUC in defence of those in society who are least able to defend themselves. 

Tony Mulhearn

News updates - from the web

Our regular round up of relevant news items, selected by Steve Ion of NW ARMS.

Life expectancy rises but health failing - here.

No money for WASPI women as too expensive - here.

"Pensions time bomb" say financial advisers - here.

Millions paid to social care companies despite crisis in standards - here.

Care homes crisis: private providers returning contracts to councils - here.

And winner in the Lying Propaganda Category is the Telegraph, which asserts that UK 'pensions apartheid' is the worst in the developed world: "The UK is the only country where civil servants will enjoy pensions worth more than 100pc of their final salary".
One ARMS NW committee member calculates he is owed arrears of at least £112,000.

To see more, click here.

NHS: Victory for Opponents of STPs

TUSC recognises that organisations campaigning against attacks on the NHS can celebrate an important success in preventing almost £1billion of cuts to the NHS on Merseyside under the grotesque Tory misnomer of the Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs).

Several hundred NHS supporters lobbied the Health and Wellbeing Board on Thursday 1 December at which Chairman Joe Anderson declared the Liverpool City Council’s total opposition to this plan of the Tories to dismantle the NHS in the region and to hand out more contracts to their friends in the private sector.

Mayor Anderson was also asked to give a commitment to oppose the closure of the Women’s Hospital which he did. There was also a call for the Mayor to organise a national assembly of councils to collectively oppose the latest Tory plans to wreck the NHS. This decision represents a step forward by the campaigns to Keep Our NHS Public and to oppose the closure of the Women’s Hospital.

But everybody campaigning against the Tories are fully aware that this fat cats’ government will press on with their attacks on the NHS and on the poor and needy. That’s why TUSC supports the Liverpool TUC in calling on all organisations defending the NHS and opposing Austerity to come together to discuss the next stage of the struggle.

Tony Mulhearn

ARMS NW

Victory for Land Registry Office workers - video

This was a tremendous campaign. A tribute to the fortitude and determination of workers fighting for a worthy cause. The TUC needs to emulate the campaigning activity of these PCS members and of the PCS leadership. Then the Tories could be swept into the dustbin of history.

Click here for a short video about their campaign and how they defeated privatisation.

Tony Mulhearn
ARMS NW

News updates - from the web

Our regular round up of relevant news items, selected by Steve Ion of NW ARMS.

Labour pledge £155 per week for women hit by pension age changes - here.

Labour states the Autumn Statement ignores the sick and old - here.

Pension age may be set to rise again - here.

Elderly care close to collapse - here.

Huge rise in hospital beds in England taken up by people with malnutrition - here.

Jo's amazing life - a message from Brendan Cox

Dear friends,

As you may have seen in the news, the trial finished earlier today and the defendant has been found guilty. Our priority now is to try and focus on Jo’s amazing life and not the manner of her death. That’s why I spoke in court today about who Jo was and what she meant to us - you can read the full statement here.

And that’s also why we are also asking people to watch and share a short film about Jo made by one of her closest friends: view the film here. Please share it with your friends and family to remember Jo’s life and work.

As I said in court today, the killing of Jo was a political act. But in the history of such acts it was perhaps the most incompetent and self-defeating. An act driven by hatred which instead has created an outpouring of love. An act designed to drive communities apart which has instead pulled them together. An act designed to silence a voice which instead has allowed millions of others to hear it.

In the weeks ahead I will be remembering Jo for her energy, passion and love. In the months and years ahead I look forward to working with you all to keep her ideas, values and passions alive.

With thanks as ever for your love and support,

Brendan

Prisoners For Peace Day - 1 December, Liverpool

For more information about 

Prisoners for Peace Day, click here.

The vanity of the Fox

£20 cover price - £3.59 if
you shop around

Vanity publishing is one thing, but vanity management is something else, as civil servants in the DIT can confirm:

"Disturbing revelations emerge from a survey of civil servants working in Liam Fox's Department for International Trade.

"It was no surprise the mandarins found Fox a tetchy boss. But more worryingly, they said he had told them that if they wanted to understand the exciting possibilities of the modern world, they had to read Rising Tides: Facing the Challenges of the New Era by, er, one Liam Fox.

"Worse still, they didn't just have to read it - Fox wanted them to buy it too! If all 2,000 of the department's civil servants were to shell out, they would more than double Fox's sales. Between publication in 2013 and this year, Rising Tides has sold a measly 1,876 copies in the English-speaking world"

Pinched from Private Eye, 25 November.

News updates - from the web

Our regular round up of relevant news items, selected by Steve Ion of NW ARMS.

Cold weather payments how to qualify - here.

The state of social care in the UK - here.

1 in 8 older people in England find essential, everyday tasks difficult - here.

Potential prevention for Alzheimers - here.