Peter Kenyon

OccupyLSX stirs Labour Party City abolitionists

Labour Party policy towards to the City of London as a local government unit pre-1997 was simple and straightforward - abolition. At least that is how some of those who were prominent on the left at the time remember matters. Under former leader Tony Blair that policy was abandoned in favour of an renewed licence for the City continuing to run its local affairs as set out in the City of London (Ward Elections) Act 2002.

I should declare an interest, I have lived in the City of London since 2004 and am secretary of the local Labour Party branch. Rather than taking our lead from Labour in government, branch members took a tactical decision to fight the 2009 Common Council (local government) election as Labour candidates. Our manifesto recognised the role of City luminaries who are either elected as Aldermen or Common councillors in sustaining neo-liberalism, banking excesses and corporate greed. We sought to make an impact by exposing the City of London Corporation's  failure to pay a London living wage to hundreds of its own contract staff i.e. people whose employment contracts were administered by the City rather than third-parties.

Today I was asked in the Twittersphere to conjure figures about the number of business voters are enfranchised to take part in Common Council and Aldermanic elections, while Labour Representation Committee chair, John McDonnell MP reminded his followers of Labour's policy pre-Blair. It has taken #OccupyLSX to stir the abolitionist into remembering.

It would be easy to jump on the bandwagon. But rather than abolish the City of London Corporation as a local government unit, my personal view is that this democratically elected entity is a vital tool for the global demos seeking a new settlement between the 99% and the remainder. A theme for many more posts. But first of all, I have been charged by my branch with designing and conducting a City of London Labour Party membership survey about whether we should run a slate in 2013, and if so whether the Labour Party hierarchy will let us, as they did in 2009.

Glazing over - bewilderment at joining the Labour Party - what's the antidote?

I'm struggling with what to say, beyond the usual welcome and signposting, to all those people who have just joined the Labour Party,. They have now been assigned to a local Labour Party branch based on their postcode. I wonder how many of them knew that when they filled in the application form and paid their membership fee? I have a dual responsibility as local branch secretary, as well as secretary of the constituency labour party (CLP) - all the detested aspects of 'Old Labour' rolled up in an official function - booking rooms, drawing up agendas, assembling papers, finding speakers, writing minutes.

I'm already drowning. How do I explain a branch? Ditto a constituency? My branch is City of London. It covers 25 electoral wards. Elsewhere some are contiguous with a local government electoral ward from which councillors are elected to the local councils and so I could go on.

My experience of Labour Party life is that the majority of members pay their subscriptions as an expression of civic engagement and that's it. They have lots of entitlements such as choosing candidates for balloting, whether for public office or internal positions, like currently that of Leader, and helping shape policy. On the other hand the vast majority of staff who work for the Labour Party believe members are for delivering leaflets, and knocking on doors - fullstop. According to one apocryphal tale - the Labour Party should be 'massive, but passive'. Their latest wheeze is not even to send out nomination papers for Deputy Leader, when Rule 4.2.D.i says:

When the PLP is in opposition in the House of Commons, the election of the leader and deputy leader shall take place at each annual session of party conference.

I know it came as a bit of shock to some people that we might not win the 2010 General Election. But we are where we are - in Opposition. So given my tasks this morning, assembling all the information cascading in about elections - Leader, Deputy Leader, National Executive Committee - Division III CLPs, Party Treasurer, Auditors, Conference Arrangements Committee, National Constitutional Committee, National Policy Forum Division 1 CLP section, London Mayor, not forgetting the CLP Chair's report, 2010 General Election Report, Westminster City Council 2010 Election Report, Treasurer' Report - you may discern my dilemma. Mark my words, if I omit any prospective candidate's statement for any one of the offices cited above, I run the risk of being accused of a 'stitchup' by someone in the Labour Party who does not share my views either about governance or policy.

In the meantime, those eager new or returning members are awaiting encouragement (or, perhaps, not). So it's time to hit the eMail/telephone and find out. I think that should be my first priority. But.... the paperwork. Procrastination, yeah. But it's all in a good cause. I just hope my initial contact is warmly welcomed. Our branch has what I like to think of as a healthy blend of campaigning, debate, fundraising and socialising. There's a risk. The idea of meeting with an agenda could provoke glazing over, and bewilderment. It just that the campaigning, debate, fundraising and socialising don't just happen - they require organisation. We could revert to the leitmotif of new Labour - sofa government - no written agendas, no minutes. That worked didn't it? Oh, stop it, Kenyon, get on the blower.

Vivid illustrations: capitalists v. hoi polloi - Barbican Centre cinemas

Here's something different, but not entirely unrelated to the general direction of thinking on this blog. Two of the Barbican Centre cinemas are to be closed on 31 March 2010. Why: a Corporation of London approved property development comprising 69 flats above is experiencing noise pollution! New cinemas elsewhere in the Barbican Centre are to open on 1 April 2010 in two years time! Subject to .....you get the picture.

City of London Labour Party which met yesterday (as it does regularly on the second Wednesday of the month) is getting busy. Is this a fait accompli or a sloppy decision on the part of our elected representatives on Common Council in need of more scrutiny? Why should the cinema-going public be deprived of what is widely acclaimed to be one of the best facilities in London for a single day, let alone for at least two years?

The Guardian reporting the decision reminded readers:

The Barbican, alongside BFI on Southbank and the ICA, is in a minority of cinemas in the capital able to offer ambitious film programming outside standard commercial fare.

Hear, hear..watch this space.

Was Brown bonkers to bail out the bankers?

It's two weeks since I last blogged. My only excuse is fighting an election campaign. Not your usual Town Hall tussle. This is the Labour eight against the Guildhall (club, line and sinker). You can read about it here. Barring unforeseen hitches, we will be fielding eight candidates in six wards enabling over 50% of the total electorate of 21,332 to choose who represents them in a contested election. Tomorrow is just the deadline for nominations. If there are contests (as we hope) in at least the six wards (out of 25) in which we are standing, then voting for 41 out of 100 seats on Common Council will take place on Monday 16 March. Among the hot topics are the state of social housing and was Brown bonkers to bail out the bankers? On the latter subject (sort of) I was quoted in the Guardian here. It read as though I was blaming Common Council for the recession, triggered as it was by systemic banking failures. I was simply trying to draw attention to the dual role played by leading City figures who act as ambassadors for London as a world financial centre, and also run the local authority known as the City of London on behalf of local residents and businesses. 

Our Manifesto says:

Mismanagement of financial institutions has put people’s savings at risk. Labour members of Common Council would maintain a proper balance between the interests of residents and developers.

In short, we don't think our Prime Minister was bonkers to bail out the bankers. We hope our modest campaign will give the wider electorate an opportunity to appreciate the far greater catastrophe in terms of lost savings, pensions and jobs that would have followed if Brown had not been decisive and intervened back in October last year.

Labour values back on track - living wage

Comrades in Tower Hamlets Labour Group last night showed real local leadership last night by tabling a resolution at full Council, which won near unanimous support, to implement the London Living Wage. (The London Labour Party backed the idea, actively promoted by former Labour Mayor, Ken Livingstone, at its biennial conference in 2006.)

Labour-controlled Tower Hamlets Council recently elected leader Cllr Lutfur Rahman proposed the motion telling himself to get on with it. The resolution reads:

This Council:

• supports the establishment of the London Living Wage, set at a level calculated

by the Living Wage Unit to avoid poverty wages being paid in the capital;

• abhors the fact that around 400,000 Londoners continue to fall into a ‘working

poverty trap’ because their families are paid less than required to fund the basic

costs of living in London;

• calls on the Leader to review Tower Hamlets Council’s procurement, contract and

best value policies to ensure that, as far as possible within UK and EU law, the

London Living Wage, at the level set by the GLA’s Living Wage Unit, is the

minimum paid by Tower Hamlets Council and by its contractors and that all

temporary workers employed by the council are paid at least £7.45 an hour by

their agency;

• calls on the Leader to seek commitments from Tower Hamlets’ partners in the

Local Strategic Partnership to pay no less than the London Living Wage; and

• calls on the Leader to ensure that the Council’s commitment to the London Living

Wage is clearly displayed on Council headed paper, the Council website and

other appropriate locations

To the best on my knowledge Tower Hamlets is the first Labour-controlled Council to implement the London Living Wage not just for its own staff, but agency and temporary workers as well as commit to seek contract compliance as Best Value contracts come up for renewal. I believe that this latest development in promoting the 'living income' concept is the next step in Labour's commitment to end poverty in the UK. It could be used by Labour Groups in every local authority in the country to mobilise members and supporters. 

 

I live in the City of London. It is a scandal that the Corporation has refused to become a London Living Wage Employer. If Tower Hamlets can afford to, the City has no excuse. 

In defence of saving the world...banking system?

Apparently Labour's Gordon Brown is alleged to have made a gaffe in prime minister's questions today. Conservative members of parliament rolled about laughing. In the light of what we know from the Governor of the Bank of England, the state of the world banking system was extremely fragile despite US efforts to buy up toxic assets until GB stepped in with a bank recapitalisation plan. So I have no problem with his remarks. The Tories should be ashamed of themselves. Schoolboy antics in the House of Commons should not mask the deadly seriousness of the situation the world banking system was/is in, nor the Labour Party's commitment in government to do whatever is necessary to held the economy through. And yes, Mr Cameron that will involve borrowing now and paying money back later. Grow up.

(Today's Hansard when published tomorrow will no doubt be read very closely to see how a broken sentence has been recorded for posterity.)

BTW I was sorry I missed the live broadcast, but I was lobbying trade unions about the London Living Wage ahead of a Corporation of London Joint Consultative Committee. The Corporation has declined to apply to be a London Living Wage employer, which has some of us wondering, when City firms are signing up.

Bank bail-out: will Labour's core vote get it?

Mind-boggling sums of money summoned to recapitalise Britain's banks take some explaining. There are inevitably calls for total nationalisation from the left. Tomorrow morning's papers are reporting at least two more UK banks, RBS and HBOS will be taken into majority public ownership. The full extent of government intervention and control is still being thrashed out before the London Stock Exchange opens tomorrow morning. Our political culture is riddled with greed, fear and touching confidence in the private sector and market forces. Calls for the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism seem unlikely to appeal to the electorate. The measured and comprehensive approach led by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown offers the private sector and the City of London, in particular, an opportunity to reflect on remuneration policies for top executives, fees for services rendered and differentials between support staff and contractors and their goodselves.

In the meantime, there is a big political education challenge facing the Labour Party to explain to both its core vote and middle Britain how money has been found so readily to save the blushes of the rich. Let's not forget income tax kicks in if you earn just over £6K a year, that's little over half the minimum national wage level and a quarter of average earnings. That's not fair. Nor is a wait until 2012 for the state pension to be relinked to earnings.

There's going to have to be some pretty radical thinking in the Pre-Budget Report to persuade Labour voters to return in sufficient numbers to ensure the Party enjoys the political dividend for leading a global bank bailout that might just stave off a deep recession. That still depends on the US authorities getting their act together to ensure bank recapitalisation on the other side of the pond.

Square Mile appeal - calling all Party members

This is a call to all Labour Party members and supporters working in the City of London. City of London Labour Party would like to hear from you.

The credit crunch and its impact on London as a world financial centre offers Labour an opportunity to campaign here in the City for fairness for all.

There are City Common Council elections next March.

City workers and residents can send clear messages to the establishment about City jobs, pay, governance and quality of life.

If you are interested in finding out more, please contact me:

Peter Kenyon, secretary - City of London Labour Party and Labour Party NEC member

 

London living wage meeting attracts speakers

City Of London Labour Party attracted not just one.... not just two, but .....three speakers last night to its monthly meeting in the Counting House, Cornhill. The subject was the London Living Wage and the City. I can only presume we are on to something as a focus for local campaigning and re-connecting with our local community.

What we all learned is that some major city employers like KPMG are already London Living Wage Employers. But what about the Corporation itself, or any local authority in the country for that matter? Watch this space.

Campaigning continues: Living Wage sign up

Cor...my hand is aching. Tosser. Noooooooo. Handwriting. Members of City of London Labour Party (who are not on eMail or have chosen not to inform either Members' Service or their local branch officers of their eMail address) get their ward notice in a handwritten envelope.

Why? Next time you pick up your post, which envelope(s) are you most likely to open first? In our house, it is always the one(s) with the personal touch.

This month City of London Labour Party has two speakers on the London living wage - one from London Citizens, the other from the South East Region Trades Union Congress.  Why two? We thought we could use the opportunity to network with local groups campaigning for social justice, and local trade union branches organising industrially for their members. Our first aim is to focus attention on this vital economic, social and political issue on our local authority, the Corporation of London. I want the City to sign up as a London Living Wage Employer. Can't speak on behalf of the branch until after we have deliberated on Wednesday.

We don't believe we have to wait until after the Leadership/Deputy contest is over, unlike some Up North. You can't be serious, Susan, about Real Politics being in suspense until after 24 June. We are just getting on with reconnecting with our local community, campaigning for Labour Values. Our CLP will be discussing the same issue later this month with the City of Westminster in its sights. What's happening in your branch?

Nationally, the petition on the No.10 website is definitely worth pushing. Hat tip to Susan. Could we beat the 2 million howling about road-pricing by the time Gordon Brown is appointed Prime Minister?