Colleagues,

Please be advised that the Eastern Region will be hosting a Regional Political School at Alvescot Lodge over the weekend of the
1st – 3rd December 2006.

Places at the school will be offered as a priority to delegates from the Eastern Region, hopefully we will be able to completely fill the course. However if we do not manage to fill the course then the school will be opened up to delegates from the South East & London Regions.

The school will provide a two day Political Training Course, for ease of reference I have broken it down into sections.


Introductions & getting to ‘know you’
Presentation (Gary Heather) NEC member
History of the political Involvement and activities of the CWU, with tasks
Structure and Process (Activity)
Political Levy
Labour Party Links
Questions for the panel (regarding activities undertaken)
Questions to the panel (debate on pros and cons of affiliation/disaffiliation, political levy, etc)
Action Planning
Review and evaluation of the course

The region will be piloting the course and the above agenda will have activities added to it, for example lobbying of parliament, etc. We will be required to report back on the course regarding what was good, Bad or indifferent, what can be added or taken out to ensure that future courses are interesting and successful. Branch delegate’s feedback will be essential.

Nick Nichols will be overseeing the course, speakers will include Gary Heather, Beth Kelly MP (EU Parliamentary Panel & Local Councillor ) and Jeannie Drake DGS. We are in process of securing speakers and further material for the course, the above list is by no means exhaustive and is subject to change/confirmation.

As the Eastern Region has delegation priority can Branches please circulate this information to their respective political officers/interested parties to secure a delegate to attend the weekend political school.

Can Branches please ensure they have their nominations in place by Wednesday 8th November 2006.

Please can you respond directly to me and we will secure your Branch nomination on the above course?

Kind regards

Paul

Paul Moffat
Eastern Region Secretary
Communication Workers Union

31-33 Brunel Business Centre
The Concourse, Bletchley
Milton Keynes
MK2 2ES

Tel: 01908-632922
Fax: 01908-639622
Mobile-Email: easternregion@cwu.org
url:http://www.cwu-eastern.org

Labour Party Leadership (The Dream Team)

Alan Johnson New leader

Peter Hain New deputy leader


Brown should be put to pasture!

website

I am hoping to get a branch website underway soon and i am thinking of having a discussion forum. Are there any labour party websites with a discussion forum out there that anyone knows of.

When blair goes

Tony Blair said he intends to serve a full third term, so why all the obsession of when he will go, surley it will be late 2009/ early 2010 depending on how long these things take. I have only been in the party for just over a year so dont really know the sort of time scale involved in electing a new leader.

eynesbury ward postal vote result

The vote were counted this morning and its very close between the three canidates I wonder if this will be reflected in the votes cast at the polling stations ? the exact figures arent known but evidently these things can be worked out.

should i ?

There is a byelection in the ward i live in for the town council, the local labour party would like me to stand. Really dont know one way or the other if to stand.

Any advice?

Trade union link with the labour party & state funding of political partys

Are Blarites hijacking the issue of State funding and using it to their own ends to sever the link between the party and its affiliated unions?

If they don't like the link and the influence then they should leave the party and set up on their own instead of trying to hijack the labour party.

The sooner Blair and his supporters go the better!

Even if the link was served it may prove to be worthless as many trade unionists are also labour councilors/members so the trade union influence would live on even if the finacial backing was replaced by state funding.

How far would state funding go anyway, my own branch of the labour party has alrerady benefited from the link as I have secured a £100 donation to setting up a branch website and this is in a area of Tory domination with Lib Dems the opposition which shows the value of the trade union link.

dave the chameleon (party political broadcast)

Well, Tony has told us why we shouldn't vote for my cameron's tory party but not why we should vote Labour. Its all very well putting people off the Tory party but unless we try and turn them on the labour party who knows were their vote will go?

I have never liked political parties telling me why i shouldn't vote for their rivals!

Up until last year i was a floating voter since i became old enough to vote.

I am a grown man and i will make my own mind up based on what all the parties have done so far, what they are going to do and why they are going to do it and how they are going to do it.

Political parties should concentrate on selling their policies rather than lecturing as to why we shouldn't vote for their rivals.

Am I going soft or making a valid point? Surely to combat political apathy we need to put out sensible intelligent view points and polices rather than that stupid (but funny) broadcast last night.

Surely all the money spent and being spent on dave the chameleon broadcasts would have been better off as a short film on how flagship labour councils are doing so the people can see tangible benefits to voting labour at local level.

Sadly i believe that last nights broadcast will do absolutely nothing to sway floating voters to vote labour and may even hinder the chances of the labour party in tory/lib dem strong holds.

CWU NEC Carries Motion Calling for Blair to Resign

The National Executive Council of the CWU yesterday (Wednesday 5 April) debated and carried the following motion:

“In the wake of recent damaging revelations regarding the secret loans to Party funds and the associated Honours issue; the failure to secure a Labour majority for the Education Bill; the continuing occupation of Iraq; and the growing dissatisfaction amongst workers with Tony Blair’s political direction, particularly his failure to repeal anti-union laws, this NEC believes the Prime Minister should resign and allow an orderly transfer of power to a new leader of the Labour Party as a matter of urgency.”

The motion is undoubtedly an expression of growing frustration in the trade union movement generally to the lack of progress on issues affecting workers.

EYNESBURY WARD

EYNESBURY ROSE
Tory and Liberal Councillors continue to fail the people of Eynesbury
St. Neots pays more in council tax than any other town in Huntingdonshire but while a small fortune has been spent on the new Town Hall and new leisure facilities in Huntingdon –Eynesbury continues to be starved of basic facilities and resources. Our district councillors do what their political masters in Huntingdon tell them to and continue to fail to fight for the resources needed to rebuild and rejuvenate our area.
Council Tax rebate
Our district council has been throwing away our hard earned money right, left and centre on expensive and wasteful schemes like the refurbishment of the Town Hall and lavish ‘twinning’ jaunts to the Continent. For this reason the Labour government forced the Council to return some of our hard earned money to us through capping the spiralling waste of the District Council. The Tory and Liberal councillors for Eynesbury fought tooth and nail against giving you back this money.
Destruction rather than investment
Our swimming pool- bought by the residents of the town through public subscription -was demolished by the District Council in November 2004
and the area has remained a gated field ever since. The Liberal and Tory Councillors for Eynesbury enthusiastically supported this demolition and remain committed to opposing the redevelopment of the site for leisure facilities for our town.
Asbestos contamination
Many blocks housing young families in and around the Sandfields Roads area are contaminated with asbestos- our councillors have been happy to allow this situation to continue for many years. Rather than spending money on removing the asbestos from these flats they have been more interested in spending money on a lavish refurbishment of the Town Hall.
Garage Rents
Eynesbury’s Tory Councillors voted in favour of selling off the District
Council’s garages to Huntingdon Housing Partnership who have
Promptly doubled the price of garage rents for Eynesbury’s residents.
The situation in this area is likely to get worse with HHP vowing to raise
rental costs still further in coming years. Labour is against any further
garage rent rises.

Mystery men and women
Do you know who your District Councillor is? Have you ever seen him or her? Once our Tory and Liberal councillors are elected we never see them again. If elected Labour councillors are committed to holding regular surgeries in the area where you can meet them and discuss the local issues that affect you.
Failure all round.
There are many other areas where our Tory and Liberal Councillors continue to fail the people of Eynesbury whether it is through poor street lighting, broken pavements or the lack of seats in the cemetery for our old people to use when visiting loved ones who have passed away. Money and resources have flowed out of Eynesbury to Huntingdon while our local Tory and Liberal district councillors have done absolutely nothing to stop the flow. Our town centre is full of opticians and estate agents rather than the major retailers that a town of our size deserves. Our leisure facilities and amenities are a joke and our teenagers have nothing to do. Our Tory and Liberal Councillors have sat back and watched this happen.
Fine Liberal words but no action.
Liberal councillors have made hundreds of promises over the years but once they are elected they have been happy to sit back and watch Eynesbury decline. More and more people are beginning to see that they will say anything to get elected and have no firm beliefs in anything other than getting power for power’s sake alone.
It can be different
Labour in Eynesbury is committed to fighting for Eynesbury and its residents. We have no political masters in Huntingdon telling us what to do and how to vote. We are campaigning for additional resources to be put into this area and we have fought against wasteful schemes like the refurbishment of the Town Hall or the demolition of the open air swimming pool in Huntingdon St. The Tory and Liberal district councillors have had their chance and have failed the people of our area badly. If they get in again they will continue to fail Eynesbury as they have in the past.

Vote Bill O Connor to stop the rot

How I got involved with the labour party

I have been involved with the CWU for almost 5 years and last year became a Branch political officer and a Labour party member at the same time. After joining the party it took a year before I started to become involved as nobody contacted me after joining and it took me to find contact details for my local labour party branch and CLP and iniate contact myself! How many more new members are there out there who have joined only to have their subscription taken out their bank every month but not have any one contact them with details of meetings etc and invite them to attend? It was a suggestion from some fellow political officers that led me to make contact. Since then i have attended my first ever branch meeting and hope to attend a CLP meeting in the near future. I spent the weekend knocking on doors within my ward for the local elections to gain signatures for the nomination form of the Labour canidate and this weekend will be printing off some leaflets from my PC ready for delivering. We are hoping for a breakthrough in Eynesbury ward as it is our most promising area.

Hello

Welcome to the Eynesbury Rose blog !

I have named this blog after the leaflet that my local labour party are distrubuting in the Eynesbury Ward of St Neots which comes under St Neots Town Council, Huntingdonshire district council and Cambridgeshire County Council.All 3 councils are dominated by Conservative and Liberal Democrat councillors and on SNTC and HDC there are no Labour councillors and only 4 Labour councillors on Cambs CC out of 69 councillors.

My next post will be about me and my activities to date with the Labour party and why I became a member.

Toodlepip

Darrrell