Published in the Morning Star
Sadly, I couldn't make it to the meeting, but I hear that it was a lively affair.
As you can imagine, Labour's Margaret Curran was under most pressure, having to attempt to justify the government's below-inflation pay policy for public-sector workers to a meeting organised by one of their unions.
It seems that she faced some jeers when telling the meeting that raising wages for people who were pressurised just wasn't a straightforward proposition.
"I think you negotiate between government and trade unions," Curran was quoted as saying, "but you have to make sure you don't lead to spiralling inflation." It would be a very good thing indeed for Labour if her election was to guarantee negotiations between government and trade unions over the damaging issue of public-sector pay cuts.
The PCS hustings was part of an interesting and I think quite new phenomenon - active and direct trade union intervention in a parliamentary election.
PCS has been running a campaign to promote its policies in the Glasgow East contest, complete with flyers and window bills. The aim is to make sure that its members in the constituency - around 500 according to the union - know what the by-election candidates' views are and that they vote accordingly.
Everyone seems to agree that the election is pretty close between Labour and the SNP. Could 500 PCS members make the difference?
Check out the Make Your Vote Count campaign at www.pcs.org.uk
My co-contributor Bill Kidd, the SNP MSP, appears to think (Voices of Scotland, July 16) that the Labour neck is definitely for the chop on Thursday 24 July. As the poll approaches, I don't think that it is.
Labour is definitely on the ropes at Scottish and UK level. A good dose of clear thinking needs to be done and decisive action taken to stop Gordon Brown from leading us to a Tory victory in the next general election.
However, I don't think that the majority of voters in Glasgow East are actually going to help the Tories by voting SNP on Thursday.
Maybe they will. I don't have a crystal ball. But it's unusual for the bookies to get it wrong. Apart from an initial lurch to the SNP in the very first moment of the campaign when Labour was in total disarray, they have pretty consistently given the edge to Margaret Curran.
Before they were so rudely interrupted, MSPs Cathy Jamieson and Iain Gray had announced their intentions to stand and therefore counted as the front runners.
Margaret Curran was an outsider then, but, if Labour loses Glasgow East, the poison in the leadership chalice will become increasingly fatal for whoever else lifts it.
I give you another possibility. If Margaret Curran does in fact snatch Glasgow East back from the jaws of the SNP, she will be feted by Labour as a conquering hero. She will then straddle the biggest divide in Scotland - not the division between left and right, or nationalist and unionsts, but between Labour's Westminster MPs and its Holyrood MSPs. A unique dual mandate indeed, laced with a freshly-gained reputation for bold, decisive and victorious action which none of the other leadership candidates could even sniff at. Who would then deny Saint Margaret the Brave of Baillieston?
Oh come on. Part of the fun of politics is speculating about the outcome of leadership contests.
Here's yet another. Cathy Jamieson would have to give up the deputy leadership to have a tilt at the top job. In which case, the vacancy would mean a double header election for leader and deputy leader positions.
As I have written here before, securing the necessary six MSP nominations to get on the ballot paper is extremely difficult for a left challenger to achieve for the leader position. But it would be more likely for deputy.
This raises the fascinating possibility of a ticket pairing former Campaign for Socialism member Cathy Jamieson and a current CfS member, probably Bill Butler, for leader and deputy leader respectively.
I understand that the strike was solid, with demonstrations taking place at Aberdeen, Stornoway and Greenock coastguard stations.
The coastguards' case is clear. Pay levels in the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) have fallen far behind other emergency services. The government's pay cap effectively means a pay cut for Civil Service workers.
With starting salaries of £12,097, some of the coastguards responsible for lives and safety at sea are already actually paid only just above the minimum wage.
Coastguard watch assistants actively participate in search planning and other duties in response to 999 calls, yet are deemed to be the most worthless of employees. Even the boss of the MCA admits that the union has a case.
"Clearly, there is a gap between the pay of coastguards, particularly at the lower end of the range, and that of the other services," MCA chief executive Peter Cardy has said.
But the Prime Minister doesn't seem to get the idea either of public service or fair pay. On Wednesday, he was noised up in the Commons by the Lib Dem MP for Orkney and Shetland Alistair Carmichael, who claimed that levels of emergency cover during the strike would "not be sufficient."
Brown blustered in response: "I would even now call on those people who are engaged in planning this dispute to cease this action."
It's almost as if he characterises the people who save lives at sea as some kind of hostile force.
He should maybe keep the flak jacket on after getting back from his wee trip to gloss over the continuing disaster in Iraq.
The Scottish Cuba Solidarity Campaign is having a "Cuba-friendly bar" event from 5pm till late on Sunday July 27 2008. The venue is Big Owens Bar, 290 Main St, Coatbridge, Lanarkshire ML5 3RS. That is beside the fire station, near Coatdyke railway station.
Telephone the bar on (01236) 421-551 if you need directions or email Scottish Cuba Solidarity at scottishcuba@yahoo.co.uk if you need more info on the event or Cuba-friendly bars in Scotland.
Local MSP and Morning Star supporter Elaine Smith will be speaking and there will be plenty of comrades.
Your correspondent will definitely be there, so, if you disagree with anything I have written here, come and tell me, while we support Cuba over a genuine Havana Club mojito or Cuba Libre in sunny Coatbridge.
(Monday 21 July 2008)
MALCOLM BURNS reviews the latest goings-on in Scotland.
Curran's contortions
LAST Wednesday, PCS promoted a hustings meeting for candidates in the Glasgow East by-election.Sadly, I couldn't make it to the meeting, but I hear that it was a lively affair.
As you can imagine, Labour's Margaret Curran was under most pressure, having to attempt to justify the government's below-inflation pay policy for public-sector workers to a meeting organised by one of their unions.
It seems that she faced some jeers when telling the meeting that raising wages for people who were pressurised just wasn't a straightforward proposition.
"I think you negotiate between government and trade unions," Curran was quoted as saying, "but you have to make sure you don't lead to spiralling inflation." It would be a very good thing indeed for Labour if her election was to guarantee negotiations between government and trade unions over the damaging issue of public-sector pay cuts.
The PCS hustings was part of an interesting and I think quite new phenomenon - active and direct trade union intervention in a parliamentary election.
PCS has been running a campaign to promote its policies in the Glasgow East contest, complete with flyers and window bills. The aim is to make sure that its members in the constituency - around 500 according to the union - know what the by-election candidates' views are and that they vote accordingly.
Everyone seems to agree that the election is pretty close between Labour and the SNP. Could 500 PCS members make the difference?
Check out the Make Your Vote Count campaign at www.pcs.org.uk
It'll be Labour by a nose, I think
NOBODY has said that Margaret Curran is anything less than brave, especially in relation to putting her neck on the line in Glasgow East.My co-contributor Bill Kidd, the SNP MSP, appears to think (Voices of Scotland, July 16) that the Labour neck is definitely for the chop on Thursday 24 July. As the poll approaches, I don't think that it is.
Labour is definitely on the ropes at Scottish and UK level. A good dose of clear thinking needs to be done and decisive action taken to stop Gordon Brown from leading us to a Tory victory in the next general election.
However, I don't think that the majority of voters in Glasgow East are actually going to help the Tories by voting SNP on Thursday.
Maybe they will. I don't have a crystal ball. But it's unusual for the bookies to get it wrong. Apart from an initial lurch to the SNP in the very first moment of the campaign when Labour was in total disarray, they have pretty consistently given the edge to Margaret Curran.
Leadership race revisited
THE putative runners and riders for Scottish Labour leader have been in purdah for the period of the by-election, but the moment that it's done, the jockeying will resume.Before they were so rudely interrupted, MSPs Cathy Jamieson and Iain Gray had announced their intentions to stand and therefore counted as the front runners.
Margaret Curran was an outsider then, but, if Labour loses Glasgow East, the poison in the leadership chalice will become increasingly fatal for whoever else lifts it.
I give you another possibility. If Margaret Curran does in fact snatch Glasgow East back from the jaws of the SNP, she will be feted by Labour as a conquering hero. She will then straddle the biggest divide in Scotland - not the division between left and right, or nationalist and unionsts, but between Labour's Westminster MPs and its Holyrood MSPs. A unique dual mandate indeed, laced with a freshly-gained reputation for bold, decisive and victorious action which none of the other leadership candidates could even sniff at. Who would then deny Saint Margaret the Brave of Baillieston?
Oh come on. Part of the fun of politics is speculating about the outcome of leadership contests.
Here's yet another. Cathy Jamieson would have to give up the deputy leadership to have a tilt at the top job. In which case, the vacancy would mean a double header election for leader and deputy leader positions.
As I have written here before, securing the necessary six MSP nominations to get on the ballot paper is extremely difficult for a left challenger to achieve for the leader position. But it would be more likely for deputy.
This raises the fascinating possibility of a ticket pairing former Campaign for Socialism member Cathy Jamieson and a current CfS member, probably Bill Butler, for leader and deputy leader respectively.
A clear case for the coastguards
LAST Friday and Saturday, workers at Scotland's coastguard stations joined fellow PCS members across Britain in a 48-hour strike over pay.I understand that the strike was solid, with demonstrations taking place at Aberdeen, Stornoway and Greenock coastguard stations.
The coastguards' case is clear. Pay levels in the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) have fallen far behind other emergency services. The government's pay cap effectively means a pay cut for Civil Service workers.
With starting salaries of £12,097, some of the coastguards responsible for lives and safety at sea are already actually paid only just above the minimum wage.
Coastguard watch assistants actively participate in search planning and other duties in response to 999 calls, yet are deemed to be the most worthless of employees. Even the boss of the MCA admits that the union has a case.
"Clearly, there is a gap between the pay of coastguards, particularly at the lower end of the range, and that of the other services," MCA chief executive Peter Cardy has said.
But the Prime Minister doesn't seem to get the idea either of public service or fair pay. On Wednesday, he was noised up in the Commons by the Lib Dem MP for Orkney and Shetland Alistair Carmichael, who claimed that levels of emergency cover during the strike would "not be sufficient."
Brown blustered in response: "I would even now call on those people who are engaged in planning this dispute to cease this action."
It's almost as if he characterises the people who save lives at sea as some kind of hostile force.
He should maybe keep the flak jacket on after getting back from his wee trip to gloss over the continuing disaster in Iraq.
Party for revolution
I LIKE to try and bring you something useful and enjoyable to take part in if I can. All part of the service. Here's a painless, indeed unmissable opportunity to support Cuba this Sunday - in Coatbridge!The Scottish Cuba Solidarity Campaign is having a "Cuba-friendly bar" event from 5pm till late on Sunday July 27 2008. The venue is Big Owens Bar, 290 Main St, Coatbridge, Lanarkshire ML5 3RS. That is beside the fire station, near Coatdyke railway station.
Telephone the bar on (01236) 421-551 if you need directions or email Scottish Cuba Solidarity at scottishcuba@yahoo.co.uk if you need more info on the event or Cuba-friendly bars in Scotland.
Local MSP and Morning Star supporter Elaine Smith will be speaking and there will be plenty of comrades.
Your correspondent will definitely be there, so, if you disagree with anything I have written here, come and tell me, while we support Cuba over a genuine Havana Club mojito or Cuba Libre in sunny Coatbridge.
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