LabourList Brings Blairite Benjamin Wegg-Prosser Onboard

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Old Chinese proverb says:

July 24, 2013 at 1:00 pm 

He who seeks vengeance must dig two graves

WEDNESDAY, JULY 24, 2013

LabourList Brings Blairite Benjamin Wegg-Prosser Onboard

Who you gonna call when you need some cash? None better than Mandy, who gets out the begging bowl in an email to LabourList subscribers this afternoon. “Dear Comrade, oops, colleague…”, begins the latest in a raft of requests for donations from the Labour blog. Could it be they are trying to wean themselves off their reliance on union gold?
LabourList are “proudly sponsored” by the GMB, CWU, Unite and Unison, though in April they added one Benjamin Wegg-Prosser to their ranks as a Managing Partner. Wegg-Prosser is a Mandelson protégé who went on to become Tony Blair’s Director of Strategic Communications, famously drafting the “leaving the stage with the crowd wanting more“ memo. He is currently also the managing partner of Global Counsel, Mandy’s lobbying firm. If there is a coming battle for the heart and soul of the Labour Party, controlling the most popular Labour-affiliated website is a smart move… 

Unison’s Role in the NHS Crisis

Another day and another report suggesting that staffing shortages are killing people in NHS hospitals. Today it’s the Health Select Committee, where last week it was Sir Bruce Keogh who said:

“Statistical analysis performed showed a high correlation between in-patient to staff ratio and a high hospital standardised mortality rates score. When the review teams visited the hospitals, they found frequent examples of inadequate numbers of nursing staff in some ward areas.”

Guido has been crunching the numbers at the 14 hospitals that were investigated by Keogh and he’s found an obvious staffing loophole that would free up more front-line workers: scrapping the Pilgrims. Many of the hospitals or trusts are too incompetent to store data on the amount of time they pay their staff not to do their jobs, but instead act as full-time trade union officials through the controversial and absurd “Facilities Time” system. Nurses, like Jane Pilgrim, are paid not to help heal the sick and needy but spend their time politically agitating instead. All of Guido’s previous work on Pilgrims, and the case against them, can be read here.

East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust has three full time Pilgrims, costing £61,000 per year.  Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has 2.45 “full time equivalents” at the cost of £100,000, while Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals have one and half as do the George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust. Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust are spending £14,000, while Burton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, £17,000. Guido presumes that hospitals that do not hold the data have a similar level of trade union activity blocking front-line care. There are not enough nurses, so why is the NHS subsidising Unison members to take part in political activity rather than doing their jobs? The trade union is complicit in this crisis.

Nadine Pays Back £3,000 Travel Expenses

View this document on Scribd

But is cleared of seeking to profit…

Select Committee Recess Date to Slam Lobbying Bill

Dave’s Lobbying Bill covering just 1% of lobbyists was never going to get through smoothly. Now Graham Allen MP, chair of the Political and Constitutional Reform Select Committee, has got all shouty about the government “mishandling the bill and treating Parliament with disrespect”. He says they have been “slothful” and “there is no legislative scrutiny”, calling the MPs on his committee to meet during recess to take further evidence so they can “fill the gap”.
It is obviously a party political hijacking of the select committee by Labour but to be fair they do have a point. Under Dave’s legislation lobbyists won’t have to disclose clients if they limit meetings to SpAds and civil servants and in-house lobbyists are exempt too. Which means a huge amount of the type of lobbying that needs most scrutiny has been let off entirely. Cue amendments when Parliament is back in September…

McCluskey Rants at Mail Editor Paul ‘Dackery’

Red Len has lost it with Mail editor Paul Dacre, or as he awkwardly pronounced it ‘Dackery’, in spectacular fashion during a live webcast to Unite members:

“My message to Paul Dackery (sic) is clear. We know you are sleazy bullies. We know you love to kick the poor while you lick the boots of the rich. We know you loathe women in public life. But if you think you will break the unions you are as stupid as your predecessors who said hooray for the blackshirts”. 

Promoting the mother of your lovechild to be your Political Director is definitely not sleazy, eh Len.
Other gems included an emotional McCluskey confirming he expects to be able to buy policy from the Labour Party, claiming unions have been “taken for granted by people who take our money but don’t want our policy input”. As Guido has been reporting for years…

Spotted in Today’s Guardian Editorial Meeting

A special guest who somewhat stood out from the crowd:

If they ask Nigel Farage about his offshore tax arrangements he can just ask them about theirs…