The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt within the heart.
Helen Keller
2 Comments CherryPie on May 17th 2009
Follow me live from Brighton, reporting on the MoD group and main PCS conference:
As we meet, we are in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the 1930s. Unemployment is soaring as employers cut jobs to maintain profits, and people are losing their homes. It is crucial that we take the right decisions to protect our members and their families from the impact of a recession they are not responsible for.
Additionally, and importantly, we must continue to defend quality public services for all during these times, perhaps more so than ever. And the issues we discuss over the next few days will reflect this.
- Said goodbye to friends old and new – now waiting for the train homeabout 23 hours ago from txt
- Conference over ran due 2 a card vote in the last 30 minutesabout 23 hours ago from txt
- Discussing social & economic motions, final section before guillotined motions are re-scheduled2:20 AM May 22nd from txt
- Currently debating personnel policy motions1:39 AM May 22nd from txt
- Communications awards – best published photo received by H O’Harney on behalf of Shropshire Action Group4:22 AM May 21st from txt
- The motion was tabled before the MP allowance scandal broke!4:04 AM May 21st from txt
- A heated debate about hotel expensed when on TU business.4:01 AM May 21st from txt
- One of the speakers from palestine was very moving.1:28 AM May 21st from txt
- The debate on Palestinian solidarity was very emotive.1:26 AM May 21st from txt
- Members are especialy angry about pay offers in light of the recent MP expenses exposure!8:10 AM May 20th from txt
- A very heated debate on how to take the pay campaign forward.8:07 AM May 20th from txt
- so far Listened to motions on the recession & protecting public services.5:57 AM May 20th from txt
- Main PCS conference starts in 10 minutes.12:52 AM May 20th from txt
- Speakers include John McDonnell MP, Jeremy NUJ gen sec & H O’Harney – Shropshire Action Group8:58 AM May 19th from txt
- Now off to the launch of campaign to re-elect Mark Serwotka8:52 AM May 19th from txt
- Anti cuts campaign launched & explained!8:48 AM May 19th from txt
- Had speakers from the young member network & MYVC campaign.8:47 AM May 19th from txt
- Many to get all motions debated including the emergency ones.8:45 AM May 19th from txt
- Group conference has now closed!5:38 AM May 19th from txt
- Some very interesting debates today.10:00 AM May 18th from txt
- Conference agenda being reshuffled due 2 lots of debating!5:54 AM May 18th from txt
- Busy SOC meeting – 1 reference back + 15 emergency motions!5:53 AM May 18th from txt
- Fun evening with live music in the fiddlers – now time 4 some sleep 3:52 PM May 17th from txt
- Booking in at the hotel reminded me of faulty towers!12:16 PM May 17th from txt
- All present & correct & now on the way to Brighton2:13 AM May 17th from txt
- All packed and ready to go! 12:35 AM May 17th from TweetDeck
Update 23 May 2009: I am back from the conference now so I have converted the tweets into this permanent post.
4 Comments CherryPie on May 17th 2009
Synopsis from book cover: “One of the most vivid and realised characters of recent fiction, Willie Dunne is the innocent hero of Sebastian Barry’s highly acclaimed novel. Leaving Dublin to fight for the Allied cause as a member of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, he finds himself caught between the war playing out on foreign fields and that festering at home, waiting to erupt with the Easter Rising. Profoundly moving, intimate and epic, A Long Long Way charts and evokes a terrible coming of age, one too often written out in history.”
I read this for my book group and yesterday we met to discuss it, so what did we all think of it?
I think it is probably the first book that we have read that we all agreed on. We thought it was an excellent novel although we all got so wrapped up in the narrative we had to remind ourselves that it was a novel and not a biography. The characters are very well drawn and filled out. The descriptions of what it was like on a WW1 battlefield and in the trenches were so well described you actually thought you were there yourself. It describes the awful conditions and lack of food and it portrays many different human emotions; fear, love, loss, betrayal, confusion etc The narrative is very lyrical which makes the book quite compelling despite the horrific details of the battlefield. One of the most awful passages for me was the description of the first time they soldiers encountered mustard gas!
The author also manages to bring in the political aspect of the war and the Irish situation and reasons for why some of the Irish soldiers were taking part in the war. The political views of the main character change as the war leaves it mark on him, leaving him to feel confused about the situation.
I would thoroughly recommend anyone to read this book, especially if you are interested in WW1.
2 Comments CherryPie on May 16th 2009
A couple more photos from my recent visit to the Cold War Museum at Cosford.
For more of this weeks PhotoHunt pictures check out tnchick.
24 Comments CherryPie on May 15th 2009
1884 – Michael Marks, a Russian-born Polish refugee, opened a stall at Leeds Kirkgate Market
1893 – Michael Marks opened a shop in Manchester, and lived above it
1894 – Thomas Spencer – a cashier and book-keeper invested £300 to become Michael Marks’ partner
1930 – M&S’s flagship store opened at Marble Arch, London
1931 – M&S introduced a food department into its stores, selling produce and canned goods
1939 – At the outbreak of World War II, M&S had 234 stores. By 1945, more than 16 had been destroyed by bombs
1954 – M&S carried out the first-ever comprehensive leg survey to improve the fit of its stockings
1959 – Marks & Spencer was the first major retailer to introduce a no smoking rule in all its stores
1971 – M&S frozen foods were trialled for the first time
1989 – Organic fruit, vegetables and salads were introduced in selected M&S stores
1997 – M&S’s Bodysensor range of opaque tights was launched and won the Queen’s Award for Innovation
1999 – Online shopping at M&S is born
2001 – The Per Una range for women, designed by George Davies, was launched
2007 – Marks & Spencer began selling exclusive ladder-resistant sheer hosiery
2008 – A charge of 5p for food carrier bags was introduced, helping raise funds for local environment projects
2009 – M&S agrees to stop charging £2 extra for DD+ bra sizes
2009 – M&S is 125 years old
Since the demise of Hamells and C&A I am an M&S girl through and through. Sadly they never did stock my bra size so the extra pricing never was an issue for me 
PS: Most facts courtesy of the May/June edition of the M&S magazine
4 Comments CherryPie on May 14th 2009
Just the view I need after my day of hassle, although the story starts much earlier in the week. For some reason I hadn’t had notification of a meeting I was supposed to be attending this Friday and it clashed with a hair appointment. So I went ahead and rearranged my hair appointment to this afternoon, which meant I had to miss another meeting. Half an hour later I found out that the meeting had been cancelled, so I was feeling a bit irritated by that.
Fast forward to this morning when I had to make numerous phone calls to get meetings and contacts etc. During one of my phone conversations I found out that the meeting had been cancelled because another more urgent meeting was taking place, which I should have been notified about!!! So at least those arrangements have been sorted properly now.
Even my visit to the hairdressers was not stress free (I normally find it quite relaxing). The phone kept ringing every few minutes, which meant my hairdresser had to stop what she was doing to answer the phone. Then when I was having my head cooked to set my perm I experienced a loud crackling noise and felt a funny sensation on the top of my head…
When I had surfaced from being engrossed from my book I reasoned that one of bands on the perm rods had split and I wasn’t being frazzled alive by a faulty hairdryer.
And if all that wasn’t bad enough, the project manger has surfaced again with some last minutes tasks before the conference!
12 Comments CherryPie on May 13th 2009
Myth 4: privatisation
The myths
- Privatisation is efficient and cost effective and the private sector provides better quality than the public sector.
- The private sector is more responsive to service users
- The private sector costs less than the public sector to deliver services
- The government needs to privatise public services to save money as they can’t afford to pay for decent public services
The facts
- The private sectors main motive is profit not quality – which is often compromised
- The private sector is responsive to shareholders rather than service users – for example the privatised water board would rather ensure shareholder dividends are maximised than invest in new infrastructure to address water leakage
- The evidence is that the private sector does not deliver services more cheaply – the bail out of Railtrack, and other privatised services by successive governments are examples of this
- The government want to be seen to reduce public spending by moving the cost of services off the balance sheet. Anywhere between £50 -£150bn worth of uncollected taxes would pay adequately for decent public services
Our members are now facing the following privatisations or “efficiency cuts”:
- The Royal Mint The chancellor announced that the Royal Mint will be “vested” in to a company structure. It will be operated as a private sector company owned by the government, There are no valid operational or commercial reasons to vest the Royal Mint to the private sector- all ministerial targets have been met and a profit of £10 million made in 2007-08.
- The Land Registry There will be a large programme of “rationalisation” and much of the operation will be subject to “estate and operational restructuring and market testing of support functions”. This will undermine the core operation. About a third of staff may be shed.
- QEII Conference Centre is currently an efficient operation with secure bookings and income that is set to continue to generate revenue for the government so it is shortsighted madness that the intention is to sell this asset off to the private sector by 2012.
- The Met Office is to be subject to much more commercial pressure, it will have to further refine its “business model” and seek partnerships with the private sector.
- Defence Storage and Distribution Agency is to be restructured to make it much more of a commercial operation. This includes partnering, the disposal of so called surplus assets, and looking at “alternative methods of ownership to fund capital requirements”. All the necessary groundwork for eventual privatisation.
- The defence training rationalisation programme is the largest privatisation ever embarked upon by the Ministry of Defence. With a price tag of £19 billion it seeks to privatise the work of over 1100 civil servants and puts at risk a further 1900 posts through cuts in support and admin grades. Not only does this raise the spectre of mass redundancies, but also of the collapse of defence training at a time when British forces are serving in at least two theatres of war.
There are endless examples of privatisations where the government has had to bail out private companies or concerns as privatisation simply didn’t work, including the national air traffic control scheme in 2001.
Transport – The fiasco of rail privatisation has had far reaching effects on service, safety and cost of travel.
Health – Privatisation and PFI has routinely led to job cuts, a reduction in the number of beds and massive budget deficits.
Water – Privatisation has led higher bills, job losses and serious infrastructure problems with massive water leakage problems.
10 Comments CherryPie on May 12th 2009
