The world's oldest rebel should be an inspiration to us all

This week a good man died after a long life lived well through helping others. His name was Harry Leslie Smith and for the fans he achieved late in life was built on the noble art of speaking truth to power.

He spoke with the honesty and simplicity of lived experience about the experience of growing up in grinding poverty and the fears of an old man that the mistakes of the past are about to be repeated.

This had always been a powerful message, particularly in a country where those who hold power believe that inequality validates their economic thinking.

I had the privilege of heating Harry speak only once, at a rally held in my home tot of Stoke-on-Trent during the 2015 election.

It was one of those dispiriting events that pepper a campaign. A grey spring afternoon spent listening to speakers rehash lines they've used a dozen of more times before.

The star turn that day was Tristram Hunt, at the time the MP for Stoke Central, his speech was an exercise in bored enticement. No phrase cliché went unused and the delivery made that of a broken speak your weight machine sound like Lawrence Olivier playing Henry V.

He was followed on the under card by two trades union officials, about whom the kindest thing to be said was that their oratory style was based on volume rather than content, or coherence.

Then came Harry Leslie Smith, a speaker of a different and, to this jaded listener anyway, much higher order. He didn't deploy the tricks of rhetoric or the dark areas of public relations training. He spoke quietly and simply from the heart about the horrors of growing up in the hungry years between the wars.

What he said mirrored the stories my late father used to tell about the whole family having to pawn their best clothes on Monday in the hope of being able to afford to get them out of hock in time for church on Sunday. All too often they and most of their neighbours couldn’t.

As someone who studies society at a university I get to see the data about inequality, poverty and destitution in this the fifth richest country in the world. Time and again I am shocked by the similarity between the Britain of 2018 and the one of the 1930’s recalled by Harry in his speech that day.

Politicians don’t talk about this nearly enough, when they do so they either stigmatise people who are struggling to survive, setting up a false conflict between ‘strivers’ and ‘skivers’. The truth, as Harry knew so well, is that to survive at the bottom of society you must strive harder than any minister or captain of industry.

The other stock response of a political class distant from the concerns of everyday Britons, is to talk about poverty and inequality as abstractions, hedging them around with statistics and theories. Their actions may be well meaning, but seldom reach out beyond the ivory towers of academia into the confusing world of reality.

Dylan Thomas didn’t, due to his dissipations, live to see old age, but he wrote powerfully about how it should ‘rage, rage against the dying of the light’. Not just in this instance against the dying of that of reason as an amnesiac generation stumble towards the precipice their elders nearly fell over into disaster.

In Harry Leslie Smith the rage of the old burnt with the focus and intensity to a welding torch. Now he is gone those of us who are younger should try to catch its embers and fan them into a flame of our own.
We should honour his passing as that of a man of honour who fought the good fight to the end. Then as his memorial take up the cudgels and wage it ourselves.

Union battling to keep crown Post Offices in public hands

Selling off the Royal Mail was a privatisation too far, even for many Tory advocates of the free market. Margaret Thatcher, the patron saint of shrinking the state by selling off its assets, believed to Royal Mail should be publicly owned.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) is fighting to keep 74 crown Post Offices, which remained in public ownership when the Royal Mail was privatised, from bring 'franchised'; meaning sold off, to WH Smiths.

The union fears for the jobs of the 800 workers employed on the post offices and that services to communities will be hit.

CWU general secretary Dave Ward said: ' at a time when the government is claiming to be on the side of workers, it is an outrage that it is allowing well rewarded jobs to go from a public service.'

He added that the jobs were at risk of being handed over to a 'second rate employer', that had been 'recently rated as the worst retailer on the high street' who would ' undoubtedly provide a significantly inferior service'.

W H Smith has been ranked as one of the UK's worst retailers in a survey run by consumer organisation Which for the past eight years. Complaints from disgruntled customers included stores with 'wonky' shelves and badly timed promotions.
(Source: BBC News)

The Green Party has opposed the privatisation of the Royal Mail since the idea was first mooted under New Labour.

In 2009 prospective MEP for the Eastern Region described the Royal Mail as a 'cherished and trusted national institution'.

He added that privatisation would benefit ' big business, not consumers, we have seen this in the NHS, BT and the railways'.

In 2013 the Greens supported the CWU in their campaign against privatisation, during which a party spokesperson said: 'privatisation of the Royal Mail will only lead to rising prices, worse conditions for postal workers and a declining service in rural areas'.

Adding that the party stands ' firmly on the side of public ownership, in line with our commitment to bringing rail, energy and other privatised utilities back into public hands'.

The CWU has launched a dedicated website for the campaign at www.saveourpostoffice.co.uk through which members and supporters can sign a petition calling on Greg Clarke, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to call a halt to the sell off .

Campaign Coordinator for North Staffs Green Party Adam Colclough said: 'privatisation of the Post Office and other services has been a disaster for communities'.

North Staffs Greens have written to Greg Clarke asking him to stop the sale of crown post offices and have signed the CWU petition.

He added that the party was ' entirely committed to returning postal services, railways and utilities to public ownership.'

The government needs to make nursing higher education a priority.

The Royal College of Nursing, the body that speaks for nurses in England has described the current system for training nurses as 'broken'.

They are calling on Health and Social Care Minister Matt Hancock and NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens to set out a long-term plan for funding nursing education.

There are currently 42,000 unfilled nursing vacancies in England, this could rise to 48,000 over the next five years if the government does not act.

Since the removal of bursaries for nursing there are, the RCN says, 1800 fewer nurses in training.

This is due to nursing students doing placements with hours that prevent them from being able to work to support themselves, leaving many struggling financially.

In a statement on its website the RCN says, ' nursing students are on their courses to learn, but they are being used to fill gaps in the workforce and caring for patients before they are ready'.

They add that this ' isn't fair to nursing students and isn't safe for patients'.

In a speech made at St Mary's Hospital on the Isle of Wight during the 2017 general election Green Party MP Caroline Lucas said the government was using funding cuts to put the NHS 'through a cruel form of shock therapy'.

She went on to say that. The sign of a 'confident and caring country' was that it provides 'people the health care they need free at the point of use'.

The Green Party is committed to spending on the NHS that meets the needs of communities, not artificial government financial projections, with funding raised through general taxation earmarked for this use

The party also believes that NHS staff have been undervalued for too long and supports improving their pay, training and working hours.

Campaign Coordinator for North Staffs Green Party said ' the RCN have thrown light on the shockingly poor treatment of student nurses. They are being placed in a position where they are being priced out of studying. If we want a strong NHS and a healthy country this cannot continue'.

He added that ' as a member of the Patient's Congress I will be raising this issue with the local CCG'.

The RCN are calling on the government and NHS England to set aside a minimum of £1billion to improve funding for nursing higher education as part of its ten-year review of priorities.

Petition aims to change the menu in the public sector.

Over the past four years the number of vegans in the UK has doubled and more people are choosing to eat a plant-based diet for health reasons.

Despite veganism given the same status as dietary choices associated with religious faith the public sector has been slow to respond to this change in eating habits.

Humane Society International have launched a parliamentary petition calling for the inclusion of plant-based options on public sector menus as standard practice

The petition refers to advice from the British Dietic Association and the UN that eating a plant-based diet is good for the health of individuals and the environment.

Information produced by the Vegan Society makes the case that avoiding meat and dairy can help to reduce the incidence of high blood-pressure, type2 diabetes and some cancers.

It can also have a positive impact on the environment, reducing the amount of land cultivated for animal feed and reducing food insecurity.

The Green Party supports a food and agriculture policy that is sustainable over the long term. This includes supporting animal welfare, fair-trade and supporting public sector caterers to make healthy and vegan options available.

Signing the petition on behalf of North Staffs Green Party campaign coordinator Adam Colclough said: ' It is vital for the environment that we change the way we put food on our plates', he added that it is also important 'to make healthy food choices easier and more appealing, the public sector has a huge role to play in that'.

The party have written to Stoke-on-Trent City Council calling on them to act on the call made in the petition

Humane Society International are also working with public sector caterers to help them change their menus.

A parliamentary petition that gathers 10,000 signatures will receive a response from the government, one that attracts 100,000 will be considered for debate in parliament

A link to the petition can be accessed here: https://action.hsi.org/page/33008/action/1?utm_medium=email&utm_source=engagingnetworks&utm_campaign=farm&utm_content=110118+UK+action+vegan+day+gg&ea.url.id=1564395&forwarded=true