Equal Pay Day!

Today is Equal Pay Day in the UK during and if this Twitter photo is anything to go by, all kinds of people including Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will be keen to emphasise their public support for the concept of 'equal pay for work of equal point'.

But it's worth pointing out that despite all the windy rhetoric from 'leftist' politicians like Jeremy, the trade unions in the UK have never held a national demonstration, never mind a national strike, over Equal Pay during the past 30 years!

As regular readers know, Action 4 Equality Scotland has led the fight for equal pay north of the border and the trade unions have often been part of the problem.

In areas such as South Lanarkshire, for example, where local trade union leaders actively discouraged their members from pursuing equal pay claims against the local Labour-run Council.

 

Having A Laugh! (17/10/16)

The latest Labour Party poster made me laugh with its ridiculous image of Jeremy Corbyn 'calling time' on the equal pay waiting game.

Maybe Jeremy could find the time to send this poster to some of the many Labour council who fought so hard against equal pay for all these years?

South Lanarkshire and North Lanarkshire Councils are two of the more obvious ones that spring to mind.

In South Lanarkshire, of course, the local trade unions actively discouraged their members from pursuing equal pay claims against the local Labour-run council for many years - and if you ask me Jeremy Corbyn is of that same, old-fashioned, 'leftist' union mindset.

One that talks the talk, but fails to deliver time after time.

 

Can't Cut The Mustard (22/09/16)

I listened to quite the most devastating assessment of Jeremy Corbyn's leadership abilities on Radio 5 Live, the other day, from his first wife Jane Chapman.

Now this was not the bitter rant of a woman scorned, not least because Jane voted for her former husband first time around when he won the Labour leadership in 2015.

Nor was this 'uninformed' opinion of someone with an axe to grind since Jane is now widely regarded Professor of Communications at the University of Lincoln and a visiting Fellow at Wolfson College Cambridge.

Nonetheless Jane's view was that Jeremy had failed to mark his mark in any of the roles he has played throughout his life as a local government councillor, a trade union official and/or as a Labour MP, observing that:

• as a local councillor Jeremy chaired nothing more important than a council sub-committee
• Jeremy's trade union career never progressed beyond the 'entry level' rank
• as Labour MP for 32 years Jeremy never took on any position of responsibility - not even that as the chair of a parliamentary select committee 

So without rancour or any hint of personal animosity, Professor Chapman essentially came to the same view as the vast majority of Labour MPs - that Jeremy Corbyn does not possess the skills for the job of Labour leader.

Which is, of course, my considered view as well.

 

'Bog Standard' Officials (24/06/16)

I was unfazed one way or the other by Jeremy Corbyn's appearance on 'The Last Leg' TV programme which had the Labour leader arrive in a chauffeur-driven Bentley, dressed in a dinner suit and a full-length white fur coat.

After all if you have an image problem, then why not do something out of the ordinary to confound and confuse your political opponents.

But no, my real problem with Jeremy is that in answer to a 'dolly' question about how he would rank the importance of the next week's EU referendum on a scale of 1 to 10, Jezza responded with the unbelievably lame answer of "7 to 7 and a half".

Now when so much is at stake in next week's referendum, you would think a Labour leader worth his mettle would have emphasised, in the strongest possible terms, the very real threat to the UK economy, jobs and investment posed by the country's withdrawal from the European Union (EU).

So Jeremy's a complete fool if you ask me, a political half-wit, but that's what you get if you elect as Labour leader a man who rose to the dizzying ranks of 'bog standard' union official before finding a niche as a backbench Labour MP in the House of Commons for the next 32 years.

And while there are some decent trade union officials around, believe me there are plenty of complete 'duds' in the ranks too, as the Labour party and the country is finding out to its cost.