UNISON London Labour Link says Goodbye and thank you Ali G

Picture is of me as Chair of UNISON London Region Labour Link presenting retiring committee member, Alan Griffiths, with a bottle of House of Commons Whiskey!

Alan who is also a Newham Councillor, has been a long serving member of the Committee for many years and will be missed. 

At the committee meeting we also had a presentation by former London MEP, Carole Tongue, on "the Euro elections 2014 and the positive case for Europe". There was a lively Q&A afterwards and almost an consensus, that there is a positive narrative about Europe (amidst lots of real problems) that we should make and not let the the bigoted right set the agenda.

Committee member Sanchia Alaisa (2nd from right), who works in FE and is a Councillor in Barking and Dagenham, is standing to be a Euro MEP candidate in 2014. Check out her web site here.

London Assembly member Joanne McCartney gave her GLA report next. This was dominated by the devastating Police and Fire brigade cuts that London Mayor Boris is about to implement despite his manifesto promises to protect emergency services.

The highlight of the meeting was of course the last business item, as Alan Griffiths, gave a swan song Powerpoint presentation on the retrofitting of Solar Power Panels on south facing roofs of houses in Walthamstow Council estates. Which is still a worthwhile idea to look at despite Tory Coalition tariff cuts. His motto "Every South facing roof could still be a power station".