The latest in my series of interviews for False Economy with people in the Northwest region affected by cuts and benefit changes.
Save our NHS demonstration London 17 March 2012
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Some videos from today’s protest in central London. Bit rough, but mainly uploaded to give you an idea of the police presence, which was pretty excessive and over the top at points. Definitely got the feeling that they were going for a show of strength in the leadup to the Olympics.
First video: police push a woman to the ground. This seemed excessive – she’d just been standing there. You can see the lineup of special police (riot police?) here. Haven’t seen these uniforms before I don’t think.
Not the natty little blue caps, anyway.
Quick look at the police from inside the kettle. Kettling lasted about half an hour. They took names and addresses at the end of it. I was able to leave with my press pass.
This video shows the sort of numbers the police had and their flanking of the protest…people were singing the Stormtroopers theme from Star Wars:
And a video of the protest as it reached Trafalgar square:
This is another video of the protest as people blocked the streets – gives lie to claims that the demonstration was too small for the mainstream to cover. There was a lot of anger here and a lot of people expressing it.
This protest was well-attended and feisty. And certainly overpoliced. Can’t wait for the Olympics.
The chaos for families caught in care cuts
First in my series of articles for False Economy featuring people who rely on the NHS, council services (especially care) and benefits like the DLA. As government reforms start to bite, I’ll be publishing more stories with people who rely on those services to chart the impact of these policy changes on real lives. These first articles feature people living in the northwest.
Protected: Part one: protected
Bolton cuts
Real anger tonight at Bolton town hall as the (Labour) council met to agree cuts to the tune of about £18 million.
Five libraries will go, along with considerable sections of the adults’ and children’s services budgets – will fill in those details when I’ve lifted them all from the budget (the papers are here). Major job losses are expected – some say upwards of 1000. I spoke to a lot of people at the protest tonight and they are all expecting to see significant redundancies at the council. They all said Bolton couldn’t afford to take that hit, either. Unemployment in Bolton (especially youth unemployment) is increasing fast and is above national and regional averages.
Exchanges between local people and councillors (particularly Labour councillors, it has to be said) were fiery and unpleasant. People said loud and clear that they thought Labour councillors should be on the steps protesting against the cuts with them. I took a few short videos just to show the extent of the anger. It was very real and very justified. People are frightened of losing services and frightened of losing their jobs – and who wouldn’t be, in this environment.
And yes – one councillor did tell a protesting worker to fuck off. I saw that myself.
More soon.
With regards to Rog T at the Barneteye
…who has put up this fabulous post about Barnet council’s somewhat misguided attempt to get me to take down a document I never posted. My first non-takedown takedown notice. #WIN
Suppose they’ve got to fill the day somehow.
Update Tuesday 21 February: I’ve had advice from the NUJ (my union) that linking to a document does not constitute publication. As you were, then.
Hey – here’s Brian Coleman from Barnet council filling his day: (photo from Adam Bienkov):
US women in workfare talk about their lives
My latest article on the US workfare experience: US workfare workers talk about benefit sanctions and the problems they have finding ongoing paid jobs while on the New York City work experience (workfare) programme. There are warnings here for us – this is the sort of failed welfare-to-work programme Iain Duncan Smith is implementing in the UK.
Rog T, Barnet eye and leaked documents
Last month, Barnet eye blogger Rog Tichborne was sent a confidential document in a stamped Barnet council envelope. He posted the document on his site.
He assumed the document had been sent to him by a Barnet council staff member who was concerned about the council’s methods for choosing big private companies as partners and service providers.
He was probably right. Only a day after he’d posted the document on his site, he received a letter from Barnet council’s legal department which threatened him with legal action if he didn’t take the document down.
It’s easy to understand why the council was and is so sensitive. For several years, Barnet council has been working towards commissioning-council status – as a commissioning council, the borough would outsource all council services to the private sector and administer contracts for those services, rather than provide services directly.
This has been a tremendously controversial project in Barnet. Staff aren’t onside: workers have taken several days of strike action so far in protest and were on strike again on Thursday 9 February to oppose the council’s outsourcing plans. An enormous amount of money has been spent (many say wasted) on consultants to advise the council on its outsourcing plans – that figure runs into the millions and does not, as Rog T says, include the council officer time and resources diverted to the project at a time when services to vulnerable and young people have been cut.
The public-private partnership projects that are developed by outsourcing councils are themselves extraordinarily costly – last year, for example, Barnet council agreed to set aside £750m for a private partner to assist in the delivery of a support and customer services project.
Questions have also been asked about the council’s ability to manage and control big private sector contracts. Last year, the council’s internal auditors found major irregularities in the council’s contracting processes – no tendering, no financial or CRB checking and no written contract with a major provider in at least one case. A series of reports by Barnet Unison found that the council failed to produce convincing business cases for its most expensive outsourcing proposals. Unison believes savings figures have been grossly overestimated and the failure of similar projects in other boroughs ignored.
So – the leaked document. I’m happy to link to it and have been doing so for some time. It’s been in the public domain for a while. As it should be. Like Rog Tichborne and many council bloggers, I believe these commissioning documents should be public. Council services (and the NHS for that matter) are rapidly being transferred to private providers with almost no consultation with service users and voters. The contracts private companies are winning are enormously lucrative – for them. The Mail’s investigation this weekend into McKinsey’s influence on NHS reforms gives people some idea of the extent of private sector influence on public sector “reforms” and the scale of the behind-the-scenes operations that protestors and opponents of privatisation are up against. Councils need to open their books up on some of these massive outsourcing deals, too. Continue reading
Occupiers vs Hammersmith and Fulham council
Update 13 February:
Met with the occupying group several times last week. It seems that the council went in last weekend and changed the locks on the building doors, so now the occupiers are locked out – as is anyone who hopes to use this community building. The occupiers’ posters have also been taken down. The building is empty and unused. Amazingly, it seems that the council would rather have an empty community building than one utilised by community groups. The occupying group said that there were still several years to run on the council’s lease of the building, so they can’t understand why the council is so keen to empty the building out.
Updated Friday 3 February
A newly-formed group of centre users and Hammersmith trades council members occupied the Hammersmith information and visitor centre in Hammersmith on Tuesday (the centre is in Unit 20, Hammersmith Broadway, W6 9YD).
The council planned to close the information centre down as part of its austerity cuts programme, but protestors denied the council entry when removal staff arrived to clear the building on Tuesday.
The occupiers have a set of keys to the centre and the council does not.
Gwen Cook, a Hammersmith trades council member and occupier told me that the occupiers planned to continue their protest past this week. They expected things to get more difficult next week if the council made a decision about gaining access. “What can they do, though? Are they going to kick the doors in to a building on the Broadway?”
Cook said it was “disgusting” that the council was planning to close the information centre. The information centre had been a vital public space for voluntary and community groups in the middle of Hammersmith for many years. Meeting space and public building options for voluntary groups in the borough were reduced considerably last week when about 20 voluntary groups were forced out of Palingswick House on King’s Street to make way for Toby Young’s freeschool.
“People think the Tories win everything, but they don’t. We don’t want to just hand it [the information centre] to them.”
From the occupiers’ press release and subsequent interviews (they were still there on Friday):
“The Hammersmith information and visitor centre has served the borough for many years. During that time, it has hosted new community organisations and helped them to grow. It has provided a resource for small unfunded local groups to meet. It has provided a gallery space for local artists and photographers to showcase their work. Above all, it has served as an information and visitor centre helping visitors and residents to find their way around the borough, to seek out social and commercial services and has been a friendly face to thousands of people seeking help.
The centre has been staffed entirely by experienced and expert volunteers during its lifetime.
In this 2012 Olympics Year and Royal Jubilee year, many more visitors are expected in the borough. Is it a good idea to close the only place visitors can go to get information and help in this vast city of ours?”
Update Thursday 2 February:
Went down to the information centre this evening after work and spoke to the occupiers.
Chris Tranchell, from the Hammersmith Community Trust, said the trust, which had used the information centre for about nine years for meetings and community activities, had known for months that the centre was likely to be closed. (For several years now, the council has been closing and selling popular public buildings, in the face of major opposition from local people. The council inevitably argues that buildings and services are underutilised. Service and building users always say different. Tranchell shows me artwork, folders, signs, pictures, photos and other material belonging to community groups which use the centre. They’ve left their equipment and stocks in the centre for now, because they have no other buildings or rooms to move things to. The centre is just full of those belongings. That was the material that the removal workers were meant to take away on Tuesday.
Tranchell says the council told the trust that the centre would be “given back” to Hammersmith Broadway’s landlords, so he and other members of the trust went to talk to the landlords to ask if they and other community groups could somehow stay on at the centre. Tranchell says that the landlords were surprised to hear that the building was to be “returned” to their custody – that seemed to be news to them.
He said Labour MP Andrew Slaughter was looking into this for them. Tranchell and his group want to negotiate continued community use of the building with the council and the Broadway’s landlords. He said the council gave the trust a list of about 140 alternative community buildings to use, but that a lot of the organisations in charge of those buildings were charging commercial rates. “They don’t seem to be making these decisions [about closing public buildings] with the community in mind.”
More soon.
Barnet council workers strike again
Press release from Barnet Unison:
“On Thursday 9 February, hundreds of Barnet council *UNISON members will go on strike.
Barnet council workers are fighting Barnet council plans to mass-outsource council services and jobs to the private sector. The council is proceeding with a £750m “support and customer services project” where a private company will be engaged to deliver services like council estates, finance, human resources, information systems, procurement, revenues and benefits and project management services. Unison estimates job losses of between about 190 and 250 for workers in these areas.
The council is also planning to move adult social services (learning disability and physical and sensory impairment services for adults) into a profit-focused, local authority trading company.
What is happening in Barnet is likely to happen across NHS services – private sector companies fighting to win lucrative, guaranteed contracts to provide public services. These contracts are all funded by the taxpayer.
Up to 70% of Barnet council’s workforce could be transferred to the private sector in little more than 11 months’ time.
For many of Barnet Unison’s members, this will be the fourth day of action in response to the One Barnet Project which seeks to transfer the majority of staff out of the council and develop partnership projects with private companies to deliver services. The total cost of these projects will very likely exceed £2bn, which is why private sector companies are lining up to win contracts with the council.
By agreeing to take action next week, members make an important statement. They want to remain council employees, they want inhouse service bidders to be allowed to compete with private companies, and, most of all, they want to serve the community they are passionate about.
After taking part in the picket line, a group of strikers will help out a local charity. Members want to make it clear that “while they will be withdrawing their labour from the council, they are not withdrawing their commitment to the community they are so proud to serve.”
John Burgess, Barnet Unison branch secretary said
“Doing nothing is not an option for our members. The council is playing high stake risks with our members’, and council taxpayers’, future payments. The council needs to recognise that the One Barnet programme cannot be allowed to continue to expose residents, services and staff to this high risk strategy and expect them to pick up the bill.
Barnet Unison is asking for the One Barnet programme to be put on hold.
*workers in these departments will take action: trading standards & licensing, land charges, planning & development, building control & structures, environmental health, highways strategy, highways network management, highways traffic & development, highways transport & regeneration, strategic planning & regeneration, cemeteries & crematoria, parking services, revenues & benefits, ** housing and social care direct
** Subject to outcome of a strike ballot
Contact: John Burgess, Barnet Unison, on 07738389569 or email: john.burgess@barnetunison.org.uk.
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