Guido understands that newspaper editors are getting grumpy letters this afternoon from lovely lawyers Lewis Silken acting on behalf of the Yes camp. Previous clients include that well known seeker of truth Nat Rothschild. Desperation has crept into the Yes team as they seem to have realised quite how bad the ERS funding controversy is for them.
All very new politics.
Labour MP Ian Murray loses it with Yes:
“As an MP who does 152 advertised surgeries a year, not including home visits and other surgeries, works 16 hours a day and looks upon a Sunday as the 7th working day of the week, I really take exception to people saying that AV will make me work harder.”
Jane Pilgrim is a “nurse” at St George’s Hospital Trust in Tooting, though hospital insiders say she has not worked on the front-line for a very long time. That is because she is the a full time Unison representative, paid for by the taxpayer not to do her real job. A TPA report into this loophole that the unions exploit said that St George’s was employing 1.6 union officials at a cost of £43,000 to the taxpayer.
So what does Nurse Pilgrim do for this money? Well her CV describes her as “Award Winning Partnership Project Leader”, or in other words, exactly the sort of fodder that should be cut. When Labour were in power this “Award Winning Leader” (and Labour party member,) spent most of her time organising “Staff Safaris” to John Lewis and Wagamamas to “motivate, empower and inspire“, while we picked up the tab. Now she has a new role…
Since May Jane has popped up all over the place attacking the government, she even threatened to go on strike, not that she’s a real nurse. On Monday Jane got a whole headline and piece in The Standard:
Nurse brands Andrew Lansley ‘a liar’
A nurse and Unison representative for St George’s Hospital today branded Health Secretary Andrew Lansley a “liar” for promising frontline employees they would be protected when he met staff before the general election. Jane Pilgrim, 53, a nurse for 33 years, said: “Mr Lansley visited the hospital and told us we would not be affected. He lied to us.”
But the problem for Jane is that some people have a better memory of event in late summer 2009. Sources at the hospital have confirmed that Jane “boycotted” the meeting for political reasons, refusing to meet the then Shadow Health Secretary. Those that did attend say far from Lansley saying there would not be cuts, he infact stated that “he could make no promises and it would be up to local management”. Other people in the meeting have confirmed this version of events.
Jane and her guilty conscience were very sketchy about explaining all this on the phone until she had checked with the regional Unison bod Michael Walker. When Guido called back she point blank refused to engage and threatened an “investigation”:
Could that be because she lied to the Standard?
So here we have a taxpayer funded official, with a pointless job, who has a track record of defending pointless spending, using her position to accuse her ultimate boss of being a liar based on a meeting which she boycotted because she was so politically partisan she could not bring herself to attend.
Why should the public pay for a union smear operation?
UPDATE: Unison’s delightful head of press Mary Maguire seems to awknowledge she doesn’t have a leg to stand on:
http://twitter.com/#!/MaryxMaguire/status/58201016901959680
‘Fraid it doesn’t quite work like that Mary.
Traffic rival Arianna Huffington is in a bit of bother with her unpaid writers. She is set to expand out The Huffington Post to the UK later this year, with leftie scribblers already touting themselves around as potential contributors.
They will be keeping a close eye on how her pending court case goes. Freelancer Jonathan Tasini has filed an action on behalf of nine thousand writers who he says are owed $105 million for the free content they provided to the site. There is even talk of a blogger’s strike.
Total Politics better watch their back.
The Royal College of Nurses just passed a motion of no confidence in Andrew Lansley by 98.76. There was a shocking six votes against. The one pragmatic nurse on the platform who said they were risking their place at the top table and thus influence, was angrily heckled and booed. Both Miliband, Cameron and Clegg have been in a TV war all morning, trying to play it up and trying to play it down.
Guido wonders how Scargill’s NUM would have voted at the height of Maggie’s trade union war…
Thought you were happy yesterday with the unexpected inflation dip?
Well today you are not exactly happier, but even less miserable than you were at the weekend. The surprise dip in unemployment of 17,000 has increased the spike in happiness that Guido’s Misery Index showed yesterday.
Ed Balls is quiet today.
