alanjjohnstone
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I’m well aware of that fact that the EC approved the insert but you seem to ignore this part..
“As soon as convenient”
Convenient for who? Certainly not the local members ignorant of this development.
As you say no date was given of when it would be inserted. So who tried to inform them that it was this weekend? Via our online mediums? Nope.
Neither branch were due to hold their meetings since the EC minutes were put online nor before the date of the insert will happen.
So do you think this satisfactory advance notice?
For the record when the July minutes were published online, on the 7th Aug, I circulated an e-mail to the branches
“Has there been any follow up to the design, lay-out and content of the text of this advert proposal approved by the EC in July Is it going to be the one already published in SE England or will it be customized for a Scottish audience? Will Edinburgh and Glasgow have input?”
When your easy-to-miss mention on this forum that it would actually appear this weekend I circulated another e-mail immediately
“I previously asked Matt if the branches had any input and it seems there wasn’t any prior engagement. Can anyone tell me if any local member was informed of the ad appearing other than the EC minutes where I first read of this so to publicise it for members to know about. A member may like to buy a copy of i newspaper just to see the ad.
Anyways, i’d appreciate feedback next week on the presentation of the ad when it appears, how it looks, how it reads and whatnot. If the ad insert can be scanned the Socialist Courier blog would do a post featuring the ad.
But what unsettles me and I may well be wrong but I think there is a problem of letting others speak for Edinburgh and Glasgow branches because of the different political climate in Scotland.”
Dave, it seems obvious to me that being located a mere 400 miles away in Glasgow and Edinburgh leaves a member just as unconnected as someone thousands of miles away.
I have been urging those branches to do their own advertising campaign with no success, and they may well not do so ever if they are under the impression that it will all be done for them remotely by HO committees. Not a way to motivate a branch to be active.
Nor does it encourage attendance to branch meetings when decisions are made for them in their absence and without consultation.
In relation to this thread…another nail in the coffin of local branches.
Perhaps you can clarify for me who got contacted and when on the details of the insert and the date of appearance, then, Dave?
Not on Spintcom as far as I could see but I may have missed it. Not here except in passing on this thread.
I still await replies from the respective branch secretaries which may enlighten me
Certainly from past published minutes from both branches, the insert or its content were not featured, AFAIK.
If they were indeed informed then I consider that also another depressing sign of the redundancy of the branch structure in that they deemed such details not worthy of discussion much less even a mention.
As I indicated adverts should be tailored for the audience and local branches consulted on content with some sort of feedback to the branches on the responses and replies.
Perhaps being located so distant means I treat receiving information something of an importance than those who are more in the informal loop than myself.
Whether certain committees are functioning is neither here nor there.
On this thread, i’m told two London branches are about to fold and taking into account the inactivity of most branches (albeit with a couple of notable exceptions), it appears the malaise is wider and it is the branch structure of the Party that is no longer functioning nor fit for purpose any longer.
Is it not time for a serious look at transforming ourselves into a national/international organization if the publicity and propaganda campaigns are from central committees and not the local branches initiative
The i newspaper insert is an example in that the Scottish branches were not previously engaged with so to have an opportunity to have any input into the text to make it more receptive to a local audience. Every advertiser tries to shape the message in a way where it resonates better. The Scottish political scene is very different from the SE England’s.
Perhaps indeed the content of the insert is satisfactory, but by excluding the local Scottish branches from any discussion, in effect, sidelining them, leaves those branches with little or no role to play. Why turn up at branch meetings if no discussions are ever held or resolutions put to the floor and all that happens is secretary reading out the EC minutes and the members at the branch meeting humming and hawing about the items.
I’m not 100% sure but I believe there has been no advance notice to either branch that it is this weekend that the insert will appear other than the above post by DaveC.
Although exchanges of fire is a regular occurrence at this moment in time such incidents can be very risky and easily escalate
“…Trouble is mid-winter at the end of January isn’t the best time of the year for one…”
With the prospect of milder winters and the proximity of HO to take refuge and shelter and enjoy body-warming hot soups, perhaps it is more possible for Bijou, who has been brought up in the harsh rugged North-East, a place for no namby-pamby softies. What’s frost-bite except the loss of a finger or toe?
Are we fair-weather socialists? 😛
And another thing I should explain, for many of those who are living abroad and getting the state pension, there is no annual increase.
Presently those in the EU and in a handful of non-EU countries such as Turkey, the Philippines, all the ex-Yugoslavia new countries and surprisingly Cuba, do receive the annual rise in line with UK pensioners.
I won’t and each year with inflation here at 1%, the value (apart from the exchange rate fluctuation already explained) , my state pension will fall in value every year by 1 % (the rate of inflation here at this moment)…When it becomes too severe, perhaps I will return for 6 months, regain the status of the resident once again and receive the appropriate upgrade in the level of pension which I previously had lost out on.
Things would be easier to move to the Irish Republic, Bijou, and many have become EU residents so to use EU rules to move families to the UK. These loopholes in regulations of course will end with Brexit.
“It is not very easy to move from one country to another” – Marquito
Indeed it is not. One reason I left India was a change of rule which meant I had to leave the country every 6 months for 2 months, (now changed)
Here I have to report to immigration office every 90 days, and renew my marriage visa once a year where I have to show evidence of what used to be £4000 in local currency in the bank or annual income of the equivalent sum which means with the fall in the pound immigration is raising the requirement. The required money is double for unmarried retirement visas. I have to pay a fee each time I exit the country to maintain my status as a spouse of a national.
Permanent residency without all the strings attached in either country is very difficult to achieve unless you are extremely wealthy.
ALB, as far as I can read, ex-pats in the UK are being offered on a country by country basis a far better and generous deal by their host countries than what the UK’s “hostile environment” is doing. I’d be curious to know the prospects of our comrades in Turkey.
Also, ALB, one benefit of nationalism would have been a Scottish passport and a government which is welcoming newcomers and currently attempting in the UK to loosen immigration restrictions.
If there is no new EU referendum and with Labour promising a new Indyref2 then it is likely that Scotland will next time around vote for independence and a return to the EU.
I wish you well in seeking Irish nationality, Bijou. I’d do the same if I could. You might be able to put your energy in reviving the World Socialist Party of Ireland. 😎
I should add that if I did return to the UK on my own, I would be classed as a non-resident and be refused all state benefits and access to free NHS care for 6 months whereupon I would be then considered again a UK resident.
At the time the Spanish said that the interception of the oil tanker was at the bequest of the Americans. something the UK denied.
Now, the Americans are demanding that the UK continue to detain the oil tanker in Gibraltar thwarting any diplomatic deal between the UK and Iran over the release of the UK tanker in Iran.
Bijou, I have a family here now and even if we wished to re-locate to the UK, the immigration rules does not permit the possibility.
I would require a personal income of £24, 800 per annum and the cost of even the application form is £1,500.
I’m very pessimistic, ALB. I keep seeing the value of my pension falling due to the dropping pound. And it isn’t going to get any better soon, in fact, I predict it will get worse.
When I first moved here I was getting 53 for the pound…now it is 36 and I can see it going down to 30 when no deal Brexit actually transpires.
And, of course, it is not only me. Every ex-pat will be feeling a similar pain.
All I need is some sort of economic crisis here which raises the local inflation rate which is 1%, right now.
The Dow crashing, Germany on the verge of a technical recession, Asian stock-markets falling…everywhere there is a pessimism.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/aug/14/dow-jones-plunges-800-points-markets-trump
Kudos to yourself for taking it upon yourself, Bijou, to not only talk the talk but walk the walk. I wish you and those who take up your invite all the success.
I fully acknowledge that my view may not be the complete one and I keep raising the issue to produce more feedback from others.
A great deal of the members’ burden is that we continue to behave as nothing has changed. The infrastructure of the Party is too top heavy,the vacancies on the committees is evidence of this over-organisation.
We cannot continue as we are on the long term. Eventually the running costs of the Party will exceed our income from fewer and fewer members, doing less and less. For sure some members will say we have staggered on from one crisis to another and still survived. But isn’t the situation apparent from the decline in interest of all the left is that workers politics are no longer aimed at socialism of any variety, despite Labour Party claims of increased members.
The inspiration of a new future society has been replaced by either, settling for the status quo and grabbing whatever we can right now through single issue campaigns or more broadly protecting the environment, which ignoring any reservations we have, successfully politicalized a future generation through school climate strikes and XR’s direct actions.
Branch activity has nearly disappeared although with some exceptions such as those who run a street stall, something that each and every branch can do and should do. It only takes the proverbial one man and his dog, a folding pasting table, a bag full of lit and a likely spot to set up. I don’t see it as a means of selling our pamphlets and the Socialist Standard but to be a visible advert for the Party and show we do exist as a physical presence but as BrianJ said about their branches and what DaveC has said, it creates conversations with people who would under other circumstances would never come in contact with the Party.
But if no volunteers are stepping up, then as been previously suggested and in places carried out , local media advertising campaigns should be run although I do caution that this needs a back-up of a branch that welcomes enquiries. I’ve experienced branch meeting where I would not recommend a prospective new member to attend to avoid their disillusionment.
Harping on as I do will not end. Self-criticism and internal examination is something that is necessary.
