Emma and Lynn had to leave straight after the meeting.
Our Sensible Left slate won all the Regional Council Officer posts (Executive) for the 6th year running. I don't know yet what the margin was this year but I suspect it is as good or even better than in the past. Local government branches are coming on side as they realise that sloganeering and grandstanding is not going to achieve anything.
The AGM went off very smoothly and guest speakers UNISON President Angela Lynes and Deputy GS of the PSC Hugh Lanning were well received.
I had to answer a few questions during my presentation on the financial report. The debates over number of regional council meetings and quorum were actually pretty good and people listened to the arguments. There was little hostile heckling and no attempts to shout down speakers that the Ultra left (some of them not all) didn't happen to agree with. Which I think is very positive. It was agreed to cut the number of meetings to 3 per year (at last) and keep the quorum at 1/3rd (thankfully). It was a pity that there wasn't time to debate my branch Housing motion and the others since we ran out of time.
I hope (and expect) now that the Region will unite around Gloria and Conroy as we oppose the cuts while defending our members.
There was tremendous support shown for the TUC March 26th and I am sure that UNISON London region will play a major part in mobilising for it and making it a great success.
