A bad pact with Blair
The hope that the 'big four' trade unions - TGWU, Amicus, GMB, and Unison - were on a direct collision course with the Blair Labour Party was knocked back at the 23-25 July meeting of New Labour's National Policy Forum discussing the manifesto for the next general election. The Blairites made what union leaders have described as 'substantial' concessions to the unions, and the unions agreed not to take a minority report to the Labour Party conference at the end of September. The conference will now face a take-it-or-leave-it vote on a document of 'concordat' between the New Labour leadership...