so.. gay people and unions.. discuss
I have spent the last 3 days in and out of a Bristol hotel attending my first LGBT Unison conference. It has been interesting, but not that enjoyable. I think this is for a number of reasons. The last of all being that I'm still recovering from a severe mental episode which makes meeting new people I don't know pretty difficult, if nigh on impossible.
Plus It's perishing cold, Bristol has THE WORST public transport system in the UK and I'm not paying anything up to and over £17 a day to park my car. Of course the buses shut down at 5pm to where I want to get to in terms of the city and it was costing me anything over £4-7 to get anywhere albeit single or return fares. People say that Unison will pay for my travel and they will, but they pay it BACK to me. Not in advance and it being the end of the month I just don't have the liquid income to pay out these exorbitant travel and accommodation costs.
But the union events. Well we had meetings for the individual LGBT caucuses (read: groups) where they tried to get people to become representatives for the national governing bodies and boards. I have enough problems being me at the moment, I don't want the added stress.
Unfortunately I got it, the public sector and the NHS in particular is in the firing line for being cut to ribbons by the ConDem government. And the LGBT funding is at the broken end of that bottle given our "disgusting" status in the eyes of the tories.
We argued and passed a lot of motions, using a form of speaking that flew right over my head as I wasn't at all familiar with union lexicon of language. Plus people talk and talk. A lot. Often the same people, often I got the impression purely for the hell of it considering the motion already had enough momentum to be passed.
Some points I got from the weekend:
1. The ConDem's are hated universally, for a variety of reasons including their reneging on pre-election promises, lip-service to other issues and barefaced lying concerning the public sector cuts that are being rolled out while the bankers aren't being touched for their hand in this global economic meltdown.
2. Labour are lorded. Personally I was upset that NO ONE mentioned the fact that the Labour government started these public sector cuts and was responsible for the meltdown and the fact that Britain is £4.2 trillion in debt right now. People have short memories in politics it seems.
3. The marches in london recently, particular the student affair that turned violent was supported. I was surprised at this but what are people going to do when taxes, heating bills, education fees and gas prices are all due to be raised in the new year and we're being told by a group of millionaires that "we've never had it so good" and "we're all in this together"?
and don't get me started on Ireland Bailout Mark 2.
4. People vote on Israel without knowing the facts. But what do we expect from British people who don't know the full facts, the history or any inkling of Middle East and Israeli politics?
5. The funniest part of the weekend was reading the stenotype rolling across the screen as the speakers spoke. Given the speed, regional accent or general verbal aptitude of the speaker meant how clear the words rolled out in different colours. I got so bored at one point I started jotting these little word bombs down. Some of the best are "Les Byance" (lesbians) "Vic tor Ryan" (Victorian) and "kong serve tiff" (Conservative). I have pages, I could go on.
Bad points of this was the fact that we had to pay for our own food and drink the entire time, nothing was laid on save pitchers of ice cold water. And the main hall was so bloody cold that after a cup or two of that you were freezing. The seats were uncomfortable and after the last 2 nights I've been so knackered I've just come home and rolled into bed.
Whether I do this next year - it's up in Glasgow - has yet to be determined. But I'm hoping it's a nicer environment than the past 3 days have been.
Plus It's perishing cold, Bristol has THE WORST public transport system in the UK and I'm not paying anything up to and over £17 a day to park my car. Of course the buses shut down at 5pm to where I want to get to in terms of the city and it was costing me anything over £4-7 to get anywhere albeit single or return fares. People say that Unison will pay for my travel and they will, but they pay it BACK to me. Not in advance and it being the end of the month I just don't have the liquid income to pay out these exorbitant travel and accommodation costs.
But the union events. Well we had meetings for the individual LGBT caucuses (read: groups) where they tried to get people to become representatives for the national governing bodies and boards. I have enough problems being me at the moment, I don't want the added stress.
Unfortunately I got it, the public sector and the NHS in particular is in the firing line for being cut to ribbons by the ConDem government. And the LGBT funding is at the broken end of that bottle given our "disgusting" status in the eyes of the tories.
We argued and passed a lot of motions, using a form of speaking that flew right over my head as I wasn't at all familiar with union lexicon of language. Plus people talk and talk. A lot. Often the same people, often I got the impression purely for the hell of it considering the motion already had enough momentum to be passed.
Some points I got from the weekend:
1. The ConDem's are hated universally, for a variety of reasons including their reneging on pre-election promises, lip-service to other issues and barefaced lying concerning the public sector cuts that are being rolled out while the bankers aren't being touched for their hand in this global economic meltdown.
2. Labour are lorded. Personally I was upset that NO ONE mentioned the fact that the Labour government started these public sector cuts and was responsible for the meltdown and the fact that Britain is £4.2 trillion in debt right now. People have short memories in politics it seems.
3. The marches in london recently, particular the student affair that turned violent was supported. I was surprised at this but what are people going to do when taxes, heating bills, education fees and gas prices are all due to be raised in the new year and we're being told by a group of millionaires that "we've never had it so good" and "we're all in this together"?
and don't get me started on Ireland Bailout Mark 2.
4. People vote on Israel without knowing the facts. But what do we expect from British people who don't know the full facts, the history or any inkling of Middle East and Israeli politics?
5. The funniest part of the weekend was reading the stenotype rolling across the screen as the speakers spoke. Given the speed, regional accent or general verbal aptitude of the speaker meant how clear the words rolled out in different colours. I got so bored at one point I started jotting these little word bombs down. Some of the best are "Les Byance" (lesbians) "Vic tor Ryan" (Victorian) and "kong serve tiff" (Conservative). I have pages, I could go on.
Bad points of this was the fact that we had to pay for our own food and drink the entire time, nothing was laid on save pitchers of ice cold water. And the main hall was so bloody cold that after a cup or two of that you were freezing. The seats were uncomfortable and after the last 2 nights I've been so knackered I've just come home and rolled into bed.
Whether I do this next year - it's up in Glasgow - has yet to be determined. But I'm hoping it's a nicer environment than the past 3 days have been.