JIMMY REID AND KENNETH WILLIAMS

I meant to write something earlier in the week about Jimmy Reid.

It was hard to imagine him as an old man of 78 as to those of us who remember him wiping the floor with the ultra reactionary Kenneth Williams on Parkinson he will be forever the young and charismatic firebrand of Upper Clyde Shipbuilders.

In those days, chat shows were not just an excuse to plug the latest book, film or TV series. Parkinson on a Saturday night was a highlight for millions who liked the intelligent chat and star guests Parky was able to command.

One night the usual Hollywood contingent couldn't make it and the Carry On star began a tirade against trade unions and three weeks later he was invited back to debate with Reid. His performance was excruciating - Reid's was brilliant.

Jimmy Reid should have been a giant in the labour movement. He was a great orator, would ( after he left the Communist Party) indeed have been a great Labour leader but never got the breaks which would have taken him to high office. Right man. Wrong time. Sadly he shifted over the years, wrote an iffy column for the Daily Mirror, and joined the SNP some years ago.

But his contributions to the cause in the long years before were head and shoulders above most in the current political generation.

THE WAY TO VICTORY

A win in Glasgow East on Thursday will cheer Labour supporters currently staring into the electoral abyss. But what is happening two days afterwards will be even more important for the future fortunes of the Party.
The National Policy Forum meeting in Warwick has far more sway now than the Party Conference in a couple of months' time . And, yes, that's appalling.
For now, let's concentrate on the sheer commonsense of the demands which trade union leaders will make at the weekend. Rumour has it that Gordon Brown will oppose many of these demands. Minister Pat McFadden has already appeared on Newsnight to quash hopes the unions' collective wisdom will be taken on board at the NPF. Why? They are all mainstream , commonsense ideas which could take the Party out of the centre-right quagmire it has fallen into - with the ensuing meltdown at the polls.
The list, outlined in the Guardian the other day, includes the right to take supportive strike action, scrapping NHS prescription charges, bringing all hospital cleaning back in-house, and a new agreement on public sector pay.
Nearly 200 constituency parties have also submitted 4,000 amendments, about half them motions submitted by activists in the LRC and the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy.They include withdrawal from Iraq, a new council house building programme, and a 50p income tax rate on those earning more than £100,000.
Other union proposals include extending the adult minimum wage to 18- to 21-year-olds and apprentices, and legal changes that would allow councils to negotiate procurement contracts that include fair employment clauses.
On education, they want staff in city academies to be paid at the same rates as other school staff, the right to five days a year paid educational leave for all workers, free school meals for all children in primary schools, and mandatory time off to retrain.
On the environment, the unions want to extend the "not-for-profit model" to passenger train operators as franchises expire, and to break up the dominance of the six major energy companies.
On union rights, they want the right to strike, internet balloting, tax deductions for union membership subscriptions, and an extension of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority to construction.
On equality, the unions propose extending a duty to promote equality to the voluntary and private sectors, reducing the lower earnings threshold to £30 a week to allow low-paid workers access to sick pay, a tightening of the equal pay laws, and a new right for unions to collectively bargain on equality issues. On parental leave, they want an extension of the child's age limit from six to 16.
What's extraordinary, of course, is that in days gone by these would all have been mainstream Labour policy. New Labour detractors are trying to say this list is some sort of hard left backtrack to the 1980's. What utter nonsense. Measures such as these are the only way we will defeat David Cameron's Tories at the next election.

TIME FOR UNION LEADERS TO STAND FIRM

The trade union bureaucrats have not exactly been inspirational in the last 12 months. When push comes to shove, on almost every issue important to the left, they have rolled over and died . But let's hope that the massive vote in favour of Andrew Miller's Bill on Friday will give them a bit of backbone today when the meet Gordon Brown.
Brown, of course, will be aiming for a fudge so that the proposals to give equal rights to temmporary and agency workers can go into the long grass for a bit longer via a spurious "Commission." That just won't wash - given the amount of support for the Bill in the House of Commons on Friday. As Halifax MP Linda Riordan said to me on saturday, it made you remeber why you had jouned the Labour Party in the first place.
So let's hope that Tony Woodley, joint leader of Unite, sticks to his belief that the Commons vote has "quashed" the idea of a commission.
He says, "The evidence of the need for legislation now is overwhelming and we will not accept the promise of jam tomorrow."