Campaign: January edition

Campaign is CND's national journal.

The UK government has announced today it is formally reporting Iran for not abiding by its commitments to the nuclear deal it signed in 2015, while the Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he would support a 'Trump deal' instead. The crisis is certainly deepening; read more in this month's magazine. But we don't just have bad news for you! Read as well about progress on the international treaty banning nuclear weapons.

Read Campaign: January edition
Download Campaign: January edition

In peace,
Sara Medi Jones
Campaign editor

Mandela8 Fundraising Event

PCS is supporting this fundraising event for Mandela8 campaign which is seeking to establish a permanent memorial to Nelson Mandela in Liverpool’s Princes Park.

• Wednesday 13 February 2019
• 7.00 pm
• Devonshire Hotel, Liverpool L7 9LD

Mandela8 in collaboration with Liverpool City Council have arranged for a visit from Dr. Makaziwe Mandela and Mrs Tukwini Mandela, the daughter and granddaughter of Nelson Mandela, to coincide with the 29th anniversary of his release from prison and to formally lay foundations for the Mandela8 memorial. Guests at the event will have a chance to meet and hear from the Mandela family directly, and all funds raised will go toward the memorial. 

The event will celebrate the solidarity shown by our city over the years in its stance against Apartheid and the campaign for the release of Mandela, and will celebrate the principles by which he lived his life. A limited number of tickets are available at a discounted price of £15 please click here to secure your ticket and for further information. 

This blog has been revived

The PCS ARMS Mersey Meeting on 24 January 2019 decided to revive our ARMS Merseyside blog. We will be using it for:

• local trade union and other progressive events.
• listing dates of ARMS Mersey meetings.
• ARMS Mersey contact details.

Plus the usual info on membership benefits, etc. All new posts will also be placed on our Facebook page.

This blog will now concentrate solely on local matters. Save this link - arms-mersey.blogspot.com - to your 'favourites' and check this site regularly. Wider issues are the province of the ARMS national blog, which you can reach here.

I hope this becomes a useful local ARMS resource.

Neville Grundy
Chair
ARMS Mersey

This blog is now archived

The Merseyside ARMS committee has agreed that this blog and the North West ARMS blog are mostly duplicating each other. From now on, all posts and information for Merseyside ARMS will be on the North West ARMS blog. This blog will remain for information purposes but there will be no further updates.

Please click here for the ARMS North West blog.

News updates - from the web

A triple lock, yesterday

Our regular round up of relevant news items, by Steve Ion of ARMS Mersey. 

Over 60s cutting back to make ends meet - here.

Why we must stick with the triple lock - here. 

Annuity pensions cut again - here.

Lifetime ISA should not be used for pension - here.

WASPI campaign has no support from Government  - here.

UK firms paid five times more in dividends than into pensions - here.

Retired people spending less than £20 per week - here.

News updates - from the web

Our regular round up of relevant news items, by Steve Ion of ARMS Mersey. 

Ros Altmann's resignation letter in full - here.

Altmann: "I felt like I was in detention" - here.

Annuity rates on pension investment drop by 37% - here.

A new vaccine could reverse dementia - here.

Perception of downgrading importance of pensions by government - here.

MPA motion & Jeremy Corbyn rally in Liverpool

Motion on MP reselection to the Merseyside Pensioners Association

Proposed by ARMS committee member Tony Mulhearn and passed by the MPA. 

The Merseyside Pensioners' Association declares its continued support for Jeremy Corbyn and deplores the charges of bullying and intimidation falsely aimed at his supporters.

We applaud the conference decision of Unite the Union which recognises the right of party members to select candidates that reflect their views and supports the need for mandatory re-selection of Labour MPs with a view to selecting candidates who support a programme of opposition to the continuing savage cuts of the Tories.

We believe that in spite of assurances given that the triple lock will be protected we believe that pensioners' entitlements will be threatened by austerity supporters on both sides of the House and we need genuine anti-austerity MPs who will fight to defend the interests of the old and younger generations. 

Jeremy Corbyn Rally In Liverpool

• Date: Monday 1 August 
• Time: 7.00 pm 
• Place: St George's Plateau, Liverpool 1 

Jeremy Corbyn MP will be speaking in Liverpool next Monday at 7.00 pm on St George's Plateau in front of St George's Hall in Liverpool city centre

Speakers include:

• Jeremy Corbyn MP.
• Cllr Alice Bennet.
• Cllr Peter Mitchell.
• Mel Walker.
• Cllr Joann Kushner.

Come and join us to support Jeremy Corbyn in his campaign to be re-elected Labour Party Leader.

All welcome!

News updates - from the web

ARMS Mersey Group secretary Steve Ion's regular round-up of relevant news items.

• Adult social care faces 1billion shortfall - here.
• Joined-up health and social care - here.
• Funding concerns of defined benefit pensions schemes - here.
• Theresa May's husband works for investment firm whose major clients include Amazon and Starbucks - here.

Witch hunting by our 'free' press

The spectacle of a media pack in full blood-thirsty pursuit of Jeremy Corbyn has provoked the question, particularly from younger observers of the current events, why does the media behave in this crazed, irrational, fashion?

Against Corbyn are Rupert Murdoch (The Scum), Paul Dacre (Daily Mail), Daily Express, The Telegraph, The Times, The Observer, even the so-called Labour paper the Mirror, with Kevin Maguire the ‘radical’ journalist joining the chorus against JC. All of these papers, like Corbyn’s would be assassins, have belched out the lying narrative since day one of the crisis that 'austerity is necessary'. That is austerity for the poor, and increasing wealth for the financial spivs who created the crisis. ITV, Sky news and BBC’s 'Flagship' programmes like Newsnight, and their number one Torquemada Laura Kuenssberg attempt to give some 'intellectual' heft to the hysteria. The component parts of this congealed instrument of hatred far from being irrational are bent on destroying JC politically and socially because he represents a challenge to their wealth and privilege. Jeremy must trust the massive support he enjoys, make no more concessions to the closet Tories and stand firm for a socialist future.

Tony Mulhearn

ARMS Mersey 

committee member

News updates - from the web

ARMS Mersey Group secretary Steve Ion's regular round-up of relevant news items.

Pensions timebomb faced by UK firms is frightening - here.

Media turns Nazi after EU vote: "stop older people voting" - here.

WASPI update - here.

9 things you might not know about older people in the UK - here.

Why it’s lazy, misleading and wrong to blame older people for Brexit - here.

Sign of the times: people have to work longer - here.

EU Ballot - D-Day Minus One

By Tony Mulhearn, ARMS Merseyside committee member.

When you cast your vote remember this:

1. The institutions of the EU are controlled by unelected people with extremely dodgy political connections. EU President Junker, for instance, presided over Luxembourg which was a haven for every tax-dodging fat cat on the planet.
2. He was the bloke who patted Tsipras and Varoufakis on the head, ignored their pleas for a more caring capitalism, and chased them back to Greece to inflict the most appalling cuts in working class living standards in Greece’s history while that country’s fat cats who caused the crisis continue to live in opulent splendour and plunder state-owned institutions.
3. The EU blocked Portugal from implementing a no-cuts budget
4. It was the EU that ordered an increase in women’s retirement age from 60 to 65.
5. EU treaties protect freedoms for Business to move labour from member state to another and to ensure there is ‘no distortion of competition’. That means freedom for unscrupulous employers to pay the lowest rate of any EU country.
6. A condition of receiving EU ‘bale-outs’ is also that the recipient countries degrade the ability of trade unions to defend their members. National wage bargaining in Greece has all but disappeared.
7. Remaining will ensure that a more confident EU will act as an obstacle to a future Labour government from bringing back into public ownership the NHS, Rail, and the other public utilities that have been flogged off with the poisoned brew of TTIP as an additional weapon in their hands.
8. Unity of the international working class will not be achieved via this reactionary institution but via the struggle against austerity organised on a European basis. 

News updates - from the web

ARMS Mersey Group secretary Steve Ion's regular round-up of relevant news items.

Lost pension tracking service ... any job you have had and you're not sure whether a pension went with it, try this through the DWP and it's free - here.

LGBT people face 'devastating' discrimination in end-of-life healthcare, research warns - here.

Support for housing should be given to elderly as well as young - here.

News updates - from the web

ARMS Mersey Group secretary Steve Ion's regular round-up of relevant news items.

Can I buy extra years National Insurance for new flat-rate state pension? - here.

Unsafe hospital discharge of older patients ‘getting worse’ - here.

Older people 'suffering in silence over loneliness' - here.

Worrying pension deficit at UK’s top charities - here.

Bank of England's chief economist calls for more simple pension system, as workers have little chance of making sense of funds when financial experts 'have no clue either'  - here.

EU vote: a message from Mark Serwotka & Janice Godrich

We urge you to use your vote in the EU Referendum on 23 June and to challenge politicians on both sides of the debate to say how remaining or leaving the EU will best serve your interests as a PCS member.

The debate in the national media has been dominated by myths and wild claims about the dangers of leaving or remaining in the EU. So our annual delegate conference last month agreed to launch a "PCS informs - you decide" campaign - challenging politicians on both sides of the debate to provide concrete information on how your jobs, pay, pensions and public services would be affected by a vote to leave or to remain in the EU.

Our special EU referendum publication outlines the issues that we need solid factual information on, including:

• Public services
• Trade union and workers' rights
• Economic growth and living standards
• Democracy
• Human rights
• Impact on women
• Immigration.

We hope you use the questions in this publication to challenge the 'remain' and 'leave' campaigners at hustings, on the streets and on the doorstep.

MARK SERWOTKA
General Secretary

JANICE GODRICH
President

News updates - from the web

ARMS Mersey Group secretary Steve Ion's regular round-up of relevant news items.

Tata bailout threatens UK pensions as rescue fund braces for steel deal hit - here.

Why is it more difficult than ever for older people to leave hospital? - here.

People 65+ to outnumber children under 5 for the first time ever in the next 4 years - here.

Can Britain afford to pay its pension bill? (Try tackling tax dodging?) - here.

Fibre linked to healthy ageing - here.

News updates - from the web

ARMS Mersey Group secretary Steve Ion's regular round-up of relevant news items.

Which? advice on paying for care - here.

3,000 local chemists could close after £170m subsidy cut - here.

Football's silent shame: Dementia 'conspiracy' is a stain on the game - here.

Public toilets 'wiped out in parts of UK' - here.

Older drivers should carry on until 75 before renewing licence, says review - here.

Corbyn’s pledge to PCS

Jeremy Corbyn became the first ever Labour leader to address PCS conference and pledged that a Labour government would return national pay bargaining to the civil service and repeal the hated Tory Trade Union Act.

He also gave assurances on pay saying it was "time for the public sector (1%) pay cap to end and to restore good industrial relations in the civil service."

Condemning the Tory austerity agenda of cuts, closures and low wages he stressed that this was "a political choice being made by this government, not a necessity"; the cap on pay in the civil service continued, while consultants were brought in on very high levels of pay.

He also pledged that Labour would invest in HMRC, pointing out the inherent contradiction of the government cutting jobs in the department when billions of pounds were being lost in uncollected tax revenue. He said: "This government doesn’t seem to understand that job cuts mean tax not collected" and he called for “a properly staffed HMRC".

He also paid tribute to PCS as a "fantastic campaigning union", to which "the door is always open" and said he looked forward to working with the union on policy development.

News updates - from the web

ARMS Mersey Group secretary Steve Ion's regular round-up of relevant news items.

Britain's pension system is a disgrace – we all deserve an easier way to save for retirement - here.

Almost two-thirds of people aged over 75 have never gone online - here.

The new era promised by the Care Act is yet to arrive - here.

Older people at 'heightened risk' of investment scam calls - here.

Delays in discharging older patients from hospital 'cost NHS £820m a year' - here.

Work until 70 to claim your state pension: Ex-FCA chairman Lord Turner - here.

What life as a pensioner really costs revealed - here.

Nearly half a million carers in their 80s

An "invaluable but invisible army" of carers in their 80s has increased by almost 40 per cent in the last seven years, new figures published by Age UK reveal. Around 417,000 octogenarians - one in seven - now look after a loved one saving the health and care system almost £6 billion every year. With a greying population that figure set to almost double to 760,000 by the end of the next decade.

The majority of these older people are looking after a partner as older couples try to manage living at home for as long as possible, leaning on each other for support. This all reinforces the need for fully-funded state provision of care.

Further reading here.

News updates - from the web

ARMS Mersey Group secretary Steve Ion's regular round-up of relevant news items.

Updates on health research on Alzheimers: new brain scan technique can spot Alzheimer’s 15 years before symptoms appear - here.

Older pensioners continue in poverty: evidence destroys wealthy pensioner myth - here.