A rewarding twenty-four hours in Brighton courtesy of an invitation from the TUC Comms team to attend this year’s Congress and specifically the Monday night Dinner at the Grand Hotel, which brings together the current and former top brass of the organisation plus major names from the Labour Party.
This year, alongside TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak and outgoing President Matt Wrack of the Fire Brigades Union, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner gave the landmark speech to the attending guests.
It was a delight to meet many of the movers and shakers in the Union movement, including Equity President Linda Rooke, MU General Secretary Naomi Pohl, former TUC baron Roger Lyons, and a number of representatives of international unions including Colombia – the most dangerous place in the world to be a trade unionist and where more than 3,000 have been murdered since 1989.
Post-dinner entertainment was provided by an open mic session hosted by Paul and Matt, which featured an old union contact of mine, the marvellous Robb Johnson. All in all, a very memorable evening.
My special thanks to the TUC’s Kudsia Batool for the invitation.
