Continued from below

Yesterday's sad news made me think about my misspent youth listening to the Peel show on an earpiece under the bedclothes when I should've been asleep to make sure I was fresh for school the next day. He was responsible for my lasting interest in reggae: Gregory Isaacs, Black Uhuru and others whose names I've long forgotten booming into the darkness of my 80s bedroom was one of the highlights. Also hearing for the first time the likes of Xmal Deutschland, New Order, Cocteau Twins, The Fall, PJ Harvey, ... It's only relatively recently that I stopped taping the festive 50 - trying to make sure I kept up to date with music.

fvcking hell

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/3955289.stm

Charity fun

From this week's Third Sector:
Why do so many workers take charities to tribunal?


Charity staff take a disproportionate number of cases to employment tribunals. John Plummer asks why the sector is so susceptible to litigation from its employees, and how the situation can be improved.

People who work for charities may be a kind and caring lot, but it seems their goodwill doesn't extend to their managers.

According to government figures, voluntary sector staff account for 2 per cent of the national workforce but are responsible for 6 per cent of employment tribunal cases. A Liverpool University survey in 2003 revealed that 25 per cent of charities had been called to a tribunal in the past year.

The statistics raise difficult questions about how charities treat their staff: do they exploit their passion for the cause or simply fail to take employee relations seriously?
...

"Smaller charities are suffering serious problems," says Ian Cunningham, a lecturer specialising in voluntary sector employee relations at Strathclyde University. "Trade union officials talk about the amateurishness even of medium-sized charities," he says. "Sometimes it's down to them adopting well meaning procedures that tie their hands."

Mike Emmott, an adviser on employee relations at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, says there are some "desperately bad management practices in the senior levels of the voluntary sector". He fears the sheer number of small charities will hamper attempts to reduce the disproportionately high volume of tribunals.

Hmmmm. This comes at a time when my former employer has offered me rather a lot of money to do some work for them. Yup, it's the same employer that gave me an official warning about being incapable of doing my job. (read all about it! here, here and here).

Also, just had a meeting with my new employer where I was told that although some people were in a union, most weren't, they said, as it's better to negotiate on a personal basis...

Twunts...

Purple Powder

Do they really think this is how to gain supporters?

Ms Dunn, a family lawyer, had purple powder thrown over her as she took to the podium to thank her supporters.

BBC News Online's Chris Hamilton, in the hall, said she looked visibly distressed.

Fathers 4 Justice candidate Paul Watson was arrested over the incident and released on police bail. He is due to be questioned later this month.

TUC Aid Iraq Appeal

As a (cough!) 'professional fundraiser', I'm usually reticent to ask people to donate to causes (as I make enough asks during my working hours). However, this is different. The TUC Aid Iraq Appeal is raising money for Iraqi trade unionists to rebuild a free and independent trade union movement, and strengthen civil society in Iraq. All the money will go to funding trade union organisation in Iraq.