Unite the union - push for Cruddas narrowly fails

Had the deputy leader contest been decided on a first past the post basis Jon Cruddas would have won.

However following the elimination of Hazel Blears he fell back to third , holding that position until eliminated, when the final transfer of votes enabled Harriet Harmann to squeak past Alan Johnson.

So far the Labour Party website has only posted the aggregate results for each round, but more detail can be found here, and a quick-off-the mark preliminary analysis is here.

More graphs here tomorrow.

Unite - Staying shtum till May be out

Perhaps someone twigged it was almost flaming June, but, finally, the minutes of three 2007 NEC meetings were added to the Amicus website in the last couple of days in May.

The formal position of the Union is spelled out below ------

Extract from NEC minute 4/5 Feb 2004

11/04 Distribution of NEC Minutes
The General Secretary recommended and it was AGREED that
approved NEC minutes be circulated to Regional Councils and
Branches. A synopsis would be published on the website in advance
of the approval of the minutes.

------- however no precis has appeared since February 2004, and the sporadic and irregular postings of minutes has now culminated in this year's 5 month hiatus.

Sometime in the last five months time and space were found to post the magnificent Amicus - A Pictorial History in Badges.
That parade of the symbols of our predecessor unions can be an exercise in nostalgia; or provoke us to ask why their models of participatory democracy ensured a better informed general membership than we can achieve with all the advantages of
modern technology.