Judy McKnight's Napolog

Web log of Napo's general secretary

June 10, 2008

Quite a Day

Yesterday was quite a day for me, and very special.

At 1.00pm I chaired a rally of several hundred trade unionists at the Central Hall Westminster, the TUC Speak up for Public Services Rally, which preceded the lobby in the House of Commons that afternoon.

I was really pleased to introduce Jonathan Ledger, Napo’s new General Secretary, as one of the speakers, in addition to people like Brendan Barber, TUC General Secretary, Dave Prentis, Unison General Secretary and Mark Serwotka, PCS General Secretary.

There was a really good turn out of Napo activists at the Rally.

3.00pm I addressed the Justice under Stress Rally which was held in the House of Commons and had an impressive line up of speakers from the Trade Union movement as well as parliamentarians.

Here are the notes that I used for my address.

Download file

Later in the afternoon, 4.00pm, was my farewell do, also in the House of Commons. It was a great event, with so many old friends and colleagues there, from Napo and accross the trade union movement, as well as the world of CAFCASS and Probation. I hope I might be able to put some pictures of the party on this site soon.

I’m still working for Napo until the end of June, but will be concentrating on my Bill McWilliams Memorial Lecture for the next couple of weeks. The theme of my lecture will be “Speaking up for Probation.”

Update:

Some pictures of the two rallies and my farewell do are now below.

The do even got mentioned by Jack Straw in Parliament the next day, when talking about Early Release!

Here is picture of the TUC Rally: