Achtung Millwall podcast on Fred Spiksley

 It is 56 minutes long and went out on Tuesday 7 December 2021.

https://play.acast.com/s/achtung-radio/the-football-history-podcast-4-fred-spiksley?s=09

It followed an earlier podcast by myself on Charlie Hurley by Achtung Millwall. 

Riding project helps teach vital life skills

 

Riding project helps teach vital life skills

Horses expensively trained to remain calm

Big Issue North article 

 

A Bradford horse riding programme for disengaged school children has drawn praise from participants and their parents.

Changing Lives Through Horses (CL) is a national project organised by the British Horse Society (BHS) that takes place with qualified coaches at approved riding centres including the Throstle Nest Riding school at Wilsden Equestrian Centre.

 Opportunities extended

The BHS project is aimed at young people who are “permanently excluded, at risk of permanent exclusion or who have special education needs or disabilities”, those who are not in employment, education, or training, or lack the skills to improve their economic situation.

Throstle Nest is run by Jeanette Wilder, who has been working with horses since she was 12 when, along with her brother, she used ponies from the family dairy farm to teach riding skills to children from the Eccleshill area in Bradford. Wilder’s passion for horses has been extended into providing opportunities for young people who are otherwise very unlikely to learn to ride the animals.

“We put something back into the community. The Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA) is linked to us. When the BHS established Changing Lives four years ago, I immediately got us involved. Whilst it brings in some income, we lose out by needing to turn away other customers,” said Wilder

A general lesson at Wilsden costs £20 for 30 minutes and £25 for 45 minutes. On the Changing Lives programme the fees are £28 an hour and £45 for two. The costs are covered by schools, the RDA, parents and charitable associations.

 Prodding and poking

Amelia Helm, aged 14, has been riding for ten years. She persuaded her school to let her begin attending CL sessions in September.

“I am struggling speaking in school lessons,” she said. “Coming here is relaxing. It is fun and I have no worries as I don’t need to make an effort for people. “I do the lessons with other age groups and I relate to them as we are all passionate about horses.”

She also attends weekend pony club lessons and enjoys mucking out the stables and looking after the horses. She wants to do work experience at the riding school next year as she is looking to work with horses when she leaves education.

In addition to support from volunteers, Throstle Nest employs eight full-time staff, all women

 On site it has 21 horses, more expensive to buy in recent years. Horses must be four years old and fullytrained before they can be used in the riding school and the animals, which need to be calm and forgiving enough to be able to overcome some prodding and poking, must be five before they can be employed on RDA sessions. To save costs, Wilder bought a three-year-old horse, which staff are training. There is no guarantee the horse will prove suitable for lessons.

There were nine children of varying abilities aged seven to 15 years on a Tuesday CL session in November. “We don’t tend to look at their diagnosis but just work with them on a weekly basis as the children can be totally different on each occasion,” said Wilder. “Sometimes they can be having a bad day because of a change of medication. We have a plan but you can realise it won’t work. You must be patient but we have a much lower ratio of staff compared to pupils than at school and so we can make swift changes.”

Special relationship

Warren Keighley, aged six, who has complex needs, has been attending the CL programme for two years.

“A physiotherapist identified that working with horses would be very beneficial for building his core strength,” said his mum Hannah. “The facilities here and the whole environment and dedication of staff, who are empathetic with children that have different needs, means you feel included.”

Grandad Martin is also a big fan. “Warren has moved from being afraid to get on a horse to saddling it up, mounting, leading and dismounting from the animal,” he said.

During lockdown the centre trained parents and grandparents in how to lead horses and this helped facilitate lessons for Warren.

 Before lockdown, Warren had built a special relationship with staff member Evie. On the day Big Issue North visited, the pair had met for the first time in over a year.

A smiling Warren said: “What I liked about today is when I saw Evie and I cried as I was happy. Missy was my horse today. She is a bit cheeky like another horse called Dolly. I like coming here and being in charge of a horse.”

According to Wilder the racing industry is offering opportunities to young people to undertake apprenticeships in stable yards and the pay thereafter is good.

Wilder explained that children attending the CL project are taught to work with others and to pay attention and concentrate as otherwise they get into trouble with the horse.

“It also improves their balance and by being fun it helps develop an interest that we can channel into education generally,” she said. “If they switch off at school in English and mathematics then we can get them to write about horses and work out how much to feed the animals.”

In more basic scenarios, children get to recognise different colours when they pick up objects when riding a horse.

The CL programme uses a range of awards that “are structured around promoting the holistic development of all involved and nurturing six life skills for all young people: building relationships, communication, confidence, responsibility, teamwork and perseverance”.

Susan*, who has seen her two sons benefit from engaging with horses said: “My eldest, who is hypermobile and has been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, has improved his core strength by coming here.

“He has completed the award scheme development and accreditation network qualification, which took him a year. He is not going to achieve a standard qualification, so having a certificate where he can say ‘Look, I can do this’ is great for self-confidence.”

 Susan’s youngest son is nine. His CL programme is funded by his school and the RDA.

She said: “It has created a connection with horses, which has helped him emotionally and his attention span has expanded. When riding he must consider the needs of the horse and this moves him away from thinking about himself and helps him to get on with other children.”

Susan believes that many more disengaged children would have their lives improved if there were more opportunities to attend the project.

MARK METCALF * Name changed

Fred Spiksley article from Sheffield Wednesday v Sunderland programme on 2 November 2021

 

SOIL INCENTIVE PITFALLS

 

SOIL INCENTIVE PITFALLS

Farmers to be paid for sustainable practices

Critics say soil quality is difficult to measure

Article from Big Issue North magazine 

Agricultural experts who believe soil quality is critical for the UK’s food supply have welcomed the government’s decision to pay farmers to improve it for the first time. But concerns remain over how soil quality will be assessed and the mechanism for paying farmers.

Following Brexit, Britain is phasing out the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy farm subsidies and replacing them with the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) scheme, to be introduced next year.

According to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the SFI is “centred around incentivising sustainable farming practices alongside profitable food production and rewarding farmers for producing public goods such as better air and water quality, protecting wildlife and improving soil health”.

Compaction and erosion

The plans are part of the government’s 25-year Environment Plan, which includes a net zero carbon ambition.

Soil quality and biodiversity supports agricultural production and the storage of carbon. But almost 4 million hectares of soil in England and Wales are at risk of compaction, according to the Environment Agency, and 2 million hectares are at risk of erosion.

Intensive agriculture has caused arable soils to lose 40-60 per cent of their organic carbon, said the Environment Agency in July. But it added that there is insufficient data on soil health and called for investment in monitoring.

From next year, farmers can sign up to SFI schemes to improve arable and horticultural soils at payments between £30 and £59 per hectare and grassland soils at £6-£8 per hectare. According to a Defra spokesperson: “Healthy soil is key to supporting our targets on the environment and improving farm profitability. Well managed soils can lead to increased biodiversity, increased carbon sequestration and storage, improved water quality and flood prevention.”

Food scientist Charlie Clutterbuck, an academic and author who holds a PhD in soil ecology, welcomed the government’s newfound commitment to monitoring soil quality. But he said that should begin with “an England-wide measurement of soil carbon”, investment in more research facilities and a legally binding commitment to improving soil quality.

Clutterbuck has calculated that Britain, which currently imports half its food, could reduce this to around 25-30 per cent through better land management and soil content. In turn, many countries that currently export to Britain could begin to grow food for their own people, many of whom go hungry.

“We need that better soil to produce more local produce to regenerate rural communities and not fund carbon offset schemes that benefit the City,” added Clutterbuck.

Government promises

SFI will be phased in over seven years, while in the next three years farmers will lose half their former EU subsidies. They mean more to smaller northern hill farmers, earning around £25,000 annually, than larger farmers on the richer plains in the south and east. Some farmers, many of whom have farmed for generations, are being offered incentives to quit the land.

Critics say this is at odds with Boris Johnson’s promise, made in 2016 at a cattle market in Clitheroe, that farmers would get the same amount of money – “100% guaranteed” – from subsidies after leaving the EU, while being relieved of red tape.

The first SFI schemes will start next spring but, according to environmental law expert Richard Smith, “few farmers have signed up to the new programme”. Farmers’ have low trust in Defra due to its previous management of agricultural subsidies.

A Defra spokesperson said it was planning a “comprehensive programme of soil monitoring across farms participating in the early roll-out. The first stage will be establishing a baseline for a range of soil health indicators.”

The spokesperson added: “There is a wealth of expertise in soil health within the UK including scientists from the University of Lancaster and UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology.”

MARK METCALF

Power in the union - John Smith 1932-2021

 

4 podcasts by John Smith, born 1932, a Great Yarmouth Docker who died on 23 September 2021.

1)      The Life of a Great Yarmouth Docker

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2Jgsu60FKfEPX3BVRgZTtw

2)      From docker to branch secretary

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5fOsjcxafCOlouLXYVMtNn

 

3)      https://open.spotify.com/episode/7C1P6IQ7xaAg6YL5TLOAji

John Smith (RIP) – Stopping the Job – there is power in the union.

4)      https://open.spotify.com/episode/2iL65MLvTtIHlvv6p2bsx3

The decline of the docks following the ending of the National Dock Labour Scheme

Speech to Halifax 1842 meeting on 17 September

Could it happen again?

In 1842 Britain was a society where parliament sent troops against civilians.  But parliament understood the implications of this terrible state of affairs and from then on has largely sought – with the exception of Ireland and which I will return to in due course - to control protests using the police, a civil force with coercive powers – which many people opposed - that began under Sir John Peel’s Metropolitan Police Act 1829 and which resulted in a network of police forces over the following quarter-century with the Lighting and Watching Act 1833, the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 – which enabled the first local authorities to set up borough forces, the County Police Act 1839 allowed the provincial counties to do the same, the City of London Act 1839 similar, The Town Police Clauses Act 1847 clarified police powers and in 1856 the County and Borough Police Act required all local councils to establish forces.

The police had, of course, demonstrated by 1833 that it was capable of spying on political activists and acting brutally as was the case at the Cold Bath Fields Meeting, declared illegal by the Home Secretary Lord Melbourne, of the National Political Union of the Working Classes.

Since then, any regular protestor will tell you that they expect the police to misbehave on protests, that in fact there has always been a shared understanding between police and protestors that the police will resort to unlawful violence at political protests.

Even the Countryside Alliance supporters in 2001 found themselves being roughed up outside Parliament when they protested against Tony Blair’s plans, forced on him due to popular pressure, to outlaw fox hunting with hounds. The attacks on  women who attended the vigil earlier this year for Sarah Everard, murdered by the police, came as no surprise to many people.

Returning to the past, on Sunday 13 November 1887, the Met deployed military tactics to prevent a demonstration in support of Home Rule in Trafalgar Square on what became known as Bloody Sunday. 2000 police officers, backed up by troops and cavalry prevented a quarter of a million people protesting and 200 afterwards required hospital treatment. Later many members of the public sought to bring charges of assault against 34 officers.

At the start of the 20^th century – November 1910 - the police acted violently and also indecently assaulted numerous members of the Women’s Social and Political Union whose actions included  disorder and violence when seeking to breach police lines to gain entry to the House of Commons In total 296 women were arrested. All but 52 defendants later had their charges dropped. The Home Secretary Sir Winston Churchill later refused to hold a public inquiry into events.

Of course, the military were still during this period used where necessary. The Featherstone Massacre of 1893 during the national lock out of miners:-

Here is the Guardian report, dripping with support for the military.  It was about nine o'clock on Thursday night when the South Staffordshire detachment first fired on the mobs which were besieging the colliery of Lord Masham and were charging the soldiers with stones. The first shot was only by one file of two men, and these did not take effect. Shortly before ten o'clock one section of the Staffordshires fired two volleys.

So far as could be ascertained seven of the mob were hit. James Gibbs, of Loscoe, was shot through the breast, and expired. James Perkins, knee shot away, died yesterday.

A sculpture was unveiled at Featherstone in 1993 marking the centenary of "the Featherstone massacre", in which it says two miners died.

Then, of course, there was Tonypandy in 1910 where another joint police, involving local forces and the Met, and the army attacked striking miners resulting in the death of Samuel Rhys, who it is believed was hit by a police truncheon.

In August 1911, troops of the Worcestershire regiment shot dead two striking railway workers in Llanelli where strikers, taking part in national action, had already been brutally attacked by the police.

February 1919 – the police and military were jointly used to suppress a strike in Glasgow for 40 hour working week.

In none of these cases did any police officer or member of the military find themselves arrested or imprisoned.

In 1926 the army were used to break the strike by undertaking roles vacated by strikers.

Joseph Foster, interviewed in April 2005, recalled events in Burnhope in 1926 , when he was 14, as “being a terrible time. I saw the worst of the strike. No clothes, no shoes, no food... families couldn’t make ends meet.

Foster remembered an incident in which a delivery van was tipped over by four striking miners, Ted Close, Harry Hobbs, Jim Hobbs and Frankie Armstrong who had all been left angry after they had been forced to dive out of the way when the van was earlier driven at them. The events led to soldiers being sent to Burnhope. “They were walking about with bayonets, with guns.”

There is, of course, a place little more than 100 miles from here where British Troops have regularly been employed to put down demonstrators marching for rights that most people would accept be granted. On 30 January 1972 the largest civil rights (organised by NICRA) march in the history of Northern Ireland was ruthlessly suppressed with 14 killed, none of whom were armed

Later, Lord Saville's report was made public in 2010 and concluded that the killings were "unjustified" and "unjustifiable". It found that all of those shot were unarmed, that none were posing a serious threat, that no bombs were thrown and that soldiers "knowingly put forward false accounts" to justify their firing. The soldiers denied shooting the named victims but also denied shooting anyone by mistake. On publication of the report, British Prime Minister David Cameron made a formal apology on behalf of the United Kingdom. Following this, police began a murder investigation into the killings. One former soldier was charged with murder, but the case was dropped two years later when evidence was deemed inadmissible. This is now subject to appeal.

 Bloody Sunday fuelled Catholic and Irish nationalist hostility towards the British Army and worsened the conflict. Support for the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) rose, and there was a surge of recruitment into the organisation, especially locally.

Nearer to the current day, what are we to make of the fact that during Jeremy Corbyn’s time as leader of the Labour Party we witnessed soldiers filmed using a Jeremy Corbyn poster for target practice.

The video showed servicemen from the Colchester-based Parachute Regiment in a shooting range, believed to be in Kabul, Afghanistan. The soldiers were disciplined but not sacked.

 Or in 2015, Gen Sir Nicholas Houghton told the BBC's Andrew Marr that refusing to launch nuclear weapons would "seriously undermine" Britain's "deterrent". And he said he would be worried if such a view "translated into power".

 

  

Youtube videos by Rough Jersey

 

No Pasaran - James Alwyn of Bolton when to Spain to fight for democracy and lay down his life in doing so 

 

https://youtu.be/f435WHWcqLU

 

Edward McHugh - rediscovering a lost -working-class hero 

 

https://youtu.be/4A7AOlhHxIE

 

Ellen Strange - the light that still burns 

 

https://youtu.be/G2icINO_Mbo

 

Halifax public meeting on 17 September will help build for 180th anniversary of the fateful events in 1842

 

Remember the people in Halifax who marched for democracy and an end to poverty in August 1842, some of whom paid with their lives

 

Public Meeting

 

to build for 180th anniversary commemoration in 2022

 

Friday 17 September 2021

7.15 pm

Maurice Jagger Centre

junction Lister Street & Winding Road, Halifax, HX1 1UZ

 

Speakers include:

Catherine Howe Halifax born author of Halifax 1842

Matthew Roberts Sheffield Hallam University

Cllr Jenny Lynn Park Ward councillor

Mark Metcalf Halifax freelance journalist

 

For more information email: info@calderdaletuc.org.uk

 

Peterloo 1819

 

Halifax 1842

In August 1842, striking industrial workers in Halifax were attacked by 150 soldiers and 200 specially sworn in constables. At least four were killed whilst many others suffered brutal injuries that are likely to have killed them.

Workers were participating in a nationwide general strike that combined demands for better pay with an extension to those allowed to vote.

Massive wage reductions over the previous two decades had left many workers in great poverty.

At the same time only one man in seven had the right to vote at a General Election.

The strikers called for the same right for all men, because they believed their own parliamentary representatives would bring them some control over the laws under which they lived: laws fashioned to protect property and profit. 

In the 179 years since that atrocity of 1842, what has changed for the people of Halifax?

The wealth gap between rich and poor is still here. In recent years it has widened under both Labour and Tory Governments.

Workplaces were hazardous in the 1800s yet are still not safe.  We have had a disproportionately high number of COVID deaths in front line workers, and deaths from accidents continue because of cost cutting by employers who ignore Health & Safety laws.

Our environment has greatly changed due to industrialisation.  Climate change needs measures taken that do not simply make ordinary people pay for polluting companies going green.

Housing costs – whether to buy or rent have risen sharply. Many young people still have no chance of owning their own home.

Unionisation is no longer a prosecutable offence but today there is still employer and government hostility to the existence of trades unions with Amazon being the latest major company to refuse to allow unions to organise employees.

Tax avoidance is still a fundamental issue with many major companies such as Amazon failing to pay their fair share.

As in 1842, new technology threatens us with unemployment:  driverless cars and automation mean millions face being out of work.

We have our NHS but it is facing privatisation with citizens paying exorbitantly for the building of Calderdale Royal Hospital because it was built using expensive private finance.

Today we have a national pension scheme but the state pension age has been increased. Capped pay rises (and pay freezes) for public sector workers also result in lower pensions on retirement.

Many of us enjoy the benefit of university education but students now pay for higher education and once they are saddled with debt, many cannot find decent jobs.

Sexism and racism are no longer left unchallenged as they once were but legislation is hard to enforce. Women should be safe. Ethnic minorities should be empowered to effectively challenge discrimination. The prosecution of attackers should be vigorously pursued.

Today, soldiers are not employed against demonstrators but there is an increasing militarisation of the police whose powers to prevent effective protests including strike action are set to be strengthened through the Policing Bill. 

As in 1842 we still live in a society organised on the basis of profit before people.

We will not forget what happened in Halifax in 1842. We will campaign for the changes needed for a better, fairer, more equal society. 

Burslem and a Port Vale v Sunderland

 

September 5 launch of the Stanley Taggart book in Stockton

 

To read the booklet go to:- https://markwritecouk.files.wordpress.com/2021/08/stanley-taggart-book-final.pdf

Ellen Strange: the light that still burns documentary video

A Rough Jersey documentary of 18 minutes in length on how the oldest site in the world to commemorate  a domestic violence victim is providing inspiration for campaigners today:-  

https://vimeo.com/580567569/24ddede94c

Stanley Taggart; an ordinary man on an extraordinary day – a Unite booklet by Mark Metcalf

 

Stanley Taggart; an ordinary man on an extraordinary day – a Unite booklet by Mark Metcalf

When the spectre of fascism came marching into Stockton in September 1933 it aroused great passion and anger. Ordinary people recognised that fascism would destroy democracy, the trade union and labour movement, create a permanent one-party state, crush individual identity and force the individual to serve the interests of the state. It would lead to genocide and the persecution of minorities and women.

The story of Stanley Taggart is a story of an ordinary man, who did something extraordinary. It’s often said that history is made by the acts of extraordinary individuals, yet it is ordinary people standing together who really make the difference as Bertolt Brecht points out in his fantastically powerful poem, A Worker Reads History – “Each page a victory, at whose expense, the victory ball? Every ten years a great man, who paid the piper?”

 The story of a rank-and-file trade unionist, a member of the T&G, (predecessor union to Unite), is the story of us all. I’m sure on that far off morning in September 1933, when Stanley woke up, there must have been a slight temptation to roll back over in bed or choose to do other things that day. Many of us confronted by the choice of taking a stand against injustice, or simply going about our normal daily business, choose the latter.

Stanley Taggart alongside several thousand other local people, when asked by their grandchildren, “what did you do when the fascists came to our town?” was able to stand proud in the knowledge that he wasn’t passive, that he didn’t choose to leave it to others, but that he went out to stop them from spreading their messages of hate and division.

There are lessons for us all in Stanley’s story. It’s often said that evil succeeds when good people fail to stand up to challenge it. When we decide whether to attend that demo, to join that picket line or go to that rally, we place ourselves in history. When we are asked by our grandchildren what we did to stand up to far-right extremism, we need to have a tale or two to tell.

stanley-taggart-book-final.pdf (wordpress.com)

 

NEW ROUTES TO RECONNECTION Disabled people enjoy North’s sensory walks

 

NEW ROUTES TO RECONNECTION

Disabled people enjoy North’s sensory walks

Big Issue North article

An organisation that runs sensory walks for disabled people is launching a third northern route after the success of its first two in Yorkshire.

Sense, a charity that supports people with complex disabilities to communicate, learn and develop, has been connecting them to nature on routes in Rotherham and the woodland, play areas and green spaces of West Bank Park in York.

The people it supports include those who struggle to respond to information from senses such as sounds, sights, smells, textures and taste.

Stunning colours

Working with mapping agency Ordnance Survey, Sense’s walks “provide an opportunity to engage with the outdoors in meaningful ways, at the same time as supporting people to be active”, according to Alissa Ayling, Sense’s head of sport and physical activity.

Two disabled people who enjoyed the Rotherham sensory walk are hoping that Sense, partnering with the national mapping agency Ordnance Survey, can build similar projects across the region.

Afzal, aged 41, from Rotherham, is a wheelchair user with arthritis and Crohn’s disease. With the help of his support worker Michaela, he did the sensory walk around the town’s Clifton Park, starting at its museum and going on to the gardens and playgrounds. It has wooded areas for shade in the summer and stunning colours in autumn.

“It allowed me to take a trip down memory lane,” said Afzal. “Before my health deteriorated, I loved walking around the park as it’s close to home and I enjoy being out in the community. Clifton Park is one of Rotherham’s best features.”

Sense was formed in 1955 by two mothers who gave birth to deaf and blind babies after contracting rubella when they were pregnant. Its OS Maps app routes for the sensory walks come with accessibility information, including key milestones and sensory highlights, and are available via the free OS Maps App. Each walk has been established with the help of local walk leaders or groups.

Rajab is another fan of the Clifton Park walk. His carer Neil Davis uses sign language and clear speech to communicate with Rajab. Davis said when he asked Rajab if he would like to go to the park, “he gave a big thumbs up and immediately put his coat on”.

Rajab’s response at the end of the walk – after he had enjoyed the scents, textures and colours of the plants, the sound of falling water and an outdoor exercise area with walk machines – was the same.

One slight negative, according to Afzal, is the steep incline on the return to the museum. But he added: “It was really enjoyable and has been planned well as you can get to see most areas of the park. I love being out in the open air and being able to go on similar walks somewhere else other than my local park would be nice. I am sure disabled people in other towns would welcome similar opportunities.”

Sense is about to launch a third walk, in Cumbria, with the help of Forestry England. Paul Downes, Sense sport and physical activity organiser in northern England, added: “There are plans for new walks to be mapped in the North Yorkshire area with the help of volunteer walk leaders from the Woodland Trust.”

He appealed for anyone who would like to help plot sensory walks to make contact.

GROSS EXPLOITATION The Scottish govt’s seasonal workers pilot scheme exposes a depressing picture

 

GROSS EXPLOITATION

The Scottish govt’s seasonal workers pilot scheme exposes a depressing picture

 Landworker magazine 

A report into the operations in Scotland of the Seasonal Workers Pilot (SWP), launched by the government in April 2019, that brings temporary agricultural workers from outside the EU, exposes a depressing picture of gross exploitation.

Unique

The Focus on Labour Exploitation (FLEX) and Fife Migrants Forum (FMF) report into the horticultural sector is the first ever independent evidence of worker experiences on seasonal agricultural workers schemes.

Between 1943 and 2014 the Home Office ran the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme. Throughout the 71-year period no independent reports based on interviews with participating workers were undertaken, a sure sign of how little successive government’s cared about some of the most vulnerable workers in the country.   

In the lead up to the UK’s exit from the EU there were concerns that the agricultural sector was suffering a shortfall in workers, resulting in crops being left unharvested.

To solve these problems the SWP was introduced. It began with an annual quota of 2,500 workers, increasing to 10,000 in 2020 and 30,000 this year – when it was opened to workers from EU countries. Ukrainians have made up by far the largest group of SWP workers.

Funded by the Scottish Government, the research by FLEX, assisted by an independent expert on labour exploitation, Caroline Robertson, benefitted enormously from the experiences of two FMF caseworkers who had previously been seasonal agricultural workers in Scotland and who later undertook academic research qualifications. 146 SWP agricultural workers responded to information requests.

Until May 2021, recruitment for the SWP jobs was undertaken by Concordia and Pro-Force Ltd. Migrant workers who are offered posts must fund their own travel costs plus a £244 visa fee. Costs average out at around £900 for each migrant worker. Many are forced to borrow this money from black market sources.

Many workers complained of discrepancies between the information they received before travelling and the nature of the work they were actually required to undertaken on arrival. Documents are rarely translated into mother tongue languages.

Unsafe caravan accommodation, which is exempt from local authority licensing and must be paid for even if there is no work, and the use of zero hours contracts, combined with payment by piece rates, paints a depressing picture made worse by deportation threats by some employers and the impossibility of finding alternative employment.

The report authors state it ‘identifies a serious risk that forced labour could take place on the SWP if action is not taken.’

They want the  UK and Scottish Governments to consider a lengthy series of recommendations.  They include removing the visa fee and ensuring workers get a guaranteed minimum weekly income of £332.50 for 35 hours a week.

 Increasing resources to the Gangmasters and Labour Authority, which has just one staff member in Scotland, is required and there should be new regulations relating to piece rate calculations. An independent helpline with translation into workers’ languages would allow them to raise potential labour abuse. The Scottish Government is asked to offer financial support to migrant community organisations and trade unions.

 

The Assessment of the risks of human trafficking on UK Seasonal Workers Pilot report is at:-

https://labourexploitation.org/news/new-report-highlights-risks-human-trafficking-uk-seasonal-workers-pilot?fbclid=IwAR3YLZrK2eKEf_M5RjYbCXXC8bLAN-DYiMRLk2z6BLcMr5QimjbYnvVhvDw

Hands Off Our Agri Workers' Pay in Northern Ireland as young English workers again lose out

Northern Ireland agriculutral wages board threatened 

Young English workers paid less  

Landworker magazine for Tolpuddle Festival 

With agricultural workers, especially those under 22, across England continuing to be worse off than their UK counterparts it is vital that UNITE defeats proposals by the Northern Ireland executive to abolish their own Agricultural Wages Board. (AWB)

The England and Wales AWB was scrapped by the Con-Dem coalition government in 2013. Agricultural workers in England faced being paid less than those in Scotland and Northern Ireland, which have had their own AWB’s, on which Unite represents agricultural workers, since 1949 and 1977 respectively. 

The move left thousands of workers in Wales and England without union representation over wages and conditions and with no way of knowing when they might next receive a pay increase. 

In Wales there was a devolved assembly Labour Government which fought a successful legal battle that allowed it to establish a dedicated Wales AWB, (officially known as the Agricultural Advisory Panel for Wales) on which Unite sits, to protect 13,000 low paid agricultural workers.

English workers again lose out 

On 1 April 2021, the minimum hourly rate for all Scottish agricultural workers, irrespective of age and duties became £8.91, which is the national minimum wage (NMW)  rate across the UK for 23-year-olds. In Wales those aged 16 to 20 are paid £7.84 hourly and those aged 21-22 get £8.36. In Northern Ireland, a minimum hourly rate of £6.95 is paid for the first 40 weeks of employment which rises to a minimum of £7.49 an hour for workers aged under 23.

In comparison to these AWB negotiated rates, young agricultural workers in England are only covered by the NMW hourly rates of £4.62 for under 18s, £6.56 for 18- to 20-year-olds and £8.36 for those aged 21 and 22.

A 20-year-old in Scotland is thus guaranteed £356.40 for a 40-hour working week, in Northern Ireland it is £299.60 and in Wales the figure is £313.60. The sum in England is £262.40, considerably less than elsewhere. The differences for a young person in England aged 18 or under is even greater. It is hardly surprising that young workers in England are not considering entering the agricultural sector.

AWBs also cover pay for workers or all ages in lieu of wages, sick pay, holiday pay, piece rates, overtime rates at 1.5 times the standard rate and it limits deductions for accommodation to a flat rate and which in Northern Ireland is £45 weekly.

UNITE’s predictions were correct

The drop in living standards for agricultural workers in England is exactly what UNITE predicted eight years ago.

A UNITE survey in 2014 found that just 56 per cent of those previously covered by the AWB had had a pay rise. This was despite a third asking for one. Those that did get a pay rise had received less than the whole economy average. Eighty two per cent had any pay rise imposed by their employer, destroying the government and employers earlier claims that abolishing the AWB would free employees to conduct individual negotiations with their employer.

The survey also revealed that no sick pay was being paid by some employers, who had also added an extra hour to the working week before overtime was paid.

Nick Clegg and David Cameron attacked pay and conditions

The history of the AWB can be traced back to the radical, reforming Liberal government in the years leading up to WWI. In his role as Deputy Prime Minister from 2010 to 2015, the Liberal Democrat leader  Nick Clegg propped up the austerity programme of David Cameron and George Osborne and  helped scrap a board that even Margaret Thatcher retained.

Clegg, who is now Vice‑President for Global Affairs and Communications at Facebook, was knighted for his services in the 2017 New Year Honours list. He should never be forgiven for attacking agricultural workers throughout England.

Northern Ireland fears

In Northern Ireland the AWB is the final collective bargaining mechanism with a responsibility for private sector workers. As the evidence from England since 2013 demonstrates its abolition will ”open the door to a post-Brexit race-to-the-bottom on workers’ and farmers’ pay and conditions” states the UNITE regional officer Sean McKeever.  

In January, the Northern Ireland (NI) Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Minster Edward Poots of the Democratic Unionist Party announced his intention to end the NI AWB that covers over 11,000 agricultural sector employees. Poots is a member of the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) which champions the interests of big ranchers and the agri-food bosses.

At the NI AWB meeting in March, Sean McKeever, unsuccessfully pressed UFU representatives to retain the AWB. “There is a particular need for a collective bargaining body covering agricultural field workers………the sector receives a huge amount of public funds ..it is one which is inherently difficult to organise given the scattered distribution of workers and the prevalence of part-time working……..

“The AWB is of vital importance in countering exploitation, which all too often includes the practice of trafficking and modern-day slavery  – especially as many are migrant workers with little other protection.”

Abolishing the AWB in  Northern Ireland will also offer further encouragement to the National Farmers Union in Scotland who are known to favour abolishing the board there. 

Defend and extend the Northern Ireland AWB

UNITE is strongly opposing the proposals to scrap the NI AWB. See:- https://www.unitetheunion.org/campaigns/stormont-hands-off-our-farm-workers/

The union has written to the leaders of all political parties to oppose abolition.

If you live in Northern Ireland please send a message to your MLA demanding their party stands up for agricultural field and farm workers and use their Ministerial veto, which is what former Agricultural Minister Michelle Gildernew did in 2007, when it was first proposed to scrap the AWB. Details on this can be accessed by the link above.

Tory rural revitalisation likely to fall on stony ground

 

According to agricultural science worker and Unite member Charlie Clutterbuck the absence of hedgerows and soil in the government’s post-Brexit vision is a sign that any hopes of a rural revitalisation are likely to fall on stony ground.

 

Relatively unsung by nature lovers and Romantic poets, hedgerows are a fundamental aspect of the British countryside.

 

Hedgerows come in many shapes and sizes, the best ones for wildlife being broadest at the bottom with woody species such as hawthorn, hazel and field maple. Hedges provide shelter and nesting opportunities for woodland and farmland birds. Nectar, berries, nuts and leaves are food for mammals, birds and invertebrates. They can also help reduce soil erosion and water run-off on arable land. According to Natural England, hedgerows also preserve carbon stocks and wildlife that may have taken centuries to develop.

 

“A romantic view”

 

Historically, hedgerows were planted to show ownership boundaries. Many were laid on common land during the enclosures beginning in the 18th century to exclude people who previously used the land. In the 1980s, the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy encouraged farmers to pull them down by offering subsidies to make fields bigger. It proved disastrous, with the loss of 23 per cent of hedgerows during the decade.

 

But Charlie Clutterbuck, who first began writing for the National Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers in the 1970s, believes Boris Johnson’s statement that “we will use the new freedoms we have after leaving the EU Common Agricultural Policy to support farmers to beautify the landscape” excludes hedgerow restoration and is instead a call for big vistas, reservoirs and rivers.

 

“It is a romantic view of the countryside, which, sadly appears to have the backing of many environmental organisations.” said Clutterbuck. “You would imagine hedgerows should be in there somewhere – most people would back this – but I have yet to see any words confirming this. Johnson is playing to the City, to big finance who are being invited to make bids under the new Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund (NEIRF).”

 

Government regulations in 1997 sought to reverse the loss of hedgerows, preventing their removal without local planning permission. The EU also sought to repair some of the damage by later introducing ecological focus areas that included hedgerows.

 

Funding cuts

 

Anecdotal evidence suggests the total amount of hedgerows, estimated at 402,000 km across England in 2007, has stabilised, but there is no official data.

 

Clutterbuck is himself part of a Ribble Valley consortium NEIRF bid led by the Larder Project in Preston, which includes key organisations such as the National Farmers Union. NEIRF will provide natural capital grants of between £10,000 and £100,000 to “people interested in tackling climate change, creating and restoring habitats or improving water quality”.

 

But he says government guidelines on these improvements do not include aspects such as hedgerows and soil health. Instead, he said much of the money on the bid he worked on is set aside for consultants at £500- £600 a day.

 

“Money that once went direct to farmers through Countryside Stewardship Schemes is being replaced by the Sustainable Farming Initiative but half of this funding, around £2 billion, will be cut and replaced by schemes that the government has yet to announce, which will be based on NEIRF ideas.

 

“These consultants will be focused on attracting large scale funding, whereas in the past farmers big or small got direct payments. Jobs will be lost.

 

“I fear that attracting large-scale private sector investment will mean large[1]scale landscape picture box projects rather than a working countryside.

 

“As such a good number are likely to be rewilding and tree plantation projects, neither of which will, after an initial boost, provide long-term employment for local people. “

 

Clutterbuck is not totally opposed to tree plantations but would much prefer to see priority given to locations such as river banks where trees can hold the soil, thus helping to control water flow and possibly prevent flooding. 

 

Over 200 NEIRF bids have been submitted this year and the 100 or so who have been successful will be notified in July.

 

” A Defra spokesperson said: “Our new schemes will enable us to reward the work farmers do to manage every metre of hedgerows on their holdings’ sustainability.” But she did not provide any guarantees that any NEIRF projects would include hedgerows.

 

She did not respond when asked whether funds will be used to pay consultants rather than farmers and farm labourers.

 

Perhaps the most important aspect of hedgerows is not what we can see above ground, but what is going underground. So often forgotten, soils,  are vital to ‘regenerating’ our farming. Regenerative means improving soils, so building from the ground up. Improved soils do more for reducing global warming than any other measure. This is not just because they can hold a lot more carbon than they are now, but they can hold water, enabling more plants to grow. This keeps the temperatures of the earth lower, and should be built into any climate change scheme.

Hedgerows provide deeper rooting systems, so that water runs down the roots instead of running off the land.  They will play a vital part in natural flood management, where – by holding water – they can control erosion of land and faster flowing rivers causing erosion and silting up.

The loss of hedgerows in the eastern part of England and where there are now vast plains of monocrops with no hedgerows has led to the erosion of 2 million tons from our best groundwater-dependent ecosystems/land into the North Sea. That – our most valuable asset of any – cannot come back. It is a man-made disaster that will hurt future generations.

“Hedgerows not only create that classic British scene, they also protect our most important asset, our soil, “ said Clutterbuck. “ Marx said that the source of all our wealth is labour and soil. Let’s value both more. We need to regenerate our soils to protect our environment better and so that they can provide better living for those working the land and those of us eating off it.

“That old EU subsidy money should be going to paying workers a decent living wage to regenerate the land, as I proposed in Bittersweet Brexit: The Future of Food, Farming, Land & Labour.”

In Charlie’s book he outlines how the £3bn annual subsidy that was paid out under the EU’s CAP, most of which subsidised large landowners, should, by providing an annual subsidy of £10,000 per job, be switched towards creating 300,000 new rural, decently paid land-based jobs.